{"id":239,"date":"2014-07-18T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/?p=239"},"modified":"2014-07-18T08:56:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T13:56:13","slug":"your-smartphone-is-the-brain-everything-else-is-an-appendage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"Your Smartphone is the Brain, Everything Else is an Appendage"},"content":{"rendered":"

At their I\/O conference, Google announced Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV. \u00a0As I watched the series of announcements, I was struck with this metaphor: your smartphone is the brain, and everything else is an appendage<\/strong>. \u00a0Your watch will give you notifications at a glance and take voice commands, but it’s really just funneling that data back to your phone. Android Auto will bring navigation and music control into your car’s dashboard, but it’s just mirroring the maps and music streams from your phone. \u00a0Android TV will play movies and search through IMDB, but your phone is the remote control.<\/p>\n

All Five Senses (well, 3 out of 5 ain’t bad!)<\/h3>\n

Our brain doesn’t see or feel or move us directly. \u00a0It processes a signals from my nose that smell bacon, then sends signals back out to my legs that say “I want to go to there” and I start walking. \u00a0Likewise, my phone doesn’t track my steps, it’s using a sensor in an Android Wear device to log that info, then relay it back to the phone to make sense of it. \u00a0Then the phone\/brain can say “well, it’s 6PM and you’ve only walked 6,000 steps today, it’s sunny and 75, so grab the dogs and go for a walk.” \u00a0It sends out a notification that interrupts me browsing Instagram and gets me moving.<\/p>\n

We have virtually replicated three of the senses; we have cameras (sight), microphones (sound), and touchscreens (touch). \u00a0Our phones have sensors for all three, and these appendage devices tend to have at least two.<\/p>\n

Input & Output<\/h3>\n

I got on board the Android train back with the G1, and I remember thinking how powerful this device was, even with that rough first-gen hardware. \u00a0In the office I was working on a simulator for a $25,000 drone platform for the Marine Corps, but for a couple hundred bucks I had just bought a computer fully integrated with a fast internet connection, location and orientation and acceleration sensors, hi-res E\/O sensor (you’d call this a camera), proximity sensor, 2D touch sensor, and keyboard. \u00a0I could read the signals from all of these sensors, process them however I wanted, then feed signals back out using the display, LED lights, vibration, or sound.<\/p>\n

Since then phones have added a few more inputs (fingerprint sensors, heart rate monitors, multiple cameras for 3D). \u00a0What we saw at I\/O was a proliferation of these. \u00a0Android Wear adds inputs (voice, step counter, wrist motion, heart rate, touch) and outputs (display & vibration on your wrist). \u00a0Android Auto uses your car’s display and audio system for I\/O. \u00a0Android TV uses your existing TV to add a 50″ display to your smartphone.<\/p>\n

Why these new Appendages Matter<\/h3>\n

Some of these might seem like minor additions (why do I need a display on my wrist when my phone is right in my pocket?), but the power is in the context. \u00a0If I’m bored in the office, sure, I don’t mind pulling out my phone and reading through a stream. \u00a0But if I’m driving a car, looking down at my phone is a seriously dangerous distraction. \u00a0If, instead, I can tell my wrist “OK Google, navigate to my next meeting”, without taking my eyes of the road, we’ve enabled the brains of your smartphone to help in a new context where the smartphone itself can’t get the job done.<\/p>\n

This may not be as life-changing as the jump from features phones to smart phones, but it is still an improvement.<\/p>\n

Flipping the Network<\/h3>\n

I once worked in a lab where they wanted any user to be able to sit at any computer and start working. \u00a0So I was issued a hardware token (think of a smart card, or a USB plug – holding my private key) that I could plug into a computer; it would recognize me, load in my environment and preferences, and I could pick up working wherever I left off. \u00a0The central brain was in a server room, but I could use whatever computer was in front of me for I\/O. \u00a0With Android, we’re flipping that around. \u00a0I can still use whatever device is handy for I\/O, whether that’s my watch, my TV, my car; but now the central brain is sitting in my pocket with the phone, rather than in a server room.<\/p>\n

So What<\/h3>\n

My point is that these new appendages shouldn’t be viewed on their own. They’re not replacements; you’re not going to get rid of your phone when you get a new watch. \u00a0Instead, the watch becomes additional input and output for your phone. \u00a0So don’t think of the watch’s utility as a watch, think of what it can do as extra I\/O for your phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At their I\/O conference, Google announced Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV. \u00a0As I watched the series of announcements, I was struck with this metaphor: your smartphone is the brain, and everything else is an appendage. \u00a0Your watch will give you notifications at a glance and take voice commands, but it’s really just funneling … Continue reading “Your Smartphone is the Brain, Everything Else is an Appendage”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jebware.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}