Bringing Back the Wristwatch, And Social Faux Pas
Some people (those being really into gadgets and tech) will remember the Palm Foleo, which was a total disaster of a product which nonetheless is credited with helping start the netbook craze along with the OLPC XO. It was a mini laptop that worked off of your palm device instead of being a computer of its own. It cost as much as a computer of your own, and so was a really dumb product, but it did help lead to all the $250 10' netbooks roaming the wilds of international airports and Starbucks these days.
Blackberry has decided to go the other direction, and I kind of like it in an amusing, progress of technology kind of way, but I will never get one and it will fail as a product. It brings back the wristwatch (largely killed off in my generation by the ubiquity of the cellphone in your pocket - though honestly the golden era of that was when flip phones first had external screens that were small, greyscale, and always on. Its kind of a pain to check the time on the Pre honestly, and it was on the Alias too). But it brings back the wristwatch as a companion to your Blackberry, so you can always see who texted you, called you, emailed you, IMed you, wrote on your wall, tweeted you, poked you, commented on your comment, comented on your blog, linked you in, or let you know that your son had drawn a giant penis on the roof of your mansion country estate so that it would be seen in Google Earth.
True story by the way.
The benefit of this little device is twofold.
1) You never need to go through the tiring, incredibly taxing and unbelievably time consuming task of taking your phone out of your pocket, looking at it, and putting it back in your pocket. The years of my life that could have been saved...
2) You can avoid what is either one of the biggest Faux Pas in the modern world, a totally commonplace part of life today, or your shining moment of glory where you show off how you shill out 3-5% of your income for the new sexy hotness (make about $50,000-$75,000/yr? Pay a third in taxes? Got an iPhone? There you go): busting out your phone wherever you are, whatever you are doing, all the time. In a meeting? Check the blackberry. In bed with your g/f? Check the blackberry. In a restaurant? Check the blackberry. Actually, leave the blackberry or iPhone or whatever on the table so that a) you can always see emails coming in, b) everyone knows you are important enough that your response is required to prevent capitalism from coming to a screetching halt, and c) you dont need to expend all that energy getting it in and out of your pocket. And finally, my favorite: out at a bar and feeling kind of awkward and trying to build up the courage to actually talk to a girl? Check the blackberry - someone has just sent you the funniest/most interesting email of all time. Thats why you are looking at your phone in a bar. Every 2 minutes. Really. I promise.
Solve all of these issues in one fell swoop with a watch that tells you whats happening on the phone inside your pocket.
Fail.
Blackberry has decided to go the other direction, and I kind of like it in an amusing, progress of technology kind of way, but I will never get one and it will fail as a product. It brings back the wristwatch (largely killed off in my generation by the ubiquity of the cellphone in your pocket - though honestly the golden era of that was when flip phones first had external screens that were small, greyscale, and always on. Its kind of a pain to check the time on the Pre honestly, and it was on the Alias too). But it brings back the wristwatch as a companion to your Blackberry, so you can always see who texted you, called you, emailed you, IMed you, wrote on your wall, tweeted you, poked you, commented on your comment, comented on your blog, linked you in, or let you know that your son had drawn a giant penis on the roof of your mansion country estate so that it would be seen in Google Earth.
True story by the way.
The benefit of this little device is twofold.
1) You never need to go through the tiring, incredibly taxing and unbelievably time consuming task of taking your phone out of your pocket, looking at it, and putting it back in your pocket. The years of my life that could have been saved...
2) You can avoid what is either one of the biggest Faux Pas in the modern world, a totally commonplace part of life today, or your shining moment of glory where you show off how you shill out 3-5% of your income for the new sexy hotness (make about $50,000-$75,000/yr? Pay a third in taxes? Got an iPhone? There you go): busting out your phone wherever you are, whatever you are doing, all the time. In a meeting? Check the blackberry. In bed with your g/f? Check the blackberry. In a restaurant? Check the blackberry. Actually, leave the blackberry or iPhone or whatever on the table so that a) you can always see emails coming in, b) everyone knows you are important enough that your response is required to prevent capitalism from coming to a screetching halt, and c) you dont need to expend all that energy getting it in and out of your pocket. And finally, my favorite: out at a bar and feeling kind of awkward and trying to build up the courage to actually talk to a girl? Check the blackberry - someone has just sent you the funniest/most interesting email of all time. Thats why you are looking at your phone in a bar. Every 2 minutes. Really. I promise.
Solve all of these issues in one fell swoop with a watch that tells you whats happening on the phone inside your pocket.
Fail.
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