[Samsung Gear S] alanshortt:
i believe that children are the future

today i was accosted by a dozen eagle-eyed little kids (ages maybe 5-10) walking home from school (them not me) "hey mister is that thing a phone?"

I'm like "yes its a phone and a watch - let me show you the sad cat watch-face .... but you still need another samsung phone back at home, its a bit buggy, i'm told the charging cradle will break anytime soon, i don't understand the android / samsung / galaxy / tizen / gear S ecosystem, but I am a bit jaundiced by Apple, think this thing has potential and am persevering with it blah blah blah"

They were like "whatever dude - that thing is seriously cool!"

I related this little vignette to my work colleagues

" yeah see I've been telling you for the last two weeks but this is the proof - you can't fool kids - put your iPhone 6 on ebay and get one of these"

"Well you shouldn't go flashing it around - next thing one of them kids will be breaking into your house to steal it"

I'm like I wasn't flashing it around i was walking down the street just wearing it . Like any of my new six year old Galaxy S fanboys/fangirls are going to turn into cat burglers, break into my house and prize it from my wrist while I'm asleep?

I already told them "it can check how much exercise I've done, and I can wear it in bed to make sure I'm getting enough sleep - yeah like a fitbit but a phone & a watch too "

until Apple or Motorola or Sony or whoever put a sim in their smart watch I'm keeping mine

ideally i think more laptops should come with a sim card slot too

I''m disappointed i still need a proper phone to make the Gear S work, but would in practice still need one anyway for tethering the laptop when not at home. I'm no expert but would not a simcard in the laptop offer big battery and big ariel advantages compared to phone tethering ? (no i don't want to carry round or have a dongle sticking out - that's the point)

Several astute reviewers have commented positively on the back-to-the-future retro simplicity of the smartwatch concept as implemented by the Samsung Gear S (whilst highlighting problems in the current execution of that - as also clearly highlighted on these forums & elsewhere) Whatever

"after a few days I was really liking the freedom of not checking my emails & notifications every 5 minutes"

Imagine the freedom of a smartwatch connected (if necessary) to your laptop or whatever other larger device - phablet, iPad or whatever you use for work or pleasure. That's like two devices not 3 or more (smartphone, work phone, tablet, kindle, laptop etc) - in fact actually only one extra thing to carry if / when you need to because the phone is like already on your wrist.

Advantages

• Less economically zero-sum consumer consumption

The guy on the production line gets nothing. I pay several hundred dollars for the device, it jumps out of my pocket and i pay another guy in a mall $150 to fix the screen. Am i contributing to some kind of trickle-down / trickle-up dissipation or redistribution of wealth?

maybe locally to the screen-fixer and his family.

There is (but wasn't always) built in obsolescence in technology but designed to break technology is a really big con that is not (like indeed BIO) an inevitable or essential feature of capitalism & global trade.

To use an obvious example & pertinent example

I think I can understand Mr Steve Jobs drive & achievement in coming back (I'll show them w@nkers) and making Apple the biggest company in the world - but at what price?

Wage slaves in Asia committing suicide in Hi-tech sweat shops.

Drive down margins like everyone else, create the most expensive have-to-have consumer devices ever, choose form over function, lock people into an ecosystem originally justified by quality and consistency considerations now simply a lock-in. Make things designed to break.

Ok he was an ex-hippy not a socialist - he couldn't change the world but might have eventually leveraged his personal power and that of his company maybe a little more e.g.

"I believe our products are great and worth the money - they are not produced in sweatshops in Asia. The suicide rate amongst our subcontracted workers is no higher than the local average and we insist the wages are substantially better. We are not Nike (or whoever) we are Apple."

Sorry the iPhone and iPad screens shatter so easily - that wasn't the case with my first iPhone iteration.

I've spoken to my good friends Sir Bob Geldof, Bill Gates , Sir Elton John, Sir Bruce Springsteen and Bonio from U2 and have decided to create a legacy of value and enduring social change not shiny expensive useless f*cking toys

From Bill Nelson's Red Noise

The posters on your wall mark every fashion's rise and fall

Why try to keep the past alive

And though I know the time is almost 1984

It feels like 1965

from Michael Wincott playing Rene in the the 1996 film Basquiat

when you first see a new picture, you don't want to miss the boat. You have to be very careful because you may be staring at Van Gogh's ear.

• er less confusion

• less drowning in a sea of devices, chargers, wires, peripherals etc

Do samsung make laptops?

Alan

Remote Western Australia

all of the above did really happen today