First impressions on Samsung Gear…WOW… This is going to be huge, at least wearable technology, that is!
Version 1.0 is pretty awkward and probably not realistically usable, it is the Apple Newton Message Pad 100 of wearable technology – but I can see where this is going – and it’s going to be big!
It’s convenient!
The wristwatch we wear today was invented so people didn’t have to reach into their trouser pocket and fumble around for their pocket watch. This is the same thing – just for your phone. When you have an incoming call – you simply look at your watch! Today when you get a call you fumble around checking which pocket your phone is in, pull it it out, turn it over, look at the screen, see who is calling and think “No I don’t want to talk to that person just yet”.
Text messages are just the same, you are working, your phone beeps and rattles, you search your desk for your phone, unlock it only to discover the SMS is some telco offer.
Alert Overload
This is why I really think this technology will take off! I have been suffering ALERT overload – I just didn’t know it. I get a google email 15 minutes before a meeting is booked in my calendar. I have 2 phones – they beep and buzz, I need to dismiss alerts from them, then there are the pop-up windows on my PC. Set everything to quiet, disable all alerts, and let the watch take over. All alerts on your wrist, a gentle buzz, a quick flick of the wrist and all done.
When you rotate your wrist to look at the face, the watch detects this and turns on the screen.
Some other features
- On the wrist band there is a microphone and speaker phone so you can take a call and simply hold your wrist to your ear to hear and speak. You’re not going to run a board meeting like this, but for a quick call it’s cool.
- If your Galaxy Note III is plugged into your music system, you can control the Note III music player via the watch.
- The voice memo is nice: record up to 5 minutes of memo, once finished it is transferred to the phone and then converted from voice to text – which is a nice touch.
- If you walk away from your phone, you get a buzz when it loses bluetooth – but reconnects automatically
- There is a 1.9m pixel camera which you can snap some photos from, again, not fantastic quality, but it is convenient.
In this version 1.0 of the watch I could probably find 100 things I did not like about it – but it’s going to be big!