Flutterby™! : Smart Watches in 1981

Next unread comment / Catchup all unread comments User Account Info | Logout | XML/Pilot/etc versions | Long version (with comments) | Weblog archives | Site Map | | Browse Topics

Smart Watches in 1981

2014-04-15 19:52:41.910498+02 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

Time: This 1981 Computer Magazine Cover Explains Why We’re So Bad at Tech Predictions, has a Robert Tinney cover from Byte Magazine of a smart watch in which a guy is inserting a micro-floppy.

So for all of the whining about bad predictions, that miniature floppy is just about exactly the same size as a modern microSD card.

[ related topics: Movies ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2014-04-16 01:18:27.103995+02 by: Mars Saxman

I'm still not sure what people think a smartwatch would *do* which would make it worth carrying around.

I haven't worn a watch since I got my first cell phone.

#Comment Re: made: 2014-04-16 05:26:58.959338+02 by: Shawn

I (as usual) seem to be in the minority, but I'd want it to basically be an alert mechanism - through vibrations, lights, short text notifications, etc. - for my phone. I could also imagine it being useful for collecting data (like GPS, exercise, heart rate, etc.) and syncing that with the phone when it's back in range.

#Comment Re: made: 2014-04-17 17:45:50.141506+02 by: Dan Lyke

The main issue I have right now with the phone (or tablet) is that it lacks a good input mechanism. A watch suffers from this even more.

I don't have a whole lot of things in my life that want alerting, and I'm not even managing to do a good job drawing information from the data I'm already logging, so... there's some infrastructure thing that's still lacking here. We're in the Newton days (of Google Glass, and watches, and...), a long way off from the iPhone.

Comment policy

We will not edit your comments. However, we may delete your comments, or cause them to be hidden behind another link, if we feel they detract from the conversation. Commercial plugs are fine, if they are relevant to the conversation, and if you don't try to pretend to be a consumer. Annoying endorsements will be deleted if you're lucky, if you're not a whole bunch of people smarter and more articulate than you will ridicule you, and we will leave such ridicule in place.


Flutterby™ is a trademark claimed by

Dan Lyke
for the web publications at www.flutterby.com and www.flutterby.net.