I’m a Pebble and Jawbone wearing, data geek and Apple fanboy, who not only embraces and loves technology, but has made it my life’s work to teach people how to embrace change. I use social media and technology to facilitate my role as a change evangelist. I’m also someone who openly admits that I suffer from FOMO (the fear of missing out). My fear causes me to jump on new trends, analyze every new device, and download hundreds of new apps a month. Thankfully, you don’t have to beta test, rebuild, or download every app to find the best tech solutions to fit your life. I’m here to save you from FOMO. My job is to present you with options and information so you can make the best decision.
I should admit something before we go further. This Apple fanboy doesn’t have an Apple Watch yet. I never bothered preordering the latest Apple tech because I’m one of those crazies who loves the buzz and experience surrounding Apple product releases. The guy camped out for the latest iPad? That would be me. I didn’t bother preordering the Apple Watch, although I stayed up and live tweeted the ordering experience. I planned to camp out and get one from the store, like I have for every other new product Apple has released. One small detail escaped me: the Apple Watch won’t be available at stores. So, now I wait until mine ships in June (Unless someone knows how I could get one sooner).
The Apple Watch won’t be my first smart watch, or even my second smartwatch, though. I purchased the apple iPod mini with watch strap (picture to right) years ago, and jumped on the pebble bandwagon after my youngest brother got in on the original Kickstarter project. I thought it was only fitting, while I wait not so patiently for my Apple Watch, to help out all the first time Apple Watch users by sharing 4 tips and 3 use cases that will allow you to get maximum enjoyment from the watch.
4 Tips for Maximum Enjoyment of Your New Wearable Technology
Be proud of your new gadget and be prepared to answer the same question over and over again. Technology haters and jealous friends will ask, “What do you think? What is your favorite thing about the watch?” Be prepared to answer the question but don’t let the askers responses sway your opinion. Most of the negatives you will hear from the haters, things like “I never wear watches anyhow” or “I’m going to wait until version 2.0 comes out” or “I don’t like it because…” are typical, and if you let those comments sway your own opinion of the experience, wearing the watch will be a lot less enjoyable.
Understand that once the cool factor wears off, the device must provide value. Embracing new technology and apps is easy at first when the cool factor is high. But they only become worth your time, money, and tinkering if they fit into your workflow, make your life easier, or allow you to do more throughout the day. In the beginning, when excitement is high, it’s important to test out all of the features and understand the gadget completely. If you wait until the cool factor wears off, you won’t feel as inclined to learn all you can about the functions of your watch and it will be more difficult to see its true value.
Tweak. Test. Try out. Analyze. Repeat. With new technology like a smart watch, you must give each new feature a test. It sounds simple, but it isn’t always easy to embrace technology when it is so new and different. I recommend deleting apps from your phone or other devices that your Apple Watch could potentially replace, so that you won’t default to what’s normal. That way you can really test, try out, analyze then decide if you need to go back to your old ways.
While the device may be cool, keep in mind that it’s the software and the data will change the game. I love my Pebble watch, but for the first year I owned it, I found very little new value in it. For me it was nothing more than a digital clock with some cool watch faces. So what changed? The software and data available to users was updated and enhanced, and I was able to leverage it to increase productivity, eliminate the need for certain apps on my phone, and prioritize my notifications and eliminate distractions—a game changer for me. My advice if you are unsure about the value of your watch is to give technology time to advance. Trust me, I wore my Pebble proudly, even when it was just a watch, but I started bragging about it once the software and data improved.
3 Use Cases that made me fall in Love with my Smart Watch (and will make you love yours)
- I’m a partner in a digital media hub company that focuses social media strategy, influencer engagement, and digital media creation. I participate in tons of hangouts, live streaming sessions on Meerkat and Periscope, and podcasts. It all boils down to a CRAP ton of notifications on my devices.
I’ve already admitted that I suffer from FOMO, and I’ve built a personal brand around real-time engagement, so I certainly can’t turn off or ignore my notifications. But I’m also a devoted dad, and it’s important that I minimize my distractions when I’m spending time with my 3 daughters. It’s also important that while sitting in a boardroom with a client I be able to manage my notifications, or they would quickly grow out of control. Pebble Notifications are VIP notifications.
I’ve been able to leverage the IFTTT app and the Pebble software to prioritize and manage the notifications that are sent to my watch and the ones that stay on my phone. If I’m watching my daughters swim practice and the phone in my pocket vibrates but my watch does not, then I know that I can ignore the notification and enjoy the moment. The ability to prioritize notifications has drastically improved my life/work productivity and has maximized my ability to enjoy and be 100 percent in the moment.
- One of the most helpful things about my Pebble is its ability to gather data that helps me monitor my overall health. It can certainly be overwhelming to open yourself up to monitoring heartrate and REM sleep if you’ve never thought of doing it before, let alone had access to the technology that could do it. But this data can be invaluable for helping your doctor assess your overall health or diagnose a problem. I’ve been providing my personal doctor with my fitness and sleep data for over a year, and it has allowed him to make better diagnosis and assess how treatments are working for me.
- Wearable technology is powerful and can transform our productivity, but it’s also in its infancy. That means the community of first users has an obligation to raise it up right. Rallying together, we can help determine the future for these devices. Unfortunately the Apple vs. Android debate often divides our community and turns it from collaboration into a competition. My experience with the Pebble community, from the brand, to the app developers, to the end users, reminds me of other united communities that I belong to—a shout out to Steeler Nation and my fellow Jeep owners here. I truly hope that as the Apple Watch and other smart watches hit the market we can come together as communities driven to innovate, push the limits of the devices, and collaborate openly so that wearable technology as whole will become transformative and life changing.
The Wearable Technology Predictions from iSocialFanz:
As a technology influencer, podcast host, and outspoken millennial speaker, I couldn’t write a post about innovative devices and technology without putting on my “Futurist hat” and adding some predictions and product hopes of my own. Here’s a list of advances that I foresee in the technology of tomorrow:
- Personalization of customer experiences will happen by connecting location data, social data, personal data and proximity. We will be able to personalize not only how we use our devices, but also the experience we have with brands, stores, and others.
- Wearables will become the actionable device and not a passive endpoint. The smartwatch functionality will become less dependent on the smartphone it’s connected to and more of a tool for opening up new technology possibilities.
- Social Media will be the data highway for wearable technology and IoT devices and their users. Data can transform how businesses and people use technology, but data that isn’t managed or put into context will only lead to a bigger, big data problem. We must leverage social networks to provide context around the data, user patterns, and history, and allow them to be the connective tissue bridging devices to users, devices to devices, and devices to many users.
- Frustrating non-digital aspects of our lives will be eliminated. For example, keys will no longer be needed by leveraging two-factor authentication with wearable tech and a unique trait of the user. Lights will be smart enough to know when someone is in the room and when someone is not beyond simple motion sensors. We won’t need TV remotes – who can find the right one anyway? Household appliances and smoke alarms will become smarter. Beyond simply beeping at users they will be able to notify, alert, and force an action by the user.
I understand that some of these prediction might sound over the top, but at the current speed of innovation, these technology transformations aren’t light years away. They are right on our doorstep. Remember it wasn’t too long ago when we thought carrying around a phone in our pocket was odd and too futuristic, yet I doubt many of you reading this have a house phone these days. In fact, you might even be reading this article from your phone right now!
Interested in more discussion on wearable technology? Listen to Daniel Newman & I discuss this in more detail on this podcast episode and make sure to subscribe to our Technology Podcast SMACTALK Live on iTunes
