{"id":1608,"date":"2014-07-23T19:49:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T19:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/?p=1608"},"modified":"2015-06-19T23:38:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T23:38:00","slug":"you-will-eventually-own-a-smart-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gusclass.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/23\/you-will-eventually-own-a-smart-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"You will eventually own a smart watch."},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past ~year – the time since Pebble made headlines for its crowdfunded success –\u00a0people have been hyping smart watches. It’s becoming annoying if you are like me and comb gadget blogs. Well, not really annoying, but not particularly exciting.<\/p>\n

During the hype, I have been\u00a0skeptical of the utility of these new devices\u00a0given there are activity trackers, phones, etc, which offer the same functionality with more power. It’s been tried before and it’s weak sauce.<\/p>\n

I had my heart set that\u00a0smartwatches are cute gadgets but they are not very useful. I mean, you have a cell phone already, right? After spending some time with Android Wear, I’m sold, these are going to become very popular because they are useful. I’ll try and explain how\u00a0in this blog post.<\/p>\n

My first Smartwatch<\/h2>\n

\"220px-Timex_Datalink_Model_150\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m not sure I’d really call it a smart watch per-se, but\u00a0the Timex Datalink <\/a>was the first watch I ever had that I could communicate to a computer with. This watch was pretty awesome at the time. I\u00a0vaguely remember\u00a0making an eager sojourn to the EB Games (Babbage’s, for you in the UK) in the local mall. I picked up some sort of giant package for this watch thing that I had forever lusted over and done\u00a0random jobs fixing computers to earn. I knew every imaginable thing that a 14-year old nerd can know about an obsessed-over gadget.<\/p>\n

Here’s why I was obsessed with the Timex – it was a\u00a0technological marvel. Because\u00a0the connectors on computers were too big (RS-232 or parallel? Nerd, please!), the Timex Datalink used a photosensor as a sort of crazy modem that would receive address book information that you could input on a PC using proprietary software. To download the data to the watch, you would hold your wrist up to the CRT screen and the screen would\u00a0strobe to transfer the data.<\/p>\n

The flashing was awesome. It was like a rave for your watch! The software transfer method\u00a0was a potentially fatal epilepsy hazard though.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Sorry, that got dark fast. I don’t think there were ever any Timex Datalink-related epilepsy incidents but the communication software\u00a0was pretty crazy in terms of strobing.<\/p>\n

Anyways, this whiz-bang gadget of the 90s was a true marvel of its time. \u00a0You no longer needed a calculator watch to\u00a0carry around your contacts with you and you didn’t have to look like a complete geek just to keep all your contacts with you. \u00a0Hold on.. \u00a0\u00a0I take that back, this watch is\u00a0about as nerdy as it gets. \u00a0It was a completely dysfunctional device that was just as much impractical. \u00a0For one, you would lose functionality when you didn’t\u00a0have a computer around. \u00a0For another, why reinvent the wheel for the sake of making it digital. \u00a0Alan Cooper <\/a>would\u00a0have a joyous\u00a0time wondering at the complexity of the thing.<\/p>\n

I really wish I had a video of the unboxing, it would be hilarious to see. \u00a0I opened up the blister packing\u00a0and\u00a0installed software using floppy disks because CDs were too bougey.\u00a0 After the app installed on Windows 95, I manually input all my contacts using\u00a0the horrid WinForms\u00a0client app like a data entry specialist, and stared transfixed\u00a0as the flashing CRT\u00a0downloaded the data\u00a0from\u00a0my PC. \u00a0The technology was mind-boggling at the time\u00a0and\u00a0I proudly wore the watch for a few\u00a0months, giving my fellow nerds the smug grin of science<\/em> in passing.\u00a0The wonder wore off before long though. \u00a0The tipping point on it was when my friend asked me why I had it. I started explaining myself and then\u00a0he pulled out a notepad and pencil, scribbled down names, addresses, and phone numbers, and proved\u00a0this smartwatch thing was\u00a0obsoleted by low tech.<\/p>\n