

Matt Cutts: One of the more fun gadgets I've been playing with lately… - pg
https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/DnzRNRAP7wL

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dminor
I'd pay lots of money for a _stylish_ watch or bracelet for my wife that would
alert her to incoming calls and texts. She (like many women) keeps her phone
in her purse and rarely answers because she doesn't know it's ringing.

~~~
seclorum
Maybe she needs an HTC Rhyme phone, with its dongle^Wcharm thingy:

[https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=...](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1333&bih=665&q=htc+rhyme+charm&g)

Its a dongle^Wcharm thingy that plugs into the phone and acts as visible alert
for phone state while its buried in a purse. Pretty funny toy.

~~~
mclin
Wow, genius. Good point, it doesn't need to be wireless to look good.

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jey
If the iPad is a hip flask[1], this must be an intravenous line. (And soon
we'll have augmented reality glasses providing a central line to the heart.)

1\. <http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2012/03/10/ipad-as-hip-flask/>

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spacesuit
I bought one of these during the sale they had last year. I'm running
CyanogenMod (Android) and everything works as described.

It's most useful when looking at one's phone would be considered rude, but
looking at one's watch would not.

I haven't built any faces for mine (yet), but having the watch definitely
makes me want to learn more Python/C.

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amirmc
I already have my phone in my pocket and I expect it to do all the things
mentioned (via interacting directly). I also have too many devices that
beep/vibrate at me so another one that does alerts seems unnecessary (one in
my pocket and _another_ on my wrist?).

If it was voice controlled however, _that_ would be cool. The range of
interaction would be far greater.

note: I gave up wearing wristwatches some time ago, if I did still wear them,
this would be pretty interesting.

~~~
corin_
I'm not a huge fan of inPulse - not because of what they do, which I think is
awesome, but because of their size - if I could get the watch of my preference
(random example, but here's the kind of watch I personally like
[http://s7ondemand4.scene7.com/is/image/Signet/8349614?$detai...](http://s7ondemand4.scene7.com/is/image/Signet/8349614?$detail475$)
) with a few of these features, such as vibration in patterns to show the
difference between a call, an SMS, an email... then I'd jump all over it.

As to the screen, I can see many people in the near future being sold on this
- hell, it's a cool thing in principle, as a kid my two favourite watches (one
of which I had), were one that was a calculator
([http://retrothing.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452989a69e201156f357...](http://retrothing.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452989a69e201156f35715b970b-800wi))
and one that was a TV remote ([http://www.calculatorwatch.net/wp-
content/uploads/Digital-ca...](http://www.calculatorwatch.net/wp-
content/uploads/Digital-calculator-watch-tv-remote.jpg)), and many of my
friends thought they were awesome too. Personally I'm quite happy taking my
phone out to actually read stuff - though on a small watch a display for calls
would be great if/when using a wireless headset.

~~~
amirmc
_".. vibration in patterns to show the difference between a call, an SMS, an
email"_

This is genius. Why doesn't my phone do this _now_? Sure, I have different
audible tones for reminders/sms/email/calls but most of the time my phone is
in vibrate-only.

I think we will end up with watches similar to those you describe. I imagine
they'll have more functions than alerting you though. A device in constant
contact with the skin could likely do a whole bunch of health monitoring.

~~~
harpastum
By default, iPhones vibrate once for emails, twice for texts.

Through the accessibility settings, you can set completely custom vibrations
for each of the contacts in your address book (e.g. you could make morse code
of each of their names)

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FiddlerClamp
There are three or four watches out, and probably more in the planning phase.
InPulse, WIMM (<http://www.wimm.com/platform-concepts.html>) are the two that
spring to mind...anyone have any idea which is better in terms of battery
life, small size, expandability?

Edit: Sony SmartWatch should be coming soon, too
([http://androidandme.com/2012/01/news/hands-on-with-the-
sony-...](http://androidandme.com/2012/01/news/hands-on-with-the-sony-
smartwatch/)).

~~~
ratzinho87
There's the Sony LiveView ([http://www.sonymobile.com/global-
en/products/accessories/liv...](http://www.sonymobile.com/global-
en/products/accessories/liveview/)), which looks more feature-rich than the
InPulse.

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Steko
The global watch industry is pushing $50 billion and very few people wear them
anymore. With the mobile revolution this category is really ripe for a
complete overhaul. This isn't it but it's one of several starts in that
direction.

People talk about how phones are getting more powerful processors each year
and extrapolate that out but what's also going to happen is that the current
slab phone paradigm will be challenged strongly by a combination of lighter
tablets at the high end and even more miniaturized devices -- glasses,
watches, headsets, armbands, etc. on the low end.

Advances in LTE networks mean your mobile chip really only has to be good
enough to decode audio and video at a low ping. Those chips are going to get
tiny indeed and run extremely power light.

3D printing advances continue to astonish, check out this 330x130x100µm3
racecar: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y0j191H0kY>

Voice and Kinect-style motion controls are rapidly maturing as alternatives to
touch input. Eye movement and thought control perhaps not that far off.

Flexible screens, projection and very high density VR screens are also
maturing and offer alternatives to the current slab phone screen.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Something that's already possible today: an ensemble for mobile computing
instead of a monolithic device. You have a 4G wifi hotspot, a bluetooth
headset, a tablet, etc. I'm curious how you could evolve that idea. Maybe with
wearable computers, maybe something else.

~~~
Steko
My wife took my 3GS iphone last year when she lost her phone and for a few
months I used a 3G iPad and a prepaid dumbphone we had lying around. It was a
surprisingly decent setup. Because I do so much of my phoning on Skype the
actual monthly charges were about half of what they were with my 3GS plan.

One thing I realized was the iPad plan is the dumb pipe plan we've all been
waiting for. It's really a neat trojan horse Apple's set up with the carriers
for some future disruption like an iphone nano where the bluetooth headset is
the whole phone and they can sell the thing for $149 without a subsidy.

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pieter
Anyone got a mirror of the contents? It requires me to log into Google before
I can read the post.

~~~
mcpherrinm
Matt Cutts posts:

One of the more fun gadgets I've been playing with lately is the inPulse
smartwatch. It can silently buzz when you get a new email and show a preview
of your email. It's has an API that works with many Android and Blackberry
phones, so you can program your own custom apps to do things like move forward
in a PowerPoint presentation or show stock quotes. It's pretty geeky, but in a
very space-age way. I can see a lot of people wearing watches like this in a
few years.

<http://www.getinpulse.com/>

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kevinburke
Can someone post the text of this article here, for those of us on mobile
phones who don't want to log in, or don't have Google accounts? Thanks

~~~
amirmc
edit: already posted. Odd that a _public_ G+ post is not visible from a mobile
device without logging into Google.

~~~
falling
without logging into Google _and_ creating a public profile if you don’t have
one.

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mindslight
It could be quite interesting to replace the medium-sized smartphone (that
doesn't really want to be in your pocket, run a real OS, or accept much user
input) with a watch+earbud+netbook combo. Stow the netbook in a small bag,
controlled with the body-based devices for on-the-go communication, and whip
out the actual computer to get something done/kill time/etc.

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caublestone
This is really cool and will be useful for a niche, let's not make it out to
be something else. A watch is a piece of fashion first. His assessment as
pretty nerdy is correct - this isn't for the main stream user to parade
around.

"Hey I made this hat that can send text messages if you just think about it!"
"But I'm still wearing that ugly hat"

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nabilt
Here is a 15 min talk were the founder talks about the challenges of building
a hardware startup <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afH8KGv0W24>

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hndl
inPulse should consider teaming up with ifttt. Now that'll be amazing!

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johnyzee
I have long been convinced that smart watches are the next huge thing. For my
money they can even be a phone, optionally with a detachable bluetooth ear
plug/mic. I don't know if they will go full monty and get big fold-out screens
and physical keyboards but I could see it, particularly for the geekier among
us.

That, and AR headgear. People already wear wristwatches and glasses so it
should be a smooth transition.

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unicornporn
Has anyone else noticed these posts can't be viewed on mobile devices without
logging in to a Google account? I'm on latest Opera Mobile for Android.

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ecommercematt
Interesting that this works with Blackberry and not iOS devices. Is this
because the app store specifically rejected their app? If so, why?

~~~
thought_alarm
It meshes well with the way Blackberry handles incoming messages (email, IM,
etc.) and the Blackberry has a public API to allow 3rd-party access to such
incoming messages.

iOS has no such public API, and the various types of incoming messages
(email/SMS/IM) are not unified in iOS like they are on BB. It's always been a
weak spot on iOS. The iOS 5 notification center improves the situation quite a
bit, but there's still no public API to enable a device like this watch.

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mark_integerdsv
Does anyOne remember The Orb? <http://www.hybratech.com/products/orb/>

...I waited most of 2010 to see this thing hit the shelves but gave up
eventually when it started looking like vapourware. Not certain what the
current status is.

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praptak
The cool factor is definitely there but I am not buying one of these devices
unless they figured out how to charge it without any help from the user.

I do not want another device I have to remember to connect to its charger and
given its functionality I don't think its battery life is stellar.

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rufugee
I'm looking forward to the day someone puts a full-fledged Android device with
a GPS capable of running most apps on my wrist. I'm an avid runner and would
love to be able to use something like Runtastic and listen to podcasts without
carrying my Galaxy Nexus on my arm...

~~~
dredmorbius
A recent (few months ago) flight neighbor sported just such a thing. A
Motorola-designed Android watch. Rather large and clunky, but it could do some
apps. He was a Motorola engineer.

This is where Steve Jobs would have a coronary. It's a device that screams
"Tech!!!!!" (yes, with five bangs), not "style".

Wouldn't swear on a large stack of bibles, but I might use strong language on
a small pile of Jesus comics, that this was the MOTOACTV:

[http://phandroid.com/2011/10/18/motorola-actv-a-smart-
fitnes...](http://phandroid.com/2011/10/18/motorola-actv-a-smart-fitness-
watch/)

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highace
One of my friends has put an ipod nano into a watch strap casing. It looks
stylish and works well too. I just wish you could build apps for them, there
would be a huge market for that surely.

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Jimmie
Where can I get a Matt Cutts of my very own? I like fun gadgets too.

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orblivion
I've wanted something like this for a while, but I'm worried that easier
access to notifications is going to just make me more neurotic.

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KeyBoardG
This is a pretty neat gadget, but the last thing I want is another email
distraction while I'm trying to work.

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LargeWu
They were originally going to call it the Distract-o-Matic, but I guess
inPulse has a nice ring to it too.

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ChuckMcM
Would be awesome Wish they had Win7/64 support. Need to push on Broadcom for
that.

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ldayley
"Siri, read me my email."

