Why the Smartwatch Will Change the World (for the better)

It might seem like a big claim to say that the smartwatch will change the world, but at this point nobody can deny that major technologies have completely altered the way we do things. The refrigerator is a perfect example. Think of how our lives and the entire food industry was turned on its head by the refrigerator. Society was forever altered by the ability to keep food longer.

And if you want an example more close to your life look at the smartphone. What aspect of life has not been touched by this invention that is only 7 years old? If you think there is one just do a search an the App Store and I bet you will find out you are wrong :)

So yes, I posit that the smartwatch, and what it represents is about to change the world. Let me show you what I mean.

Notifications 
Imagine going from this:

Image from Death of Conversation by @babycakesromero

To this:

Image from redbookmag.com

Did you see it? Its quick. But it is crucial. When we check our wrist for a notification, rather than our phone it makes it so much easier to ignore that notification and it only takes a fraction of the time. The watch is much small screen so it places a much smaller barrier between you and the people you are physically present with, not mention the fact that it normally does not physically come between you and those people as well because you simply glance down at your wrist.

Why is this a big deal? I mean it seems like such a simple thing. In fact most people ask me what else my smartwatch can do besides receive notifications. They say that that would never be a draw for them. Honestly I felt the same way, but now even if the only thing my pebble did was receive notifications I would still get it just for that.

But here's the thing, we all have this false idea that an emergency could develop at any time, so we need to be connected to the world constantly. A smartwatch satisfies that "need" with out as much distraction as pulling out a smartphone every time.

Fitness Tracking
Thomas Monson has said that, "when performance is measured, performance improves." Most wearables have the ability to track you health metrics like steps and sleep, whether you bought them for that or not. And when you have something tracking how much you walk each day, let me tell you that you walk more. Different devices will have different health capabilities, but the general trend will be toward a population that is not just more health aware, but also actually more healthy.

Image from getpebble.com

Cracked Screens
How many cracked screens do you see a day? Probably at least a few, and why? In part because so many people walk around with their phone in their hand. Some people even run or jog while holding it in their hand! That is like saying you want a cracked screen. The Smartwatch will change all that.

Image from Mashable

Because I have a Pebble, when I am walking I don't need to pull my phone out to check a notification or the time, it is right there on my wrist and it isn't going to fall on the ground and shatter. I don't need to hold my phone in my hand while I am exercising because all of my music controls are conveniently located on my wrist as well.

Therefore I predict that when wearable technology comes into wide use we will see the number of cracked phone screens drastically reduced.

But some people hate watches
A lot of people say that smartwatches will never take off because there are not enough people who like to wear watches. That might have been a great argument until Apple entered the game. Next year the entire wearable industry is about to take a giant leap forward because the Apple machine is going to be thrown behind the Apple watch.

Apple has the power to design something so well that it becomes an integrated part of our life. Before the advent of the iPhone, smartphones/PDAs were the domain of business execs and nerds taping away on Blackberrys and Palm Pilots (I know because I was one of the nerds). Then 2007 rolled around and everything changed. The same thing happened with tablet in 2010, they had existed before, but very few people used them. Previously the same thing had happened to the MP3 player and in the distant past, the personal computer.

Image from apple.com

Each time Apple has defined a product category, it has exploded, and not just for Apple. The entire industry rises because of the popularity Apple brings to something. I expect to see sales of all wearables dramatically increase next year because of the attention Apple will bring to that market.

So I expect to see lots of people who said they don't like watches to start wearing them in the next 5 years, and I think they will be better for it. And watches are just one category of wearables. Most of the other categories, like glasses, goggles, pendants, etc still have a long way to come for mainstream use, but it is wave of the future and they will improve as time goes on.

Disappearing Technology 
Jack Dorsey (cofounder of Twitter and Square) has said that the best technologies "fade into the background, and they're relevant when you want to use them, and they get out of the way when you don't."

This is what I believe will ultimately let the smartwatch change the world. It is so good at disappearing, making you forget it is there until you need it. There is more that I have to say on this point but it will have to wait for another post.

These were just a few of the ways that smartwatches could change the world. If you can think of others please let me know in the comments below. I hope you have found this post enlightening and I would invite you to share it with others who might want to know more about smartwatches. Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.

How to Setup an iPhone or iPad (iOS 8)

So you have a fancy new iPhone or iPad with iOS 8 and you are all ready to set it up? Good that is what I am here to help you with.

Setting up any iOS device has become a fairly simple process, if you are able to follow Apple's steps completely when you first turn on your device. However if your wifi is not working, or you forget your Apple ID, or you don't have an Apple ID, the process can be a little trickier. And if you don't restore from an existing backup that can also make it a little more work, unless of course it is your first time using an iPhone or iPad.

First off the easiest way is to follow Apple's instructions when you first start up your iOS device, they will walk you through several grey screens. These screens will help you connect to your wifi network, set your iPad up with your Apple account, or get one if you don't have one, set up iCloud, and restore from an old back up if you have one, ask if you want to use Siri, etc.

It is important that you are able to connect to a wifi network at the beginning of set up otherwise most of the steps cannot happen as they require internet. If you do not have internet connection or are not sure what you want to do at a particular step in the process don't worry you can always go back and change things or get them set up in the settings later, that's what this post is for :)

Now at this point in the process I strongly suggest setting up an iCloud account if you don't already have one. This is especially useful if you use other apple products (i.e. iPhone, MacBook, iMac, or iPod touch) because it allows a lot of communication between them.

Not everything that needs to be setup on your iOS device is set up during the initial phases. To get those taken care of you will need to go to the settings app. Also if you had skip any steps at the beginning this is where you will go to change them.

It does not actually move
but this GIF was too cool to pass up

Take a good look at that icon, its your new best friend. The setting menu's will allow you to change almost anything on your iPhone that can be changed.

Now we will go through settings, if you missed a step during the initial start up you can take care of it here.

Apple Watch, First Thoughts

As promised, I will now give my initial thoughts on the Apple Watch that Apple announced a few days ago. First let me just say that if you haven't gone and watched the video of the Watch it is worth it just so you can see the bands snap closed. Apple has such a great way of presenting a product, if they made a garbage can it would have a cooler video than most luxury cars.

It is beautiful
A lot of people have said and are going to say, "its just strapping a screen onto your wrist." And that is true, in many ways it is, but only Apple could take that concept from nerdy to fashionable. All smartwatches, beyond basic fitness trackers, are going to be a screen on you wrist, but nobody has made one that looks so nice as Apple's does.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Pebble Steel and I am totally convinced that it is the best looking smartwatch on the market right now, but let's face it, it isn't 14 karat gold. That being said I will not be throwing my Pebble out any time soon.

The bands
It is a testament to Apple's design prowess that the bands on the Watch are one of the things I am most impressed with. I was telling some friends the other day; leave it to Apple to take an experience as bad as changing your watch band and make it fun.

The bands will be easily switched by pressing a release on the bottom of the Watch, no need to go to jeweler to remove pins. This will mean people can easily have multiple bands to switch out, but it also has a more practical purpose for some people, namely left-handers. The switchable bands me that left-handers, most of whom wear their watches on the right hand, can easily swap out the two sides of the band to orient the watch correctly on their wrist with the crown the correct spot for left-handed operation.

How to use, and not use, your iPhone or iPad at Church

So, with the recent devotionals from Elder Ballard and Elder Bednar on Technology and my own thoughts on the use of screens, the natural extension is to think about how those screens are being used or should be used at Church. Now these are just my own thoughts on the matter, they aren't doctrine, and they are aimed primarily at members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons) since that is the church I am a member of.

I will break this up into two sections: how to use, and how not to use. The second section is the one likely to offend the most people, but the first one will offend some of the more paper centric crowed. I would ask whatever camp you fall into that you not actually get offend but that you take these ideas and see if they can help you live better.

Screen Test: Enhance or Detract

For a while now I have been concerned about screens. I have two main concerns:

1. the amount of time I spend in front of a screen
2. life being filtered through a screen

Now I am clearly not anti technology by any means, I write a technology blog, I work in the social media industry, I am getting my masters degree in instructional technology, and I will be teaching a class this fall on using technology in the classroom. In fact I am starkly opposed to those who talk about technology as thought in cannot produce anything more than superficial stimulus with no meaningful experiences.

But I am concerned because the area is still new and we don't know much about its effects.

I admit that I don't want to live in a Wall-e like world where all interactions take place through a screen. 

I think in the early 2000's we teetered near this fate as more work became computer centric and tied people to desktops and laptops. I believe we were pulled back from this by the mobile revolution that began to take place after the iPhone and then the iPad were released. People are coming to realize that while most jobs now have a computer or internet component to them (for many communication), many do not require you to constantly be in front of a traditional computer because they can be done from anywhere on a mobile device.

I consider this a good thing, because I believe that the less obtrusive technology can be while still bringing enhancements to our lives, the better.

What concerns me now is that this new ecosystem of mobile computing has brought with it its own challenges. The accessibility of the screens when we are out of the house has made us subject to constant drive for more.

More what?

Hardware Review: Pebble Steel Smartwatch

About a month ago I took my first steps into wearable tech and asked for a Pebble Steel Smartwatch for my birthday. For those of you who don't know about the Pebble it is a Smartwatch that communicates with your smartphone via bluetooth to perform various functions while your phone remains in your pocket or across the room. It was the most successful kickstarter project ever raising in excess of 10 million dollars. The steel is the second version of the Pebble.

Image found on SmartWatching.com

What does it do?
The main purpose of the pebble is to have certain functions of you iPhone available on your wrist without having to remove your phone from your pocket, or go across the room to check it. It comes out of the box ready to receive notifications, control your music, and set alarms. Oh and it also tells time! There are also a bunch of different apps you can install to increase the functionality.

To many people having notifications on their wrist doesn't sound like it would be that useful, many friends have told me they don't have a hard time pulling out their phone. That was my original feeling when the pebble launched but then I heard many people say it was actually way more convenient to have it on their wrist than they thought it would be.

How To Stop Game Invitations on Facebook (like Candy Crush)

Are you ever excited when you get on Facebook and see that there are a whole bunch of notifications and you think people must have really liked you last photo, only to find that they are all invites to play Candy Crush? It is super annoying. I am here to help you fix this problem.

Image credit to Ricky Foster

I did not have time to cove this on my post on making Facebook better, but I know that it is a frustration for many (including me).

Of course there are other annoying games besides Candy Crush, Farmville in particular comes to mind when I think of games we love to hate. But Candy Crush seems to be the worst right now.

Now hopefully you followed the advice of my last post and cleared out your stupid friends, that should have helped this problem some, but not all. For some reason, unknown to human psychologists, even seemingly sane individuals will send out these game invites, and you may really want to see their other updates, so you have to stay friends with them.

A Word to the Inviters

First of all, if you are that person sending out those invites I have 2 words for you:

STOP IT!

Why in the world are you sending those out? So you can get some little game perk if 500 of your friends sign up? It is not worth it to lose all your friends, so stop it.

2 Ways to Stop Them

For the rest of you, here are two ways to block them:

1. Option one is when the notification arrives there will be a tiny little "x" in the top right hand corner when you scroll over the notification. Click this and you will have the option of stopping notification from that game.
2. If you missed the little "x" but you know there is a game you do not want to see notifications from ever you can take action to block the game preemptively: 
1. Go to settings (top right hand corner drop down menu)
2. Once in settings go to Blocking on the left hand side.
   

                3. You will see a several option here. The one you want is called "Block Apps." All you have to do is start typing the name of the app you want to block, as you can see me doing with Candy Crush below, just click on the name when it appears and you will block that app. 

Hurray! No more annoying notifications, at least until they come up with a new game.

If you do have a friend who is constantly inviting you to many different games or apps you can block notifications from just that person on this page as well.

Well there you have, I hope this eliminates some anger and frustration for you and helps you to live better! 

What are the most annoying games you get invitations for? Tell us below so we can block them :)