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Smartwatches: The Next Thing or The New Fad?

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:08 pm
by selderane
So Google had its annual I/O conference yesterday and Samsung, LG, and Motorola unveiled their line of Android Wear smartwatches.

I was the owner of a Samsung Gear 2 Neo until yesterday. I returned my smartwatch because I plan on buying the Samsung Gear Live on July 7th. I'd only owned the Gear 2 Neo for a week and found that it quickly grew on me (metaphorically speaking). It's not tech you absolutely need but now that I don't have it, I kind of miss it.

I liked being able to check my email, texts, and IMs on it without having to pull out my phone. I also enjoyed having an MP3 player on my wrist. The only think I didn't like was that it didn't have full integration with Gmail and Hangouts. It forced me to use Samsung's applications to reply to anything.

The Gear Live does away with that and is fully compatible with Google's apps.

Apple is set to unveil its own smartwatch in the near future so it would appear some very powerful forces in the tech world think there's something to this little device; especially given the success of the Pebble.

What do you think?

Re: Smartwatches: The Next Thing or The New Fad?

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:55 pm
by Sstavix
A couple years ago, Apple did a recall of the first-generation iPod nanos and replaced them with the square sixth-generation nanos. Both my wife and I had sent ours in, and were pleasantly surprised to get the newer iPods. These things are pretty small, and some companies actually did make wrist straps to wear it as a wristwatch. There were other issues with this (for example, you'd have to press a button any time you wanted to see the clock face), but at the time I thought the idea was awesome.

So I am quite eager to see what Apple will do with this technology. It doesn't surprise me that Google came out with it first, though, and it wouldn't be the first time when a competitor releases a product well before Apple (since things are slowed down by the quality assurance team in Cupertino - sometimes delayed for years while Jobs was still alive).

And while Apple has a tendency to blow everyone completely away with their own takes on familiar technology... Samsung has demonstrated that they are no slouches in terms of coming up with technology people want. It's the reason why the Galaxy has a tendency to match - and sometimes even beat - Apple in terms of quality.If Apple doesn't bring it's A-game to the market - and get people drooling over their products like they seem to do (for some reason) any time they announce an update to their phone operating system - then they may need to brace themselves for a gradual decline until they can come up with something more innovative.

Re: Smartwatches: The Next Thing or The New Fad?

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:37 am
by ccgr
depends on what they do and how much they cost

Re: Smartwatches: The Next Thing or The New Fad?

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 5:03 am
by Chozon1
I'm going with fad. At least I hope it's a fad.

Re: Smartwatches: The Next Thing or The New Fad?

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:34 am
by Minecrafty
I wanted one SO badly when I first saw them, now... not so much. They seem to have faded from the big Technological stage quickly, almost as fast as I predict the iPhone 102 will. But in any event I think there was some REAL potential in the product, like maybe a projection on air for the future. It could very well be "The Next Thing" in 20-30 years from now. As of today I just think we lack the true technology, and the amount of people wanting one.

Re: Smartwatches: The Next Thing or The New Fad?

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:05 pm
by EchoDelta
I have a slight interest in the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch but wish it didn't come with a camera.