Comment by psbp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by psbp | Hacker News Reader

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I wonder if Google has an even greater (more so than with phones and tablets) inherent disadvantage to Apple because it's going to be beholden to a more generic UI given the diversity of devices by the android OEMs.

The Google card UI is slick and very user friendly, but it can stagnate pretty quickly given the potential for a more accommodating, dynamic UI that a company like Apple can make with a limited range of devices. I think it's not just a simple visual gimmick that Apple demonstrated a parallax effect as a major visual feature of iOS 7.0. If the iWatch is some sort of wrap-around your wrist screen, then layers of visual information could be really interesting.

Well Apple had their chance with iPod Nano Touch - it doesn't look any different than iOS. Besides the key on these tiny displays is going to be how minimalistic you can get - get the UI baggage out of the way and present as much info as possible.

Imagine looking down on your wrist and it immediately lights up and shows you the time and date and some notification that you have messages. Rotate your wrist clockwise and you can see some more details about the message (the subject, who it's from, etc.) and you can decide whether you want to take out your phone or tablet and address it.

Rotate your wrist counter-clockwise and you see slowly start to see more relevant information (weather, news headlines, etc.). It would be kind of like google now, except not necessarily requiring interaction and it would be much more visually interesting.

or simply a circular motion with the tip of your finger could work too?

Great joke..The scroll wheel worked before touch was great, and touch works before simple, naturalistic motions can be perfected.

Presumably it would have a built in gyro you you could tip it left/right and up/down so scroll through screens, go into menus etc. It might go a bit crazy when you are running down the road though :-p

Hence the eye contact.

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