Shaq at SXSW: I want 50 iWatches
- Shaq has 8 million Twitter followers and 4.3 million fans on Facebook
- He wears a Fitbit
AUSTIN — Former basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal is a geek.
He said so himself in a conversation with USA TODAY here at the South by Southwest festival.
"I'm a nerd. I like seeing new technology."
He came to SXSW to speak on a panel about wearable technology, and to explore fun new cool stuff on the show floor, he told us.
In our interview, he was wearing a Fitbit device on his wrist, which monitors your steps to help you keep track of your exercise regimen.
"I walked into Best Buy one day, and saw this thing" and was inspired to buy it, he told us.
Now he uses it to keep to his goal of walking at least 10,000 steps daily.
We asked O'Neal what he thought the next great wearable technology would be, and he didn't flinch. He's not only excited about Apple's rumored iWatch, "I plan to buy 50 of them."
When a new product comes out that he loves, "I always buy 50 of them."
Most recently, that included 50 of the iPhone 5S when it was released in 2013. "I have 6 children, and they require two each. I have 20 people working for me." He gives away the others.
He always goes out with two phones in his pocket — the iPhone and the Sony Xperia Z. He likes the thinness of the Z and the camera, and has both phones because "one's personal, and the other's for business."
Ar SXSW, beyond his panel, O'Neal also beat the drum on the trade show floor for Chicago-based Tip Solutions, a company trying to find a new way to answer phone calls. O'Neal is an investor in the firm, which has a new app for Android phones, CallSnap.
With the app installed, instead of not answering, you can snap a photo of you doing something — while on the phone, to show the caller that you're busy.
"The way we've been answering the phone has been the same for 50 years," he says. "You either accept it or reject it." There's got to be a better way, he adds, suggesting that the new app could be it.
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