So I finally picked up a Pebble smartwatch. Best Buy's finally got them in stock, and it even managed to ship out the same day I ordered, and get here the following day. Take that, Kickstarter.
This should be an interesting experiment. I haven't worn a watch in years. Between phones and sitting in front of computers and always having a clock either in my office or where I am at home — newspapers were always kinda serious about that whole deadline thing, and cable boxes are quick and easy clocks — I just never saw the need to strap something onto my wrist to give me the same information I could get by simply looking up.
Smartwatches do so much more than just tell time, though. But that's another interesting part of this experiment. I'm currently using the Moto X (and, yes, writing our review, finally) which does its part at getting notifications to you quickly and easily. Now I've combined that with notifications on my wrist. Neither Pebble nor the Moto X Active Display can act on these notifications, though, so it's a one-way street for now. But, still, it's pretty clear that notifications are where it's at these days. I'm really curious to see Google's take on all that, assuming the rumors of it making a smartwatch are true.
Other things I think I think:
- Speaking of our Moto X review — I've not been in too big a hurry to write it. That's partly because we've still got a few weeks before you'll be able to order one, so there's no huge rush. It's also because I've simply enjoyed using it that much. (Mostly.) I'm in love with the design and ease of use.
- Oy, but that camera.
- For a good preview of what I'll probably end up writing on Moto X, be sure to check out last week's podcast.
- Glad to see the Nexus 7 2013 factory images see the light of day. Sad to see blogs act so silly over the whole thing with such little information.
- Speaking of "kickstarting" tech ... Ubuntu Edge is a little more than a quarter of the way to its $32 million goal, with 11 days left. Color me surprised that it's not gonna make it.
- But how awesome does Canary look? Thing is, it's not shipping for another 9 months. I'm a consumer, not a financier. Call me when I can buy one.
- We're nearing a pretty big milestone for the Android Central app. And we're hard at work on v1.4. Should be good stuff ahead. I've cleaned up the welcome message on the beta page, which should help ease the pain of signing up.
- Say what you want about Facebook — and I can say plenty — but they really did a nice job with their beta program instructions, from which I cribbed.
- Whenever a manufacturer says "it's not about the specs," you can pretty much bet they're about to drop a bunch of specs on you.
- And I'm pretty much ignoring anything a manufacturer says about its cameras until I actually start taking some pictures myself. Been burned too many times now.
- Talk Mobile 2013 resumes this week with more great discussion from your favorite Mobile Nations editors, some really smart people in this industry and, most important, you!
Last week's top stories
Here's a look at what you read last week, based on page views:
- Getting the most out of Google Now voice actions
- LG G2 hands-on
- Inside the Moto X Active Display
- Stock Talk: The economics of the Moto X
- Hands-on with the Android Device Manager remote wipe feature
Worth watching ...
Acclaimed director Werner Herzog directed a documentary for the "It Can Wait" campaign. You're too cool to watch it, I know. But, to me, this is still far more important than unlocked bootloaders or the number of cores in your phone or even the almighty #holoyolo.
Take a half-hour and watch this. It's incredibly moving.
And put the damn phone down when you're in the car.
