Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Working With Suppliers on Designs for Watch-Like Device
An anonymous reader writes with news that Microsoft may be working on a smartwatch. "The modern smartwatch market hardly even exists, and yet it's already starting to feel very crowded. Hot on the heels of plans (official and otherwise) from Apple and Samsung, the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has also been shopping around for parts to build a 'watch-style device.' While details are scarce as to what that would entail, unnamed supplier executives tell the newspaper that Microsoft has been asking for 1.5-inch touchscreens. We wouldn't count on seeing an ultra-small Surface anytime soon, however -- these executives say they've visited Microsoft's campus, but they don't know whether the Windows developer is fully committed to its wrist-worn endeavor or just experimenting. If the project exists at all, of course. Still, there's finally a glimmer of hope for anyone who's still mourning the loss of their beloved SPOT watches."
There was once a smartwatch called the Timex Datalink. I remember when it came out. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink for more information.
I'm wearing a very cheap digital watch right now, and you're probably going to buy two new smartphones before its battery has run out.
That's no argument for a smart watch, but it does demolish your "watches are useless" argument pretty thoroughly.
I completely agree, but last time this topic came up I said something very similar and I apparently underestimated how many 'watch people' hang out here.
The tablet / touch laptop market hasn't been going so well for them, they need a new form factor to botch for Window Blue.
Sigger than your average
I stopped using a watch ten years ago, in favour of my phone. This winter I got myself a new wristwatch, and started wearing them again. The watch can get bumped and scratched without worry, works fine in bad weather, I never have to worry about recharging it. And, I cna check the time without having to pull out my phone, turning it on, the putting it back again.
I fully understand all the people that use a phone as their only time tevice. I did so myself for ten years and was happy with that. But after going back to a wristwatch, I do fully understand the people that prefer that too. To me it really is more convenient than the phone. I also like how it looks on me; that's pretty important too.
With that said, I don't think I'm interested in a _smart_ watch. The point of the wristwatch, to me, is the ruggedness and the simplicitly. A smartwatch seems to throw away exactly those features and become, well, a phone on the wrist. I have a phone already. Safe and secure in a pocket, not out on my wrist.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Arguably, the problem isn't so much that 'nobody wears watches anymore'(though cellphones certainly haven't done them any favors); but nobody wears watches in the market range amenable to technology companies.
You've got your $2 digitals, unexciting but pretty solid at telling time for ages on a teeny little battery, fairly durable, and cheap enough that nobody cries if 'fairly' turns out not to be durable enough. Unless your 'smart watch' plan involves almost no money and almost no power, it'd better do something really cool if it is going to sway people away from these; because these things are cheaper and longer-running than anything 'smart' is going to be.
Then you've got the watches-as-jewelry segment, which spans a wide variety of tastes and price points; but jewelry-style luxury markets are more or less the opposite of what tech companies are good at. It will be a lot easier to sneak in here on price and care-and-feeding; but interest in 'this watch looks exactly like the other 10 million we paid foxconn to stamp out; because that's how economies of scale work, m'kay?' may be a problem.
If you had a 'smart watch' concept that was compelling enough to get the cheap seats to pay more and recharge more, or the jewelry section to embrace a disposable widget instead of some ostensibly 'timeless' fashion item, you'd have something that people would wear watches for, if necessary. That, though, is the tricky bit.
Lots of people wear watches, either to tell time or for fashion, or both.
The big problem with a smart watch is that 1.5" isn't enough space to display any meaningful amount of data, and worse, the context that it's in. I can think of a few situations where reading a ticker tape on my wrist of a short email or text message might be useful, but 200x200 pixels is really only useful for animated GIFs of cats and telling the time.
moox. for a new generation.
That's silly, plenty of people still wear watches. Your hypothesis might hold for a small demographic of the younger generation who are particularly technically inclined, but even I know of multiple Microsoft and Amazon employees who would never be caught without their smartphones, yet still wear a watch; partly for the practicality and partly for style. And they need not be some gaudy Rolex to achieve that. On the note of practicality, I'm a bit behind the latest tech trends and only recently switched to a smartphone, but now I'm considering a watch for one simple pragmatic reason: watches don't have a maximum battery life of two days. Speaking of that, if this 'smart watch' has such limited battery, I imagine it'd be an instant deal-breaker for many people.
He didn't say watches are useless. He said no one wears them anymore. The last time I wore a watch was sometime in the 90s.
Calculators are very useful. How many people do you know (other than engineering students) who carry a calculator in their pocket?
Take off every Sig. For great justice.
On the Two-Way Wrist TV??!?
better "watch" out when entering new markets!
If you establish a rep for being often right you can be safe from the astroturfers too.
I'll give you a definite "sort of" agree.
The MS reputation managers WILL spend considerable amounts of their sockpuppet karma to bury opinions they REALLY don't want discussed. They'll also frequently post reams of copy/paste "discussion" about offtopic trivia to push interesting topics lower down the page, buried under several dozen nitpicking comments.
They'll use their key personalized sockpuppet persona for that one too - hariyfeet is a frequent culprit.
Just wait until Apple releases theirs so you know how to do it right, then clone it like you did with Windows etc.
Table-ized A.I.
Also had one with an AM/FM Radio built in. I'm their target demographic. Guess what? I DON'T WEAR A FUCKING WATCH ANYMORE.
Oh crap. This comment happened way too high in the tree and now is going to get modbombed for hubris - as it should be.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
If this report is true, MS is fucking pathetic. I'm not particularly "anti-MS": I just don't care. I think in terms of, "Whatever gets the job done." But, upon hearing reports that their competitors are doing something with a "smart watch," MS now has to slut themselves to create a "me-too" product...? Have they no self-respect? They're like an old whore chasing down Johns from corner to corner, hoping someone will throw a buck their way, while everyone else looks away in embarrassment.
"I can't remember the last time I saw somebody wearing a watch except for some feeb trying to prove something by having a Rolex and pointing it out. If you need the time your smartphone is synched with the USNO and multiple GPS satellites that must know the time to such a degree that your distance from them alters your reference frame. What part of "people don't wear watches any more" is confusing to Microsoft? "
The part about how most people aren't you.
MOST people DO wear watches. Still. And there are good reasons: your watch doesn't lose its charge (except for maybe once a year); your watch stays on when you go to bed, you don't have to pick it up off the nightstand to see what time it is; you don't have to dig your watch out of your bag to see what time it is; most watches are accurate enough today that USNO hardly matters; etc. etc. etc.
Probably the biggest reason, though, is that this is probably not primarily a watch. It is also, and probably more importantly, an adjunct to your smartphone: showing caller id and other alerts, probably music controls, and so on.
As such, I still think it's a dumb idea, but for reasons far different from yours. For one thing, it will probably have a rechargeable battery only lasting a couple of days. For another, it will duplicate a lot of functionality that is already in your phone, just on your wrist.
I can understand why some people might want them. I'm just not one of those people.
I wear a $25 Casio metal body watch. It has worked for 3 years (with no battery change) and it is still like new.
A few have criticized me that with my age and position it is not fit for me. I said as a CS scientist, I prefer digits to bars!
There's another market segment too: watches (like mine) that do things like compass, altitude, barometric pressure, temperature, heart rate, etc.
Sometimes the appropriate place for a "smart" device is on your wrist.
Try telling a rock climber they're better off carrying a phone in their chalk bag or whatever. Or a backpacker on a week-long hike that they're better off carrying their smartphone which only holds a charge for 3 days. (As a backpacker myself, if you told me to just carry extra batteries or portable chargers I'd laugh at you.)
Of course, that doesn't mean I think the appropriate place for a Microsoft smart device is on your wrist. I don't know the details yet but I probably won't want one.
I keep seeing articles popping up about 'smartwatches" from Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Apple, and even Google. What I never see is someone telling me where the demand for this market is. Smart watches, to me, don't seem to serve any particular specialized function. Battery conservation is a joke, unless the tech world has suddenly gotten squeamish about throwing a phone on a microUSB charger. Touchscreen, quick searching, quick clock access, easy navigation, easy access to ... the smartwatch offers only minuscule improvements on the access a smart phone already has, while giving only a third of the screen real estate. And this is on top of the cash investment for a new device that largely emulates ALREADY OWNED hardware.
Honestly, all the recent smartwatch buzz has seemed, to me, to be a response to the impending arrival of Google Glass. (With the exception of Google's own team, who I would assume is working on a watch just in case this actually IS a new thing people want.) Other tech companies know Google Glass is going to be hugely influential, and smartwatches smell like an attempt to try and offer a low-cost alternative that has the side benefit of not being stuck in the shadow of a market icon to beat (iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, Google Glass, etc).
i hope it comes with a masturbation measuring app, so i can jerk off and count the number of reps, pressure, date, photo of the event to match up with previous attempts to judge how healthy bloodflow to my penis is.
i hope it also comes with an app for my rectum, where it can safely be inserted, take some pictures and gain some medical insights to the state of my system and safely navigate itself out, like a roomba, through my anus.
I read your post, and thought, "$25 sure isn't cheap...." then I went and looked at the prices of watches. Wow. They've gone up since the last time I looked.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I am all for the development of a proper smartwatch. None that are now on the market are really compelling in my opinion. I expect Google and Apple to come up with something much more useful. For me, Apple developing a watch is a more interesting rumour than the television set rumors. Like the Google Glass, I see a proper smart watch as the next step towards fully wearable, near invisible computing. Initially I can see it working together with a phone in your pocket, eventually I think it will not need a separate phone anymore.. If the rumour is correct that Apple plans to run a version of iOS on it, then that means that the device will be much more powerful than what is on the market today. I expect Google also to work in this vein. So what could such a watch do next to what the limited models can't do now? In the case of Apple I can imagine it working together with Siri, you could for example ask your watch the way to X and it shows a map as you go. Or do an immediate video call. Etcetera. As I wrote above, the idea of having completely wearable computing is very attractive to me. Slashdot may have many nay-sayers (then again many slashdotters ridiculised the ipad and iphone...), I think that Google Glass and proper smartwatches will start the next step in truly personal computing.
I believe the problem with the coming crop of "smart watches" is that they all need a phone to connect to. They're really more of an extra terminal to your phone rather than a standalone device.
So if you're a rock climber or hiker, all the negative aspects of bringing a phone apply to these terminals too. You really need to get an actua watch with the appropriate functions.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Link to a 2003 article about MS & watches
http://www.pcworld.com/article/111035/article.html
Watches are still useful. I wear a watch from time to time -- I own 4. A dive watch from St Moritz - a Momentum M50; a low-key dress watch from Skagen; a Breitling Old Navitimer; and my grandfather's Breitling Montbrilliant pocket watch. The latter two don't get out of the safe much any more.
Breathe continuously
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_s9110-2885.php
and cancelled another one
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_watch_phone-418.php
quit making it out like apple "invented" the latest watch trend, and samsung are following
I don't wear a wrist watch, and haven't for a long time. I have been working in various industries that require you to do frequent hand-washing (food industry, childcare, healthcare) and wearing a watch is not a good idea.
Instead I have used belt clip watches and pocket watches, and a stopwatch hanging round my neck.
These days a cellphone provides all the features of a watch, except for the wearing on the wrist part.
In the past some manufacturers have tried calculator watches, but the controls weren't user friendly. A wrist device with the basic functions of a cellphone is easily achievable in todays technology, but the screen would be too small for it to be as useful for the features of a smartphone.
Yes, I agree. That is what I was getting at, though I didn't put it in those words.
He didn't say watches are useless. He said no one wears them anymore. The last time I wore a watch was sometime in the 90s. Calculators are very useful. How many people do you know (other than engineering students) who carry a calculator in their pocket?
Ah, but now you are looking at the "tool in the toolbox" theory. Don't awake the Bearded Dragon.... Seriously. Don't fuckin do it. Me.
That sinking feeling deep in your gut when you KNOW you screwed up bad summed up with: {head desk} {head desk}
I am quite sure if Apple, Google and Samsung are working on developing a flying turd, Microsoft also wants one. I don't see a lot of innovative development lately. These tech giants only want to keep on par with eachother without really developing their own identity. So much for progress.
The market most smartwatches are aiming for is the market most watch-wearing millennials belong to: watch as practical fashion accessory. It's the same reason I still wear glasses rather than contacts or getting laser surgery: I like the way I look in glasses. I wear a hat--a Stetson, in fact--rather than a hoodie or a baseball cap for the same reason, and I have a nice, middle-of-the-road Seiko that I wear, not because it's impossible for me to find out the time any other way, but because I like the look of it.
A smartwatch adds a little more "practical" to the "practical fashion accessory". I like where the Pebble is going; if version 2 has a sapphire watch crystal then I'll definitely be on the preorder list; heck I might have been on this one if I had heard about the Kickstarter project before it closed.
how bad Fallout would have been if the Pipboy 3000 had a "Windows Ready" sticker on it. OTOH hand, I guess I'm not a target for such products, since my wrists are kind of thin, and anything bigger than a silver dollar looks inappropriate.
Microsoft doesn't just copy Apple, they can also copy what Apple is copying.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Reddit's not better. Try to find references for the PC meltdown on /r/Microsoft. They're trying to pretend it didn't happen, and the stories get unlinked. Let's not even talk about /r/science, where echo chamber defines science.
/. has some special properties including its write-only nature and its no-censorship stance. That you can't undo stuff here is a very special thing. The moderation may often suck but every comment and story ever posted (except for one) is still here to be read. And that one can still be read somewhere else, linked from the story where /. said "we have to delete this one for legal reasons, so here's where you can read what it said."
It makes for a sincere honesty, a more intense self-editing to know that once out push "submit" you had better mean it or "you should have known better".
You're not going to get that anywhere else. Like Theregister has snark as its raison d'etre, /. has its commitment to letting us make fools of ourselves any way we want if we will agree to make that foolishness immortal. That's why we don't post here in our right names for the most part. We all have views we espouse and feel confident about - but we've got to put bread on the table too, and putting our honest thoughts behind our right names would get in the way of that - especially if we're wrong, since the Internet neither forgives nor forgets.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
A few have criticized me that with my age and position it is not fit for me.
Have you noted that those people should not be trusted with anything important?
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
I'm seeing expensive ugly technological watches everywhere. They're called Nike Fuel and they don't even tell time!
I think a fitness watch that happens to also display your inbox could be a hit. And I think the tech has miniaturized to the point where it's feasible finally. The Pebble should be proof of that.
I use a very old digital watch when I go hiking on the mountains (my phone is usually in airplane more or switched off). I put the watch in a closed pocket or strap it on the backpack (it's has a velcro strap) because I can't tolerate anything around a wrist anymore: I just lost the habit some 20 years ago. There are almost no other use cases for a watch for me, certainly not for a smart one that I won't wear.
That said, I'm sure smart watches will sell and maybe I'll make some money writing software for them if some customer pays me to do it.
I don't know if I would put any kind of touch feature in such a small screen. Just some buttons around it.
With the Pebble watch finished and being shipped, I'd think it would look better on Microsoft if they came up with something different.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
I hope for their sake that the Scunthorpe problem has been resolved...
Does anyone get the feeling that if Apple was rumoured to be working on a shoe phone, Microsoft would immediately start doing the same?
Depends. If you live in cold weather region, you need to unclothe yourself. which is draw back. May not be the case with mobile. And no, I'd hate to wear scathed watch.(obsessive compulsive disorder here). It's much easier to scratch watch than phone. You move hands around. Especially if you physical job.
Depends what you mean on bad weather and watch. Not all of them are water proof. You can tell smartphone to tell you time over earplugs, i am pretty sure there are apps for that.
Looks is not important in cold environment half of time, since you will llok good with nice watch and cold weather clothes.
Further more, in most offices there are clocks on the walls.
The Beast has 80,000 people working for them and they encourage them to be active in social media like /. They are, however, cautioned against replying to or moderating me specifically. Downmodding me can lose you moderation privileges here if the metamods don't agree with your modding - which they usually don't when the downmods are corporate biased.
Oh man that is the most hilariously self-absorbed thing i have *ever* read on this site! :D The fact that you think microsoft would give 2 shits about the opinions in the comments on the stories on slashdot is funny enough but that you actually believe they give a shit about your comments specifically is absolute gold!
The fact is this site started out as a pro-linux and pro-OSS site - and we all know how microsoft is regarded in those circles - so any positive ms comments were met with a barrage of abuse, even legitimate ones. Then trolls started to realize how easy it is to get a massive response by trolling /. with pro-ms comments.
I know you actually believe it is some big conspiracy and you're near the center of it, that's cute and i'm sure the fantasy that microsoft employs an army of astroturfers that fear you must feel pretty cool for you.
MOST people DO wear watches.
MOST usually means >50%, and I can assure you that most people don't wear watches today. A recent survey, even in the US shows that 68% people do not wear a watch. It is also likely, that there has never been at time that MOST people have worn a watch, even in the 90's. Maybe in the US, or other highly developed countries, but not 50% of all people, and definitely not today.
That said, a smart watch was a great fantasy idea of the 90's. I, personally, can't see it being feasible today except for a very small niche market, and I don't think that small of a market would make the product profitable.
Oh, there's no doubt that Slashdot WAS special, and that many of the things that made it great still exist. I just don't think it's going to survive. The problem is that the karma system turned out to be not defensible when it was attacked by people who wanted to game the results.
In many ways, it's not unexpected - readership of around three million unique views a month makes sockpuppet teams here an extremely cheap way of getting your astrorurf in front of highly targeted eyeballs. The trouble is, those eyeballs didn't come here to be marketed at, and the noise to signal level means the place just isn't as much fun any more.
silly neckbeard.
just because YOU don't have a good reason for a wristwatch, doesn't mean no one else does.
I want something like Google Glasses, but for human augmentation and not as a glorified ad delivery device. You wouldn't need a watch if you had such glasses.
Speaking of calculators, it should be able to recognize math stuff and help with calculations.
Basically if I write or see some simple math problems, I should be able to ask it to calculate the answer, add up a bunch numbers etc. Maybe even look up more complicated stuff on wolfram alpha.
More here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3478821&cid=42956909
By the way, most phones nowadays have a calculator feature, so most people with phones don't need to carry around a specialized calculator.
Last I've heard about the Apple one is that they were having trouble getting the battery to last for _half_ a day. DO NOT WANT (as a climber/hiker/skier but also as a lowly geek).
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I'll agree /. isn't as much fun any more as it once was, and that in its charter its end was writ: The value of a free thing trends to zero.
But /. has some miles and years yet because of its special offer. Here you can put your opinion and it will stand for all time - whether you will it or no. It takes some grit to say stuff here. Other places you can spark your wit and if you miss it will be lost to time. Not so here. Here we are going to flip that stuff back into your face unto the end of days. It's a hard audience, but if you can play it /.rs have some pull.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Sounds good, until you work out that you can't wear them walking through the city on a Friday night without a risk of going down for ten years for recording child porn after a scantily clad girl bends over. It will get treated just like deliberately putting a camera in a high school shower.
I decided to come back after a long break. Maybe a year or more. I run all of the major operating systems, desktop, and servers. I work in IT at a medium size company. And I agree that I have seen more micro$oft stories. I will make it my leisure/lunch time goal to comment, and write about tech on /. I do agree that /. has changed some, but I still find my self laughing when I read the comments. There are still insightful, and funny people around.
Yeah, finally my portable BSoD on my wrist to show all my friends how blue my watch is. Literally. Hope they add Ctrl-Alt-Del buttons. Oh, and a loupe. In case the obligatory Windows behind it pops up and the a mouse cursor appears.
I just hope they include Norton Antivirus for MS Watch.
I don't know what your job is, but I don't want it.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
Make it pink and you'll sell millions.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
This deep in the thread we are free to predict what we will, AC or not. 98% of /. viewers don't click into comments at all, and 80% don't even read comments ever. Fewer than 5% post, and the few who do usually don't thread this deep. There's likely nobody here but you and me, AC.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Sure, of course; we all know the history. Mouse and GUI ideas were bought by Apple from Xerox PARC in the founding days. The key word here is "bought," and not "copied." (That is, a license fee was paid.)
MS has always, apparently as a policy, simply copied the most successful company in a particular market-space. Or, alternatively, they buy the out for the IP and fire everyone. Or, as a third alternative, they "suck the oxygen out of the room" in an effort to crush and bankrupt companies who innovate, so that they can later buy their IP for pennies-on-the-dollar.
This is all ancient history that everyone knows. So, perhaps Apple collects ideas for interface improvements for computing devices from multiple sources. But, they have never been publicly shamed for having "stolen" a particular idea. They buy it, usually with the intention of employing the innovators. Trust me, I know of several innovators who sold (or "almost" sold) their company to Apple, because Apple had the capability to recognize a good thing when they saw it. Very old and oft-repeated story, too.
Didn't the phrase "thumbprint-sized touch screen" set off any warning bells in the designers' heads?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Well yes - put a red blinking light on the things when they are recording and the people that think of calling the police when you bring a SLR camera to a public park would be happy.
Windows 8.
It's about as appealing as coming home from holiday to find a 3 day old turd in your bath tub
my palms had 160x160 pixels and i read ebooks on them fine. played simcity and other games.
instead of a wrist watch maybe they could aim at a 21st century pocket watch. smaller than a phone aimed to sit in palm of hand. make it small enough and you could add a wrist strap like the early wrist watches
I would say the majority of people I know still wear watches. They don't have battery life measured in days, they can be taken swimming or into environments that you would be scared of damaging a phone, don't need to be turned off on a plane or in a meeting and don't get confiscated at the front door of security rated buildings that don't permit phones or electronic devices inside (a problem for me), easy to check in a theatre without pissing off others etc etc. As for a smart watch, well I can't really seeing them fitting with a large audience. They are "likely" to have limited battery life, are too small for any usefull amounts of information on screen and if they have internet connectivity then it is one more item I have to hand in at building security :-(.
Sure, of course; we all know the history. Mouse and GUI ideas were bought by Apple from Xerox PARC in the founding days. The key word here is "bought," and not "copied." (That is, a license fee was paid.) MS has always, apparently as a policy, simply copied the most successful company in a particular market-space. Or, alternatively, they buy the out for the IP and fire everyone. Or, as a third alternative, they "suck the oxygen out of the room" in an effort to crush and bankrupt companies who innovate, so that they can later buy their IP for pennies-on-the-dollar. This is all ancient history that everyone knows. So, perhaps Apple collects ideas for interface improvements for computing devices from multiple sources. But, they have never been publicly shamed for having "stolen" a particular idea. They buy it, usually with the intention of employing the innovators. Trust me, I know of several innovators who sold (or "almost" sold) their company to Apple, because Apple had the capability to recognize a good thing when they saw it. Very old and oft-repeated story, too.
Uhm, you do know that Xerox sued Apple for IP theft? http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/15/business/company-news-xerox-sues-apple-computer-over-macintosh-copyright.html
Cement dust aside (maybe), I'd say "parent".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Is that it will keep on running for years without giving you any worry.
Would the proposed smart watch behave the same way?
Similar attitude, different reason:
I stopped using watches maybe 15 years ago. I haven't owned a wristwatch since, and the only clocks in my house are the ones built in to something else (my phone has one, for example).
I don't miss it at all. In public, there are more than enough watches to catch my train or whatever, and for my private life, things are a lot more relaxed this way.
For that reason, I fail to see what the smart-watch hype is all about. I intentionally removed a distraction years ago, why should I add it back with more bells & whistles?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I bought a Casiq watch in Nicaragua - that's not a typo, it was a clear ripoff of the classic 80s Casio digital watch, with just the 'q' in the logo different (as I recall, logo copying is easier to prosecute than actual design / circuit copying). It cost me a couple of dollars, and:
* survived a little swim when my kayak upturned
* still worked at least 3 years later on the same battery
* had an awesome upgrade from the original in the form of multicoloured LEDs that pulsed randomly when the alarm went off. Wrist disco FTW.
Woohoo, I cannot wait to run Norton or McAffee AV on my watch and do weekly patch Tuesdays...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I'm with ya symbie poo. It's Turtles all the way down as far as I'm concerned.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
No-one wear watches anymore? I have a mechanical self winding Seiko on my arm. This way, I am always early for meetings, since it gains about 3 minutes per day. It is way more cool than an electronic watch.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Given that this whole rumor is based on Microsoft ordering 1.5" touchscreens, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that they're building a smartwatch. Since the WiiU and PS4 both have some kind of touch device in the controller, it's pretty much a given that the XBox720 (or whatever it's called) will also have one.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Assuming that the major battery drain of a smartphone with wifi off, GPS off (until you need it) and no apps with background processes, is the display. You could keep the phone in a small pouch and get the advantages of the watch tracking things like heart rate, temp, messages, etc while extending the life of your phone.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
You'd be surprised at what the kids are into these days.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I wear a Coleman watch with a flashlight on it. Damned thing is handy. It tells time, twice (alternate time), all the other things like timer, alarms, stopwatch... haven't used those things in a long time... but the flashlight? I use it constantly. It's $20 if you can find them at Target stores. Oh yeah, water resistant to 50 meters too. I don't want a little water getting in the way of it living or dying.
I am skeptical of smartwatches. Very skeptical. I can see a "smart watch" whose brains are actually your smartphone...you know, over a bluetooth or other wireless link. This would enable some level of power savings. I would think "bluetooth keyboard" in that it really doesn't communicate actively unless a key is being pressed so the batteries last forever. So while the watch is awake, it would talk/sync with the phone and be the phone's interface for things. Enhancements like pulse and even bloodpressure could be added to the watch. But when not in that level of active use, it could still be a perfectly good watch... waterproof even I would hope.
I wear a $25 Casio metal body watch. It has worked for 3 years (with no battery change) and it is still like new.
A few have criticized me that with my age and position it is not fit for me. I said as a CS scientist, I prefer digits to bars!
And that's where the market is.. People don't buy watches because they want to know the time, people buy them for bragging rights and because it's one of the few pieces of jewelry that men are allowed to wear in just about any situation.
I've not worm a watch for years but plenty of the people I work with do. In some cases they wear very expensive watches.
"MOST people DO wear watches. Still."
I counter this anecdote with my own, less than 10% wear watches during the day. Why would you? There are clocks all over the place to tell you the time (there are 4 in my office alone (desktop, desk phone, wall clock, mobile)). Pulling a phone from your pocket is just a little slower then uncovering your wrist. The only people that "use" watches, consider them to be luxury jewelry to impress others (which makes it easier to spot people you can't trust).
Nonsense. The $10 Walmart item on my wrist is purely for timekeeping. I make no attempt to impress anyone with it, I assure you. Uncovering your wrist takes time? Where do you live, Antarctica?
MS Watch: (in an electronic voice) Hi there, I see you are trying to tell the time. How can I help you?
1. Would you like me to display the time?
2. Is there a time you prefer?
3. Why don't you tell me the time?
A few have criticized me that with my age and position it is not fit for me.
Have you noted that those people should not be trusted with anything important?
True. But even so those people are consumers and if they want to spend their money on expensive watches someone will be ready to sell them.
Plus it would be really funny to see those kinds of people with MS watches that cost too much and crash every couple of days when Casio guy above will always know the time.
"Intent" would normally apply in this scenario in my country, so I doubt that sort of thing would be a big problem to me (unless the authorities decide that I need to be eliminated for some reason).
The copyright law "harmonization" stuff the USA keeps pushing (in its various forms) is more likely to affect me, assuming the leaders of my country "bend over" (which isn't that unlikely unfortunately).
But its true the device might end up having to be crippled because of all these "legal" issues. Shame really.
Born rich were we? Most of the rest of us have worked as underwater jam, cement, dust, grease, and crap cleaners at some time in our lives. It doesn't pay well enough to buy a new watch.
My last Casio (I no longer bother with a watch) lasted several years, even with a 3-day-a-week swimming habit. I think it was $20 at the drug store. It may very well still work, but the battery is gone and I never get a good seal when I put them back together.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Yes, and they had a similar screen larger than 1.5" as well, right? I put up with that resolution with my m100, but I wouldn't wish it on someone wearing it as a wristwatch. When was the last time you said to yourself, "I wish I could read a book on my wrist!"
moox. for a new generation.
In my country nobody uses wristwatch anymore, but for a different reason. If you go out in the street with a wristwatch, you are quickly stolen by a criminal.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
A friend of mine must have had an insecure upbringing, because he's constantly susceptible to status symbol purchases: flashy luxury cars, high-falootin' watches, etc. He's a smart guy, but not an engineer. One time he shows me his new watch, and says, "It's made from tungsten. It's unscratchable!" I told him, that, first off, it's bluish, so it's not tungsten but probably tungsten carbide. Second, if he'll let me demonstrate, I'll scratch it with some sandpaper - since SiC is harder than tungsten carbide. He declined :) I then say something like, "It must weigh a fucking ton..." and he smiles and tells me that it's the heaviest watch they make. Unreal. No idea what it cost, but I certainly hope someone was impressed.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I use a very old digital watch when I go hiking on the mountains (my phone is usually in airplane more or switched off). I put the watch in a closed pocket or strap it on the backpack (it's has a velcro strap) because I can't tolerate anything around a wrist anymore: I just lost the habit some 20 years ago. There are almost no other use cases for a watch for me, certainly not for a smart one that I won't wear.
That said, I'm sure smart watches will sell and maybe I'll make some money writing software for them if some customer pays me to do it.
I lived in South America for a brief spell of my life. When I was down there, I looped my belt through the wrist band on my watch and basically attached it to my waist in front of me. I could quite quickly and easily check the watch without having it be another place for me to become unbearably hot and sweaty with the tropical weather. It too was a velcro strap. You might want to give that a try if you find you have to use your watch frequently while hiking. It's very convenient.
What if the watch can do more than just a watch?
How about you can sit on the couch and turn down the lights on a movie settings? What if you need to turn off your stove while being in the basement?
With cellphone capable of being the computer (in 3 - 5 years), your watch maybe able to do the little things remotely for your computer. It is hard to imagine the widgets for smartwatch, but I think there is a bigger market then a traditional watch.
I'm here too.
In my experience a cheap Casio watch is good for five years providing you look after it reasonably well. It's the cheap plastic strap which is more likely to fail before the watch itself, and if that's a concern stump up for a leather or metal strap or a model where the strap can be replaced.
when squashed on public transport for a few hours a day and not enough space to take out a large phone? as a watch a flick could change the page while still holding onto a handrest.
also a way to communicate with said device via morse would be nice. niche but nice.
So yes people do still use them and probably even people with phones or computers. I'm sure you can get by without a watch but it doesn't mean they are not useful.
Oh, there's still plenty of room for fun there, pretty cheaply (not $25, but close): check out the Unemployed Philosopher's Guild: here. I have the Dali and Leonardo watches. Oops, just checked, the latter no longer seems to be available (bummer): needless to say, the face and movement are reversed, to confound your friends...
There goes Microsoft, duplicating... er... I mean "innovating" again.
Proverbs 21:19
I would say the majority of people I know still wear watches. They don't have battery life measured in days, they can be taken swimming or into environments that you would be scared of damaging a phone, don't need to be turned off on a plane or in a meeting and don't get confiscated at the front door of security rated buildings that don't permit phones or electronic devices inside (a problem for me), easy to check in a theatre without pissing off others etc etc. As for a smart watch, well I can't really seeing them fitting with a large audience. They are "likely" to have limited battery life, are too small for any usefull amounts of information on screen and if they have internet connectivity then it is one more item I have to hand in at building security :-(.
I understand why you would need to wear a watch if you are constantly entering a high security area for work (wouldn't a smart-watch also be confiscated this type of environment?). It also would explain why your friends and colleagues wear watches. But, this environment applies to a small minority of the population.
The majority of people I know do not wear watches on a daily basis. In fact, it isn't just a majority, it's around 99%. The only time that I see anyone wearing a watch is during a special occasion (i.e. weddings, funerals, etc.) and they are worn as style to go with their suits. These watches tend not to be digital as they were chosen for style, not function. A smart-watch would not appeal to this crowd.
I don't think anyone is disputing that people wear watches occasionally. Most guys have that one watch that they wear with their one suit, updating both occasionally. However, the majority of the population do not wear watches on a daily basis, so any smart-watch technology would have a limited market (fitness, geeks, etc.).
Besides, I thought the geek dream was a wrist communicator (i.e. video conferencing) and not a smart-watch.....
The Pebble watch raised $10 million from 69,000 people. Nike doesn't have a problem selling their GPS watch for $150+.
It's true. I wore a watch in public and a criminal stole me. He left the watch, though.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Windows 9, scales your 4k desktop so its effectively 320x200, and changes the user interface so the only buttons that work on your keyboard are the up/down/enter buttons.
Microsoft, of course, claims huge improvements in users ability to learn the interface because everything including typing is done by selecting options with the up/down buttons.
All the PC manufactures run by overpaid CEO's that don't know shit about technology promptly release laptops with 320x200 resolution 15" screens claiming that the PC will regain marketshare against the tablets now.
I tried that but it bounces and maybe hits some rock when I have to climb a little. Anyway it's OK for walking. Thanks!
I'll take my manual Cold War era Komandirskie over any smartwatch. Light, never runs out of power, and looks nice.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I had a $15 Timex that lasted for over ten years. That watch had been in the ocean, left out in the baking sun, run over by a car and a bunch of other stuff. The only reason I threw it out was because the battery finally died and it was easier just to buy a whole new Timex than to replace the battery.
My calculator never fitted in my pockets (neither did my slide rule when I was at high school), but it did get lugged around in my bag for years while I was at Uni. Now it sits on my desk, while the RealCalc app on my phone (which handles RPN beautifully, but sadly without the nice clicky keys) is the one I carry around.
I'm wearing a Citizen Eco-Drive that I've had for almost a decade. Unlike my Seiko Kinetic watches, or my Timex, or any of my other watches - my Citizen is nearly indestructible. I wore it yesterday while replacing the fuel-injectors in my truck. While I don't consider myself to be normal, my point is that normal people do wear watches. Using a smart phone in some situations or environments will be deadly to the phone, where a well constructed watch will handle whatever you dish out (within reason), and be perfectly happy with the soap and toothbrush treatment it gets afterwards.
Of course, we're talking about a Microsoft watch here - so you probably won't be able to do much other than look at it or it will give you a blue-clock-face-of-death.
"Lame" - Galaxar
I believe the problem with the coming crop of "smart watches" is that they all need a phone to connect to. They're really more of an extra terminal to your phone rather than a standalone device.
Smart watches are the modern day Palm Foleo. And will likely be as successful.
Not quite. I'm here. And I have never posted as AC. The simple truth is that if one cares enough not to want to land up in negative karma exile, then one shouldn't behave like an asswipe. My contention is that the ability to post as AC (generally) encourages trolls and asswipes. An ID with a layer of pseudonymity, if it has been around for long enough, should imply enough of a fair level of bona fides.
Try telling a rock climber they're better off carrying a phone in their chalk bag or whatever. Or a backpacker on a week-long hike that they're better off carrying their smartphone which only holds a charge for 3 days. (As a backpacker myself, if you told me to just carry extra batteries or portable chargers I'd laugh at you.)
I went kayaking around the New and Tarpon rivers in Ft Lauderdale yesterday for about 5 hours. My phone was in a plastic baggie in my pocket and I didn't want to pull it out and get it wet... having a watch was invaluable.
Extreme cases aside... I wear it even in the shower in the morning... nice to be able to take a long shower and know exactly when I have to get out, because I have a waterproof timepiece on my wrist.
"except for some feeb trying to prove something "
How about "people that recognize that their pockets are opaque"?
If you care about the karma, then you shouldn't, if you're here for the right reasons.
(And even more OT: FWIW, my karma has been maxed out since it used to be a decimal integer, and I couldn't care less if this post gets knocked down to -1.)
my palms had 160x160 pixels and i read ebooks on them fine.
Whereas my palms only had hair on them. :-P
Casio F-91W FTW. $9, and comes with a coupon for one free admission to Guantanamo Bay.
It is also likely, that there has never been at time that MOST people have worn a watch, even in the 90's.
Err, the '90s weren't that long ago. Back in the '60s and '70s, I would say at least 90% of people (in the Western world) wore watches. (And yes, I am that old, and my memory is unimpaired,)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/113897/article.html
Sleep is for the Weak
I like the Tokyo Flash watches.
"people buy them for bragging rights"
not to generalize or anything... much
Personally I wear a watch because I prefer it to taking out my phone from pant pocket every time i want to look at the time.
Dude ... put down the crack pipe. I've been here much longer than you and I've never even heard of you. I guarantee that M$ has no idea who you are either. I do agree with you that there are a lot of M$ shills here, but if you think they know who you are, or care, then you are delusional.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
They have a tablet?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
I can't remember the last time I saw somebody wearing a watch except for some feeb trying to prove something by having a Rolex and pointing it out. If you need the time your smartphone is synched with the USNO and multiple GPS satellites that must know the time to such a degree that your distance from them alters your reference frame. What part of "people don't wear watches any more" is confusing to Microsoft?
This is I think where they're slow-following and don't even understand what they're following. It's sad. Microsoft really needs somebody with a clue, and they haven't got one.
For a while I'd wear happy-type meal watches. They cost $2 and ran for about a year. Accurate enough for time telling.
But having some whizzy Blue-tooth, WiFi, Social Networking piece of glorified plastic jewelry seems to have some marketability. Not for me, as I've got enough junk for that and the form-factor is too tiny to be of much use to me. What worked for Dick Tracy did so because it was in the comics.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"MOST usually means >50%, and I can assure you that most people don't wear watches today."
And I can assure you that is not the case where I live. Certainly this is only anecdotal, but there was a recent period in which I my only transportation was by bus, and my watch band broke. I repeatedly forgot to take my watch with me, and wasn't using a smartphone. I noticed how many people had watches because I had to ask for the time in public places, in order to catch the bus. And it was WAY over half.
"Maybe in the US, or other highly developed countries, but not 50% of all people, and definitely not today."
I'll grant that. I was referring to where I live, in the U.S.
"These watches better hold a charge for a year or longer."
All the "smart watch" proposals I have seen so far have required charging no less often than every 2 or 3 days. I consider that to be a very serious, make-or-break flaw in the concept.
When I say the majority. I mean computer programmers and admins I work with and My friends external to this environment, heck even my mother and younger sister wear them, off hand I can think of 2 friends that don't wear them and one of them doesn't carry a phone either. I would honestly have more trouble finding people without watches. Average age group would be in the 25-40 range and yes a smart watch would likely be confiscated at security, perhaps I am getting too old, but I didn't get smart watches when they first came out a decade or so ago and this next gen of them I still don't get and I suspect they will go the way of previous gens.
Since I don't want to change the watch theme extremely frequently, I'm OK with micro USB to do that, I don't need wireless. Of all of the above, the most important point is to _not_ make the thing look like I've strapped some cellphone to my wrist!
As I said, I thought like you for ten years, and I still basically agree with you. It's not really inconvenient to be without a watch, even if you don't use a phone.
What happened to me was, my wife got her wristwatch repaired and started using it regularly again. And suddenly I found myself asking her for the time whenever we were together, rather than check my phone, look for a public watch or any of the other options. So, I got my own old watch fixed (change of battery) as much to spare her as to find out if perhaps a watch is worth using after all.
Turns out I really like using a watch. Also turns out I'm no fan of my old watch. Not really the design or the type I would choose today. A bit dinky and boring; I originally got it because it was inoffensive and fit my student budget. And when I started looking, I found lots of watch designs I really like. I picked one, and use it now, happily. I bet I'll probably get a second one with a different design in a year or two.
That's a major part of it, I think. A watch is a "permitted" accessory for men, and that surely accounts for a major part of the continued popularity. But that also means that, like other accessories, people want choice. You _don't_ want to wear the same thing as half a dozen other people in the office. That's the reason all watch makers have a huge array of models. And that's going to be a real challenge for any smartwatch maker.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
I think sometimes people confuse shills with teams.There are those who choose MS support as their "team", some who choose a particular flavor of Linux. They just become pro whatever, like some people collect coins, others collect art. It's random.
Fuck still being tied to a smartphone. I know the battery is an issue, but any smart watch/narrow flexible screen that can be wrapped around a wrist i ever buy will be a phone as well.
Rocket Surgeon.
I don't think microsoft has that much of a presence on /. (at least not since i started reading). Heaps of stories where microsoft does something cool (voice to voice translation, at new accuracy records, and in real time) never even see the firehose. Occasionally i see something quite shill like from them (often at the top of a page and quite extensive and well worded), but i see that from other companies as well. Not all of /. hate them, personally they have let me do some pretty cool shit with computers ever since i was a kid, and i don't think I've ever given them any money (and they defiantly haven't paid me any).
Rocket Surgeon.
Pardon my ignorance, but how are you supposed to do the three-finger salute on a 200x200 pixel screen???
The two are not mutually exclusive. I am not going so far as to say every single person who makes ridiculous posts about how great M$ is, and claiming Linux is hard to use and for communist hippies is an M$ shill. There are certainly members of both camps here. In fact, I doubt the shills are making the aforementioned claims. They are likely more subtle.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Worse than that is Reddit moderation. Moneyed interests have captured moderation of all the popular Reddits, and dissent is no longer allowed. Strangely /r/science too. What depraved soul would want to prevent free discourse in /r/science? It is antithetical.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Almost half the comment posts on /. are funded advocacy, and Microsoft owns 2/3rds of that. To be fair that includes Microsoft employees sharing their earnestly held POV.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I'm calling bullshit mate, citation needed. I believe a lot of comments on /. are funded by advocacy but 50% seems ridiculous and claiming 2/3 of that being Microsoft is even more laughable. If you can find a microsoft story with over 1/3 of the comments praising Microsoft i'll eat my foot (and that's assuming only people who get paid by mircosoft would comment positively for them, which is at least wrong for me). Besides you still haven't explained why all these employees have never submitted any of the good stuff MS has done, all we hear about is how windows 8 is going to cause the rapture.
Rocket Surgeon.