Tick-tock tech: Will Apple Watch dazzle?

It was High Tech Week for the Rapid Response team as members mulled a question about the latest major announcement from Apple.

Here's what we asked:

"The world recently was aflutter about the Apple Watch. Along with offering you 2 million ways to tell time, it is a walkie-talkie, phone, sketch pad, texting, heart rating monitoring, workout and payment device.

"When it starts being sold in 2015, do you think it will become one of the ever-present devices — like the smartphone and the iPod — that we didn't know we needed, but now we do? Or it will remain more of a technological oddity, like Google Glass?"

And here's what they had to say:

If the price is right, it will become a useful device for many.

— Ann Watters, Salem

Wait, I thought our phones were supposed to replace our watches?

— Jason Cox, Salem

Google Glass? I'm still trying to figure out the Crystal Set.

— Tony Weaver, Woodburn

It's a cool device, and it has set the bar a little higher for other smart watches. If, or when, Apple get the price below $150, I'm sure it will sell like mad.

But as a friend pointed out, it's strictly for right-handed people. Lefties will have a hard time operating it.

— David Thompson, Salem

The Apple Watch and Google Glass are just the beginning of integrating the human experience with technology. They are only a foreshadowing of things to come. They will lead to great and important gadgets.

However, we will risk becoming too dependent upon them and the inevitable unintended consequences.

– Loren Wright, Salem

We've been heading down the Dick Tracy design path for a long time. I look forward to trying the watch but, with my fading eyesight, I'm not sure I'm a buyer. I might need to wait for the BCI (Brain Computer Interface).

— Richard Pine, Salem

Probably an oddity, but the day will soon come when we never have to interact face-to-face and we will only need to utilize devices for communication and information-gathering. Then, the final triumph — reproduction will take place between devices.

– David Haber, Salem

All these "new" ideas for so called phones, notebooks, whatever, all they do is make the rich richer and give some money-hungry mongrel another way to get into your pocketbook. I do just fine without them.

— Kent Wilson, Salem

There will be some people who will just have to own one of these, but I believe that it will never achieve the status of the iPod or the smart phone.

— Michael A. Kammer, Turner

'Tis has been said that if a man builds a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to his door.

I doubt that the Apple Watch will be that mousetrap.

— Chet Zenone, Salem

As I find a cell-phone that just makes and receives calls adequate for my needs, I wonder why all the bells and whistles are needed in everyday life. I suppose that is an old guy's response.

— Jim Jaqua, Keizer

I love technology, but I'm not interested in Apple Watch. There are too many features and I think it will be just another expensive gadget.

– Janet Rogers, Turner

I don't need a cell phone, let alone a watch that turns into a walkie-talkie or lets me draw, but since it's Apple, people automatically think they need it. I can't see it becoming a popular thing.

— Tina Blacksmith, Salem

I have enough trouble just using my smartphone. I can't imagine trying to wade through all those things to find the one I want to use. Keep it simple!

— Emily Duerfeldt, McMinnville

I don't sense the Apple Watch becoming widespread like the iPhone. There are enough distractions with all the gadgets we have now, and another one would likely send some people over the edge.

— Harold Hans, Salem

For some people it will most definitely be a "gotta have" device, for actual use, and maybe even more for social status. I'm usually a generation behind such tech advances. But when the time comes, expect a whole lot of people camping out at stores dying to glom on to that latest toy.

– Woody Tiernan, Dallas

The watch is most likely too small to be used for all the activity available through it. Additionally, other devices can perform the same functions, which make it simply repetitious. Too much of a good thing.

– Navarro Faircloth, Salem

The Apple watch will eventually be very popular after the kinks are worked out from the first model and a few things added. It will eventually have a built-in GPS that will allow my wife to direct me home from wherever I am lost.

— Chuck Sides, Salem

The Apple Watch, along with Google Glass, is a necessary technologic development toward seamless human computer integration but I don't believe the watch will be a successful retail end product. Too many functions in a too small device.

– Gary Kertz, Salem

I doubt highly that I'll be getting the Apple Watch any time soon. It just astounds me how some people can be so transported by the release of the latest trinket from Apple. To me, it's just another annoyance in an already cluttered life.

– Dorian Atkins, Salem