Motorola Quickly Shows Next Moto 360 Smartwatch, 'Flat Tire' Display Lives On 44
MojoKid writes: Will they or won't they continue on with the 'flat tire' display? That's been the big question surrounding Motorola's next generation Moto 360 smartwatch. Today, we finally learn the answer to the question, and unfortunately, it looks as though Motorola still hasn't seen clear to incorporate a completely circular display like LG, Huawei and now Samsung into a smartwatch. In an incredibly short video posted to Motorola's official Twitter account (the tweet has since been taken down), we see a fleeting glimpse of the next generation Moto 360. There is still a cutout at the bottom of the display, which houses an ambient light sensor in the current generation Moto 360. Keen eyes will also spot that the side button has been moved from the 3 o'clock position to the 2 o'clock position and that the integrated lug system for the watch bands has been abandoned in favor of an external lug system typical of most modern wristwatches.
I'd be buying this... (Score:1)
...immediately, were it not for the fact that Motorola is trying to charge me $25 for an in-warranty repair of a known design flaw on my Moto 360, which has been treated like gold dust since the day I bought it. The bad taste in my mouth has convinced me never to buy Motorola again. My only choice, other than to pay $25, is to wait weeks for my watch to be shipped to me after they receive and finally get around to processing it. There's no longer any way to have a replacement shipped out first, even if you
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That's nothing like how small claims court works.
Re: I'd be buying this... (Score:2)
Oh noes $25! That's like 3 months of commoner flavored gruel mix!
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That's like 3 months worth of coffee if you make your own coffee and don't hang out in hipster coffeehouses.
Invoked Streissand Effect (Score:2)
This tactic of making marketing efforts look like leaks purposely invokes the Streissand Effect. The perceived implication is "we don't want you to see this", which drives people to think "I'll show them, hehe, must be something REAL interesting if they're trying to hide it." It's comparable to reverse psychology. The punchline is that this gets more attention for their marketing message than if they had done a straight interview/press release. Instead of revealing everything about a product all at once, ti
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http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/s... [carmagazine.co.uk]
I know I just HAVE to get one of those Streissand camo prints to give my car that something extra special .
So what (Score:2, Insightful)
unfortunately, it looks as though Motorola still hasn't seen clear to incorporate a completely circular display
Why is this a bad thing?
Because the competition doesn't do it?
Because you lose a tiiiny fraction of the display that was probably just going to be wasted empty space, or a border, or (god forbid) some horrible skeuomorph graphic?
Because your OCD demands that only simply geometric shapes be used to adorn your person?
I don't understand. The space still serves some purpose (top facing light sensor - arguably the best place for it) so why poo-poo it?
Not that I care overmuch. Smartwatches are mostly still just s
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Smartwatches are mostly still just status symbols masquerading as over-engineered solutions looking for a problem.
I have a Pebble (original). I've had many comments about it being a cool gadget or how they've never seen someone pay for their coffee with their watch before, but definitely nothing that would make me even think of it as somewhat of a status symbol. It's just the modern day equivalent of the Casio watch.
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ever had a casio user have explain you that they have just ordered a new casio?
of course not. pebble users mention it all the fucking time that they have a pebble.
you're doing it right now, while sort of playing it down you're also mentioning how people tell you how cool you are for having one, so there.
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the word you're looking for is 'humblebrag'
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Why is this a bad thing?
Because screen real estate.
Most of what you want to display on a smart watch is naturally rectangular (text, photos, album art, digital time etc. and, of course, any app designed for a rectangular smartwatch) so it would be much easier to use all the space on a rectangular display.
The one, big plus to a circular display is to allow for a large, clear circular clock dial display that fills the entire face of the watch - because some people really like way of visualising the time. You could also base other
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Totally right. Just like the oval clocks that were popular when I was a kid needed to have hands that changed length as they went around. Imagine the complexity of the mechanism! Antikythera my arse!
Oh, hang on, they didn't. At least one of us must be full of shite.
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Just like the oval clocks that were popular when I was a kid needed to have hands that changed length as they went around.
Who mentioned the hands changing length? Were the ticks for 5 through 7 o-clock sliced off? Was a major selling point of those clocks that you could download new faces? Did the face have limited resolution? Was it the most expensive part of the clock and did the unused space contribute to running the spring down? Was the oval face a nuisance when you read email or viewed maps on these clocks... oh wait, you couldn't.
Some things are not the same as other things.
Plus, what idiot buys a clock with an oval
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You might try actually looking at some faces for the 360. Hint: They're still centered on the middle of the physical display. Looking at my wrist right now, it's 27 minutes after the hour and all that's cut off is some of the dashes marking minutes; the hand itself is still on-screen, but I expect that at 1:30 proper a few pixels for the edge of that hand might be cut off.
And, y'know what? I can't say that disturbs me overmuch. If (as they claim) this design feature avoids the need for a larger bezel while
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and all that's cut off is some of the dashes marking minutes; the hand itself is still on-screen, but I expect that at 1:30 proper a few pixels for the edge of that hand might be cut off.
So... in what way is that preferable to having a face that fills the entire screen without bits missing?
Is anybody saying your watch is completely useless and you should saw your hand off at the wrist rather than look at the hideous "flat tire" face? No (well, this is the internet so maybe). Would it be better to have a completely circular face? Yes.
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"Why is this a bad thing?"
The combination of their claim that it is too hard to make the full circle available combined with the fact that their competition is capable of doing it signals that Motorola has inferior capabilities. What else is not as good?
The opposite of external is internal (Score:2)
WTF are integrated lugs? To me it means formed in one piece with the body, which means they can be integrated and external - as most indeed are for strength [1].
As for the flat tire, wow. Total dealbreaker that. Then again, I came within an ace of buying an N-Gage, so I'm hardly a style guru.
[1] I'm surprised nobody's patented this.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's not a citation, you fat Alaskan granny-shagger. It's a footnote [wikipedia.org].
"The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of the text, or both."
(my emphasis)
Get a life (Score:2)
This falls so far below the standard of "News for Nerds" that it is an embarrassment. What part of the Slashdot demographic gives a rip? The fashion conscious? Here? (chokes laughing).
So the flat edge effects the clock speed? Number of cores? Memory? Battery life? Connectivity?
Tell me. I absolutely do not have the fainest idea of why this got posted. It's too stupid to be a Shashvertisement. I
Doesn't matter (Score:2)
I have had a 360 since it came out and I am pretty picky. But the "flat tire" part doesn't bother me at all. The 360 is a great design with lots of nice features (besides being very rugged, stylish, and affordable).
Please note, the "incredibly short video" is not of any real watch, it is just an animated mockup. So although I don't think it matters much either way, it doesn't prove anything at all.
For anyone wondering what "Flat Tire" means (Score:2)
What about lefties? (Score:2)
At roughly 10% of the population left handed people are a minority. Watch designs have historically been designed for right handed people. When watches were mechanical devices that made sense. It didn't make economical sense to manufacturer two different designs of watches and it would have been to complex, and therefore expensive, to provide a stem and/or buttons on both sides of the watch. But with purely digital watches most of those barriers go away. What is the cost per watch to provide an additional b
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At roughly 10% of the population left handed people are a minority. Watch designs have historically been designed for right handed people. When watches were mechanical devices that made sense. It didn't make economical sense to manufacturer two different designs of watches and it would have been to complex, and therefore expensive, to provide a stem and/or buttons on both sides of the watch. But with purely digital watches most of those barriers go away. What is the cost per watch to provide an additional button? Or even more simply, what about a configuration option that changes the orientation of the display. In the case of the Moto 360 that would mean that the button would be at the 7 o'clock position if worn upside down by a leftie. The button would be easily pushed by the thumb instead of the forefinger, but at least your hand would be out of the way.
People, just think of the lefties.
Apple watch can be set-up for lefties; one of the reasons I bought one.
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Cool. Thanks for the tip.
Video is still available on Google Plus (Score:2)
The video is still available on Google Plus [google.com]