Well hang on - I never said I hated the Apple watch, I said I didn't support the hype. As you may recall, I badged your comment in there, too. That was four months ago, by the way, and I think I've seen three smartwatches in that amount of time. Granted, some of them don't call attention to themselves, but I look at watches more than a lot of people. I actually kinda like the idea, but I think I like my fancy-schmancy hand-made digitals more. That's because I'm a watch nerd, not a nerd nerd. But that isn't really relevant to the discussion here, I don't think: watches aren't particularly nerdy (they're kind of nerdy by default and hella nerdy in some iterations) and any smart watch isn't going to revolutionize the way we regard watches. Google Glass, on the other hand, required hanging a HUD off your face. There needs to be a pretty big upside to that because wearable tech has never been cool. I'll hazard the guess that ten years from now HUDs on motorcycle helmets will be commonplace. You might even see them regularly in ski goggles. But walkin'around HUDs? I agree with the article - they're limiting, not freeing.
I know, I was referring to that thread. But you're right, it wouldn't be fair at all to call you an Apple watch hater. I didn't recall your argument there as well as I thought now that I've reread it. The reason I brought it up was because I remembered the part where you talk about how the iWatch is just another device for conformity: My point was that there might be a parallel with Glass: it tries to be both a cool piece of (face-)jewelery and a utility, but isn't convincing at either of those qualities. It wouldn't surprise me if the iWatch fails for the same reasons Glass did....an iWatch or a Moto360 is a mass-produced device with some customization tweaks. It's just another part of the uniform. [...] it does yank any smartwatch out of the realm of "jewelry" and into the realm of "utility" and I'm not sure the utility is there.
Hmmm. The iWatch as an iteration on the watch, Glass as an iteration on glasses. Glasses, of course, having never been cool no matter how hard they try. I'll buy that. An important distinction: an iWatch mostly tells time. It also happens to do other nifty shit. Glass, on the other hand, mostly sits as an interface layer between you and the world. Glasses are corrective lenses, while Glass is an "augmentive" lens... so there may be limits to the parallels but your point is taken. (also, nobody is going to freak out that you're secretly recording them or augmenting them down to their underwear with an iWatch)