Urgh...I wish we could skip this whole awkward smart watch phase and just realize its a bad idea.
Also, if the watches switched from the pebble form factor to something like this: http://moto360.motorola.com/ would you still have the same opinion?
[1] - For all intents and purposes, this is basically a "smartwatch": https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/into-sports/running/forerunn...
I think people would be better served taking a step back and asking "Do I really need all these notifications?" and the answer will likely be no.
Secondly: To interact with something strapped to your risk, involves both hands.
To interact with your phone requires 1 hand.
There's also a mild security element - notifications and information are essentially constantly being displayed to anyone looking at you, projected outwards from the body.
Add in all the other unsolved issues - i.e. no improvement in battery energy density for a couple of years now, and the whole thing is a non-starter. It can only provide less information, less conveniently.
The only benefit a watch brings to the table is when for whatever reason you can't carry something in your pocket.
I got a Pebble recently and although you bring up good points, real world usage isn't quite the same.
>Firstly: you can't fit all those notifications on a watch sized display. So you'd have to interact with the display.
Watch defaults to a "watchface". Usually is time and/or date with maybe weather info. If a notification hits my phone, my watch pops that open on the display automatically. I hit one button to dismiss it. Quite faster than first realizing I have a notification (felt the vibration? Saw the flashing LED?) and then turning on the screen, unlocking the phone, and then checking the notification.
For music, it's two button presses to get into the music app and and one more to change songs. Can be improved here (buttons should have shortcuts enabled), but still a bit faster than pulling phone out of pocket to change songs.
>To interact with your phone requires 1 hand.
True, but I only use my watch to do quick, simple tasks that would take longer to do if I had to get my phone from my pocket.
>There's also a mild security element - notifications and information are essentially constantly being displayed to anyone looking at you, projected outwards from the body.
No arguments here! I was also thinking the other day how bad it would be to for someone to see a text they weren't meant to, haha.
>Add in all the other unsolved issues - i.e. no improvement in battery energy density for a couple of years now, and the whole thing is a non-starter. It can only provide less information, less conveniently.
Can't speak for the Moto 360, but my Pebble lasts for about 3 days on average (I've had it for a week only).
If the price isn't too high (has to be < $200 IMO), the battery lasts at least a day on HEAVY usage, and the UI is designed well, smartwatches can have a place in the world. For me, it's a bit about freedom from my phone. I used to obsessively pull my phone out to check if the LED was flashing and even feel "phantom vibrations" while in my pocket. Now, I leave it on silent and pull my phone out much less.
It feels good, it really does. This is one of those cases where more technology actually liberates us from tech.
but the idea has feet and is probably a lot more useful than other technologies like google glass at a fraction of the cost