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posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the do-they-also-want-to-be-trackable-too? dept.

From an article published by Forbes which I can very much relate to:

Just came across an intriguing stat this morning from GlobalWebIndex that 71% of those aged 16 to 24 want "wearable tech." Which they define as a smart watch, smart wristband or Google Glass.

Globally, 64% of internet users have worn a piece of wearable tech already or are "keen to do so in the future." Men, at 69%, are keener in the aggregate than women, at 56%.

All of this reminded me yet again how dinosaurish I am, not that I need a whole lot of reminding, and how disconnected I am from most of the world. True story: When I was in high school back in the Pleistocene Era someone gave me a watch as a birthday gift. I wore it for three weeks, didn’t like having a piece of leather and metal attached to my wrist, didn’t enjoy the constant reminder of what time it was, took it off, gave it away and have never worn a watch since.

[...] Why do my minimalist needs and wants feel so radically different from those of most humans?

It’s not that I’m uninterested in technology. I just don’t want to wear it. I love the power of Twitter, and have thought about and written about the management implications of Google Glass. But do I need them as clothing items?

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  • (Score: 2) by jackb_guppy on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:28PM

    by jackb_guppy (3560) on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:28PM (#97400)

    I reach into computers all the time. First rule is NO METAL OR OTHER THINGS TO SNAG. Wearable tech is such a bad idea.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 24 2014, @11:51AM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @11:51AM (#97594)

      I have some well intentioned advice from the world of EE that might help you.

      One rule for reaching into the innards of extremely high powered electrical gear, even if "you're sure its off" (just like all guns are always treated if if they're loaded) is never use more than one hand unless absolutely positively necessary. So if you're right handed put the watch on the left and never touch a machine with your left hand unless its utterly beyond necessary.

      Once you get that EE habit, screwing around with computers is easier because you never use your watch hand. Its been 15 years since I wore a watch and I don't do hardware at work anymore (pretty much) but I still only use one hand when working on electrical things (like computers)

      Also when I worked on that stuff at work. I had no option, but at home if you buy above the discount close out bargain bin you can get chassis that aren't made of razor blades and if you're an "enthusiast" type you will spend 10 minutes with a file and a vacuum cleaner anyway perfecting your case. Also given $$$ you can buy classier larger cases where you don't have to do anything extraordinary. I have a nice full tower in my basement where the whole drive bay unscrews and can be messed with outside the box, and all my drives live in trays anyway. I've heard of proprietary cases where you can't unbolt the motherboard from a tray and mount the tray into the chassis, but I've never bought a case like that. Since 1981 I seem to mess less and less with the internals anyway. Been awhile since I've had to install an internal sound card (remember soundblasters? GUS?) and I no longer install optical media (my first was a "mitsumi" in 91 or 92 or so?) and I no longer install floppies (I began with "full height" 5.25 SSDD era in '82ish). I haven't installed an internal modem card this century. Just sitting here thinking about it, you connect power to the MB, hard drive tray carrier thing, and fans, then run a SATA between the HD and MB and thats it for internal chassis work in 2014? The stuff I did to XT class machines in 1985 or whatever was juuuust a little more elaborate.

      For machine tool / metal working the risks are similar so I either don't wear a ring or again, pretend I don't have a left hand. I've been minorly cut when working with machine tools (nothing worse than band aid level) and I'd much rather have a deep scratch than have a digit yanked off (literally)

      • (Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday September 24 2014, @03:24PM

        by dyingtolive (952) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @03:24PM (#97707)

        Your first rule makes me think of this one time back in college years and years ago, when I was trying to fix the high pitched whine that my CRT TV was making. I had the back off, and I was trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. I was being all careful and smart-like, with only one hand in at a time. Eventually, I found a component (I think it was the flyback transformer, or something) that, when I flexed it one way, and then the other, the pitch changed slightly. Cause I'm a moron, I got excited that I found it and reached in there with my other hand to use both hands to see how much flex needed to have performed on it to get rid of the noise altogether.

        When I woke up, I found myself on the dorm room floor with my roommate and a friend staring down from above me asking if I need to go to the hospital. I had the most horrible tingly feeling running up both my arms to just beyond the elbows for about a day or two. I don't know if it was from me jerking on the thing during the shock, but the high pitched whine didn't come back after that.

        --
        Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 24 2014, @04:48PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @04:48PM (#97765)

          "and then the other, the pitch changed slightly"

          Load on the osc will vary with position of the insulated cable if the cable is leaking a bit and yanking the cable around quite possibly did fix the leakage path by dislodging whatever it was. Maybe an electrocuted spider or dust in just the wrong spot.

          • (Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday September 24 2014, @04:56PM

            by dyingtolive (952) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @04:56PM (#97769)

            Could have been. It was an older tube that had seen more than it's fair share of dust. I know just barely enough about electricity to endanger myself. Regardless, that taught me not to go playing inside live systems. :P

            --
            Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
            • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 24 2014, @05:32PM

              by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @05:32PM (#97787)

              "not to go playing inside live systems."

              You missed out on a lot of fun with CRT displays then, the leakage current of some was low enough that you could shut off a TV and get a shock off the HV line the next day, although not as bad as if it were plugged in and turned on of course. That old tech was fun in its own weird way.

              There are techniques to avoid that of course like sticks with resistor to ground, and the ole "every gun is a loaded gun, especially the ones you think are unloaded".

              I worked at a place maybe 30 years ago that somehow ended up with the lighting system having switched neutrals (illegal as all heck) that made changing lightbulbs a spectator sport. Some kind of idiocy like delta wired 3-phase and they threw a compressor in and it ran backwards so they thought it would be funny to swap the polarity on all the phases which fixed the rotation of the motor but didn't help much with the lighting system (which is double stupid because theres an easier way to fix that... unless you're paid by the hour or hate your employer...). I would advise anyone wanting a good time, wanting to see star trek like exploding console stuff, should find an industrial site that uses 3-phase where the electricans aren't all that good at their jobs. Some things explode or catch fire when run backwards, 3phase transformers have so many connections that must be made correctly that the damage is usually entertaining. And of course just like a LAN its a stereotype that none of the wiring is documented so they think its a 440 line but its actually 4800 or whatever it was. That one was quite a fire. And DC plants are fun... Hmm heres a DC central office plant capable of maybe 10000 amps short current, lets hook up the cables to the batteries so they're hot, and then shove the hot cables thru the grounded conduit during business hours. Like, what bad could possibly happen?

  • (Score: 2) by keplr on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:28PM

    by keplr (2104) on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:28PM (#97401) Journal

    I'm in that age group, and I "want" wearable tech, too. It just doesn't exist. Or, more specifically, the stuff they're trying right now is pathetically underperforming in key areas, mostly battery life and sensor ability. All the "health" features are just glorified pedometers. The phone in your pocket can already do that. Any really useful or interesting health data requires sampling blood/urine or putting a human into or up against a giant, expensive, machine. Hell, we can't even figure out a quick, accurate, passive, way to measure blood pressure.

    Battery life is also a huge issue. I'm not going to charge my watch every day. I'm just not. It's a non-starter. Managing battery levels is the bane of modern life. We haven't had a major advance in battery tech in over a third of a century (Lithium batteries, 1970s).

    These things suck. When they can measure blood pressure, blood glucose, etc, and last a month or more on a charge then we can talk. Everything else pushing us to adopt these things is just marketing hype by companies panicking about the mobile market being saturated and stagnant. They need a new device to sell people to get them on another yearly upgrade treadmill. They call it the smartwatch. I call it bullshit.

    --
    I don't respond to ACs.
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:45AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:45AM (#97414) Journal

      There's the smartwatch category and the smartglasses category. Smartwatches are less conspicuous and are being marketed as health-oriented, but they are still limited in what they can do. Checking text messages saves you 3 seconds, but not many people will use their smartwatch like Dick Tracy. And even if they did, the battery life is the problem and batteries aren't improving very fast. Also, these initial devices are crazy expensive.

      Smartglasses are more exciting, but Google Glass's dominance of the format and the debate surrounding the devices are problems. Smartglasses could lead to neat augmented reality tricks where all sorts of data can be overlaid on top of your vision in 3D (football is a good example of how information can be seamlessly blended in with reality [augmentedrealitytrends.com]), but Google's approach puts information in a tiny corner screen that reportedly increases eye strain [betabeat.com]. Meanwhile, having the entire lens as a screen would be a lot more useful, but it could still lead to distraction and so will likely be banned for drivers (even if it is an improvement on glancing at a dashboard GPS unit or smartphone).

      The anti-Glasshole movement is a joke. If you are out in public, you are going to be recorded. Putting more cameras into the hands of citizens is likely a good thing, especially if it leads to more filming of the police (it won't be easy for them to claim that your smartglasses are a gun). By all means enforce a policy that bans Glass in your bar, restaurant, or movie theater. But please do not punch the eyeborgs out on the street. I'll be interested to see if any future non-Google smartglasses will be indistinguishable from normal glasses or sunglasses, with less conspicuous bulk and no recording indicator LEDs.

      People will wear smartwatches if they are cheap enough. Although I complain about smartwatch price, there are plenty of expensive watches that do far less, because they are a fashion accessory. Eventually Samsung/Apple/LG/Sony will establish a premium foothold while cheaper Android smartwatches target $100 or lower price point. I'm sure many of them will be crap. Smartglasses are a harder call. People without eye problems might wear them if they double as sunglasses. I'm thinking of you, California. If someone manages to create a model with two full lenses, dual core ARM and WiFi/3G SoC, flexible (fits into smaller volume) battery, at least one tiny hidden camera, no obvious lights or buttons, all in a compact and normal looking frame, then maybe the Glasshole debate will dissipate. Would you pay $300 for it? That could depend on the apps, and I've heard that the Google Glass ones aren't so great. A full lens device will have much better apps, but it will be harder for developers to take advantage of true augmented reality. The best apps will combine data sources with real-time graphics overlay in 3D to help your eyes and brain. That's completely different from most of the apps that already exist, although some have you hold and point your smartphone camera to overlay translations or show astronomy data.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:29AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:29AM (#97428) Journal

        The anti-Glasshole movement is a joke. If you are out in public, you are going to be recorded. Putting more cameras into the hands of citizens is likely a good thing, especially if it leads to more filming of the police (it won't be easy for them to claim that your smartglasses are a gun).

        You know you are total geek (the most remote from the Average Joe) when the first thought it comes into the mind is citizens filming police.
        Here's how the average population think of wearable computing [gizmodo.com] (warning: in spite of being a gizdomo link, maybe it is not... I repeat: not... office safe, even if it not explicit).
        (I find all the action of the characters terrible distracting from the Google glass messages and the variety of apps used... big grin)

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 24 2014, @03:20AM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday September 24 2014, @03:20AM (#97465) Journal

          Yeah yeah oook. I don't have to sit here and come up with all the applications in an already long post. Plus I'm talking about outside. You know, that big place with the sunlight where you get attacked for wearing Glass and arrested for filming a grumble flick.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:17PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:17PM (#97612)

        Someone will eventually release smart glasses that don't have a camera. I'd buy one of those. I have about as much interest in my glasses having a camera as I have in my wedding ring having bluetooth speakers in it. Technically very impressive, totally freaking useless.

        I would enjoy a HUD for GPS navigation mode. Follow the arrow. Or a HUD for a compass when I'm hiking aside from pure targetting mode. If not sunglasses an obvious interface to a star chart app would be interesting at night (probably not interesting to city slickers). I would look at, uh, the interviews on reddit while chilling out. Or read books in the kindle app.

        Radical simplicity reigns for the watch too. I don't want angry birds on my watch, I want what boils down to a bluetooth bracelet that speaks AVRCP profile so I have a physical hardware button to hit pause on my audiobooks and music regardless of where my phone might be.

        I miss the hardware buttons on my ancient Optimooooooose S android phone. Someone should sell a phone with a simple pause / mute hardware button if nothing else. I like a tactile interface more than a shitty slow GUI.

      • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday September 24 2014, @04:04PM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @04:04PM (#97735) Journal

        Smartglasses could lead to neat augmented reality tricks where all sorts of data can be overlaid on top of your vision in 3D (football is a good example of how information can be seamlessly blended in with reality [augmentedrealitytrends.com])

        Data overlays for sports? You're thinking way too small dude.

        Overlay *3D objects*. Walk down the sidewalk, a table pops out of various restaurants with popular dishes on display. Or there's the sci-fi dream of pushing a button on the wall and suddenly your wall turns into a window -- on top of a skyscraper or in a meadow or whatever...virtual interactive wallpaper. No TV, you've got a holoscreen. Google Glass + Oculus Rift + Augmented Reality apps. All already exist, just gotta shrink and combine them. At that point it's not a smartphone or a HUD -- it's a personal hologram projector. But networked of course -- a data stream for your house that everyone who walks in can enable and see. Privacy settings so different people see different objects, even when they're all in the same room together.

        I'm in that 71% -- 24 years old right now, and I can't freakin' wait for this stuff. :D

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:08PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:08PM (#97610)

      "All the "health" features are just glorified pedometers."

      As a guy who owns a fitbit, which is tiny, nice looking, convenient, dirty cheap (in comparison) and has a roughly 1 week battery life, my pedometer is currently burning a hole in my pocket steaming with anger at being compared to a P.O.S. smartwatch. Its like calling a formula 1 race car a glorified covered wagon, the formula 1 race car owner is probably going to be annoyed at that comparison.

      The biggest problem (and this will inflame some) is human reaction to a fitbit is very binary in that there's two groups of people : "Holy cow that is amazing I MUST buy one and I can only imagine how healthy it'll make me and this is a revolution in humanity and medical care" vs "I'm getting tired of carrying this Fing thing around and they send me an email summary once a week which I pretty much ignore and next time I destroy it in the clothes washer I'm not buying another". About 1% of the human population actually uses the things to get useful change in their life, and about 1% of humanity are paid astroturfers and clueless fanboys who demand that 100% of humanity is in the previous group, and being paid astroturfers you can get maybe 10-30 rageposts on HN if you point out this inconvenient truth.

      What I'm getting at, is about 99% of people who bought a fitbit are really uninterested in buying another ever again, so every fitbit sale is -1 smartwatch sale at least WRT "its an exercise device" cluelessness.

      As far as tech goes, I get way more out of running the runkeeper app on my phone and watching my mile times drop during the season than I ever do out of a fitbit / pedometer type thing.

      For example I'm going out for a little hike at lunch today and I will runkeeper it and I'm probably going a bit over a mile (depends on weather...). My fitbit as I fish it out of my pocket and look says : 7:03am (I use it more as a pocketwatch than anything else) 781 steps 1 flight of stairs 0.37 miles and I just don't give a F about that.

      One thing I learned about modern electronics in a practical sense from my and my families and my friends fitbits: You can soak electronics, and if you immediately run it thru the dry cycle it'll be OK but if you let it sit wet, even for just a couple hours, corrosion sets in and its ruined. Treat drowned electronics like raw chicken, cook it immediately and it'll be great, but if you let it sit around you may as well throw it out. Similar experience with my wife's phone and camera.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:13AM

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:13AM (#97406) Journal

    Globally, 64% of internet users have worn a piece of wearable tech already

    Unless a standard wrist watch and a bluetooth ear piece and a jogging arm band to hold your cell-phone count as wearable tech.

    Never have seen any of the smart watches in public. Even among android fanboys who have had them available for over a year.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:39AM

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:39AM (#97413)

      Yep, my wearable tech has a battery life of about 3 years (replaceable too) and a more-than-sufficient precision of better than a second per day. It's even fully waterproof to 30m and I don't worry when I put it down or whack it on the table.

      Now, the wearable tech I'd like to buy would look quite like my archery wrist protector, 2.5 to 4 inch screen, 16x9 aspect ratio or thinner (1.5" width max), 5 to 8mm thick, resting on the inside of my forearm held by two bands, and with a battery lasting at least 3 days. See old sci-fi for examples of cyborgs dialing those one-handed. Bulky watches with tiny screens are dumb, extend the screen along the arm, so we get useful real estate!

      • (Score: 2) by Zinho on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:18AM

        by Zinho (759) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:18AM (#97424)

        So, like a pip boy [google.com], but in a better form factor?

        I agree, and I'll go a step further - I want implanted tech, not just wearable. Cyberpunk style. Just this week I was lamenting to my son about cochlear implants and how they're currently only used in cases where hearing is already severely impaired - what's the worst that can happen, that they'll go deaf? There's potential there already for augmentation of "normal" hearing, and I hope that one day implant technology will be mature enough that it could be elective. There's already been plenty of speculation [wikipedia.org] about what benefits such implants could provide, I'd like to see some of those happen before the megacorps take over the earth (more than they already have).

        --
        "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:38AM

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:38AM (#97431) Journal

          I agree, and I'll go a step further - I want implanted tech, not just wearable. Cyberpunk style.

          Easy peasy - just become a Linux user [xkcd.com]

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by Silentknyght on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:07AM

          by Silentknyght (1905) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:07AM (#97439)

          I want implanted tech, not just wearable. Cyberpunk style.

          I might have thought that was cool once upon a time... then, after playing through Deus Ex - Human Revolution, where they explore that very subject, I think I decided I'd rather my organic body be fit & whole than distort it with inorganic (though superior-performing) components. If my body wasn't fit or whole, though... well, that's the dilemma of the protagonist.

          It's a good philosophical question, and a good game. Highly recommend it for both reasons.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:34AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:34AM (#97430) Journal

      Globally, 64% of internet users have worn a piece of wearable tech already

      Unless a standard wrist watch and a bluetooth ear piece and a jogging arm band to hold your cell-phone count as wearable tech.

      Given your position, I reckon you don't consider latex products as wearable tech either

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by EvilJim on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:19AM

    by EvilJim (2501) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:19AM (#97409) Journal

    well 98% of 16 to 24 year olds are also idiots. they may think shiny gadgets are symbols of status, but in actual fact they are symbols of superfluousness

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mendax on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:39AM

      by mendax (2840) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:39AM (#97432)

      Amen, brother. When I was that age I was a complete idiot. I knew very little about life, sex, or relationships but thought I knew all I needed to know. Now that I'm much older, I know that life sucks except when it doesn't, sex is overrated and I can be quite happy with or without it, I never should have gotten married and I'm better off divorced, and that I should have pursued a career as a paralegal instead of a coder since I seem to be a pretty good amateur lawyer. Oh, the mistakes we make when we're young!

      --
      It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
      • (Score: 2) by EvilJim on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:05AM

        by EvilJim (2501) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:05AM (#97438) Journal

        agreed, except the marriage part, I'm perpetually single these days, and that kinda sucks at age 35 when I should be procreating. had plenty of practice but not with anyone I would consider spending the rest of my life with... except one. Time to go order some beer and hookers.

      • (Score: 1) by cngn on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:15AM

        by cngn (1609) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:15AM (#97445)

        Oh to have had mod points, both you guys would have gotten them, the follies of youth...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:15AM (#97423)

    Everone's waiting for flexxy (TM) phones that you sit on when they're in your back pocket.

    • (Score: 2) by EvilJim on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:25AM

      by EvilJim (2501) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:25AM (#97427) Journal

      your butthole is natures back pocket... make sure no-one picks your pocket.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by darkfeline on Wednesday September 24 2014, @07:44PM

      by darkfeline (1030) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @07:44PM (#97849) Homepage

      Apple's already got this with their new iPhone 6s and the acclaimed iBend feature.

      *ducks*

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  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:30AM

    by mendax (2840) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:30AM (#97429)

    Okay, for those of you who were not born when the Borg were added to the Star Trek universe, you can move along now. For those of you who know what they are, you already know what I'm about to write. Wearing tech is simply a way for some higher power to monitor you. Frankly, I don't want Google, the NSA, or anyone else know what my blood pressure, body temperature, and heart rate are, or what I'm seeing in front of me, or what I'm hearing around me, or what I'm listening to at any given time, regardless of whether is Bach or the Beastie Boys. (Having said that, you can't pay me enough to listen to the Beastie Boys, but I'm listening to Bach now.)

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:24AM

      by Subsentient (1111) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:24AM (#97448) Homepage Journal

      Dammit, you beat me to the Borg joke!

      Agree 100%.

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @08:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @08:10PM (#97862)

      Okay, for those of you who were not born when the Borg were added to the Star Trek universe, you can move along now. For those of you who know what they are, you already know what I'm about to write. Wearing tech is simply a way for some higher power to monitor you.

      No kidding! I was thinking the exact same thing. That being said, I still have one of those ancient "dumb" cell phones but I am thinking about getting a smartphone in the next few months. When I do, I will relish the opportunity to be that annoying guy who does instant fact checking whenever an argument erupts over lunch about sports/movies/music/history/politics/whatever. Being assimilated by the Borg isn't all bad. Just make sure to be assimilated on your own terms!

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday September 25 2014, @03:10PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Thursday September 25 2014, @03:10PM (#98266)

      Correction - wearable *network connected* tech is a way to monitor you. There are however a wide range of really useful things a decent piece of wearable tech could do that don't involve being connected to the internet, directly or indirectly.

      I know, I know - PCs were actually useless for all those years before internet access became ubiquitous.

  • (Score: 1) by quixote on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:13AM

    by quixote (4355) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:13AM (#97443)

    I want wearable tech, even though I started out somewhere in the Paleolithic. I guess you're as young as you feel. But I'm so old I'd never touch any of that stuff unless *I* controlled it. Oh, and by "tech" I mean the equivalent of a high end computer capable of projecting a haptic keyboard onto any surface and a virtual screen of any size I want onto the air in front of me. It should be capable of functioning as a satellite phone if I want, have a wire nestled in it somewhere that I can hook over my ear as a speakerphone, and it should be about the size of a broad-ish wristband. It should cost about a quarter of what high-end phones cost now.

    Wake me up when we get there.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Marneus68 on Wednesday September 24 2014, @07:15AM

    by Marneus68 (3572) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @07:15AM (#97521) Homepage

    Just a fad for Gizmos and gadgets.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @10:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @10:39AM (#97566)

    Men: toe-mounted upskirt web cams with HUD capability.

    Women: real-time waistband size monitoring.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:30PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 24 2014, @12:30PM (#97619)

    Lets play a game. Its called:

    When I was 16-To-24, 71% Of us wanted..."

    And finish that sentence with dumb wearable tech fad of that era.

    I'll start with: portable CD player than is the size of a paperback book and costs $400 and is the most sensitive seismometer ever made WRT skipping and its a good thing ancient audio cds were limited to 70 minutes because the batteries only lasted about two hours. At least when I was 16. Specs got a little better by the time I was 24. In fact right before mp3 players took over that market, portable cd players were pretty decent.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 24 2014, @01:19PM (#97636)

      Pretty much...

      I in my 40s would want 'wearable' tech. But right now, today, compared to my smartphone they are terrible and look dorky. My old watch which I no longer wear lasts about 3-4 years before I need a new battery. The phone however has crap battery life of 1-2 days depending on how I use it.

      I was pretty excited about apple coming out with one. Then I found out you *ALSO* need an iphone for it to work well. Excitement level went to 0. I want to carry as little as possible around. Not more. It is the reason I do not wear my watch anymore. I have a nice phone that does that.

      If they could have crammed a decent phone in there and decent battery life. I may consider it. As supposedly they have been telling me for so long its the screen eating the battery... I figured a 1 inch display would not use much...

      I want it. However, it should be at least better than what it replaces.

    • (Score: 2) by EvilJim on Thursday September 25 2014, @12:40AM

      by EvilJim (2501) on Thursday September 25 2014, @12:40AM (#97986) Journal

      a delorean time machine. none of this flashing beeping wearable crap, that was like a flashing, beeping sign saying 'hey bullies, come smash my face in'

  • (Score: 2) by metamonkey on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:49PM

    by metamonkey (3174) on Wednesday September 24 2014, @02:49PM (#97686)

    Every time a new piece of consumer electronics comes out, it seems like the /./soylent crowd trips over each other to inform us that they're simply not interested in these gauche consumer trifles. Are you this guy? [theonion.com] If you don't want a smart watch, then don't buy a smart watch! But why do you have to make sure to let us all know you don't want one? You're not forced to have a watch of any kind. Nobody's trying to make you.

    --
    Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.