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Facebook Working on Smart Watch With Detachable Display and Two Built-In Cameras
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My goodness I'd be surprised if FB didn't give these out for free just to mine data from you and every person you come in contact with.
"Facebook Working on a DOA Smart Watch With Detachable Display and Two Built-In Cameras that no one in their right mind would buy."
There I fixed it for you
There I fixed it for you
I don’t know. Portal at least does something that almost no one else was doing (perhaps the Echo Show, but I’m not sure if it has a camera or offers video calling). I don’t really see what Facebook’s watch would offer that isn’t already offered by the Apple Watch, Fitbit, any number of WearOS devices, any number of fitness enabled pseudo-smartwatches from legacy watch companies (like Tissot), or even third rate Chinese smartwatches in the sub $50 range. Smartwatches with fitness features are a dime a dozen these days (almost literally), and Facebook Messenger is available on WearOS and watchOS already. I don’t think most users want to use Facebook on a smartwatch (anyone who would be willing to endure that experience should probably be treated for Facebook addiction!). And WhatsApp isn’t available on watchOS, but that’s not due to any limitation with the Apple Watch. Keeping WhatsApp exclusive to a Facebook watch puts Facebook dangerously close to anticompetitive behavior that definitely wouldn’t sit well with the respective regulatory bodies of places where WhatsApp receives significant use.
And beyond social media, fitness, just what would a Facebook watch even do?! Facebook has no corporate presence outside of social networking [with the exception of their acquisition of Oculus] (unlike Google, which has some home-grown service and product diversity), so Facebook legitimately has no platform for the watch to integrate with. No music streaming, no voice assistant, no home automation, nothing. It doesn’t even have the developer base it once had for its core platform, since Facebook “apps” fell by the wayside after the popularization of smartphones.
Edit: Also, detachable display on a watch, that just sounds like such a stupid idea. A watch is supposed to tell time! It is helpful if it can do a few other things, but anyone who wants things other than time on their wrist could just wear a paracord bracelet with something strapped to it MOLLE-style. And a smartwatch sans-display can’t display time. Even Fitbit’s most basic trackers had a time display, that was part of what convinced people to wear them throughout the day. Pocket watches were replaced by wristwatches in the men’s watch-making industry during WW1, when it became obvious how useful for coordination things would be if everyone had time available at a glance (without pulling stuff out of their pockets). I can think of few things as important as time that would deserve to be front and center on someone’s wrist, and, in the 100 or so years since WW1, the only change to what we wear on our wrists was that we received watches with secondary fitness features and calculators (and calculator watches were merely a cheap way of buying a digital watch with all the bells and whistles). I just don’t think people want anything else front and center.
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Eh the old hypocrisy argument, not buying it this time. There’s a difference between using Gmail (which I admit I do) or Oculus goggles (which I don’t, but irrelevant) and letting the Mark Zuckerberg data empire access cameras worn on your wrist. The ramifications for not just your own privacy and security but any random person near you when you wear that thing are what should be under consideration.
Even if Apple were to allow cameras on the Apple Watch, I would have definite concerns as a mother. Teenagers and children are getting creeped on enough as it is. Wrist cameras are another tool in the creepers arsenal and I don’t like it.
Sadly, I believe it’s an inevitable phenomenon. This sort of thing makes me sad. I’ve lived through the exciting part of the rise of home computing. I’ve seen so many of my dreams come true. But I feel more and more it’s taken a dystopian turn.
Congrats. I hope macrumors pays you well. You’re hilarious.
yea I love my Oculus as well. Im not saying I like FB or will ever get rid of my watch, I just think majority are on it lol
Indeed. If there would be any government regulation ove seek products, I'd ask for camera blocker on those camera's can any wearer of that rear me ! -