wearables

AirPods are not just earphones -- they're a metaphor of the future

Just before Christmas I got a pair of Apple AirPods. They're white, completely wireless earphones. AirPods are almost identical to Apple's wired earphones except that in lieu of thin cables, small white cylinders extend from the AirPods themselves. When you wear them it looks like you laughed and the milk came out your ears.

A few of my friends don't get it. "They're just dorky wireless earphones," they say.

And, they're wrong -- not because they don't look dorky, I'll give them that. They're simply incorrect because they're using the wrong frame for the things that now extend like candy cigarettes below my earlobes.

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Newsrooms have glance journalism up their sleeves

For years I've been impressing on my journalism students the importance of microcontent. But, until smartwatches came along, I just didn't realize how micro things would get.

Microcontent is the headlines, subheads, grabber quotes and other elements in larger-type sizes of an article's layout. Online they should serve to let the reader know what the story is about and reveal salient details about the content. Why? Because readers make choices about stories quickly, within seconds. And, those same readers are on a mission. They are hunters and gatherers looking for information that matters. If your microcontent doesn't let them decide whether your story is a nutritious news snack they need now, they will move on.

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Watch this: Apple delivers a smartwatch with function and style

OK, so now, after weeks -- dammit, months -- of speculation, Apple's Watch is finally on the catwalk and ready for its closeup. Although Apple has always been about elegance, now it's about elegance, fashion and, actions.

It is out to solve that incredible First World issue: the tiresome and exhausting need to remove your phone from your pocket or bag to read its screen, or even -- the humanity -- tell the time. We live like savages.

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How Apple might envision an iWatch?

If Apple wants to make an iWatch, it's going to need to be a category changer.

Related rabble.ca story:

Wrapping the future around your wrist

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Wrapping the future around your wrist

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Okay, I think I've got a sense of what Apple might do for an iWatch. This has taken me a while. But, now we've seen a majority of the smartwatches other companies like Samsung, LG, Pebble and Basis have put out. And, Apple's most recent major hire is a dead giveaway.

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mobile technology wearables Apple tech mobile devices smartwatches

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Here come the smartwatch wars

This week the battle of the smartwatches began in earnest. Google announced Google Wear, a flavour of the Android operating system tailored to wrist-worn devices. On the same day, Motorola took the wraps off of the Moto 360, a stylish round smartwatch that tastefully mixes tech and fashion.

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A year of beginnings, endings and smart devices: Tech now and in 2014

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Here's what I know about personal tech in the year ahead. Your devices will be smaller, closer and smarter than they ever have been. No kidding. That always happens. Think of the shift from the mainframe to the terminal; the terminal to the desktop; the desktop to the laptop; laptop to tablet, to smartphone. At each step our computers and computing devices have become more ours, more personal, more aware and more social. More our assistants and less our appliances.

Next year, this all gets amped up and it shapeshifts. Our computers will not be what we carry, but what we wear.

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technology computers communication smartphone wearables new year mobile devices

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wearables

AirPods are not just earphones -- they're a metaphor of the future

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Newsrooms have glance journalism up their sleeves

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Watch this: Apple delivers a smartwatch with function and style

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How Apple might envision an iWatch?

Related rabble.ca story:

Wrapping the future around your wrist

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Here come the smartwatch wars

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A year of beginnings, endings and smart devices: Tech now and in 2014

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