Smart watches aren’t anything new, they’ve been around as early as 1999, with devices such as the Fossil Wrist PDA smart watch that ran on Palm OS. The smartwatch has seen a bit of a resurgence thanks to the Kickstarter crowd-funded Pebble smartwatch which launched in 2013. This was soon followed by tech heavyweights such as Samsung, Sony and LG all joining the market.

The increasing number of choices, and with apps for every piece of information you could think of, there are still some additional features needed to ultimately convince me to change my trusted old Braun watch into a digital watch.

Learn my routine?

A device that knows your routine means that you don’t need to worry about planning ahead on the day to day stuff.

Buses are often my first choice of transport to get me around London, I often find myself with my phone out to look up live bus information. “Google Now” does do a good job at showing this information, but it’s sometimes confused about when and where I need it. Software that learns which bus I take, the time I take it and displays any delays, road works or cancellations would make my morning a lot better.

Pick up on my actions?

Screen real estate on a watch is limited and physical buttons are very small, so making a watch that picks up on different actions would make life simpler.

If I decide to go for a run, I should just put on my trainers and head out. The various gyroscopes, accelerometers, and GPS signals, should be enough to tell the app that I am off, then just keep track and feedback the relevant stats.

Sync with everything?

The appeal of having an internet connected device on my wrist means that I can quickly glance at the information that I need, but alone this isn’t enough.

For example being able to either view my calendar, know my location, or check when the next bus is due independently is all useful, but if you combine these and alert me to set off early to an appointment because of bad traffic on the route, that would swing it.

Less waste

Smart watches are getting better at displaying things, but I’d like to see those features that suggest when time is against me and prompt me to turn that around. Time isn’t gold but what we do with time is precious, no one wants to waste it needlessly. And with rumours of Apple joining the market as well as the newly launched Google wear, things seem to be heading into the right direction.

Original post here on digital annexe