Home, James!

The work day ends and I scramble out the office, hoofing it twelve minutes to Grand Central Terminal. I’ve sharpened my route to minimize foot traffic and consistently board the 5:41p train home with three minutes to spare. It’s one fluid motion honed by repetition. Whilst less informed commuters huddle around the screens affixed to GCT’s kiosks to id their track number, I’ve already scraped mine back at the office from the official GCT iOS application — “Suckers!”

That is, unless I’ve been intercepted by a co-worker, attacked by ninjas, or lost track of time. Given those circumstances, I’m out the door with the quickness. No time to check the app. Coupled with my habitual phone-in-bag tossing tendencies, I’m left rubbernecking the track info screens like everyone else. There’s typically an aggregation of meat around the displays, blocking a usually smooth entrance to GCT. If only there was a way to check track numbers of the next departing train home, mid-stride, without having to excavate phone from pocket.

Enter, the Pebble.

I felt compelled to vet the usefulness of a smart watch as an affordable piece of wearable technology. I’d been pining over the Pebble Steel for months. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware at the perfect price point. The original product felt cheap, bulbous, and would physically dominate my baby wrists.

Before ordering the sleeker Steel, I combed the SDK documentation to become acclimated with the hardware — “Awesome, I have to learn C.” But wait, there’s this thing called SimplyJS. Point the SimplyJS smartphone companion app to a remote JavaScript file, launch the wrapper Pebble app on your watch, cue magic. Hardware events and inputs are exposed through a basic API and a mini Ajax wrapper can be used to suck in data. Bravo, SimplyJS! Nuts to learning another language. This project is about quick and dirty convenience.

Some two months after receiving my watch, the honeymoon period was over. I’d tapped the device’s surface usefulness and felt like doing something productive while my wife explored a new episode of Ryan Seacrest’s enthralling Kardashian show. One beer and 37 uses of the phrase “I’m SO over it” later, I had procured a data feed and written the initial 25 lines of code. Transit information was spewing to my Pebble. Functionality was extended on my morning train ride in. Train routes were now reversible by clicking the main side button. Route information refreshes with a good old shake of the wrist. Updates to route info were accompanied by a reaffirming vibration of the device. The most important information for my purpose resided at the top of the display with complete route stops listed out as supplemental information. Mission accomplished.

Forecast

I must tread lightly with assertions as my exposure is limited to the Pebble. Here goes. Do smart watches provide lasting value? Under the right circumstances for the right price, yes. Their worth hinges on palatable pricing and proper management of expectations. It’s a fantastic accessory, much like those smaller dog breeds that fit in purses. Barring a very specific set of scenarios, watches will struggle to become a primary means of input without the addition of touch-screens or fantastic voice control. Even then, consider how frequently and when you prefer voice control over touch input. My time with Siri came to a close after she failed to tell me what REALLY happened to Tupac — the novelty was short-lived. There are cost implications associated with adding additional layers of hardware features and it seems like it’d be far too easy to reach a price point of diminishing returns.

There’s something charming about the Pebble’s price, simplicity and accessibility. It’s a solid consumption add-on. I look forward to watching (no pun) the designer/developer collective identify other perfect storms of usefulness as we evaluate what “wearable first” means.