I came across this article written by Allison Johnson of The Verge a few months ago which extolled the virtues of having an Apple Watch which freed the author from being tethered to her iPhone. I’ve been on the smart watch bandwagon for years now so I heartily agreed with the author on how handy an Apple Watch is. Here is a bit of what she said:
Then I had a kid. Suddenly, I always seemed to be holding a baby, or several large bags with the baby’s things, or both at once. Having enough free hands to check a text on my phone became a luxury. Things got even more complicated when he started moving around on his own. I kept my phone in my back pocket as I chased him from room to room, but I had to take it out every time I sat down with him as he explored some new choking hazard. Then I’d have to remember to pick it up when we inevitably ran to a different room several moments later and do the whole thing over again, for the rest of eternity. It was getting tiresome. So I decided to try an Apple Watch Series 7.—Allison Johnson, The Verge
But I’d even go way farther and say that the smartphone is an inherently a flawed design and destined for history’s dustbin.
In today’s world everyone carries a phone so no one thinks anything of it. But history is full of things that everyone did that no one thought was weird until time passed. Examples such as:
One day people are going to look at our movies and TV shows and snicker at how everyone carried a candy bar sized device everywhere we went. It’s like voluntarily handicapping ourselves by losing one hand. Phones are easily dropped and broken. Easily lost or left behind. They could be a pain to put in our pockets. And you can become unaware of your surroundings.
But in today’s world. We don’t have much choice. Battery technology hasn’t advanced to the point where our Apple Watch battery can be the main cellular receptor upon which all of our screens can attach. Nor has screen technology advanced to where we can disguise our information into a pair of eyeglasses. In the future, our information will be integrated into our visual environment. Like billboards on the side of the highway.
My dream scenario is that one day our Apple Watches will be our primary computing devices and internet connection. For those times that you need more screen real estate you would just pair an iPad or Eyeglasses to it. But all other screens will be Wi-Fi devices so I only need to pay for one cellular connection.
The only thing we would need to carry around would be a keyboard. And since keyboards would be free from the need to display data they would evolve to be much smaller than today’s phones making them easier to fit in a pocket. And yet, there would be much more room for the keys and the typing experience would be better since it would be a singular purpose device. Plus, if you dropped one and broke it, it would be much cheaper and easier to replace.
Maybe physical keys would even make a comeback?
In today’s world everyone carries a phone so no one thinks anything of it. But history is full of things that everyone did that no one thought was weird until time passed. Examples such as:
- Starting your car with a hand crank
- Buying blocks of ice to keep your food cold
- Rotating a circular dial for each individual digit of someone’s phone number
- Sticking a large disc under a needle to play a song…er…scratch that one. Pun intended
One day people are going to look at our movies and TV shows and snicker at how everyone carried a candy bar sized device everywhere we went. It’s like voluntarily handicapping ourselves by losing one hand. Phones are easily dropped and broken. Easily lost or left behind. They could be a pain to put in our pockets. And you can become unaware of your surroundings.
But in today’s world. We don’t have much choice. Battery technology hasn’t advanced to the point where our Apple Watch battery can be the main cellular receptor upon which all of our screens can attach. Nor has screen technology advanced to where we can disguise our information into a pair of eyeglasses. In the future, our information will be integrated into our visual environment. Like billboards on the side of the highway.
My dream scenario is that one day our Apple Watches will be our primary computing devices and internet connection. For those times that you need more screen real estate you would just pair an iPad or Eyeglasses to it. But all other screens will be Wi-Fi devices so I only need to pay for one cellular connection.
The only thing we would need to carry around would be a keyboard. And since keyboards would be free from the need to display data they would evolve to be much smaller than today’s phones making them easier to fit in a pocket. And yet, there would be much more room for the keys and the typing experience would be better since it would be a singular purpose device. Plus, if you dropped one and broke it, it would be much cheaper and easier to replace.
Maybe physical keys would even make a comeback?
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