Okay Geek Farm
Apple and Google secretly working on wearable gear, kinda like iPod nano watches
Ricardo Trejo
Turning the iPod Nano into a wearable watch may have been the first step into this new direction in Apple devices becoming the apparel of the future. Google is also hot on their heels, looking for ways to integrate wearable tech. This isn’t a far off notion as you might think considering for those who are tied to their smartphones and just can’t live without them — having them on your person at all times will make lugging around separate devices save time and also add a new definition to brand recognition.
According to the New York Times, both Apple and Google have formed groups to conceptualize “wearable computers”:
Over the last year, Apple and Google have secretly begun working on projects that will become wearable computers. Their main goal: to sell more smartphones. (In Google’s case, more smartphones sold means more advertising viewed.)
In Google’s secret Google X labs, researchers are working on peripherals that — when attached to your clothing or body — would communicate information back to an Android smartphone.
People familiar with the work in the lab say Google has hired electronic engineers from Nokia Labs, Apple and engineering universities who specialize in tiny wearable computers.
Apple has also experimented with prototype products that could relay information back to the iPhone. These conceptual products could also display information on other Apple devices, like an iPod, which Apple is already encouraging us to wear on our wrists by selling Nanos with watch faces.
After completing the Steve Jobs biography and understanding Steve Jobs’ desire to be different from the crowd, a rebel against the constant and consistently unquestioned, I would feel that this would be a part of his hypocritical mantra. For example, he was a minimalist and hated owning a lot of things despite he being a glorified salesman, designing and pushing products nobody knew they needed or wanted.
Watch the original 1984 Mac ad and notice its message against conformity, and you’ll notice a similarity in the way in which people wear white Apple earbuds. Now imagine walking around the streets of New York or San Francisco and visualize all of Apple’s branding resting on all the poor souls. Now I’m not saying that Apple’s future, and in turn our future, will be so bleak, but it does give us something to think about.
And on that note, I really wish I had an iPod Nano watch…
