Dick Tracy was a popular comic book character way back in the 1940s. One thing which made the detective apart from the other comic book characters of his time was his sound knowledge in technology. The two-way communicative watch phone was one of the gadgets which were a recurring feature in all of his comics. Probably the Dick Tracy comic book was the precursor to what we know as the smart watch today.
Smart Watches: Treading through Time
We belong at the juncture where the thin line between science fiction and science is getting blurred. We are expecting the smart watches or the watch phone to become a reality within a few days. There has been instances of the prototype of these watch phones way back in the 1970s by Japanese watch brands like the Seiko. These prototypes could compute but at a very superficial level.
These watches have made its dominance mainly in the spy movies as an imperative tool for espionage. But these concepts with evolving technology became buried under the sands of time. There were flickers about this technology at the beginning of this millennium when IBM came up with a Linux-based prototype for this kind of watches collaborating with the Citizen Watch Company. But the idea was taken-off from the drawing tables until today.
Today in 2013 we see a completely different picture. noise colorfit brio smartwatch The mobile phone giants are bent on giving the concept of watch phone a big makeover this year. Be it Apple, Google, Samsung or Sony, they are coming up with their own brand of smart watches which can take a market share from the already established tablets. This article will focus on the variety of avatars of smart watches from different technology giants such as Apple, Samsung and Sony
Smart Watches: What to expect from them
Samsung Galaxy Gear
Priced at a hefty $299, the Samsung Galaxy Gear has a number of features which would definitely attract both Android user and non users alike. Packed with a 1.6 inches image viewer which can produce resolutions 320 x 320 pixels, this smart watch has several things to offer to the users. The watch displays vivid colors and high contrast. With built-in microphone and speakers, the users would be able to talk directly with the help of the watch. Armed with a 1.9 Megapixel camera and 720p HD video recorder would be necessary for the photography enthusiast.
With inbuilt 4GB memory storage space, this watch can easily run small local apps which are necessary for the moment. With inbuilt Intelligent Personal Assistance such as S Voice, the user can easily give voice commands on the go. This contraption would definitely give mobile application developers the opportunity to build more apps specifically catering to the watch.
But one of the biggest drawbacks of the smart watch is that it’s pairing can only be done with Galaxy Note 3, which is a new entrant to the Samsung Galaxy Family.
Sony Smart Watch 2
As a smart watch, the Sony’s Smart Watch 2 is far less expensive than the Samsung’s counterpart. With the 1.63 inch viewer, the Sony smart watch comes with a resolution of 220X176 pixels. The LCD screen of the watch prevents user’s view to be washed out in the daylight.
With the first iteration of the Sony Smart Watch been a failure, but this time Sony has packed the phone with several goodies. Touch screen UI, sliding widgets for viewing weather, Facebook, Twitter as well as Phone alerts are all rolled into one. This watch is compatible with other Android handsets. But one of the biggest drawbacks of Sony Smart watch is that it does not have the microphone and speaker compatibility. In this case users have to take out the phone to use it.