Wearables overrated?

It depends on what you want from your wearable. I like the Gear 2 quite a bit, but I mainly like the feature of getting notifications on my wrist. If you drive a lot or are in places where you can't check your phone a lot this can be a great feature to flick up your wrist and see if something is important enough to need your attention. Certainly there is still a long way to go with what can be done, but I don't think they're "overrated", its too early to say that. Maybe Apple will contribute something revolutionary and popularize smart watches, right now I feel like they are mostly confined to tech enthusiasts.

Yes, and so is tracking. Everyone I know who does fitness, myself included, stops tracking after a while. Nike plus, Garmin pulse or whatever. You collect so much tracking data over time and realize you do not use it. What you use is good ol time/distance. I do not want to spend time on a lot of tracking, I just want to workout.

Meh.....see no value yet.....

Meh....I've been on the edge with a watch or something but have yet to see any real value. Cool, perhaps handy in some instances, but are they worth the price?

Glass....have used it, work with it, but there too, the camera is about the only cool thing. Otherwise, I'd rather just grab my phone.

Serelus said:

Am I the only one not really excited about wearables?

I might be to early to have an opinion, but from what I've seen so far I am not really impressed.

Google Glass - just lauched for sale in the US, can't really say I am jealous.
Galaxy Gear - Is a great example of Samsung wanting to be first with something.

And if I would ever get a wearable it would be a Pebble.

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This is only the first wave of devices we're seeing, of course they're not that exciting yet. IMO it kind of doesn't even make sense to use the word "overrated" right now. The category as such hasn't even been quite established and we're far from having seen what can truly be done with it.

Wearable is indeed overrated. Like smartphones and tablets before it, wearable is waiting for someone to come along and get it right. Place your bets .

bnmcj1 said:

Yes, and so is tracking. Everyone I know who does fitness, myself included, stops tracking after a while. Nike plus, Garmin pulse or whatever. You collect so much tracking data over time and realize you do not use it. What you use is good ol time/distance. I do not want to spend time on a lot of tracking, I just want to workout.

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Performace monitoring is for those trying to improve and perhaps with competing. I am with you, I just want to work out and no need for those statistics. I can tell a better day from a mediocre one without a wearable.

I guess I just don't fit into the demographic of people who would use wearables. I don't jog and I also don't drive. I don't wear a watch either so the idea of wearing a little mini smartphone on my wrist all the time just doesn't do it for me. Maybe with time I'll come around but I really hope that this isn't the next major area of innovation for the mobile industry. I'd much rather them focus on how to make tablets more productive, endless battery life, etc.

Serelus said:

Am I the only one not really excited about wearables?

I might be to early to have an opinion, but from what I've seen so far I am not really impressed.

Google Glass - just lauched for sale in the US, can't really say I am jealous.
Galaxy Gear - Is a great example of Samsung wanting to be first with something.

And if I would ever get a wearable it would be a Pebble.

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If you are a younger kid (under 30 crowd) and in perfect health and working in some air conditioned office, then this sort of tech probably doesn't mean a whole lot.

But for people that are older, hearing or site impaired, in the physiotherapy areas, and so forth, this is something that could assist in so !any ways.
Here's a simple example for me: I am hearing impaired from lots of indoor gun fire and living/working next to and under jets/helos. A vibrating watch will ensure I don't miss calls or alarms (because sometimes I can't hear the phone.)

Meh

I'm sure products like Google Glass are uber cool in "campuses" around silicon valley.

Generally speaking though, it looks ****ing stupid. Smartwatches have some uses I suppose, but again I think I'll pass.

Yeah, I'm still waiting for a cool smartwatch before I get into it. What I really want is something similar to a small smartphone on my wrist with voice activation that I can use by itself or tethered to my smartphone with insane battery life. The gear 2 seems cool, but I'm not a Galaxy user, I would prefer something that could tether to any smartphone, though compatible with all android phones would be fine too.

I like them from a geeky side, the LG one looks really cool but that's the interface more then anything. they would serve a purpose I feel too, but I wear a nice Tissot so bar giving me alerts etc then for me a smartwatch is just a gimmick.

As for the general public, well they must believe they will buy them otherwise they wouldn't all be jumping on the bandwagon right? But then again they did that with 3D TV...

So yeah I'd agree they are overrated, most likely mainly because people that want a watch wear one already, and they most likely already have a smartphone. So I think they will see these as a waste of money.

But...
I don't think the fitness band thingys are overrated, I believe their to be a market as you can wear those with a fancy watch, still get notifications but also monitor your health etc.

Wearable is the future of mobile tech so get used to it. It's fledgling tech now, and might seem dubious, but it will mature and be part of our daily lives.

Moto 360 looks like it could be the first product to get it right. Form-factor is close enough to a normal watch to not call attention to itself, it has the best of Google Now, and better third party access has the potential to allow some great specializations (skins, apps to support disabilities, apps that connect to other bluetooth devices). Motorola, potentially, could take a significant lead over both Samsung and Apple.

Nope

Love mine... And it's used everyday

Technarchy said:

Wearable is the future of mobile tech so get used to it. It's fledgling tech now, and might seem dubious, but it will mature and be part of our daily lives.

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When the integrate tech into our clothes is when it'll be useful IMO. It needs to move away from watches and into clothes IMO as a smartwatch isn't the best solution, small screen and limited battery life etc.

One day, one day... I mean I saw the other day military people and doctors etc from around the world had a serious meeting about autonomous KILLING robots! I would never have though in my lifetime I would see the Terminator come to real life!

apolloa said:

When the integrate tech into our clothes is when it'll be useful IMO. It needs to move away from watches and into clothes IMO as a smartwatch isn't the best solution, small screen and limited battery life etc.

One day, one day... I mean I saw the other day military people and doctors etc from around the world had a serious meeting about autonomous KILLING robots! I would never have though in my lifetime I would see the Terminator come to real life!

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Military already has autonomous killing robots, but we keep a man in the middle to exclude the 'autonomous' portion. They're called drones for a reason.

Next step on the ground though will be exoskeleton armor and electronic enhancement. Autonomous robots are decades away, if ever, from entering a war.

Lloydbm41 said:

Military already has autonomous killing robots, but we keep a man in the middle to exclude the 'autonomous' portion. They're called drones for a reason.

Next step on the ground though will be exoskeleton armor and electronic enhancement. Autonomous robots are decades away, if ever, from entering a war.

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Here you go, not too far away at all:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27343076
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/16/5724538/what-happened-at-the-un-killer-robot-debate

They are discussing them, also Russia already has an autonomous killing robot in service:

http://www.newscientist.com/article...cops-to-defend-missile-bases.htm#.U3kVt5RdX41

Serelus said:

Am I the only one not really excited about wearables?

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I wouldn't say I'm greatly excited, but I certainly find them useful.

Currently I have a Gear Fit and am liking its style and battery life.

Google Glass - just lauched for sale in the US, can't really say I am jealous.

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Glass wasn't launched for sale. They just opened up the beta sales for one day to anyone.

kdarling said:

Notifications are very useful; anything else is gravy.

Currently I have a Gear Fit and am liking its battery life.



Glass wasn't launched for sale. They just opened up the beta sales for one day to anyone.

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Actually, they now have them open for sale to anyone, all the time, 'if stock is available'. It is still a Beta product and anyone that buts one are still considered 'explorers', but anyone can buy one now.

Link: http://mashable.com/2014/05/13/google-glass-available-to-all/

Like others I don't where a watch, so an iWatch (or whatever) is going to have to offer me something amazing I can't do now with my iPhone to want to buy one (and at an acceptable price).
Give it a generation or two though and things might get interesting.

Serelus said:

Am I the only one not really excited about wearables?

I might be to early to have an opinion, but from what I've seen so far I am not really impressed.

Google Glass - just lauched for sale in the US, can't really say I am jealous.
Galaxy Gear - Is a great example of Samsung wanting to be first with something.

And if I would ever get a wearable it would be a Pebble.

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Like you said, you're too early to make a real opinion. Everything that is out now is coming from companies(mainly google) who's goal is to beta test everything and be first to market with new categories.

I think we seriously have to wait and see what Apple can offer first. Can they solidly the purpose of wearables and if so, how well can google and others build on top of what Apple has created.

I would like some kind of waterproof beeper functionality that does not require tethering to the phone. I won't hold my breath though(har har), I would imagine the market of surfers looking to play hookey more effieiciently is not very big

Lloydbm41 said:

Actually, they now have them open for sale to anyone, all the time, 'if stock is available'. It is still a Beta product and anyone that buts one are still considered 'explorers', but anyone can buy one now.

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Aha. Thanks for that update! Here's the purchase site:

https://glass.google.com/getglass/shop/glass

We got one in at work a few months ago and did some app testing with it.

For development, I downloaded some modified APKs available online, and turned a spare Samsung Tab 8" tablet into a (large!) Glass device, and registered it as a Glass with Google.

It looks like Google took what they learned from Glass, and combined it with Google Now, to come up with the Android Wear UI that we'll soon see on the Moto 360 etc.