Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
whats up guys im Scottie ladeaux is this is the fortress of nerditude. This is the third
installment of the Top 10 Tech Stories of 2013. If you missed the last video in the
series you can click here or you can check out the link in the description. This series
is a collaboration with the guys at the mobile network comparison channel. We're going to
be counting down what we believe to be the top 10 Tech related stories of 2013 throughout
the month of January. If you haven't checked out Mobile Network
Comparison yet, they cover consumer electronics and do things like tutorials and product reviews
with an emphasis on mobile phones and a website with tons of unique information on the mobile
phone market in the UK. I'll leave a link to their page and site in the video description.
So without any further ado, introducing story number 8: the emergence of wearable tech.
Have you noticed that every nerd blog and geek website sends teams of correspondents
to cover every tech conference under the sun. In fact, average technophiles like me and
you are choosing to spend some of their hard earned vacation time and harder-earned money
traveling to events like Google I/O or Apple's W.W.D.C....while millions more take a long
lunch or clock-out early to watch the live webcast from work or home.
Could it be the ultimate bragging rights when you return from Silicon Valley with your official
event credentials and gift bag full of freebies from every original equipment manufacturer
in the world? Could it be to drive traffic to your site by providing the most eye-catching
coverage of the most important exhibits? Or could it be to steal ideas from from competing
start-ups by seeing what they're all working on? Probably all of the above, but honestly
I would bet that everybody that goes to these events have at least considered the possibility
of one common hope...The chance that they may be privileged enough to see, in person,
the next big thing....and to see it before the rest of the world.
Well in 2013 Samsung claimed it had the next big thing in the Galaxy S4 smartphone, (show
clip) but lets be honest, as great as it is, it's only a few bells and whistles better
than its predecessor (show photos). The fact is, the mobile phone industry along with the
mobile pc and tablet industries, have trained us all to expect the next big thing every
year (t-Mobile clip). While progress in technology is growing at exponential rates, I don't think
we're seeing revolutionary break-throughs every year quite yet...more like incremental
evolutionary advances with the occasional major leap once or twice each decade.
Most techies would agree that the next leap forward in innovation is most likely to come
from one of two areas...the connected home or wearable tech. While we've seen some movement
in the connected home like Belkin's WeMo line and the Nest thermostat and smoke alarms,
there have been countless entries into the wearable tech space. Most notably in the realm
of smart watches and fitness related or quantitative-self devices. The question is are these small and
stylish wearables poised to truly change the way we work and live? That remains to be seen,
but what is clear is the fact that the growth of the smartphone industry due to the use
of similar parts, has made possible a much less expensive cost to mass produce the microprocessors
and other critical components of these small devices that so many have created.
So let's look at the fitness & quantitative self wearables. These devices track our activity
throughout the day and give us a snapshot of our physical activity in order to help
us reach our fitness goals. Metrics like steps calories burned and distance traveled are
recorded just by wearing the bracelet-like devices on our wrists. This new generation
of devices including Nike Fuel Jawbone Up and Fitbit force take the collection of data
to a new dimension. jawbone and Fitbit bracelets are able to track duration and quality of
sleep while the Nike Fuel bracelet has created its own proprietary metric called fuel which
is a combination of all recorded physical activity in the form of a single number. A
hustle score if you will, which is intended to be a reflection of each days cumulative
progress towards the optimum activity level. The other really cool thing about this latest
generation of fitness wearables are the LED displays. in addition to displaying the time
of day, the mode you're in can be determined by the color or sequence of the LED lights
on the bracelets.
So the wearable tech we all anticipated the most were probably the smart watches. There
were a huge number of entries into this category in 2013 but the two you probably heard the
most about were Samsung's Galaxy gear and the Pebble watch.
Pebble watch: Development of the Pebble watch started in
2012 but production and distribution really took off in 2013. As a former employee of
a big box retailer I can attest to the fact that once it became available they were generally
sold out as a result of online orders before we could get them on the floor. It was a very
hot item for several months. An independent development, the pebble watch was one of the
most successful kickstarter funded projects of all-time. Its main features include:
E paper display w/backlight Changeable faces
Social media, SMS and email notifications Connectivity to Android or iOS smartphones
via Bluetooth 4.0 The ability to Control music apps
Call screening Low energy consumption resulting in 5-7 day
battery life Many 3rd party apps
Standard size replaceable wristband Galaxy gear:
More than any other Smart Watch galaxy gear came loaded with every imaginable feature
including some that may seem a bit Impractical. If any watch made consumers feel like secret
agents this would probably be the one. Criticisms of galaxy here include the fact that it needs
to be charged pretty much daily and that its only compatible with a very short list of
devices. Some of its main features include: Metal front
Super amoled multi touch display Customizable watch faces
Built in speaker Notifications
Ability to Make & answer phone calls Connects to select smartphones via Bluetooth
Built in camera Google Glass:
Arguably the coolest, if not the most exclusive wearable tech we saw in 2013 was Google Glass.
This device is worn like a pair of glasses without the lenses. There is a multi touch
surface that resides over the right ear and a prism on the front right just above your
natural line of sight that serves as the display. Glass is capable of seven primary functions:
Taking photos Capturing videos
Getting directions Send a message
Make Phone calls Google plus hangouts
Google search There's going to be many more things to do
with glass when it becomes available to the general public as there are third party apps
in development now. Once mass produced, it's $1500 price tag is likely to be slashed In
half as well... Hopefully even more. This may be the closest thing to a smartphone experience
without touching a smartphone. Most of the 7 primary functions, which are not so different
from that of a nexus smartphone right out of the box, can be done hands-free. As for
criticisms of glass some have expressed concerns that this would make it too easy for others
to record or take photographs of them without their knowledge. Others simply don't care
for the aesthetics. While glass live absolutely awesome to a nerd like myself someone who
has actual fashion sense may not feel the same way.
One might say that this category was born out of opportunity not necessity. While start-ups
like Pebble and their unprecedented kickstarter campaign have enjoyed great success having
sold over 300k smartwatches in 2013, critics of the device and others like it say it doesn't
solve a problem...it just creates another distraction and gives me another device to
charge, in some cases, every night. So back to my original thought, the hunger
for the next big thing, not only from the general public and our desire to consume bigger
and better tech, but every tech company present or future hoping to have its product become
part of tech history. Maybe the tech world is barking up the wrong tree all together
with wearables, maybe consumers just aren't ready for it them, or maybe the right group
of engineers haven't put the final touches on their masterpiece yet...I'm looking at
you apple. Whatever the case there is plenty in the marketplace to satisfy the early adopter
and the rest of us can be assured that the real next big thing will come eventually,
probably when we least expect it. Besides, most people never saw this coming. (clip from
original iPhone keynote)...that was 7 years ago, 6 years prior to that was the iPod, so
based on that math we are about due for the next revolution and I don't know about you,
but I've got my money on the folks in Cupertino.
So that's pretty much it guys I hope you enjoyed this look back at the emergence of wearable
Tech. Be on the lookout for the next installment of our top 10 tech stories of the 2013...
the next video will come from the mobile network comparison Channel and as I said before I'll
leave a link to their channel in the video description thanks so much for watching and
I'll see you in the next one.