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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."

9 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Another easy to misread title by neminem · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?

    1. Re:Another easy to misread title by swanzilla · · Score: 4, Funny

      sudo make me a smartwatch

  2. Casio by WillgasM · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure Casio introduced the smartwatch back in '70s.

  3. Apple misdirection? by gman003 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  4. Re:James Bond by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    James Bond is a poser. I've wanted one since Dick Tracy.

    Now get off my lawn, kid!

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. Samsung's smart watch will crush the iWatch by TimHunter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!

  6. Re:battery? Phone talking? by Kaenneth · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.)

  7. Re:"Nascent"? by wolrahnaes · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  8. Re:I for one... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can't wait to see all old ideas re-patented by adding the language "on a watch".

    Not likely. In its 2007 ruling in KSR vs Teleflex, the Supreme Court made these "combination patents" invalid.