{"id":3997,"date":"2014-01-06T17:44:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T17:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2014-01-06T17:44:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T17:44:21","slug":"just-wait-on-wearable-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/01\/06\/just-wait-on-wearable-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Wait on Wearable Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nike<\/a><\/p>\n

The technologist in me gets excited about wearable tech. I drool over Google Glass and have bought in to the Nike FuelBand, FitBit and wearable sleep monitors. I even have one of those Burton Jackets with iPod controls on them (I use an iPod classic + skull candy helmet when riding). Wearable tech is going to be so awesome.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it\u2019s not awesome right now. Frankly, it kind of sucks. Obviously, my employer makes a fitness product. I like it a lot but it\u2019s for fitness. I\u2019m not talking about GPS watches, I\u2019m talking about SmartWatches, SmartGlasses, SmartShoes and \u2026ugh smart everything? Actually, it\u2019s funny how these companies are setting themselves up for Apple to say \u201cThose Smart Wearable Products? Well, they\u2019re not very smart and they\u2019re not very wearable\u201d (insert photo of clunky huge watches with 4 different features). Obviously I don\u2019t know anything about the future of products from my own employer or Apple so this is just an opinion article about what\u2019s out today.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the problems with smart products:<\/p>\n

\"Brightkite<\/a><\/p>\n

Size:<\/strong>\u00a0Most of the products out there are HUGE. Google Glass looks like you\u2019re targeting nuclear missiles from your forehead. The Samsung Smart Watches are thick and bulky and not stylish. They\u2019re products that overweight nerds would wear. I love monitoring my movements and heart rate. I log a lot of data on myself but to get a full picture of my day with these wrist band things, I\u2019d need to buy the one from Nike, Jawbone and Fitbit and probably one from Samsung just for good measure and that could be doable if they were so huge. Give me a patch I can put on my stomach that reads things. It\u2019s not stylish to wear 3 computers on your wrist that are only half the size of today\u2019s phones.<\/p>\n

Functionality<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Every single wearable tech requires a smartphone. The $300 Samsung Watch is worthless without a Bluetooth connection to an Android phone. The same goes for Google Glass. I want a big hunky watch to at the very least make a phone call without needing my phone. Until it can do that, it\u2019s worthless to me. I want to leave the house without my iPhone and rely on Siri all day built into my watch to make calls, stream from iTunes Radio and send a tweet. The tethering thing has to go because while everyone in your tech circle has an iPhone, not everyone does. There\u2019s an argument that wearable tech is for people who have smartphones. No, that\u2019s why I have a smartphone. It\u2019s when I don\u2019t have my smartphone that I want something else connecting me. Can I leave my phone in the car at least and still see SMS messages coming in?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not quite wearable tech but the Automatic that plugs into my car and sends data to my iPhone. Well, there are other competitors to it out there and they all offer different functionalities but I only have one OBD port in my VW. So I had to pick one and honestly, I am not happy with the features it offer. Oh well, that was $60 (see cost)<\/p>\n

\"Automatic<\/a><\/p>\n

Battery Life<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not even at all week battery life with the iPhone yet. We need to improve that first. My Blackberry would get a week battery life and so would my flip phone. That was 12 years ago. Phones do more now but that was 12 years ago. You mean to tell me that batteries haven\u2019t improved? I don\u2019t want to get off a plane and find a plus for my iPhone, iPad, Smart Watch, Google Glass, FitBit and MacBook. No\u2026I\u2019m done with charging devices. Make the battery life last a week on these wearable devices or just give up.<\/p>\n

Cost<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/p>\n

$300 for a Samsung Galaxy and $300 for a Samsung watch. No thanks. Again, if the watch was standalone as a phone by itself using Google\u2019s voice tools to work, I\u2019d understand $300 but a device at that cost that requires I also have a smartphone is too much. It\u2019s $150 just for a heart rate monitor that uses Bluetooth which is also too expensive. The Automatic was $60 or $70 and it\u2019s just a piece of plastic with Bluetooth. The king of all jokes is Google Glass at $1500 USD for a pair of glasses that doesn\u2019t even come with a prescription and the main features are Google, taking photos or seeing what my friends are doing on Google+ (the social network no one uses). I have a camera in my backpack that\u2019s amazing, I don\u2019t search with Google and I sure as heck am not using Google+ so this device isn\u2019t for me but at $1500, who is it for? Especially when it works with iPhone but barely but you need an Android $200 at least with a $70 a month phone plan to use the Google Glass. If you\u2019re outside of the cell network (which i me about 50% of the time), the wearable tech doesn\u2019t even work as the voice control requires an internet connection. Which brings me to my final point.<\/p>\n

No Device is Standalone anymore<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the deal? Why doesn\u2019t the Automatic for my car give me a CSV file of my car\u2019s actions so I can do my own plotting? Why does it have to go to their servers that I have no control over? I can\u2019t export the data I\u2019m sending them. What are they doing with it? I\u2019m paying for them to host data about my car and tell me very little information. I want that data. When they record where my car is parked so I can find it using the app, I want to see a historical read out of where my car was parked for MY data uses. I want Nike\u2019s FuelBand to give me a text file with my movements and activities. I don\u2019t want to use Nike\u2019s site or google\u2019s site. I want to have my own data and use it any way I wan and delete it when I see fit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every bit of hardware released in 2013 required you create an account on a service that silos your device and your data with them. If you switch to a new device, it\u2019s a whole new database and you lose all of that data. Why? Business reasons make sense but it\u2019s also good business to raise the price of oil and people get really upset about that. Why is there no outcry over data silos that own the data we create? We should be really upset about this. If a device I paid full price for stores data on me, I want to see that for myself. When Google Chrome collects data on me anonymously, show me that data before it\u2019s sent to Google.<\/p>\n

This is my biggest problem with wearable tech. I\u2019m paying $1500 for a pair of glasses that requires an Internet connection, a smart phone and has limited features that only work with Google services and, at the end of the day, my voice, searches, photos, videos and queries are taken and stored at Google forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not cool with that and while wearable tech is exciting, I won\u2019t be investing in anything for a very long time. Then again, I\u2019m also on the verge of getting rid of my iPhone for a flip phone so I guess I\u2019m in the very big minority here.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The technologist in me gets excited about wearable tech. 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First, he reminded me that CES is going on. Really? I honestly had no clue\u2026.I really should open a web browser more often and also he linked me to this post from TechCrunch (when did Darrell start\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6297,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/19\/linked-apples-new-high-end-watch-is-crazy-tough\/","url_meta":{"origin":3997,"position":1},"title":"Linked: “Apple\u2019s New High-End Watch Is Crazy Tough. “","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via Wired: APPLE\u2019S USING A cool material in its latest stable of Watches: ceramic. The shiny white wearable is the new flagship model, and starting this Friday you can order one for $1,250. Yes, that\u2019s nine grand cheaper than the $10,000, 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition it replaces, but it\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5452,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/02\/12\/linked-ces-2008-microsoft-keynote-bill-gates\/","url_meta":{"origin":3997,"position":2},"title":"Linked: “CES 2008 – Microsoft Keynote – Bill Gates”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via Youtube: Yeah, I know! Every couple of years, I\u2019ll spend a day watching Bill Gates interviews while he was still full-time at Microsoft. He was a genius and despite the flack he gets for a lot of things, no one can deny is foresight and utter genius in predicting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4132,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/07\/22\/linked-portrait-of-a-glasshole\/","url_meta":{"origin":3997,"position":3},"title":"Linked: Portrait of a Glasshole","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"via Seattle Weekly: Starr says he doesn\u2019t entirely care what people on the Internet think of him, though he disagrees with most assessments. Entitled poster boy for the perceived self-absorption of an increasingly maligned techie caste\u2014that\u2019s never been him, Starr says: \u201cIf I was that bad, or if I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12076,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2023\/06\/21\/technology-apples-vision-pro\/","url_meta":{"origin":3997,"position":4},"title":"Technology: Apple’s Vision Pro","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Reality Distortion Field aside, Vision Pro is a compelling version 1 of what Apple believes to be the future of computing or at least, a subset of how we will interact with computers that are not held in our hands or rest on our laps. These computers will one day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2009\/07\/20\/ipod-classic-and-the-death-of-hdd\/","url_meta":{"origin":3997,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 iPod Classic and The Death of HDD","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive which, in my opinion, all storage drives are hard but only one uses disks and this is what we'll be talking about today. 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