This article made me realize the one application where I'd actually want a smart-watch: Outdoor winter sports.
When I'm out skiing or boarding, I usually have a phone in my pocket for coordinating with other people. It sucks having to stop, take off gloves, dig it out of my pocket, and operate the thing while my digits freeze. The person at the other end has the same problem too, so you can expect a delay of half a minute or more before they answer. Texting with freezing fingers is often more practical than placing a call! In many ways I was happier in the days when, if I got separated from others, I could just shrug, go search for powder and perhaps meet up with them for lunch if we'd arranged a meeting time and place in advance.
A smart-watch or other wearable that would allow me to place and take calls without taking my gloves would be nice, but really, I can't imagine such a thing working very well. It would be better to have voice control and audio integrated into your helmet. There are already bluetooth helmet hookups... Maybe I should look into this and stop writing about the wrong tool for the job!
Gloves that can operate touchscreens have been widely available in my area for years. Hopefully they will be in yours soon too. Most of them are under $10 at grocery/drug stores.
Anecdotally it is only recently that capacitive gloves that you'd want to wear for snowboarding / skiing in the conditions alluded to by the OP have become available.
I've got a pair, but they're too light for a lot of days. It's the days when you need thick gloves/mitts that it most sucks to have to take them off too!
Has the degree of journalism degraded so much that including "sorry ass fad" more than once in the same article that it is passed as a completely acceptable piece?
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[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 38.0 ms ] threadPocket -> Wrist -> Pocket (phone) -> Wrist...
Now if I can just get my 10-year old patent for wrist squares to go through....
When I'm out skiing or boarding, I usually have a phone in my pocket for coordinating with other people. It sucks having to stop, take off gloves, dig it out of my pocket, and operate the thing while my digits freeze. The person at the other end has the same problem too, so you can expect a delay of half a minute or more before they answer. Texting with freezing fingers is often more practical than placing a call! In many ways I was happier in the days when, if I got separated from others, I could just shrug, go search for powder and perhaps meet up with them for lunch if we'd arranged a meeting time and place in advance.
A smart-watch or other wearable that would allow me to place and take calls without taking my gloves would be nice, but really, I can't imagine such a thing working very well. It would be better to have voice control and audio integrated into your helmet. There are already bluetooth helmet hookups... Maybe I should look into this and stop writing about the wrong tool for the job!