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"  I have the wrists of a lady. (I am not a lady.) So, to be fair, nearly any watch looks strange on my arm. But Samsung&amp;#039;s new smart watch, the [below left] Galaxy Gear ($300; samsung.com), looks more like a house-arrest bracelet than a timepiece. Every time my shirt cuff slides up, people notice the watch. They notice it in a bad way, and they tend to make fun of me, usually with beep-boop noises and mock concern about where I misplaced my glasses. Which explains why the week I planned on testing the Gear turned into 12 hours. The test was an attempt to get on board with the newest trend in tech: smart watches. In the last few months (or even a year, depending on the nerdiness of your friends), people around you probably have been talking about smart watches, which conveniently put all the great functions we get from our phones on our wrists. Samsung and Sony released new versions this fall. Google is rumored to be releasing one soon, and Apple is probably perfecting something around cups of Kool-Aid in a Cupertino bunker right now. The future, at least in terms of smart watches, looks to be here. But do we really want it? Considering the works of art some watches can be, the Gear has a long way to go in terms of design. It&amp;#039;s nerdy\u2014an awkward mix of industrial and modern. There&amp;#039;s a 1.6-inch metal display and a built-in camera that puckers out like a wart on the band (although it does let you easily take pictures and 15-second videos). You have some input on the look, including customizable band colors, background colors, and display information\u2014anything from the weather to your next appointment. In terms of functions, when you get a call the watch vibrates and shows the caller. You can either take the call from the watch itself, talking into your wrist, or respond with a prewritten text. Incoming texts pop up with a buzz, and you can write back via S Voice, the Samsung voice-recognition software. The ability to read e-mail is the most useful feature, providing a short preview of the message\u2014although there&amp;#039;s no way to write back. For now, the Gear works with only a few Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S III and S 4, and the Galaxy Note. I also tested the [below right] Sony SmartWatch 2 ($200; sony.com), which has the same size screen, is more sleekly designed, and uses a softer, more comfortable strap. As the number 2 at the end of its name implies, the SmartWatch is an update of an earlier (basically unknown) device, so Sony&amp;#039;s had a little more time to work out the kinks. It&amp;#039;s also had a lot more time to build up its app store, which is nice, although most are little more than rudimentary versions of a full phone app.  Although the Sony design is superior, I found it less intuitive. Unlike the Gear, which wakes automatically when you raise your arm, the Sony requires you to push the power button to activate the touchscreen. And instead of allowing you to go back in the menu with a swipe of the screen, as the Gear does, the SmartWatch has you use less convenient home and back buttons, similar to those on most Android phones. The problem with smart watches as they currently exist is that they derive from the future we imagined, not the future we will actually use. It&amp;#039;s probably safe to say that nothing we came up with in comic books or cartoons (other than unrealistic body proportions) should ever find its way into real life. The Jetsons had cars that folded into briefcases; we ended up with the silly folding bikes in SkyMall catalogs. Just because you enjoyed Get Smart doesn&amp;#039;t mean you want to take a phone call with your shoe. And it&amp;#039;s not as if anyone&amp;#039;s running around in the clothes from Logan&amp;#039;s Run. On the other hand, in 2007, Apple put the Internet in our pockets. We didn&amp;#039;t expect it\u2014Batman never booked movie tickets on his phone\u2014but now we use it every day. Unfortunately, the same can&amp;#039;t be said for smart watches. At least not yet. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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