Has wearable tech had its day?

[NotAllThere]

I have a Pebble Steel. Needs charging every ten days - takes about 20 minutes. It's smaller than my previous watch. I got it mainly for the ability to choose my own watch faces, but appreciate the step and sleep monitors. I find the notifications function (of the arrival of text messages, emails etc.) to be very convenient. It also buzzes if it loses bluetooth connection, which proved very useful when I left my phone in a restaurant.

It's a shame they folded. There were neat plans, like having the battery in the watch strap, thus making the form of the actual watch even smaller, without compromising charge length.

[sal]

On a global scale the wearable tech is still a niche product, but i believe it's here to stay. Health/fitness monitoring will improve and all the major players are turning their eyes on augmented reality, sooner rather than later the failed google glass type of tech will emerge. At first in specialist areas and work environments that can benefit from it, then eventually to the masses.

[xoggoth]

While I'm trying to lose weight it's really helpful to see how a small walk into town rather than get a bus can burn 200+ calories etc

Indeed. I don't understand some people who drive small distances, stand around on escalators, take lifts instead of using the stairs etc. You can probably improve health significantly during a normal day's movement without going to a gym.

[anonymouse]

Watch and/or health monitor, depending on what is needed

New diabetes device could end finger pricking for blood testing

"The device can continuously monitor blood glucose levels, which means development as a wearable device might not be far away."

"This wearable device would then be just one step from a product which sends alerts to smart phones or readings directly to doctors, allowing them to profile how a person is managing their diabetes over time." I'd rather wear a connected wrist device, rather than using a phone in this case.

[NotAllThere]

Indeed. I don't understand some people who drive small distances, stand around on escalators, take lifts instead of using the stairs etc.

In one of the offices at clientco, all the smokers seem to be on the first floor. They all use the lifts when they go outside to smoke.

You can probably improve health significantly during a normal day's movement without going to a gym.

Yep. Going to someone's desk instead of emailing/calling. Using the stairs. Parking a little further away than the closest car park (or getting off the tube a stop earlier and walking).

[d000hg]

Other than fitness gadgets, which are becoming mainstream (half my friends seem to have them and they talk about it ad nauseam) it doesn't seem to have caught on. For the reason that they are never quite as slick as they need to be. They need to just work, flawlessly... you don't want to have to be dicking about resyncing your trousers or whatever.

When they can properly integrate tech with glasses so you don't look like a twit I can see that being a big deal now machine learning is getting so creepily good.

I imagine smart medical implants might be a thing but that's far more specialist. I wonder if non-medical implants (not boobs) will ever take off?

[SueEllen]

In one of the offices at clientco, all the smokers seem to be on the first floor. They all use the lifts when they go outside to smoke.

Reminds of the time I worked on the 11th floor of an office building. The lifts would randomly break in the morning and you could tell who did and didn't smoke.

The smokers all sounded like they were going to collapse immediately once they got up the stairs.

Yep. Going to someone's desk instead of emailing/calling.

True It's actually more effective in getting things done.

Using the stairs.

True - It's actually faster if you are reasonably fit. Though you can't do it with a cup of coffee.

Parking a little further away than the closest car park

True - plus you are less likely to get your car pranged.

(or getting off the tube a stop earlier and walking).

Not always a good idea if the stop before is an very busy one and the further out of London you are the tube stops tend to be a 2-5 miles apart rather than 1.

[greenlake]

I wear a Casio digital watch. I love it. Tells me the time; the date. Can use it as an alarm. Everything you want from wearable tech.

And porn....!

[MrMarkyMark]

Has wearable tech had its day?

No.

Seems alive and well for certain applications

[vwdan]

Too big brother for me - considered signing up to Vitality Health as some of the benefits are nice, but I'm ****ed I'm going to be wearing a fitbit all the time.

Plus there was that study recently that said people wearing these things actually lose less weight - I know exactly why, it's the same reason I don't lose much weight with running. "Oh, hey - I've burnt 2000 calories. Hello KFC Family Bucket".

And realistically - what else they can monitor? We've got steps which is meh, GPS tracking is GPS tracking and I'd prefer a high quality Garmin for that. Then I guess we can do heart rate and sats - big whoop. Then what?