“Yes, there are a few reasons you might want to strap a lens onto your wristputer. I get it. Being able to FaceTime from your wrist saves you the trouble of reaching for your phone. And again, it could be a solid marketing talking point,” Brian Barrett writes for Wired. “But the list, I think, ends there. Meanwhile, there many, many reasons to reject this idea, and we’ll start with the one that might most resonate with you the most: It’s antithetical to why you made the Watch in the first place.”
“A FaceTime call would not be one of the ‘glanceable moments’ the Apple Watch enables,” Barrett writes. “It would be a squintable horror, a tiny eternity spent yapping at a stamp-sized acquaintance on your wrist.”
“Oh, and about that wrist, which is where the Apple Watch lives, because it is a watch. Where do you position it during a FaceTime chat? Normal rib-height gives your video pal a terrifying view of your chin(s) and nostrils, but raising your hand to face-level for conversational duration would be both uncomfortable and make you look insane,” Barrett writes. “I honestly can’t fathom what you’re thinking, if you are really thinking it, other than maybe Dick Tracy made watch calls all the time so it must be okay? But even then, Dick Tracy was a detective; his wrist calls were matters of life and death, an allowable exception to any manner of rudeness. Also, he was a cartoon. ”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What do you think, would you like to be able to FaceTime chat via Apple Watch? Or would you rather a camera that points forward (from Watch’s pinky-side edge as opposed to up from the Watch face), so you can snap images right from your wrist?
Both (if they’d fit)? Or, no camera at all?
SEE ALSO:
Apple Watch 2 to feature FaceTime camera, iPhone-free Wi-Fi, premium-priced $1000+ models, sources say – June 18, 2015
Nope, no camera on Apple Watch for me.
A wrist mounted camera, besides having poor optics, would have the same privacy concerns as Google Glass.
And adding a camera would make the Apple Watch a security risk. You would have to remove it to enter some facilities.
It’s ALREADY not permitted in secure military facilities; nothing wi-fi or bluetooth capable is (I even had to give up my wireless headset for my desk telephone).
I want a microscopic drone with a HD camera to fly out of Apple Watch and record my conversation regardless if I am moving or sitting still. When I am done, it will fly back into my Apple Watch and recharge.
Already been imagined!
Read:
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
The Diamond Age depicts a near-future world revolutionised by advances in nanotechnology
IOW: Nano-Cameras.
Daniel Eran Dilger at Apple Insider also wrote a nice article last week spelling out how a Facetime camera would be contrary to the ergonomics and design intention of the Apple Watch
dd
FaceTime would drain the battery.
Let’s not be logical or practical about this. You’re killing the “cool” buzz of having limited one minute video conversations on your AppleWatch. Each minute of FaceTime takes away an hour of battery life. That’s a fair tradeoff.
But if Apple puts a FaceTime camera on your AppleWatch, then you can act like a real Dick… Tracy, with your own personal two-way wrist radio.
Face time…No
Camer for taking pics… Ummmm… Maybe ?
Yawn… Don’t some Android smartwatches already do that? Apple has to be the first at something. How about a built-in laser-pointer to blind muggers? Or how about a minute spray of Mace?
This stuff is so ridiculous. Apple needs to focus on extending the battery life above all else.
SpamSpooge did it first:
…Rather poorly.
If you were looking at the screen, what would be in the cameras field of view? Is this the Anthony Weinercam?
The camera was set on the watchband to look wherever you point the side of your arm. If you’re doing a mirror selfie then you’d see yourself holding the side of your arm in front of you, sort of like some odd military allegiance salute.
Apple is NOT putting any camera on Apple Watch. Apple Watch is about enhancing the iPhone user experience. It is NOT about eliminating the need for iPhone. The most convenient way to do a FaceTime chat is to pull out the iPhone, in the same way excellent photos and videos come from iPhone’s amazing camera (NOT by awkwardly aiming the wrist with a mediocre camera). Apple wants customers to own BOTH an iPhone AND Apple Watch (and later other wearables), and treat them as one integrated system.
Putting a camera on the watch is a gimmicky Samsung idea (like touching phones to transfer data), just to make desperate “here’s something you can’t do with Apple” ads. Even Microsoft won’t do it.
Forbes has become the DigiTimes of the USA. Don’t believe anything they print.
Hit whoring. All part of the ‘spirit of the age’: Screw Thy Customer.
The wrist is a bad location for taking photos from. Just because you can incorporate a toaster into a fridge doesn’t mean that you have to. Android devices are trying to cram as many things into them as possible for sales brochure lists. This feature bloat is what Apple has resisted and why many people love their products.
I say no to the Swiss Army knife approach to devices. Make it do the majority of the things I need and make it do them well.
Ok, so we’re all in agreement here?
Long term battery life is only a few years away. Perhaps when that goal is reached this issue will be revisited.
Brain Barfing:
– Carry a large lithium battery in your pocket, preferably your back pocket and not next to your reproductive organs. Use wireless transmission of electricity to your Watch and power it for weeks on end.
I was referring to reports from Singapore that university researchers there have discovered an economical and practical way to make batteries that will charge in minutes and last for weeks per charge. This technology is projected to reach the market next year. Still no recent reports on this discovery’s progress toward that end.
Brain Barfing:
– Add minimal facial recognition so the camera can create some modicum of steadiness, rather than having a person’s face bounce around and slowly rise to the top of the screen as ‘gorilla arm’ sets in.
– Add some Photo Booth effects to the detected face. Imagine talking to your nagging mother-in-law with your Watch. Except you cheer yourself up because Watch Facetime turns her mug into a cackling old witch every time it recognizes her face.
– Use facial recognition of yourself to allow Watch Facetime to add a background of you in a car careening around the city, cops chasing you, hit and run victim’s bodies bouncing off your car’s trunk, etc., all to emphasize that you’d rather not talk just now. Call back later.
– Have Watch Facetime add a background of simpering and pampering bimbo bunnies at your beck and call, chattering at you about your love making prowess, all to impress your guy friends or to finally convince your ex-girl friend to lay off the stalker calling.
And so forth. 😀
I have an apple watch I don’t use it for phone calls because it has the same issue the first gen iPhone had, the speaker sucks. At max volume it’s still very difficult to hear anything. FaceTime would be a cool feature but something I doubt people would use. The screen size and resolution can’t compair to the phones so I don’t know why you would want to use it. And absolutely not going to take pics with it that’s ridiculous. Also someone already said it but it’s true the battery drain would be insane!’
It will be a good laugh for sure..lol
Bad idea! It reminds me of Google (Gl)ass. It is not necessary and at many places the Apple watch would be forbidden, e.g. casinos in Las Vegas. Some public swimming pools do not allow cameras and are thinking about banning smartphones these days. In the end places like that could prohibit people from wearing watches. This would be insane but still it is possible. I wonder though if this is really a photographic camera that Apple is considering or is it more like an infrared camera or something else that rather measures something than takes actual pictures.
No camera. Apple users are not spies.
Watcholes!
QR code reader would be pretty handy, FaceTime use seems stupid even, I realized today while troubleshooting a video projector system, a camera could be useful.
How about waterproof. A $20 timex can do that.
Early adopters successfully tested WATCH SPORT for its unadvertised waterproofness. Went swimming. Put in depth pressure tank. All kinds of wet and it kept on working fine.
I’m sure it is capable of more then they state. That’s just not reassuring. Id love to buy a higher end version. I’m not asking for much. 30ft. Would cover it.
Will NEVER buy one without a camera.
Yes, it’s a small screen, but you can make that screen VERY clear.
Also, consider a LARGER screen watch:
conference calls, a REAL map app, and games.
The bigger the screen, the more it’s useful the way an iPhone is.