LET'S SEE. What could be more rude than reading an email or text message on your iPhone or iPad when you're in a meeting or out to dinner?

Why, reading that same email or text on your Apple iWatch! Because for as long as there have been watches, looking at them has been the international language that says: "For the love of God, shut your yap and let me get out of here." This actually can be traced back to sundials.

Therefore using an iWatch may require people to explain: "Sorry, I'm not checking the time, I'm looking at a very, very important picture of a puppy on Facebook. Please go on."

For now, though, the idea is cresting a buzz even though the iWatch is just a rumor and not a terribly innovative one. In recent years thousands of Apple fans have strapped iPod Nanos to their wrists and used them as smart watches.

And one pretty interesting new "smart watch" that's more than a rumor--the Pebble, which will connect to iPhones and Android phones via Bluetooth--is set to launch this year. Apps will allow users to change the Pebble's appearance and add endless functions.

The Pebble will--and if there is one, the iWatch would--employ voice control software like Siri to initiate most functions.

But really. Is it that much of an inconvenience to reach into your pocket for your phone? True, there is that exhausting three-foot round trip your hand has to make from a tabletop to that pocket and back. That's a big time-waster.

One of the primary themes at next week's annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which bills itself as "the world's largest innovation event," will be that smartphones are becoming "remote controls for your life," as CNN puts it. More and more features in homes and cars can be controlled via mobile devices.

But the rumor that the iWatch might become a remote control for the remote control of your life is likely to be a prime topic of discussion.

Even though Apple doesn't participate in CES, is almost always seems to manage to cast a long shadow with rumors and speculation about upcoming products.

Look for news from CES about progress toward cars that drive themselves, increased connectivity and new infotainment features in automobiles, more affordable tablets, and a continuing trend toward phones with big screens.

And listen for more than a few rumors.

Michael Zitz: 540/846-5163
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com