Quote:
Originally Posted by stumped
don't expect it to also make tea...
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Curiously Teasmades are still a real product. In the mid 1950s a common wedding present.
I picked one up cheap because (a) I was curious and (b) It was the first with a radio built in.
Though alarms/clocks with radio (look like radios with a clock) probably date from 1930s.
It turns out that compared with an actual maid or butler, or one member of a couple, or good older child, that a machine to automatically make tea so far are failures:
1) You have to remember to wash & replace the cups.
2) You have to remember to fill the stupid kettle, though cunningly it rests on a hidden switch so if it's not sufficiently filled it never turns on.
3) What about the milk? In pre 1970s UK and Ireland with no central heating in winter the milk can be set out, if it has a lid.
As a product concept an Alarm clock that makes the tea or instant coffee sounds good till you use it. Which is why they are still sold.
4) My wife can't see the point of them as I bring her a cup of tea 1st thing. She later makes coffee, once refreshed and awake.
However the smart phone has just about killed the MP3 players, entry level cameras and even basic HD video cameras. Even pocket calculators for adults. I've a nice HP42a RPN calculator simulation on my phone. It killed the PDA even before the iPhone came out (which was 9 years after first smart phone).
What happened to the Russian phone with LCD or OLED on one side and eink on the back (display a map even when phone off or flat)?
I think the jogging thing is purely an app using bluetooth to communicate with the actual pedometer, or other monitors such as pulse, blood pressure etc, though I might be wrong. It might use horribly expensive "running shoes".
Nefarious people have used the Fitbit App to spot US troop locations overseas as the data on the Web isn't secure. Fitbit bought out Pebble, which sensibly had an eink type display. The colour smart watches are like the 1970s Sinclair LED "Black Watch" for battery life. Laughable. Google, not content with 82% market Android and no doubt piqued at Apple eventually managing to sell their watch, is buying Fitbit. Privacy? That's for their plans and data, not yours. Google Android based Smartwatches/Fitness Wearables already exist. It makes more sense than their purchase of Nest, but amazing they are allowed to buy it.