Here at BTN we’ll be looking back at the tech of the year and with some help from your dear selves we’ve compiled what we think shaped the tech landscape in 2014. First up… Wearables.
It seemed as though the big tech firms wanted us to think about what tech we wanted to attach to ourselves and where. We’d already seen what some had foreseen but 2014 was the year that the big boys stepped in.
First up lets talk about Google Glass. This year should have been when it exploded onto the market and took us all by storm but in a reversal of fortune 2014 basically saw the demise of the wearable that started it all. Maybe it was before its time or maybe the world just wasn’t ready to have this hefty lump of tech on their faces. Even the father of Glass Sergey Bryn has recently been spotted without the gadget he spearheaded. 2015 promises a new version of Glass powered by Intel, but has the damage already been done? The ‘glassholes’ may have already decided the future of Google’s first wearable.
So let’s move away from the face and go to where all the talk was about, the wrist. In fact I even started using my own wearable this year in the form of the Jawbone UP and it’s been a revelation.
Android Wear took off in a big way as well with offerings from Samsung and most notably Motorola with the 360 which showed the power of a wearable platform. Pebble fought back with better and cheaper models so I don’t know if they can see the writing on the wall.
Obviously the big talk was mainly around Apple’s announcement of their watch and true to form it’s already stirred up a tonne of speculation and rumour. To be perfectly honest I was quite disappointed that it ended up being just another watch although in the same way they did with the iPad, Apple will no doubt find some way to make us want it.
I think that the biggest disappointment is that all of the so called ‘Smart’ Watches still need to be tethered to your phone is at the moment it’s a bit of a miss for me but once they work out a way to have the operate independently I’m sure I’ll take more notice.
There’s also the fact that they all look a bit big and bulky at the moment so for now I’ll stick with my Jawbone and may even have a look at the latest offerings from Fitbit.
We’d love to hear what you think about 2014’s wearable developments.