2015 Shorty Awards: A Year of Living Dangerously

It’s been a whole year since my last Shorty Awards campaign. Here I am again, but everything has changed! The Apps category is no more so I’m championing an entirely new category… #Innovation.

Last year I reached the final and headed to New York only to miss out on the night. You think the Oscars are competitive, the Shorties are even more cutthroat!

This time, I’d love your votes in a category that will only exist if we work together. There isn’t currently an Innovation category but if I receive enough votes, it’s possible the Real-Time Academy will make it official.

There's no 'I' in Shorty Awards but it is all about the individual. Having said that, the cutting-edge innovation only happens thanks to the brilliant Brandwidth team.

Here’s the link to take you directly to the voting screen, just double check the drop-down box shows ‘Other’ and the text contains the hashtag #Innovation (plus your reason for voting for me of course). We can do this! 

Add your vote! < THIS IS THE REALLY IMPORTANT LINK TO VOTE

If you need more convincing, here’s the campaign video featuring Brandwidth’s Star Wars Scene Maker app for Lucasfilm, the incredible Maleficent multi-touch book for Disney, the Bernhoft Islander HD music app, my TEDx Athens 4D app experience and my Oculus Rift Light Saber battle with Apptain America at Silicon Beach.

Oh, and Olivia and Hattie in their own virtual worlds…

To add even more depth, here’s the summary of my Shorty Awards Interview and my thoughts following defeat in New York last year.

Thanks!

Rise of the Machines

Robots: Who doesn't love the idea of a humanoid personal assistant with artificial intelligence, laser eyes and the ability to preempt your every move? No, wait…

2015 is the year of wearable technology, right? No, that was last year. This year wearable tech beds in and gets on with the real job in hand. The 2015 buzz surrounds robots of all shapes and sizes.

Yesterday, I caught up with Aldebaran at CES, a French company making big waves in the android marketplace. That’s ‘android’ with a small ‘A’. I first met NAO in Poland last month and loved the playful approach Aldebaran had taken to developing their first consumer robot.

Only it isn’t available to consumers yet. 10 years of refinement means developers have been the first to get their hands on the cute little chap to hone interaction and push boundaries for commercial markets. He currently responds to a set list of commands but this is then extended by the user with AI kicking in as he learns new and exciting ways to respond.

The limb articulation is particularly impressive. If you push NAO over, he struggles back to his feet in a truly human fashion. This where it all begins to get a little weird. The mere act of pushing him over makes you catch your breath, as if actually bullying a small child. You feel bad about having performed this action, merely to see see how he’ll react. And so begins the human/humanoid relationship.

Aldebaran have some exciting products in the pipeline, including Romeo, a personal assistant and companion for the medical and care industry. Humanoid robots with character can play a vital role in this area, with NAO already used in hospitals to aid rehabilitation and put children at ease in an intimidating environment.

I spoke with a number of other fascinating robotic manufacturers at CES but the tiniest was Ozobot, a cute little droid that (in their words) “teaches robotics and coding through fun, creative and social games”. I love the use of physical and digital inputs – in its simplest form, providing a pen or pixel line for Ozobot to follow across paper and tablet. The manufacturers picked up a raft of awards at CES – deservedly so.

This market isn’t just for startups, Google went on a buying spree in 2014 and their ownership of robotics companies is now in double figures. Automotive manufacturers have been at this game for years. Honda and Toyota are particularly hot in this area, as Mercedes and Audi up their game at CES with autonomous cars – that kinda makes the whole car a robot!

Amazon is another big player entering the arena. They’re offering us the chance to purchase our own personal assistant, Echo, useful and worrying in equal measures – especially with its ‘always listening’ approach.

Window cleaning robots, digital sandwich board cyborgs and tiny printer droids – Vegas was wall-to-wall automatons.

Of course, robots come in all shapes and sizes, with drones also falling into this category. Now everyone wants a drone before they get legislated out of existence so grab one while you can!

If 2015 wasn’t kicking off with a big enough buzz around robots, just wait for the season climax with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in December. These are the droids you are looking for.

Wearables: The Whole Package

The 2014 wearable marketplace offered a random scattergun approach to product development. Tech-biased, fashion-biased, bracelets, watches, clips and headgear all vied for the same ground without any apparent strategy other than to get there first in the rush to the front. At CES, ‘wearables’ are bigger than ever.

I’ve written a lot about mobile, wearable technology and digital content, but I don't just sit around talking about it. At Brandwidth, we help to shape the stuff, create incredible digital experiences and tell the world about it.

When all the boxes haven’t been ticked, this makes me angry. Startups, growing brands and global giants are all guilty of this. Applying the word ‘smart’ to something doesn’t automatically make it smart and even when it is, often the implementation, narrative and marketing isn’t. Quite frankly, it’s inexcusable.

Over the past year, I have been testing a number of VR and AR platforms, including Oculus Rift, Zeiss ONE VR and Samsung’s Gear VR. Rift still owns the field and was not only the first established player in this current VR reboot but has Facebook $s to back this up. They’re doing a great job and taking their time but the product is a long way from consumer’s hands. Or is it?

Actually, Rift technology is lurking inside Samsung’s Gear VR and it’s a great product that's available now, with full mobility (none of Rift’s own cabling to contend with) and a new Milk VR store. But wait, the website’s a mess, littered with typos and poor UI and none of the gloss associated with Apple’s products or even rival Zeiss ONE VR. Ironically, there's a much better representation of Gear VR on the Oculus website.

It’s just not good enough. The website can’t be an afterthought, it’s a vital portal to the products and for many the first contact with the brand. Perception is everything in a virtual world so why sell yourself short?

It’s not all about the branding. Brands need to get their stories straight if they’re going to convince us to part with more money for devices that we’re not even sure we need.

Until we’re offered genuine digital convergence, each device must fit seamlessly into our lives and play nicely with all our existing technology.

The rest of the VR and AR field is wide open and I’ve tested some incredible products at CES this year. Ones that really stood out included the latest version of Oculus Rift – Crescent Bay. The new model features 3D audio, is much lighter, has only one tethered wire, extraordinary spacial recognition for head movements and a massive step forward in screen resolution. The demos I tried were so good that the increased quality was enough to feel as if you were really there, rather than merely experiencing a great piece of tech.

I also tried the Sulon Cortex. This provides an extraordinary mix of VR and AR by using an external camera to display surroundings, then overlaying digital content until you ‘step into’ the full VR environment. This Canadian start up is currently flying below the radar as they establish solid R&D before hitting consumers. Definitely one to watch.

My final pick of the headgear wearables is the Recon Jet. More Canadian tech, but with a sports bias. Their Google Glass-beating technology is already featured in snow goggles but the headset I’ve been waiting (a long time) for is a much sleeker unit and one of the first pairs of tech glasses not to make the wearer look an idiot. They hit the market next month. More when I have my own pair…

VR and AR has incredible potential for entertainment, sport, automotive, museums and er, the sex industry, but what about the rest of the wearables market? It’s huge (like CES itself) and I’m not writing about it all here. I’ve covered VR, AR and glasses. I’ll tackle the rest next week!

CES 2015: Dawn of the DumbWatch

In many respects, 2014 was like 2009 for the tech industry. In 2009 we found ourselves bombarded with tablet concepts, 2014 pebble-dashed consumers with ill-conceived smartwatches.

Five years ago, all the talk was about Apple’s forthcoming tablet and CES 2010 was full of Android devices rushing to beat Apple to market. The iPad was officially revealed the week after the tech world left Vegas and launched the following April.

We didn’t witness an immediate stand-off between Apple and Android, the battle lines were drawn between the 80+ tablets revealed at CES, with a fight to the death.

So, here we are at the Consumer Electronics Show 2015, with wall-to-wall ‘Wearable Technology’ or ‘Wearables’ and the smartwatch is king. Or is it? Well, Apple isn’t here again. They’re not saving money, they just have a valid point to make – everyone’s talking about the the Apple Watch anyway.

I’ve been testing a selection of so-called smartwatches to destruction for the past 18 months and the conclusion is that they’re actually pretty dumb.

I’m not going to review each one in depth – I’ve done that enough either here or on the BBC but none of them tick all the boxes they should. They even have an issue with branding: From the cheekily named ‘i’m Watch’, to the ridiculous ‘LG G Watch R’ and ‘HP MB Chronowing’, to the rather more obvious ‘Sony Smartwatch’ and Will.i.am’s anti-watch, the ‘Puls’. It’s easy to see why Apple went with ‘Apple Watch’. Who knows if we’ll ever discover the truth about why they didn’t run with ‘iWatch’.

Here’s a quick personal checklist for each watch:

i’m Watch

+ Early to market brownie points – and the cheek of a name so close to ‘iWatch’

– Naive product and interactive design, it just doesn’t work (first two died within weeks) and wasn’t waterproof

Sony Smartwatch 2

+ Sony have been dabbling with smartwatches for years, there’s a Smartwatch 3 now, using generic Android Wear UI, but I don’t think the product design is as attractive as this steel model. Good battery life thanks to the low power screen with time-only sleep mode and single screen tap to illuminate. Waterproof

– The on-screen experience is a mess and feels old.

UPDATE: Smartwatch 3 Steel Edition tested at CES – a really nice looking quality watch that goes to the top of my Android Wear list. Also, a new range of strap and face combinations to launch next month.

Cogito Classic

+ Extra marks for making an attractive watch in a range if colours, with analogue hands and an illuminated circular screen. Breaks from the smartwatch mainstream and works with both Android and iOS smartphones

– My latest model has died, leaving working analogue hands but no screen. A new software update is expected to add connected home functionality.

UPDATE: A replacement watch is on the way but a stylish new model launched at CES looks interesting. More when I get my hands on one...

LG G Watch R

+ LG also have a smartwatch track record. This latest circular model improves on past attempts, with 2+ days battery life from an always-on time display. Measures biometric data (heart rate, steps taken + personal goals). Waterproof

– The overall product design is poor and feels cheap – especially when faced with the superior visual appeal of the Moto 360

HP Michael Bastian Chronowing

+ Finally, a smartwatch that genuinely focuses on quality design and materials, that works with Android AND iOS. The partnership between fashion designer Michael Bastian and tech giant HP should have been a perfect match. No, wait…

– …despite a beautiful presentation box holding three different straps (brown leather, olive mesh and black rubber) they are very difficult to change – unlike the fast-swap system on the Apple Watch, designed to improve the experience AND encourage additional strap purchase.

Also, the Chronowing is blighted by a poor on-screen user experience: No biometric data or motion detection, the text is too small, screen illumination requires a 3 second press and hold of one physical button, Bluetooth has a habit of disconnecting (although this has improved) and the magnet in my charging cradle isn't strong enough to stay attached to the watch. HP is on the case and a new charger is on its way to my hotel in Vegas, with better instructions for strap changing. I'll reserve final judgement.

UPDATE: The new re-designed charger has arrived. It now contains a stronger magnet and attaches without issue. Bluetooth is now stable and stays connected to my iPhone 6.

Will.i.am’s Puls Smart Cuff

It hasn’t arrived yet. I’ll tell you what it’s like to live with very soon…

A watch must deliver the time for at least 24 hours, look good, feel comfortable and not require compromise or extra effort. It must also offer information at-a-glance. These are the basics, like a book offering words or a film moving images and sound. Don’t attempt to enhance something if you can’t get the basics right. Which one am I wearing today? The Chronowing (despite all its faults) as it’s still a conversation starter.

Apple has a chance to tick boxes where others have failed, but they first need to convince an audience that abandoned watches for smartphones with clocks that they actually need one now.

In 2010 99% of iPad owners didn’t think they needed a tablet, but Steve Jobs made a compelling case and developers stepped up to create amazing content (including Brandwidth on day 1). The Apple Watch won’t be such an easy sell, Steve’s no longer around and success is measured on shifting more units than the last ‘big thing’.

Stop viewing smartwatches as standalone items and think of them as the small screen for the bigger screens and they have a future, just not the ones I’ve been wearing.