Samsung's Smart Watch Coming September 4th, Without Flexible OLED Screen

First time accepted submitter lager_monste sent in a tidbit from Mashable about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Gear Smart Watch: "Samsung will launch its smart watch, the Galaxy Gear, on Sept. 4 ahead of the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin, Germany. Lee Young-hee, VP of Samsung's mobile business, confirmed the date and some details about the device in an interview with The Korea Times." Ars Technica notes that the Gear is nothing like what was expected from a patent filing for a watch with a flexible OLED. Maybe next generation.

Comments

What's with the negative attitude?

[AmiMoJo]

Why do some people seem to bummed that the screen isn't flexible? Considering it was just a few tech demos and a patent filing it's not like it's a major let-down or anything. How about looking at the device's functionality? TFA says almost nothing about it, like what OS it runs or what capabilities it has.

This story is pretty lame.

Re:What's with the negative attitude?

[rsborg]

Why do some people seem to bummed that the screen isn't flexible? Considering it was just a few tech demos and a patent filing it's not like it's a major let-down or anything.

Because it's vaporware and only diminishes what shipping products today [1] have beat Samsung to doing. I hated the vapor-filled promises put forth by Microsoft in previous years and this year's vapor by Samsung isn't any different.

[1] http://getpebble.com/

The future is client wearables.

[tuppe666]

If it's also a phone and doesn't need another phone to work, I want one.

I am more concerned that these devices seem to be full computers themselves. I am looking forward to a smartwatch, but having the large screen, with large battery, with large processing power in my big pockets. I would rather a watch be a dumb device and your smart device being your phone.

Re:The future is client wearables.

[timeOday]

You will certainly get what you want (a wearable display for your phone) long before a practical standalone smartwatch is feasible. Currently, wristwatches with just a GPS receiver (no transmitting) have an 8 hour battery life, at most. There is no way somebody is suddenly going to release a smartphone small enough to pass as a wristwatch.

Re:The future is client wearables.

[ShieldW0lf]

These "smart watches" seem completely without utility to me. What use do you find for it?

Re:The future is client wearables.

[CrankyFool]

I got the Pebble as a lark (and a toy); it's turned out to be profoundly useful for me. Here's how:

1. I'm in meetings much of the day (and anyway, having a loud cell phone is an obnoxious thing in an office environment), so I usually keep my phone on vibrate/silent; I'd routinely miss calendar reminders on my phone (and may be in a meeting that's 1o1 and involves me putting my laptop away). The Pebble buzzes me with calendar reminders so missing a reminder is a thing of the past;

2. Same thing about phone calls and texts; in the middle of a meeting, if I get a text from my wife, then A) I don't miss it; B) (just as importantly) I don't reach into my pocket and start looking at my phone (which is pretty obvious and a bit of a dick move), I can quickly scan the text message on the Pebble. Heck, not being able to respond to the text on the spot turns out to be an advantage in that case -- it's less distracting;

3. I work out, doing about an hour on the treadmill every morning. The Pebble's ability to control my music (especially now that I can use it not just for pause/forward/rewind but also for volume up / down) makes it so I can just put my Android phone away in the treadmill pocket and use the Pebble through my workout.

4. (Side-effect of (3)) I can now much more easily find my phone if it's around (and on) -- I just use the Pebble to start playing music on the phone, optionally raising the volume. It's been handy. Especially because lowering the volume on the ringer (making it so asking my wife to call me, for example, won't help) doesn't lower the volume on the music play AND because even if the music volume is low, I can raise the volume from the Pebble.

Frankly, for me -- speaking as someone who has many watches because I sort of collect them -- the saddest thing about the Pebble is that I'm no longer interested in rotating watches -- I wear the Pebble all the time because it's so damn useful.

Screen Real Estate

[tuppe666]

Why do some people seem to bummed that the screen isn't flexible?

Because without it being flexible it is limited to 2" by 2" display as opposed to a 6" by 2" display. Whatever you think of that.

Re:Screen Real Estate

[Tony Isaac]

Screen real estate would be a real issue if you think of a smart watch as a wearable version of cell phones as we know them. If that's the standard, then even a 6" x 2" screen will disappoint.

Cell phones have already displaced watches. Why? Because they have bigger screens? No, not really. The bigger screen is useful for other phone features, but it didn't really improve much on what watches do best. It's more that most of us didn't see a need any longer to keep two timepieces, so we ditched our watches.

To be successful, smart watches will have to find a niche that doesn't require much screen real estate. They will also have to find a role beyond just duplicating what a cell phone does--but on your wrist--because in that role, they will always be inferior to cell phones.

Re:Screen Real Estate

[bonehead]

It's more that most of us didn't see a need any longer to keep two timepieces, so we ditched our watches.

Speak for yourself. There's no way I want to dig something out of my pocket and turn it on just to check the time. And, yes, seeing someone using a phone as a timepiece does affect my assessment of their intelligence.

They still haven't explained what this does

[asmkm22]

What exactly do these smart watches do? Do they just tell time and maybe connect to wifi for stock numbers or something? I don't get it.

Re:They still haven't explained what this does

[Anonymous Coward]

Hands-free pr0n delivery.

Re:They still haven't explained what this does

[Dixie_Flatline]

Nobody knows what they do yet. To me this seems like a way to get a drop on Apple and say that they had a watch out before. If and when an Apple device hits is when we'll see motion in the market, whether that device is good or bad.

Not having the first product on the market has never bothered Apple before, so I'm not sure what Samsung is trying to get out of this other than bragging rights. Or, who knows, maybe everyone will want one!

As it stands, I can't think of many things that sound more useless than a 'smart' watch. The only good suggestion I've seen so far has the phone in the pocket while direction prompts from your GPS pop up on the watch face. But if that's the best that we're going to get, I'll pass.

Re:They still haven't explained what this does

[joh]

Nobody knows, that's the problem.

But: Don't call it a watch. Or only if you call your smartphone a "pocket watch" just because it can display the time and you have it in your pocket.

I think selecting features that make sense and executing this in a way that you want to use them is the really hard thing here. Just squeezing a small Android device with a tiny screen and battery into a huge watch isn't going to make it sell.

Re:They still haven't explained what this does

[_anomaly_]

Nobody knows what they do yet.

Wrong, unless you're only talking about these yet-to-be-released smart watches. Anyone with a Pebble or Metawatch can knows what they do.

I finally got my pebble about 3 months ago, so let me give you my $0.02 worth.

I don't use my phone a whole lot. It's a personal phone, so I don't use it for work, except when I'm away from the office I will occasionally check and respond to email. I purchased a pebble because I thought it sounded like a cool idea, and I could use a new, decent-looking watch (I already had a couple of standard watches that I'd use when camping, hiking, or doing other things outdoors where the watch may be subject to minor abuse). At the $150 price-point, it was not a big leap, even for someone who isn't using their phone non-stop.

I not only thought the pebble looked good, but I also liked the idea of being able to have any number of customized watch faces and having the ability to create my own (with their SDK).

I liked the idea of keeping my phone on silent, in my pocket, checking texts and incoming phone calls by glancing at my wrist when it vibrates. Being able to receive all notifications you would receive on your cell phone on the watch itself, without having to take my phone out of my pocket (or laptop bag, etc) was enough to sell me on it.

And I think it's enough for there to be a market for these smart/dumb watches. This isn't even to mention the many "apps" out there being created for the pebble. One that I've actually used is the FreeCaddie app that uses your phone's GPS to send yardage information to your watch while playing golf. It may seem impractical in that most golfers I know don't want to keep their phone in their pocket, or a watch on their wrist, while playing, but strapping my watch to the golf cart and keeping the phone in my bag is a really convenient way to get GPS on the course, without spending $300 on another device.

I think the fact that I'm not a hardcore hardware geek, only having used my pebble fairly lightly, and I still find it worth the money and useful is (albeit anecdotal) evidence that smart watches do have a market and I believe it's here to stay. The key will be getting the buyers to take that initial leap since, on the surface, they seem superfluous when you're already carrying around a smart phone.

If and when an Apple device hits is when we'll see motion in the market, whether that device is good or bad.

You may be right in that it could take a big player like Apple, or Samsung, to enter the market before we know if the general public will bite. However, since Pebble has hit Best Buy, we just might know before Apple does anything.

Re:Dick Tracy?

[Janek Kozicki]

If it's also a phone and doesn't need another phone to work, I want one.

Well, this one works like you want: slahdot story, kickstarter

Re:Dick Tracy?

[Wingsy]

You have any idea how much talk time you would get from a battery that can fit inside a watch? We need a few of those revolutionary battery breakthroughs that we've read about for years to happen first.

Non-flexible OLED screen is not the issue...

[RedHackTea]

...But does it have "Ctrl+Shift+T" functionality to see the last Time you looked at the Time on the watch? A sort of "Ctrl+Z" for the Time?

Re:Product lauch, or concept demo?

[Savage-Rabbit]

The article says, "we will be introducing a new wearable concept device..." So is this going to be marketed, or just a concept vehicle (perhaps to let some air out of a possible Apple iWatch announcement?)

I the whole iWatch rumour mill has me completely confused. One thing I do know, if Apple managed to sucker everybody into building 'smart-watches' just by leaking the product name 'iWatch' and the damn thing turns out to be their long rumoured TV thingamabob (as in: iWatch TV) I'm going to laugh my head off.

Absolutely, utterly no way!

[occasional_dabbler]

Carry whatever tech you want in your backpack (I do) but the thing on your wrist should be mechanical and made in Switzerland or you'll never get either a girlfriend or a job. Nothing that a tech company makes will ever be as beautiful as this

Re:Absolutely, utterly no way!

[Dr. Zim]

Got both without spending $20K on a luxury watch I'd tear up inside a week. Spent the same money on a sport touring bike instead to spend long weekends with the (girlfriend->wife) and away from the job.

If you need to spend $20k on a watch to impress people, you're compensating for something.

Re:Absolutely, utterly no way!

[H0p313ss]

the thing on your wrist should be mechanical and made in Switzerland or you'll never get either a girlfriend or a job.

Now that's just bullshit.

Yes, an elegant watch is a smart move to behave like an adult, trying to check the time on your phone when you're sitting down at a dinner or conference table is just made of fail

No, your life won't completely suck if it's digital or made in Japan. It's no longer the 1980's, even bloody Casio makes dress watches. While some of them are still butt-ugly, this one does the trick and it's only $50.

Personally I went for this pretty little number. Elegant enough to wear in public without embarrassing your wife, girlfriend or CEO but cheap enough so that when it breaks or gets lost I won't even flinch. (It actually did get lost, inside a couch for eight months, still had the right time when I found it if that had been a Swiss watch I'd have been in deep fecal matter.)