Read all about it: News you can wear
Read all about it: News you can wear
AFP By Rob Lever
Washington (AFP) - Even if you don't open a newspaper,
turn on a television, log on to a computer or pull out a smartphone, you can
get news -- from wearable technology.
As wearables gain traction, news purveyors are eyeing
these devices for their potential to deliver headlines and more to people who
want to stay up to date.
Some news apps already have the capacity to deliver news
notifications, or full articles, to smartwatches or eyewear such as Google
Glass.
"We are going full speed on smartwatches," said
Gilles Raymond, the San Francisco-based chief executive of News Republic, a
mobile app that delivers news to mobile devices from hundreds of outlets.
Raymond told AFP he expects people will find it useful to
get not only headlines but full articles on a smartwatch as the wearable trend
revs up.
"When the iPhone came out, people were saying that
not one would read news on a phone. Now nobody is saying that," said Raymond.
"People will read articles on a watch. They may not
read 300 articles, but people adapt quickly to technology."
Raymond founded News Republic in France and has expanded
to other European markets as well as North America and China, aggregating news
from hundreds of outlets, including AFP, Al-Jazeera, Reuters and The Associated
Press.
Roman Karachinsky, CEO of the news aggregation app
News360, also sees a future for wearables, but mainly for quick notifications
they might not otherwise see.
"We want to change the formula from one where you go
and seek information out to a world where information finds you when it's
relevant and useful," Karachinsky said.
He said the newly introduced Android Wear platform for
Google allows for News360 alerts to be sent to some smartwatches, and to Google
Glass.
These alerts fulfill a need of getting information out
quickly -- whether it is a sports score, stock market action or breaking news
-- in an unobtrusive way.
"Instead of digging around your pocket for your
smartphone, now you can just look at your wrist or glance up to your Google Glass,"
said Karachinsky. "It's a very transformative experience."
- 'Glanceability' -
It remains unclear at the moment how fast wearable
technologies will catch on, and how people will use the devices.
While News Republic's Raymond sees a demand for full
articles, he differs from News360 on Google Glass.
But he said smartwatches may gain more traction when they
become independent of smartphones, allowing people to shed their phones for
some of the time.
Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates,
said news on smartwatches and Google Glass will probably be limited to short
items that can be absorbed in a glance.
"The glanceability of it is important," Kay
said.
"I don't imagine people squinting at their watches
to read articles; they have enough trouble reading on their phones."
Still, Kay noted that "a well-written headline can
encapsulate an entire story."
For news organizations struggling with the transition to
digital, wearables may offer some help, analysts say.
Ken Doctor of the media research firm Outsell said news
organizations may be able to bring in more readers with alerts tailored to
their interests, by delivering through wearables.
Doctor said that major news organizations are now
delivering millions of email alerts on important news for readers who register,
and that this drives more traffic to the websites. The same could be true for
alerts on wearables.
"The news alerts business, which has been around for
20 years, is having a huge revival," he said. "This is a technique
that works because of mobile and smartphones."
Important in this effort is getting readers to register,
to be able to determine the news they want to see -- essentially tracking their
habits using the same techniques as retailers like Amazon or services such as
Netflix.
"People are expecting alerts for news that is
important to them," Doctor said.
"And I would think the ability of wearables to
deliver alerts is very good and that it could spur news reading."
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