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Old 14-02-2013, 19:50
IslandNiles
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I'm not sure many people wear watches any more.
That's true, but I think it's because a watch's primary functions can now be found on a phone. This kind of watch is somewhat different as it's sort of an extension of the phone.

There seems to be some demand for wearable tech at the moment, with the Pebble watch and the Nike FuelBand, things like that.
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Old 14-02-2013, 19:55
Stuart_h
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That's true, but I think it's because a watch's primary functions can now be found on a phone. This kind of watch is somewhat different as it's sort of an extension of the phone.

There seems to be some demand for wearable tech at the moment, with the Pebble watch and the Nike FuelBand, things like that.
i do think part of the appeal of the Pebble has been that it has actually joined both the Apple and the Android camps.

Apple could go for iOS only to try and tempt/retain customers but thats seriously limiting their market.

Or they could go for both and widen the appeal. But then if it sells in iPhone/iPad volumes would you really want to be wearing the same thing on your wrist as 25% of your friends and colleagues ?

I think an iWatch would sell but not in the vast numbers that Apple have achieved in the past with phones and tablets.

EDIT: plus the Pebble watch is 'reasonably' priced. Would the iWatch be more "I'm Watch" priced ?
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Old 14-02-2013, 19:58
whoever,hey
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That's true, but I think it's because a watch's primary functions can now be found on a phone. This kind of watch is somewhat different as it's sort of an extension of the phone.

There seems to be some demand for wearable tech at the moment, with the Pebble watch and the Nike FuelBand, things like that.
Well i couldn't agree more with all that. There does seem to be some watch hype gathering momentum lately.
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Old 14-02-2013, 21:53
Stiggles
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I wouldn't say it's been done before many times, at least not successfully.

The most successful and best-known smartwatch so far is surely the Pebble, but that's been a victim of its own success and suffered from huge delays.

Other than that? Metawatch (more expensive than the Pebble for the same sort of features), Cuckoo (far too simple for the pricetag), and the Sony one. How many others?


Like other products, Apple won't invent the smartwatch itself, but they will surely invent the demand for it...
I had never heard of the pebble watch until last week on here. I have heard about all the others however. I have tried the Sony one and its superb. I think this may be a step to far for apple.
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Old 14-02-2013, 21:55
IslandNiles
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I had never heard of the pebble watch until last week on here. I have heard about all the others however. I have tried the Sony one and its superb. I think this may be a step to far for apple.
In what way?
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:31
paulbrock
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Bruce Tognazzini (some user interface guy who used to work at Apple) wrote a post recently on what he thinks would make an iWatch good:

http://asktog.com/atc/apple-iwatch/
Interesting. Agree with:
The NFC chip belongs in the iWatch, not in the iPhone
at least the first part of it.

Disagree with the fascination Appleites have for trying to find a use for Siri. Talking to your watch to change the TV channel? No. Just no.
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:32
whoever,hey
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Disagree with the fascination Appleites have for trying to find a use for Siri. Talking to your watch to change the TV channel? No. Just no.
Arstechnica asked its users if they would use Siri in OSX this week!!!!!!

Why the hell would you?
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:39
psionic
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I wouldn't say it's been done before many times, at least not successfully.

The most successful and best-known smartwatch so far is surely the Pebble, but that's been a victim of its own success and suffered from huge delays.

Other than that? Metawatch (more expensive than the Pebble for the same sort of features), Cuckoo (far too simple for the pricetag), and the Sony one. How many others?


Like other products, Apple won't invent the smartwatch itself, but they will surely invent the demand for it...
The Cookoo took a different approach. It is primarily a watch with bluetooth notifications. Battery life of up to a year with no need to regularly recharge. It's basically an analog watch which will operate as such even with no smartphone or Bluetooth. I agree, it is overpriced and far too basic for those obsessed with tech. Some of the more traditional watch manufacturers also make bluetooth enabled watches, and have done for ages, but these have always been niche products.

Of the rechargeable ones. The Sony one currently only supports Android. Although these are fairly simple Bluetooth devices, they never bothered developing an app for any other platform. The Pebble supports Android and iOS but is not easy to get hold of yet. There are others, but are either very expensive or let down by buggy software in many cases.

A lot of big companies are interested in developing wearable tech. Even Intel has been rumoured to be working on a watch.
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:39
IslandNiles
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Interesting. Agree with:


at least the first part of it.

Disagree with the fascination Appleites have for trying to find a use for Siri. Talking to your watch to change the TV channel? No. Just no.
Really interesting article and I bet the iWatch won't have half of those features!

On the issue of Siri, I can see why voice is useful for something like this. It's going to have a very small screen and so you won't be able to do something like reply to a text straight from the watch. But you would with Siri. That said, I wouldn't use that feature. At least, not in public. People generally don't feel comfortable talking to their bits of technology. At least not yet!
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:40
paulbrock
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Really interesting article and I bet the iWatch won't have half of those features!
Not in the first version anyway
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:47
paulbrock
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A lot of big companies are interested in developing wearable tech. Even Intel has been rumoured to be working on a watch.
Indeed. Project Glass has been unveiled by Google, and prototypes are being sent to developers this year (not sure if they're already out).

Much of the anticipated watch functionality could apply to Glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

(concept vid, first versions won't be this comprehensive)
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Old 14-02-2013, 22:56
psionic
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Indeed. Project Glass has been unveiled by Google, and prototypes are being sent to developers this year (not sure if they're already out).

Much of the anticipated watch functionality could apply to Glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

(concept vid, first versions won't be this comprehensive)
Yep - this tech is very interesting. But I think we're a bit further away then the watches to have any hope of them being affordable and mass market.
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:00
whoever,hey
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Indeed. Project Glass has been unveiled by Google, and prototypes are being sent to developers this year (not sure if they're already out).

Much of the anticipated watch functionality could apply to Glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

(concept vid, first versions won't be this comprehensive)
There are too many weird things with that. Its a concept, but we are still a way away from that. At least a year for google glasses, then the software wont be that good, going by what on my android.
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:03
paulbrock
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Yep - this tech is very interesting. But I think we're a bit further away then the watches to have any hope of them being affordable and mass market.
Mass market perhaps not, but the dev versions were 'only' $1500. Don't know if that was subsidised or not, but with mass production savings and tech getting cheaper I can see it being comparable in price to a decent laptop in the not particularly distant future.
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:05
paulbrock
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Its a concept, but we are still a way away from that. At least a year for google glasses, then the software wont be that good, going by what on my android.
Much of the software is already there on Android handsets. Google Now ticks most of the boxes, just needs better voice recognition, though I understand the existing Glass devices utilise a tiny directional keypad on the side of the frame.

The main difference from the concept video, according to those that have tried the early versions, is rather than having a display covering your entire vision, the interface is tucked away to one side, in view, but not obstructing your view (or allowing much in the way of augmented displays).
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:26
psionic
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i do think part of the appeal of the Pebble has been that it has actually joined both the Apple and the Android camps.

Apple could go for iOS only to try and tempt/retain customers but thats seriously limiting their market.

Or they could go for both and widen the appeal. But then if it sells in iPhone/iPad volumes would you really want to be wearing the same thing on your wrist as 25% of your friends and colleagues ?

I think an iWatch would sell but not in the vast numbers that Apple have achieved in the past with phones and tablets.

EDIT: plus the Pebble watch is 'reasonably' priced. Would the iWatch be more "I'm Watch" priced ?
The big question is whether Apple can pull off again what they did so successfully in the past. i.e. take a piece of existing technology, repackage it and make it simple to use and appealing to the consumer, like they did very effectively with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Ease of use not specs, and form not functionality was the winning formula in the past. If anyone can make a smartwatch have mass appeal, Apple would be right up there IMHO.
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:32
Stiggles
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The big question is whether Apple can pull off again what they did so successfully in the past. i.e. take a piece of existing technology, repackage it and make it simple to use and appealing to the consumer, like they did very effectively with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Ease of use not specs, and form not functionality was the winning formula in the past. If anyone can make a smartwatch have mass appeal, Apple would be right up there IMHO.
See i think this ease of use is marketing nonsense. idevices are no easier to use than any other i find.
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:36
paulbrock
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See i think this ease of use is marketing nonsense. idevices are no easier to use than any other i find.
I think its more being able to have the benefits right in front of the user, whether by advertising them or making them obvious in the interface (I think this is different from making the device easy to use).

Many, many of my friends started using the browser or maps or music player for the first time on an iphone, despite functionality being available on most previous models of the time. I think that partially accounts for the wonder people had when using them, and similarly the bemusement felt by those that had been using the same functionality for years beforehand.
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Old 14-02-2013, 23:39
psionic
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See i think this ease of use is marketing nonsense. idevices are no easier to use than any other i find.
Ease of use is the most significant attribute that made Apple billions IMHO. It certainly wasn't specs or features. In fact they are so wedded to the idea of keeping things simple and sticking with it, that their UI's look very basic and outdated by modern standards. UI changes come very slow in the Apple eco-system to keep things as familiar and simple as possible - so much so that it holds them back in some respects. This goes for both computers and devices.
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Old 15-02-2013, 19:41
daclick
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I wonder who were developing they're smart watch first..... Sony, Samsung or apple.

Apple think they were no doubt
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Old 15-02-2013, 19:53
paulbrock
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I wonder who were developing they're smart watch first..... Sony, Samsung or apple.

Apple think they were no doubt
As will their fans
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Old 15-02-2013, 20:20
JamesParkin
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I think its trying to solve problem that doesn't exist.
Ive been hoping for years they could do a little inline remote about the size of the existing shuffle, so I could skip tracks check the time etc. having it wireless and wearable is a huge bonus, if it happens. I'll be queuing up to get one.
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Old 15-02-2013, 21:11
Stuart_h
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Ive been hoping for years they could do a little inline remote about the size of the existing shuffle, so I could skip tracks check the time etc. having it wireless and wearable is a huge bonus, if it happens. I'll be queuing up to get one.
Well they already exist in several guises
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Old 16-02-2013, 02:49
Step666
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Its also a market where there are a number of heavily publicised options already - Apple would be coming in with a product already being compared to quite well known alternatives .....
Not even the Pebble comes close to being 'heavily publicised' compared to Apple's brand recognition.
If Apple launched a smartwatch today, it would immediately out-sell the rest of the market many times over and the majority of people purchasing it would never have heard of any of the competing devices.



Whether apple can make it any better remains to be seen. I doubt it seriously to be honest...
I very much doubt Apple would fail to vastly improve upon the current crop of smartwatches.
None of them are remotely ready for mainstream adoption and an Apple smartwatch would undoubtedly bring a much-needed amount of polish and engineering panache to the product category - not least with regards to battery life, which is the bane of all current smartwatches.

...but one thing i do know is apple will make this only work with the iphone or ipad.
Which is the only reason why I wouldn't buy one.



I'm not sure many people wear watches any more.
Leaving the house without my watch is as bad as leaving the house without my wallet.
It throws my entire day out of balance.
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Old 16-02-2013, 03:15
Fried Kickin
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iWatch2 .. larger than iWatch1 and betterer
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