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Android coming to wearables

googleblog.blogspot.com

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Re: Android coming to wearables

#81

Post by babesh »

Why not approach this from the computing as a bicycle for your mind point of view?

Smartphones were the latest computing evolution bringing general purpose computing with you all the time and with an incredibly ease to use interface. Now people are trying to introduce this new computing device (the smart watch). What does it bring?

It doesn't take up a hand since you don't have to hold it. You don't have to get it out of your pocket or turn it or pick it up to use it. To get it to do stuff you speak to it (possibly even easier to use than touch computing). It can be attached to your skin and read all sorts of data through your skin.

What it doesn't bring you is a sizable enough screen to view photos or text (yet). Also it doesn't take advantage of one of our most precise tools (our hands).

From this we may be able to predict what niches smart watches will evolve into to fill. Heavily voice based, quick call and respond style communications, updates and reminders, location based notifications, no-hand enhancers such as leveling, altimeters, etc... And since the watch is oriented towards your own face... it is heavily personal and can't be easily shared like a phone.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#82

Post by nileshtrivedi »

dictum wrote: post #57
kshatrea wrote: post #3

I am in the position of being torn apart by two very strong feelings. One is the world where information flow due to companies like Google does a real service to humanity: for e.g. wearing devices that can keep us reminded of our meds or monitor sugar levels, to talk just about the possibilities in healthcare. Then I think of Edward Snowden and I now know that what Google knows, maybe America/Russia/China/WhatHaveYou…

> in my nation (India) being gay is illegal Sorry for the flame material, but why is it that this is rarely mentioned in western news media (at least in the countries whose news I follow)? For those who, like me, didn't know that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_India

Actually, what's really illegal is "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" which covers oral and anal sex - both heterosexual and homosexual.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#83

Post by maxerickson »

lutusp wrote: post #77
maxerickson wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do 'intimate' digital devices have to do with humanoid robots?

I's saying this trend toward a closer and closer association between computers and people -- beginning with a huge, noisy room with lab-coat-wearing attendants who accepted your stack of 80-column cards through a little window, sort of like a bank (my first exposure to computers years ago) -- and now moving toward blurring the line between the computer and its "wearer", and given a number of neurological experiments…

That would traditionally be called a cyborg, not a literal android (a sci fi reader would expect the android to be fully synthetic).

Re: Android coming to wearables

#84

Post by quest88 »

nfoz wrote: post #24
angersock wrote: post #15

It'll be a cold day in hell before I let Google have an always-on device attached to my person, wearable or otherwise. These folks have proven--proven!--that they are unable to protect their infrastructure from state actors, that they do not care about individual customers, and that they will hijack our services on a whim to try and raise money. Fuck that noise. Any wearables need to be completely open-source, and wi…

I feel your pain. Out of curiosity, do you carry a mobile phone?

Or drive a car?

Re: Android coming to wearables

#85

Post by jhvh1134 »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #65
wutbrodo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It leads to me regularly switching between iOS and Android Is this only because of the app permissions model? AFAIK, other than that, Android per se isn't any less privacy-oriented than iOS. iOS apps also much more commonly retrieve various user data and marginally more often send data around unencrypted.

It's because I find Android works best when using Google's services and as I'm not paying for those (and they are using my info to sell ads) I trust Apple more to protect my data (it's in their interest).

Weren't they recently caught silently logging GPS coordinates and transmitting them once the phone was connected to a computer? How is it not in there interest to utilize personalized data?

Re: Android coming to wearables

#86

Post by jsz0 »

untog wrote: post #4

I'm far more interested in how we're going to solve issues like battery life with these devices than how they're going to look. So yes, this preview looks great. But for now I still consider my Pebble watch to be a much better option.

As most of the heavy lifting is offloaded to SmartPhones I think all day usage won't be too much of a problem for most wearable devices. Charging devices overnight while we sleep/re-charge seems to work out well enough.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#87

Post by phreeza »

Two points:

- This looks basically like an amped up google now, so maybe this means developer access to Now as well, which would be more exciting to me at the moment.

- Pretty much all of the info they showed in the demo would work on an epaper display, maybe minus the swiping gestures. I sure hope the experience will include pebble style watches with a battery life longer than a few hours, but I am not holding my breath.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#89

Post by teach »

kh_hk wrote: post #72

The last time I used Google Now was too scared to use it ever again. I don't want to report my location, see cool pictures of my surroundings, or know about the events of my city. It's not just only about the surveillance, it's about the future. The connected future, the uninteresting one. The one on which one must "opt-in" or just stay out. Personally, I do not get Google Now cards. When they are relevant, they are…

My issue with Google Now is more about how rough it still is around the edges. I have a Nexus 5.

me: "Okay, Google... text [my wife]" Goog: "Mobile or home fax?"

1) Why would you even ask that? 2) There is NO WAY to tell Google Now to default to a number. I get that question EVERY TIME.

Still needs quite a bit more polish before I'm going to be comfortable using it the way my wife uses Siri on her iPhone 5S.

Re: Android coming to wearables

#90

Post by pizza234 »

kshatrea wrote: post #3

I am in the position of being torn apart by two very strong feelings. One is the world where information flow due to companies like Google does a real service to humanity: for e.g. wearing devices that can keep us reminded of our meds or monitor sugar levels, to talk just about the possibilities in healthcare. Then I think of Edward Snowden and I now know that what Google knows, maybe America/Russia/China/WhatHaveYou…

Watch out, because it's a common (and extremely dangerous) misconception that personal data abuses afflict only people who are perceived (or perceive theirselves) as criminal.

There are two reasons.

First, legal systems with an excessive power in the hands of the prosecution can take an ordinary, civil citizen, and legally rape him (this description was used some time ago on an HN article)

Second, anybody that lives a regular life has secrets to hide; this is just a fact. And that secrets will be abused if it would be instrumental to the authorities.

I've said "extremely dangerous" - why? Because data collection today is considered/perceived/felt as a big nuisance, but not much more.

In reality, it's an oppression instrument, and it's not perceived by the general population just because they're not in prominent positions towards the government.

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