Samsung Smartwatch announced

[wodin]

I'm old enough to remember the first digital watches. They were made by Pulsar, who incidentally is still in business, and had bright red LED displays. In order to conserve battery life you had to push a button to light up the display. What a PITA that was, just to see what time it was was a two handed operation, and sometimes two hands just weren’t available, as my right hand was sometimes busy doing something else.

So here we go again, if we learn anything from history it’s that we don’t! There is no way an OLED screen can be always on and have that tiny battery last all day. So what’s the answer? Pebble has an always on B/W e-paper display and Qualcomm TOQ has an always on color Mirasol display. As I said before, the pebble is half the price of the Gear, and the TOQ is expected to come in at about the same price.

I believe I’ll be waiting for the dust to settle.

[tubemonkey]

I won't get a smartwatch until they have a matching smartring. Before I exert the energy to look my watch, I want to know if the incoming is worth it. A ring could tell me if it's a text, email, voice, pic, etc. If it's something I want to see, I'll flip my wrist to look at it. Then I'll decide if it's important enough for me to really expend the energy to reach all the way into my pocket to retrieve my phone.

...technology is so exhausting

Originally Posted by wodin

I'm old enough to remember the first digital watches. They were made by Pulsar, who incidentally is still in business, and had bright red LED displays. In order to conserve battery life you had to push a button to light up the display. What a PITA that was, just to see what time it was was a two handed operation, and sometimes two hands just weren’t available, as my right hand was sometimes busy doing something else.

So here we go again, if we learn anything from history it’s that we don’t! There is no way an OLED screen can be always on and have that tiny battery last all day. So what’s the answer? Pebble has an always on B/W e-paper display and Qualcomm TOQ has an always on color Mirasol display. As I said before, the pebble is half the price of the Gear, and the TOQ is expected to come in at about the same price.

I believe I’ll be waiting for the dust to settle.

I remember those RED LED watches too. Never got one though. I also remember the first black LED watches. If you exposed them to sunlight the whole screen turned black. After they cooled off they returned to normal. Needless to say it was not a good watch for outdoors in the Texas sun!

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I won't get a smartwatch until they have a matching smartring. Before I exert the energy to look my watch, I want to know if the incoming is worth it. A ring could tell me if it's a text, email, voice, pic, etc. If it's something I want to see, I'll flip my wrist to look at it. Then I'll decide if it's important enough for me to really expend the energy to reach all the way into my pocket to retrieve my phone.

...technology is so exhausting

LMAOROFL!! I want to be even lazier than that. How about eyeglasses that flash the caller ID on the lens via HUD!

[kevinp]

Originally Posted by wodin

I'm old enough to remember the first digital watches. They were made by Pulsar, who incidentally is still in business, and had bright red LED displays. In order to conserve battery life you had to push a button to light up the display. What a PITA that was, just to see what time it was was a two handed operation, and sometimes two hands just weren’t available, as my right hand was sometimes busy doing something else.

I had a watch like that, only it was a Star Wars watch (I doubt made by Pulsar). It was gray with a red LCD. I was just a kid back in the 70's and Star Wars had just come out.

The batteries (plural) lasted about three months, depending on how much I pressed the buttons.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by jswinden

LMAOROFL!! I want to be even lazier than that. How about eyeglasses that flash the caller ID on the lens via HUD!

Well, I guess that would be OK, so long as I didn't have to move my eyeball or refocus.

[kevinp]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Same here; only we have much different tastes in beauty

This is what I wear everyday.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It saves you from having to reach all the way into your pocket to look at your phone. Life's short enough without wasting needless energy doing so

I would agree, but...
A $300 accessory to a $400(?) smartphone...

I'd say the price needs to be closer to $99, if not lower, or a purely standalone toy.

I'm getting flashes of the Beagle, here.
(All three versions.)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kevinp

This is what I wear everyday.

I'm impressed.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by kevinp

This is what I wear everyday.

I heart Mickey Mouse because he's the symbol of ever increasing copyright extensions

[wodin]

Originally Posted by kevinp

I had a watch like that, only it was a Star Wars watch (I doubt made by Pulsar). It was gray with a red LCD. I was just a kid back in the 70's and Star Wars had just come out.

The batteries (plural) lasted about three months, depending on how much I pressed the buttons.

Yup, the Pulsar was first and they cost an arm and a leg, and perhaps another arm too. They were like half the price of a Rolex. Then someone else (Casio?) came out with one in a black plastic case with a rubber strap for a reasonable price, but still not cheap.

Pretty soon the market was flooded with all kinds of cheap Mickey Mouse and Star Wars watches. Regardless, they still had the red battery hogging LEDs. About a year later someone made a black on grey LCD watch that was always on except, as someone said, they turned black in bright sunlight.

The point is that with an analog watch with real hands, you just had to glance at it and you knew what time it was. If you had to reach over with your other hand and push a button to turn it on you might as well just pull out a pocket watch. Same today, except the pocket watch is now a cell phone, and the smart watch needs to be always on to be very much more useful than that.`

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by wodin

I'm old enough to remember the first digital watches. They were made by Pulsar, who incidentally is still in business, and had bright red LED displays. In order to conserve battery life you had to push a button to light up the display.

I remember those. I also remember the Saturday Night Live model:
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/31/ny...cs-117635.html

...a watch commercial that appeared on an early ''Saturday Night Live,'' in which they demonstrated the simplicity of using a multifunction digital watch? ''Just push the top right button while holding in the button on the bottom left,'' the ad instructed. ''Then, while holding in the top right and bottom left buttons'' - a third hand appeared and the voice-over continued - ''just tap the upper left button twice.'' A fourth hand appeared. ''And tap the lower right button. Now, your watch is set.''

[calvin-c]

One problem with most of these complaints is the assumption that you'll carry your phone in your pocket. And which pocket? I carry mine in my shirt pocket as I'd break it if I carried it in my rear pocket & it's virtually impossible to get it out of my front pants pocket when I'm sitting down. Frankly I'd prefer to carry it buttoned in so it won't fall out but few shirt pockets have button flaps. So I can see a limited use for this (not at this price point) if you keep your phone buttoned into your shirt/coat pocket where it's safe. (Not sure that a coat pocket is all that safe, again it depends on which pocket. I had an early PDA in my coat side pocket when I hung my coat over the back of my rolling chair. The edges trailed on the ground-so when I rolled my chair back from my desk, crack-that was the end of that PDA, and the end of my carrying things in the side pocket of my coat.) When I wear suits I often carry my phone in my inside pocket-not the easiest place to get it out of just to find out I got a junk call.

[wodin]

I used to carry mine in my shirt pocket until it took a dive into the cat's water dish one day. Don't do that any more.

In Hawaii we hardly ever wear a jacket or coat, so it's my front trousers pocket. I almost aways wear dress slacks to work, so the pockets are fairly loose. On weekends it's cargo shorts so there are plenty pockets.

[pl001]

The more I think about this watch, the more I think it was just a knee-jerk reaction by Samsung to get something on the market once they heard Apple was coming out with one. The rushed it out without really giving any thought as to what would make it useful.

Not surprising from Samsung though. They may be a powerhouse of cutting edge technologies and manufacturing, but they have never been very good at executing original ideas.