Wearable Tech and the Internet of Things (Iot)

In a nondescript conference room at Google’s headquarters a few weeks ago, I paired my iPhone to a smartwatch running Android for the first time. I was there to ask Jeff Chang, the lead product manager for Wear, how he’d managed to get Android watches working with iOS and how much they could do with an iPhone. Then my first notification came in on my newly paired Huawei Watch and my carefully laid plans evaporated.    That’s how it goes with smartwatches. They’re meant to keep you from having to pull your phone out of your pocket. You’re supposed to glance at the notifications and smile inwardly, knowing that you can ignore that ping and focus on who you’re talking to. At their best, they do exactly that. At their worst, they derail a conversation.   They’re also still nascent. Very few people have had to bother grappling with the idea of notifications and computers on their wrists, because not all that many people are buying smartwatches. There’s a real sense that everybody’s waiting to see how things shake out, and I don’t blame them. Smartwatches aren’t really ready for everybody yet, not the way that smartphones are. But the smartphone comparison is apt: nothing drove innovation in that space faster than healthy competition between Apple and Google. If competition is what it takes to get smartwatches ready for the mainstream, even Apple Watch users should be glad about Android Wear coming to the iPhone.