As part of doing research for the next book I am writing about the next technologies that will be around to help with collaboration, particularly when it comes to business collaboration, I recently bought a Galaxy Gear smart watch. The idea was to see how effective wearable computing will be and, in part, because the Google Glass is so ridiculously expensive. Had I been able to get a Glass, at a reasonable price, I would have more than likely. New technology interests me.
When it comes to the Gear, there have been a couple of concerns. First, is it anything more than a very expensive watch? Honestly, it’s not the only really expensive watch I’ve ever bought. The worst was a bad experience with a Suunto. A GPS watch seemed like a really good idea. I’d be able to really see how far I was walking or biking and I could map my walks and biking outings. The GPS had a really hard time ever finding the satellites and it ran the battery down. It was a terrible experience. The map app never seemed to work all that well either. Ridiculously expensive for what essentially turned out to be just a watch. And not even a very good watch. So, having said that, the Gear could only be up from there, right?
As it turns out it is. At the moment, there aren’t a lot of apps for it but the one thing I thought it would be really good for, it actually is perfect for. Sometimes I may be doing something, like lecturing or driving, and I don’t want to pull my phone out. It just may not be appropriate or safe. However, the Gear will display texts or calls or even social media messages. I can quickly glance at my watch just to see what or who it is, in case I’m expecting something important. I can also get notifications about e-mail messages, calendar reminders and alarms. You may think that this is obsessing too much about keeping attached to your digital communications but the reality is that there are times when you need to catch an important message but it’s just not convenient to whip out your phone.
Or, even worse, how often do you see people in meetings that are supposed to be important and they are sitting there with their phone, playing with it and checking messages and so forth. Isn’t it rude to sit there clearly not paying attention to the meeting and looking at your phone? If you don’t want to pay attention, don’t go to the meeting. You get no points for simply warming the seat at the table. At least this way, you can get messages sent to your watch. It’s hard to say if it would be considered any less rude to sit there glancing at your watch periodically or staring at your phone. You glance at your watch, you send the message that maybe you’re waiting for the meeting to be over but at least you may be engaged. You stare at your phone or play with it and you not only want the meeting to be over but you also don’t care about paying attention to what’s going on.
There aren’t a lot of apps. I know I said that. I hope there will be more. At the moment, Samsung hasn’t released a software developer kit for the Gear. Without the SDK, the Gear won’t be nearly as useful as it could be. However, there are some apps, including some third party apps. As with many third party apps, it’s hard to know whether to fully trust them or not or whether they are going to provide the functionality you are looking for. Here’s an example. Natively, you will get a notice that you have a Facebook message. Just a notice. Not the message. There is an app that says it will show you the message. However, it’s not from Facebook. Do I trust this third party app developer? Will the app interface with Facebook correctly? Who knows. At the moment, I’m not interested enough to figure it out.
It does have a pedometer built into it. Boy, has the pedometer business taken off. Everything has a pedometer built into it now. I’ve been using a pedometer from FitBit for the last few years. They work well. They claim to track your sleep, though not nearly as well as the Zeo sleep monitor I have. Sadly, Zeo went out of business. Anyway, now I have a phone (the S4) that will act as a pedometer. I have a watch that will act as a pedometer and integrate with the phone. And I have an actual pedometer. Having a device that I use regularly that will track my steps and activity is convenient. I don’t always have my phone with me, though. And I don’t always have my watch on. If I’m just puttering around the house/apartment, I probably don’t have my phone in my pocket and my watch can get in the way of doing things like typing, as I am now. The clasp is metal and it rubs on my laptop while I’m typing and metal against metal is just annoying. Having a little device I can toss in my pocket is convenient. Other than now I have a Fitbit, a phone, some keys, maybe some money and who knows what else.
There are too cool features, even if only in a very geeky way. One of them is the whole talking into your wrist thing. The speaker and microphone (yes, you can take calls on your watch, just like Dick Tracy, sort of) are in the clasp. If you want the best ability to hear and be heard, you put the clasp up toward your head. I can also dictate things like text messages using S Voice, again using the microphone in the clasp. The other cool geeky feature is the fact that it has a camera. Yes, all of a sudden you have a spy camera on your wrist. And a Samsung camera. The pictures even look really good.You can see one taken with the camera in my watch below. I did shrink it down so it’s not full resolution but the quality is really quite good.
Finally, let me get back to one of the issues that seemed like it might be a concern. Before I bought it, I heard people suggesting that the battery wasn’t adequate. I remember reading someone indicate that the battery wouldn’t last a day. As it turns out, my battery generally lasts about 4 days. This is far longer than my phone battery lasts. By about 3 days, generally. Is it ideal? No, but it’s not too bad. If you’re really concerned about it, charge it overnight while you’re in bed. It’s not like it will track your sleep. Who wears their watch to bed?
Overall, would I recommend the Galaxy Gear. I’d say it depends. I think you will see a lot of business people getting wearable computers like the Galaxy Gear because they feel like they want to be in constant contact. Well, I take that back. Maybe business people is too general. Many executives and sales people will want a device like this, I think. If you are just looking for a watch, it’s expensive. If you often carry your phone in a place that’s difficult to get to, the Gear is a nice way to get calls and notifications and I think it’s worth the cost. You want to wait for Apple to have half the functionality at twice the cost?
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