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Samsung Also Making a Smartwatch
New submitter evansspann sends word that Samsung will be making a smartwatch. Rumors have been swirling for a few months that Apple is working on a 'watch-like' device, but Samsung's CEO was willing to confirm that his company is working on such a product. "We've been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them." The companies are now likely racing to be the first to market. Production of such a device will likely be easier for Samsung, since it can produce its own screens and chips. It's also likely to work well with the popular Galaxy Phone lines. However, it will have a tougher time with app distribution than Apple, since it doesn't control Google Play the way Apple controls the App Store. "Apple's critics like to say the company's ideas are obvious, but as some pundits have noted, those very ideas once seemed unimaginable. The smartwatch will be a great test for that theory. It'll be interesting to see if Samsung can strike first in a nascent category and still rival Apple's work."
I have a feeling this is going to be downvoted because it happens to be the first post and people will think I'm just posting for that reason, but I totally misread this title as "Samsung also making a sandwich". Maybe someone sexist jerk told them to get in the kitchen, and they took it to heart?
Can't wait to see all old ideas re-patented by adding the language "on a watch".
I'm pretty sure Casio introduced the smartwatch back in '70s.
This makes me suspect that Apple deliberately started rumors that they were working on a "smartwatch" simply to trick other companies into wasting effort into actually developing such a useless product.
Reminds me of a watch a friend had before the days of bluetooth/wifi. To sync your calendar, you held it up to a computer that flashed barcodes on screen which the watch read. Not sure how much practical use he got out of the thing, but was definitely cool to watch.
if you look carefully, you can see the Samsung founder Stefan Jobes wearing a smartwatch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YciM_54HzZk
IIRC, didn't Dick Tracy have a two-way wrist radio back in the 60's? And the "Search" [nee "Probe"] TV series had a tricorder-like device [they called a "scanner"] that could fit on top of an agent's ring.
So, such things were imagined just not realized. Just getting the prior art out there before the youngster lawyers start claiming so-and-so company invented the concept.
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
James Bond is a poser. I've wanted one since Dick Tracy.
Now get off my lawn, kid!
Have gnu, will travel.
It will be a fashion statement. Though, I personally think it could be a handy little gadget if they simply make it compliment the phone rather than fail at duplicating functions. Display caller id, allow answering calls, function as a bluetooth speaker phone, display alerts so you dont have to pull your phone out of your pocket to find out that no, someone is not texting you, there is an update angry birds, control your music player, and heck, even display the current time.
I could see it as useful, but not exceptionally so. It should appeal to gadget folk. The real trick will be making it smart enough but simple.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Dick Tracy cites prior art!
You'll be able to jailbreak the Samsung smart watch, load a new kernel, hell, even compile your own kernel ON THE WATCH using a complete Gnu tool chain. And you won't have to go to some curated app store to get apps for the Samsung watch. You can get 'em from anywhere. For free! How can Apple's walled garden compete with that? Samsung FTW!
An internet connected wearable spice rack for your arms. Welcome to the world of the future.
An iWatch would be a fashion accessory just like iPods and IPhones are fashion accessories, an iPad is just a digital purse.
(and Andriod tablets are digital cargo pants, while Surface tablets are digital fannypacks.)
I had one of those too, the Timex DataLink series. It depended on the CRT flickering to perform a one-way sync of basic PIM data. This of course didn't work on LCDs or systems like NT where the level of control over the display Timex needed was unavailable, so they also had a serial-based gizmo that flashed a LED to do the same job.
I got mine in 1998 or so and used it as a watch until the plastic body of the watch fell apart some time in 2004. The PIM function hadn't been usable to me for a few years as I'd switched to NT in XP form when it came out, but I'd had a Palm m100 since 2001 so that wasn't really a big deal.
I'd like a modern take on the smart watch, even after getting the Palm I liked having a basic info set available wherever I went. A good "home screen" could put a lot of useful information at a glance without needing to pull your device out of your pocket. Calendar, incoming messages, caller ID, etc. I could see being very useful. Give it an e-paper display for massive battery life and I'm interested.
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
Yes, lots of people still wear watches. smart phones are just smart pocket watches now days. But to check the time a wrist watch is faster. I prefer analogue mechanical watches, that way I do not have to worry about batteries since I have so many. I do have a digital watch is though solar pathfinder by casio that I use when I go hiking to keep track of the altitude changes and to predict the weather. And in my opinion Analogue is better starting a coutdown just requires a quick rotate of the bezel. I also have a watch that has a slide ruler I rotate it and can do complex calculations really quick. I also use a analogue mechanical watch to keep time when I go diving. And the best feature is that a good watch can get you laid.
This feels a lot like history might be repeating itself here.
Anyone remember the ill-fated CrunchPad? Public announcement preceded that of the ipad, but for a bunch of reasons it never amounted to much while the Ipad took off and even Apple's competitors did better than how the crunchpad ended up.
Now we have the Pebble Watch which actually did make it to market (despite many unforseen delays) before the iwatch and other competitors (I think sony has a crappy smartwatch, but it is crappy). Even so it is immature with only modest software functionality at the moment.
Meanwhile all the chatter gives the impression Apple and others have got their own versions coming real soon now. Maybe its just FUD to scare people into wait-and-see on Pebble instead of going out and buying one right now. Or maybe there really is something good right around the corner that will clobber Pebble.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
As a wise man once said ...
Charlie: Okay, the reason why men say hot girl at, like, 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock, is to specify a location using the clock face as a kind of a map.
Jake: What if you have a digital watch?
Charlie: First of all, you're not gonna meet any women if you wear a digital watch. Second of all, it doesn't matter; the clock face is imaginary.
Jake: Then how do you know what time you saw the girl?
Charlie: Oh, my God!
Timex Datalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink, altough I woulld have loved to have that one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Wrist_PDA
I've got better things to do tonight than die.