The Apple Tech Show Opens Sept. 9
I gave up my beloved iPhone for a Galaxy s5 Gold because of what I do for a living. Now that I am using Waze (Israeli designed crowd sourced GPS app) my battery, even while charging was totally depleted in under one hour. My Droid phone allows me to swap a dead battery for a fully charged battery, and I did find a great Droid app called Battery Guru. It does a baseline of how you use your phone for 48 hours. Then turns on and off certain apps that will increase the battery life of your phone.
Then there are other issues with smartphones. My car has a texting Bluetooth app that wasn’t really compatible with my iPhone. Don’t be fooled. Don’t go for Tech that is thrills and frills. Look for sensible, easy-to-use technology. And with new Tech changes constantly taking place on this phones, I am going to be bold and say that I think Apple and Droid are going to swap users from year to year as they try to meet Smartphone user’s demands.
My experience with Smartphones comes from using them extensively, and I speak to two smartphone reviewers regularly. They are Smartphone experts, and spend their days getting new phones and trying them out, but it’s not as exciting or as easy as it sounds, and there is a lot to learn, and on September 9th Apple will have its iPhone event.
Some of the new Tech they are pushing: Interface designer Todd Hamilton released an iWatch mock-up in January 2014, showing the world what an Apple watch-wristband combo might look like, but there is no way to know if the long-rumored “iWatch,” a wrist-based smartwatch built off Apple’s iOS mobile operating system is ready just yet. The iWatch aims to take on challengers from Google, LG, Motorola and Samsung. If it isn’t the iWatch, just what will Apple be introducing in the wearable market?
Will it be a smartwatch or a fit band? Whatever it is, Apple, which hasn’t introduced a product in a new category since the iPad tablet in 2010, needs to get out there and win back all these Droid converts, this writer included.
Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak said this week that wearables may be “a hard sell,” though he thinks if anyone can convince consumers to covet a wearable, it’s Apple. “Apple works very hard to produce exceptionally great products and doesn’t quickly release things like a wearable,” Woz told CNET News. “So if one is introduced, I expect it to have a chance to set the direction and make the product category finally viable.”
In order to create wearable computing, Healthkit, Apple’s platform for tracking users’ health data, would likely come into play, along with Apple’s new HomeKit platform for connected home devices like thermostats and smart locks.
A Siri-connected headset or ear buds might be helpful, too. Instead of hitting the button to talk to Siri, these headsets will have a kind of ‘Siri’ buddy who will provide constant content. This seems to be a play on Google Glass without the glass. This would be a leap for simple Smartphone users. I would have laughed if you told me five years ago that I would not need my clunky Garmin GPS and that the Israelis would develop a play on CB radios and we would rely on map info that comes from average drivers.
Now I rely on my Smartphone for GPS. Waze has changed some of the way the engineers at my consulting company do business. Clients are aware of where we are on the road. Engineers who need to be picked up can send their location to drivers and come up with other useful ways to use Waze. For Garbs like me, who can get lost crossing the street, Waze is a blessing.
Will fitness buffs rely on their iWatches? Will people want to wear their computers everywhere? I hear there is even some i-Phone compatible jewelry in the works. Computerized high-end jewelry? What will they think of next?
If you have any questions or comment Shneur Garb can be reached by [email protected] Shneur is the CEO at The Garb IT Consulting Group in Teaneck, N.J.
By Shneur Garb
