The iWatch is even way cooler than I thought

Image from Tom's Hardware

No, I have not seen one but my favorite blog of all things iWatch, Tom;s Hardware, has the deets

Price: $349+
Screen: 38 - 42 mm
Strap: Gold, etc.

Notable Tech/Features/Qualities/Limitations:

1) Tethered to a phone. Yuck! (iPhone 5 or 6, boohoo for me I have an iPhone 4)
2) Digital crown user interface to scroll, zoom, and go "home" (creative way to navigate a small screen)
3) Taptic engine that allows it to change from a watch to a phone peripheral (okay, this seems like a high tech improvement)
4) Sensitivity to force, differentiating a tap from press. (Hmm. this will be a good feature for mobile gaming)
5) Draw chat messages (emoticons are so 2014 :-( )
6) Retina display (old news, inherited from older products)
7) Sapphire lamination (hey they are finally using that tech! Its supposed to be way harder than the glass they use)
8) Swipe gestures (well duh)
9) Detect pulse then send your heartbeat to another user (fit bit killer, anyone?)
10) Track daily physical activity (finally using gyros and accelerometers for something other than mobile gaming)
11) Control home electricals and electronics (this is an app for your Apple TV and Apples inroads to everything you will buy for your home)
12) Siri (eh, I dont like Siri. She is annoying)
13) Make payments (Apple Pay? Now apple is taking over the banking business too?)
14) Tweet (via twitter app, of course)
15) Check-in to your flight (via an app again)
16) Check-in to Hotel and open your door. (An app that lets you skip the line at the front desk? Sold!)

My judgement (for now):
I'll probably buy it because it seems like it ecourages traveling... well, domestic travel only since its data usage would be very expensive to use when travelling internationally.

iWatch vs Swatch Touch. Which is more fashionable?

Image from Business Insider

From Toms Hardware

When Swatch announced that it will launch a smart watch this fall in order to grab a slice of the $30B market (by 2018), I thought, wow that would be the elegant smart watch. Apple's will be relegated to the techy "casio calculator" bin of history. After all Swatch is the biggest watchmaker.  And it does not just sell Swatch, it also owns Tissot, Longines, Omega and Breguet.

I have to admit, I was wrong. The iWatch launched not just with a technological bang but with a fashionable flair as well. Just look and compare the two images above - Apple is not ceding any territory when it comes to looking good. I should have expected that considering how Apple revolutionized smart phones using not just new tech but also sold them as a fashion accessory.

All I can say is, Hayek better be ready to rumble in the ruway.

Will people start wearing (smart) watches again?

I stopped wearing a watch ever since I owned an iPhone. It was unnecessary. I can tell the time using my Smart Phone. I didn't feel like I needed a watch. I don't see my friends wearing watches. I might have had a strong opinion that people should no longer be wearing these antiquated one trick pony technological has-beens. Sure, watches can do things other than telling time. Perhaps, as an alarm clock, a stop watch or as a fashion accessory. But all those are things that a smart phone can do even better!

Enter smart watches. They are lighter, No need to use up pocket space. and they are not one trick ponies like your grandmama's watches. I would not be surprised if people start wearing (smart) watches again.

Why is Apple launching iPhone 6 phablet and iWatch at the same time?

iPhone 6 is a Phablet a.k.a "5.5 inches or bigger"

It seems that they did so in order for Apple to grab a larger market share of the fast growing phablet aka "big screen phone" market, currently being ruled by Samsung and the fastest growing segment of the global smartphone market. Phablets are forecasted to be ~50% the size of the smartphone market by 2018.

I wont belabor the oblique sexy geekish reference to a phablet being 5.5 inches or bigger, since sex wearables are a different category altogether, but it seems that Apple may have responded to the market by making the iPhone 6 bigger, longer, larger, heavier, bulkier and wider! This is a gamble, and many people will not be happy, but the market is changing and Apple has to change with the times. People now use smart phones mainly to do things other than make phone calls! The top 4 uses of smart phones are internet browsing, IM/chatting on social media, playing music and playing games!

Calling is so 20th Century! Except of course when it is not.

iWatch to the rescue!

The smartwatch done right is the ultimate phablet companion because of its raison d’etre. It's not a phone replacement nor is it expected to do something completely new (for now). It is however expected to do simple tasks faster, and hence, save people time by enabling quick text reads/responses, checking notifications/reminders/calender events without having to pull the phone from the pocket/car plug/iHome, coding in the password, etc. In addition, it will probably have whatever current wrist-worn wearables already have like health tracking (fitbit) and likely bluetooth connection for cars/controls. I won't be surprised if the iWatche and their future Android counterparts will have miniature cameras in the too.

This pairing strategy is already being done by Samsung (the global phablet leader) with its G Watch. I have no doubt that this is what Apple will do as well.

Is this a smart move? Someone like me who likes my small iPhone4 but want to upgrade, now has to buy both the iPhone 6 and the iWatch to get improved experience without the downside. I think people will buy both, but that is just my guess, since I have not seen either the iPhone 6 or the iWatch.

From Forbes

Should I get an Apple iWatch for my birthday?

Rumor has it that Apple will unveil its much awaited iWatch next week, just in time for my birthday!!! And people are speculating on what it will look like. Apparently, it will have 8GB of storage which means that the folks in Cupertino expect you to store songs on your phone.

I like smart watches. The features that I like the most on the current crop are

1) Stealthily read your text messages without having to open your smart phone; especially during dull meetings.
2) Connecting to a car's blue tooth and controlling most of the basics from there. For a perennial car renter like me, this means that I don't have to constantly learn how a new car's dash operates, as long as it has blue tooth, I'm good to go.
3) Monitor health related statistics like pulse rate, miles walked, jogging/biking path,  - its already on your wrist.

4) Plays MP3s while you're exercising. Yeah, smartphones do that too but you don't have to wear those awkward iPhone armbands anymore!

5) It's fashionable. Like Google Glass, just not as dorky.

I'm sure there are a lot more things going for iWatch but I want to focus on the last one bit. Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities thinks that it will

        * two screen size options: 1.3-inch and 1.5-inch *

        * two color options: aluminum like the iPhone, with gold color option *

But should I buy the iWatch? Will people buy the iWatch? The iPhone 6 is rumored to come out this fall too so there is competition from Apple itself. Maybe I should just upgrade my phone and wait until after early adapters debug and critique the iWatch. After all, it could turn out as a bad purchase like the Google Glasshole device.

What exactly is IOT - Internet of Things?

It's hard to define something that is new and is changing very fast but this article from BizCatalyst360 by one of my LinkedIn contacts, Chuck Brooks, makes for a good primer on what this new industry is all about. I find its description of IOT captures both the essence and the potential of this nascent tech sector. The article is titled, IoT – The New Frontier of Technology Convergence, which inspired the name of this blog.

"the Internet of Things (IoT) is the concept of connecting any device to the internet, from home appliances to wearable technology such as watches, to cars. These days, if a device can be turned on, it most likely can be connected to the internet. Because of the IoT, objects to objects, people to people and objects to people can communicate quickly and efficiently."

The potential of IOT is huge 
Its not just about fitbits and losing a few pounds anymore. Its bigger than that.

All of a sudden, it feels like the 90s and in the early days of ecommerce again, when B2B, B2C, B2Etc are all just potential ways of connecting one entity to another. Mayhaps the terms O2O (objects to objects), P2P (people to people), and O2P (objects to people) would become mainstream as well?

The rest of the article deals with IOT's potential in the public sector, such as smart parking, HOV lanes, sensors on public transportation, real-time auto-notification of delays and all that good stuff, which I think further underlies the potential of this sector - the government WILL support its growth. It will support it just because it has the potential to make public services better for everyone.

According to Gartner, via Chuck's article, the market is huge: 26 billion networked IOT devices by 2020. Think about it. That is like when Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone. If this comes true, our lives will change. Ergo, businesses will change too - tons of real-time data will make social networking, cloud computing, big data and fiber networks even more important than they are now.

About The Blog

I have been curious about wearable technology for a long time; way before Google Glass, fitbit or FleshLight Launchpad. I met a fellow UChicago alum from SAP who is working on the enterprise side of IOT (Internet of Things) and that got me to thinking that I should write a blog on this topic so that I can have a historical record of what I learned along the way.

I could learn so much about this nascent industry in my spare time that I become an expert in no time!