Apple’s Watch arrived on a tsunami of hype that other tech companies must watch with weary envy.
Even now, weeks later, I’m constantly asked, “What’s it like?” as if I were one of the few who has walked on the Moon.
Apple has this exquisite power to take an idea and instantly turn every previous attempt into a horrible, shameful object you are desperate to forget.
In fairness, many previous smartwatches were foul without requiring Apple’s intervention to reveal their true form.
Big tech companies are used to this sort of thing, having weathered a decade of redesigning their phones to match whatever Apple brought out that year.
Hence LG – and others – are bringing out smart watches loaded with the key ingredient Apple added to the mix: style.
LG’s G Watch Urbane might be saddled with a truly hideous name, but it actually looks not half bad.
The knob on the side isn’t as useful as Apple’s, it’s just a button, rather than a winder that zips you through lists of options.
And LG’s “scrolling” function, where you tilt your wrist to zoom through lists of options, just makes you look like you’re trying to balance some extremely awkward, invisible object on the back of your hand.
If Apple Watch didn’t exist, I’d recommend the Urbane – like all smart watches, it’s an engaging, daft toy, which offers a choice of virtual faces that turn it from a sporty chronograph into an odd screensaver thing with pictures of tropical fish.
But Google’s Android Wear software – its rival to Apple’s Watch software – isn’t up to snuff, now that we’ve seen what Apple can do. And this goes for every single one of Apple’s Android rivals.
Messages pop up for no reason. Other apps belatedly catch up, informing you all of a sudden that you have 15 e-mails to read, which really is annoying.
Google will up its game but for now, this is a great looking watch saddled with the brain of a snail. – Daily Mail