Recently I heard from an Apple Watch owner that they liked their Apple Watch, but they didn’t necessarily love it.

To most, the Apple Watch is only good for two things:

1. Notifications, and
2. Health Tracking

Sure it’s pretty good at those things, but it sounded like they were expecting more. Underwhelmed describes the feeling I’ve heard.

I’d agree for the most part but I’d also add in a third category for some niche uses, such as score and yardage golf tracking apps. Thing is, I’d bet that these many small niche categories are the ones that will have the biggest potential.

Eventually developers and users will truly understand how smart watches can change how we go about our day, the same way one niche apps like Uber (location tracking) and Instagram (photos) changed how we used smartphones. Remember, neither of those now omnipresent apps were on the iPhone 1!

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A number of people have already asked me what I think about the Apple Watch.

Thing is, none of the people asking me about the Apple Watch are in the tech community.

It already appears Apple has captured the general public’s interest in wearables like no previous company has yet to do. Whether they can translate that attention into a new product category like the iPod, iPhone and iPad before, or whether it never really takes off (can we say Ping?!?)…well, we’ll just have to see.

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At a recent evening meetup a friend was describing to me three types of data analytics:

1. Descriptive – What is happening now?
2. Predictive – What will happen?
3. Prescriptive – What should I do about it?

As you might guess analytics in this sense is a continuum. Start off with descriptive metrics and increase your analytics maturity by moving up the scale to predictive and eventually prescriptive numbers.

After the meetup I came home, a bit later than the usual weeknight. So as I walked into the house I was greeted by blast of stuffy hot Georgia summer air.

The Nest thermostat’s auto away had beat me again!

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Walking away from the third annual Wearables Tech Expo last week I have to admit I felt disappointed.

Going into the week I was expecting to leave on Thursday:

• …with a long list of case studies and success stories,
• …bullish on the wearables market,
• …with the names of companies and enterprises who were embracing wearables,
• …and walking away with great expectations for what’s to come.

But I didn’t see compelling examples of any of the above.

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Fridays at BlueFletch are the best by far. The team is back from client sites, we’ll grill out for lunch, and the office happy hour isn’t far off. Fridays are also a chance to teach and learn with the rest of the team.

BlueFletch(ers?) employees give a couple lunch & learn presentations throughout the year. Some are very work specific, such as the latest on Android. Some are just fun, like learning how to actually use that fancy DSLR you got your wife.

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How many smartwatches have you seen in public? Not counting the relentless marketing campaign from Samsung for their Galaxy Gear, I think my tally is at three, maybe four.

To put this in perspective I’ve seen 10 times as many Google Glass…or is it Glasses…and the unfortunate glassholes that accompany them. This for a device that costs 10 times as much and is 10 times as unattractive.

Are smartwatches too early for their time, or is this an indicator of the size of the actual smartwatch market?

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Hello World!

The Pebble Golf App is done.

A golf scorecard app that tracks individual hole scores and gives you a running tally of your whole round. And you can save and load previous rounds.

Similar to many Pebble apps I use, at first it feels like an incremental step up from the status quo (read: using crappy clubhouse pencils). Use it for a few rounds though and you’ll find yourself challenged to ever go back to the old way.

Or think of it like a Mac Retina display – when you first switch it doesn’t feel much different at the time, but when you go back to a non-retina display two months later you ask yourself how you ever lived!

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Is Wearable Technology a Fad or Function?

It’s been a week now with the Pebble watch.

I’ve received the SMS and phone notifications. I’ve created custom watchfaces. And just yesterday afternoon I successfully paired it with FreeCaddie for an added golf bonus.

But what’s the verdict on the Kickstarter darling and ever-hyped smartwatch?

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