007 Casino Royale |
For me, the first truly useful smart watches were the radio controlled ones that synchronised to the atomic clock using a signal beamed out from London, Frankfurt or a host of other world locations.
Atomic clock synchronised watch |
Pulsar calculator watch |
Enter a new breed of smart watch for today. From what I can glean about the Pebble, the watch itself doesn't actually need a whole heap of technology. It seems to be primarily a satellite display and alarm function for the tethered smartphone in your pocket. Rather than constantly playing with your phone or carrying it in your hand while exercising the watch can provide you with a scrolling feed from your email, Twitter feed or news ticker. If the user wants to, he or she can be always connected without being overtly focused on that pesky smartphone. High technology that tries to be discreet rather than in your face. Not everyone wants to be seen with their head in their phone so this device may well appeal to those who have not totally sacrificed social skills to technology.
The Pebble watch |
The technology that makes the Pebble possible is also something of an Achilles heel. Any transmitting device faces a raft of compliance demands particularly around aircraft of medical equipment. Add to this the dangerous distraction this could be for drivers and Pebble have some real safety challenges.
Pebble has some serious competition from other start-ups and some big players too so it a bit early to know where this will lead.
I'm not part of their target demographic as I don't want to be 'on' to this degree. The watch is also much too big for my wrist but it does have more style that one might expect.
The i'M watch |
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