3 ms·

I want a lightweight watch that can open my door at home and work, unlock my car, pay for my groceries, and carry the digital equivalent of membership cards. I

I want a lightweight watch that can open my door at home and work, unlock my car, pay for my groceries, and carry the digital equivalent of membership cards. If Apple could that, I'd buy one and empty out my overstuffed pockets. But at the moment, I don't see any reason to buy one. Fitness tracking and the grocery list app mentioned in the article sound nice but not nice enough to buy another gadget. Edit: Someone please, please find a way to make a watch that can replace everything in my pockets. You'll be my hero.

marssaxman 11y ago
Why does that gadget need to be a watch?
- thedevil 11y ago
  It seemed convenient. Do you have a better way? Edit: Convenient = it's right there all the time, you don't have to reach for anything or hold anything.
  - marssaxman 11y ago
    I don't, I am simply curious as the appeal of a smart watch has never been clear to me.
  - zanny 11y ago
    Embedded microchip in your palm?
  - redblacktree 11y ago
    Do you have a phone that you always carry? Why couldn't it serve the same purpose? As braythwayt mentions, there are door locks that work with bluetooth phones.
braythwayt 11y ago
There are door locks that can be opened with a bluetooth-enabled app on an iPhone. They work by proximity. So... If you have your phone close enough to function with your Apple Watch, you already have a way to lock and unlock your door without taking the phone out of your pocket. However, those same locks would be awesome if the manufacturers released a Watch app so you could manually lock and unlock the door rather than relying on proximity.
marcosdumay 11y ago
Well, don't forget about battery life. If it is doing all that, battery must last at least for a few days, or you'll discover some day that you forgot to charge at night, and now can not get into your home anymore. I'd love to get something like that too. The problem is that it is mostly impossible to build today... and is completely impossible to build one that sends all your data to the cloud, so the big players that could look into it won't.

marssaxman 11y ago

Why does that gadget need to be a watch?

thedevil 11y ago
It seemed convenient. Do you have a better way? Edit: Convenient = it's right there all the time, you don't have to reach for anything or hold anything.
- marssaxman 11y ago
  I don't, I am simply curious as the appeal of a smart watch has never been clear to me.
- zanny 11y ago
  Embedded microchip in your palm?
- redblacktree 11y ago
  Do you have a phone that you always carry? Why couldn't it serve the same purpose? As braythwayt mentions, there are door locks that work with bluetooth phones.

braythwayt 11y ago

There are door locks that can be opened with a bluetooth-enabled app on an iPhone. They work by proximity. So... If you have your phone close enough to function with your Apple Watch, you already have a way to lock and unlock your door without taking the phone out of your pocket. However, those same locks would be awesome if the manufacturers released a Watch app so you could manually lock and unlock the door rather than relying on proximity.

marcosdumay 11y ago

Well, don't forget about battery life. If it is doing all that, battery must last at least for a few days, or you'll discover some day that you forgot to charge at night, and now can not get into your home anymore. I'd love to get something like that too. The problem is that it is mostly impossible to build today... and is completely impossible to build one that sends all your data to the cloud, so the big players that could look into it won't.