Rampant Speculation on Apple’s Watch Plans

By Sam Grobart on February 13, 2013

So is Apple developing a watch?

Honestly? Who knows? I have no doubt that Apple (AAPL) has thought about a watch. And I have little doubt that they have even played around with the concept and put some people on it as an exploratory project. Now, according to my Bloomberg News colleagues Peter Burrows and Adam Satariano, Apple has put about 100 people on the project, which would indicate something more serious than a lark. But Apple is not afraid to pull the plug on things, so the future of this product still remains speculative.

Do you want to speculate, then?

Sure! I mean, I can understand the idea behind an iWatch. In some ways, I can understand it more readily than I can Google’s Project Glass. While getting an augmented-reality view of the world would be totally cool in that T-800 kind of way, it still requires you to wear glasses. Now, I like wearing glasses, but not everyone may feel the same—witness the sluggish adoption of 3D TV, which also requires eyewear. A watch, on the other hand, is discreet. Anyone can wear a watch.

Do you wear a watch?

Of course not. I carry my iPhone with me everywhere.

What do you think a watch from Apple would do? More speculation, please.

Well, I think the first thing it would do is work in tandem with an iPhone. An iWatch (let’s just call it that for now), would need to have great battery life, so making it a self-contained computing device doesn’t make sense. It would consume too much power. But as something that has a display and some basic inputs and connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to the phone—where the real heavy lifting takes place? That could make the watch a more power-efficient accessory to the iPhone.

Would it have a display?

I think it would have to. Given the low-power characteristics of technologies such as AMOLED (that’s Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode, for those playing along at home) you could create a wrist-sized touchscreen. If you forsook touch—and I don’t think Apple would—you could go the E-Paper route (thinkAmazon (AMZN) Kindle), which uses even less power. This is the approach taken by Pebble, an independent maker of a Bluetooth-enabled watch that links to your smartphone and displays relevant information.

But would I be able to make phone calls on it, like Dick—

I’m gonna cut you off right there, if you don’t mind. I’ve placed a moratorium on references to a certain yellow-trenchcoated detective when it comes to wrist-borne communications devices. That being said, I don’t necessarily think that the iWatch needs—or even should have—phone capabilities. In this fantasy world I have created, the iWatch works only in concert with an iPhone. Your phone is a good device for making calls—one end is up by your ear, the other is down by your mouth. There are even headphones with built-in mics for hands-free calling. Why would you talk into your wrist?

So what does it do, if it doesn’t make calls?

It could do a lot of things. With a display, the iWatch could easily remind you of upcoming appointments or to-do items by tone or vibration. Incoming texts, e-mails, and other messages could be read from your wrist. Turn-by-turn navigation cues could also be displayed: Imagine you come out of a subway staircase onto the street, and you hold up your wrist to see an arrow pointing left, saying “three blocks.”

While I don’t think an iWatch would work as a phone, I could see it working with Siri. Holding your wrist up to tell Siri to schedule lunch with your friend for tomorrow at 1 makes a lot more sense than holding an entire phone conversation on your watch.

The iWatch could also be a real competitor to wearable fitness devices, such as Jawbone’s Up, Nike’s (NKE)FuelBand, and Fitbit’s Flex. All those devices currently work with the iPhone to collect and analyze data. What if Apple were to develop its own service? After all, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, is a noted fitness fanatic.

Isn’t Tim Cook on Nike’s board of directors?

He sure is, which would make things a little awkward if Apple came out with a device that directly competes with something Nike makes.

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Grobart is a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. Follow him on Twitter @samgrobart.

Christians Reminded That Lent Is About ‘Giving Up’ to Gain and Grow

By Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter

February 14, 2013 12:46 pm

Lent is in full swing for many Christians who started their 46-day period (40 not counting Sundays) of self-denial on Ash Wednesday, with some taking up a fast of food or alcohol, cutting back on watching television, or refraining from using social media in an effort to gain ground in their spiritual life.

The period known as Lent, which ends on Easter Sunday upon the start of Holy Week, has its roots in a 4th century tradition and is not mentioned in the Bible, although it is observed in some fashion by various Christian traditions, including Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. The season traditionally starts on Ash Wednesday with observers getting the sign of the cross rubbed onto their foreheads with ashes, a reference to Jesus Christ. Although Ash Wednesday is not mentioned in Scripture, dust and ashes are symbolically identified with repentance and mourning.

While some may argue that efforts at self-discipline and spiritual growth should be a year-round pursuit for Christians, many nonetheless use Lent as an occasion to recalibrate their spiritual life, as well as draw others to Christ.

Evangelical Christian author Eric Metaxas shared in a reflection how some view the idea of giving things up for Lent as “oppressive” when the occassion is actually a period of rejoicing for others.

“All this talk of self-examination and re-commitment sounds ‘oppressive’ and ‘gloomy’ to contemporary minds, including those belonging to Christians. For most moderns ‘the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself,'” writes Metaxas.

He adds, “During Lent, Christians, as a friend of mine once put it, ‘rehearse — in the most basic meaning of that word — the story of our salvation, starting with the Fall and culminating in Good Friday.’ And in this rehearsal, ‘a consistent picture of God emerges: the God who takes the initiative in reconciling us to Himself.’

“Lent is only ‘gloomy’ if you think that being reconciled to God is ‘gloomy.’ It’s only ‘gloomy’ if you think that we are so wonderful that reconciliation didn’t cost God all that much.”

The Church of England’s Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has emphasized that Lent should be also a time of reaching out to others.

“In our daily lives we should think about other people, not just constantly focus on ourselves and our own needs. Lent is a time when the Church puts the spotlight on our human condition and in these difficult times there are many around us who need our love and support,” Sentamu has said.

Some in the Christian community have also offered suggestions at how participants can reflect during Lent, with evangelical author Rachel Held Evans providing lists of questions, books, fasts and prayers for those in need of ideas on how to make this season meaningful.

Pastor Eugene Cho of Quest Church in Seattle pointed his Twitter followers this week to a previous message of his in which he warns against making Lent observance simply a matter of “religion” instead of actual faith.

“If the goal is merely the giving up of something without taking up of something more significant, the focus is just merely on the stuff which we give up or really, the focus is on the practice of giving up something rather than giving into Jesus — or in other words, our solidarity with Jesus. In truth, it becomes about us…,” writes Cho.

“Anything that produces rituals, expressions, practices, and the like — without ultimately inviting us to a deeper understanding and worship of the Living God…lends itself to empty religion. And what we need isn’t more religion. We need Gospel,” he adds, meaning “a Gospel that cuts into the heart of humanity with a grace that compels us to not just merely to salvation but a life committed to justice, reconciliation, and redemption.”

Read more at ChristianPost.com.

Peace begins with a smile. ~ Mother Teresa

My Classmate, The Robot: NY Pupil Attends Remotely

By CAROLYN THOMPSON

— Feb. 15 4:20 AM EST

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (AP) — In an elementary school hallway, a teacher takes her second-graders to the library, leading a single-file line of giggling boys and girls that’s perfectly ordinary until you get to a sleek white robot with a video screen showing the face of a smiling, chubby-cheeked boy.

Devon Carrow’s life-threatening allergies don’t allow him to go to school. But the 4-foot-tall robot with a wireless video hookup gives him the school experience remotely, allowing him to participate in class, stroll through the hallways, hang out at recess and even take to the auditorium stage when there’s a show.

What’s most remarkable is how unremarkable this gee-whiz technology is viewed by his classmates. In a class of 7-year-olds raised on video games, avatars and remote-controlled toys, they don’t see a robot. They just see Devon.

Just before class one recent day, a girl leaned toward the robot to tell Devon the joke making the rounds at Winchester Elementary School: Why did the boy eat his homework? The teacher told him it was a piece of cake.

That Devon isn’t actually there is barely acknowledged. While making get-well cards for him during a hospital stay last year, his classmates all drew him as a boy, not a bot.

“In the classroom, the kids are like, ‘Devon, come over, we’re doing Legos. Show us your Legos,'” says teacher Dawn Voelker.

“I wondered how the little kids would take to him, thinking they’d be amazed,” adds Principal Kathleen Brachmann. “But I think kids are so tech-savvy now that they accept it more than we do.”

Even Devon doesn’t quite get what all the fuss is about. Steering the four-wheeled robot through school and spinning around to see the classmates is just another mouse-and-keyboard challenge.

“It’s so cool because it’s like playing a game on the computer,” says the boy with a mop of curly brown hair who always seems to be smiling. “It’s like your objective is to just survive.”

For a year now, Devon has attended school using “VGo,” a robot shaped a little like a chess pawn and best known for its appearance in a Verizon television ad showing the kind of technology possible using the company’s wireless network.

Since it was introduced in 2011 by Nashua, N.H.-based VGo Communications, a handful of students across the country have used it, including in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Texas and Iowa.

It’s also attracting attention in the medical and business worlds, allowing doctors to consult with patients and workers to virtually pop into the office, even while traveling.

For Devon, it was a chance to go to school, albeit remotely, for the first time in his life. He has eosinophilic esophagitis, caused by an allergic white blood cell that grows in his stomach and esophagus. He’s also got anaphylactic shock syndrome, which causes life-threatening allergic reactions to triggers including milk and peanuts.

Even though attacks have put him in the intensive care unit twice in the past 18 months, Devon is outgoing and energetic, a jokester whose personality better suits him to the school experience rather than home-schooling.

But after teachers at Devon’s previous school in the Buffalo suburb of West Seneca resisted the idea of having the VGo’s camera in the classroom, his mother persisted, and Devon was welcomed at the district’s Winchester Elementary.

It was added to Devon’s special education plan, and the cost — about $6,000 for the robot and $100 in monthly service fees — is being paid out of the district’s budget.

“We looked at it as a great opportunity,” Winchester Principal Brachmann says. “Where I think some people would have looked at what are the challenges, what are the problems, we never even had those conversations. It was just, how can we make this work?”

The technology broadens Devon’s school experience beyond what would be possible through a video chat. The only restrictions are physical.

The robot senses stairs and stops, but even they aren’t insurmountable because, at 18 pounds, the robot is light enough for a teacher to lift. Before moving forward, Devon scans the camera downward to make sure he won’t run into a classmate who might be crouching to tie a shoe. The VGo warns of large objects ahead.

“Walking down a hallway, seeing other kids,” Brachmann said. “You couldn’t expose somebody on a Skype session that way. It would just be like a TV screen. With this he really gets a feel, a sensation, of being there.”

On a recent weekday, Devon positioned himself in front of his home computer’s camera in a sunroom-turned-classroom in his Orchard Park home and dialed in to Mrs. Voelker’s room for the 9:10 a.m. start of school. He controls the VGo alongside teacher Sheri Voss, who comes to his house daily to help navigate and keep him on task.

When class was called to order, Devon stood at attention in front of his computer camera, holding a salute to his forehead as the class recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We don’t treat him any differently,” Voelker said. “He still has to turn in his homework. He still has to have his mother sign notebooks. He still has a job in this classroom — he’s the greeter.

“And he still has to pay attention — although there’s times I look and he’s off, the cat’s coming in the room.”

He’s heard through the VGo’s speakers. Voelker wears a microphone that amplifies the teacher’s voice, which helps all of the students, including Devon, hear her. Instead of raising his hand in class, Devon activates a light on the VGo.

“It’s really fun having him in the class,” said Caitlyn Bedient, a pixied brunette who sits a few desks away. “He has toys at home and we can show him the creations we make.”

Classmate Daisy Cook said it was a bit awkward at first when the technology would glitch, and it didn’t quite seem fair that Devon got to stay home and go to school.

“But now it’s kind of cool,” she said, her blue eyes widening, “because we can communicate together. It’s like he was never on the VGo.”

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Associated Press videojournalist Ted Shaffrey contributed to this report