iWatch rumored to be coming this year, include calling, maps, health features

Last month iMore learned Apple was going ahead with their "iWatch" wearable computer project, which would theoretically do for watches what the iPhone did for phones. Peter Burrows & Olga Kharif, writing for Bloomberg claim it could be coming as soon as this year, and what's more:

Features under consideration include letting users make calls, see the identity of incoming callers and check map coordinates, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren?t public. It would also house a pedometer for counting steps and sensors for monitoring health-related data, such as heart rates, this person said.

Bloomberg's recapitulates their previous rumor, that Apple has a team of 100 people working on the project, which might sound high but, if accurate, almost certainly includes hardware engineers, hardware designers, user experience and interface designers, marketing people, members of the services team, and basically all points of the Ive, Federighi, Cue, Mansfield, Schiller star.

While Bloomberg also points to the 79 patents for wrist-bound devices, including flexible screens and kinetic charging, historically patents reflect huge fields of ideas, few of which result in recognizable real-world implementations. Apple doesn't like spoilers.

Google, of course, is working on a different kind of wearable technology, the Android-powered Google Glass glasses. I'm interested in both approaches, because I'm a fan of sci-fi and futurism. Which way are you leaning? Computer on your face, or computer on your wrist? And where's my Star Trek iBadge already?

Source: Bloomberg

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