Wearable Tech

I love Wearable Tech™.

My love for wearable tech started off in May 2012 with the launch of Nike+ Fuel Band. It was an amazing product. I absolutely loved everything about it. The design, the display, the battery, the style and of course, the UX.

The next year, Fitbit came up with a competing product – Fitbit Flex. So, obviously, I bought that too. I really liked it.

A year later, the company that I used to work at, gave all of its employees a brand new Fitbit Charge (the one without the heart-rate sensor), as a holiday gift. I used it for a few months and gave it away to a friend and bought myself the Fitbit Charge HR (the one with the heart-rate sensor). It felt amazing to be able to check my heart-rate without having to wear a chest band.

The next year, I bought Moov. I used it for a very brief period and lost interest in the product due to its minimal feature set. I switched back to using my Fitbit Charge HR.

Soon, Apple entered the game with the launch of the original Apple Watch. I didn’t really like it due to lack of any new features and the unreasonable price.

A couple of years later, in 2016, Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 2. It was water proof and had a built-in GPS. So, I pre-ordered it. The hardware design was fantastic. I loved it and wore it every single day. I used it for two full years.

Apple recently released the Apple Watch Series 4. I really liked the ECG feature and so, I got the new watch. So far, I like it.

A few months ago, a buddy of mine asked me what I use my smart watch for. It was surprising because I couldn’t think of anything other than “checking time”. After giving it a decent amount of thought, I came up with a list of things I typically use my Apple Watch for:

  1. Check time (duh?)
  2. Track my fitness
  3. Keep track of meetings (calendar events)
  4. Create and check reminders
  5. Check notifications
  6. Check Weather and weather conditions
  7. Keep track of UVI & Air Quality (you need to keep track of these especially when you live in the Bay Area)
  8. Check sports scores
  9. Control music
  10. Make payments at stores that support Apple Pay (especially at Gas Stations)
  11. Ignore/Decline calls. I use my phone to answer calls.
  12. Meditate with Breathe

I have seen some video reviews of the Samsung Gear S3 and it seems like a solid watch. There’s no way I am going to switch to it now, but, it’s good that Samsung is working hard to keep Apple on their toes. I would really like to see Google enter the competition with their own hardware.


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