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Handhelds Hardware

Disappointed Woz Sells His "Worthless" Galaxy Gear Watch 242

Posted by timothy from the get-that-man-a-tricorder dept.
curtwoodward (2147628) writes Apple co-founder and legendary nerd Steve Wozniak is a huge gadget enthusiast, often appearing in lines with mere mortals to purchase new Apple products. So you can bet he's tried out most of the smartwatches on the market today. The worst one? By far, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, which The Woz says he sold on eBay after half a day's use. "It was so worthless and did so little that was convenient," Wozniak said at an appearance in Milwaukee. "You had to hold it up to your ear and stuff." So maybe the watch sucked, but just imagine being the one who bought Woz's used Gear---do you think they know?
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Disappointed Woz Sells His "Worthless" Galaxy Gear Watch More

Disappointed Woz Sells His "Worthless" Galaxy Gear Watch

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  • Agreed. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2014 @12:08PM (#47361413) Homepage

    I did the same, except I returned to ti Best Buy and got a Pebble instead.

    Works a LOT better for what a smart watch is good for, critical Information display.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Begemot ( 38841 )

      critical information?

      How many of us really get critical information?

      No text or email crap I'm getting is critical. My wife and the kids can call my mobile.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 )

        SQL server is down and the boss is in the elevator coming to fire you is a pretty critical bit of information.

        I get all kinds of stats from work and home, the Pebble has a full open API that allows me to do whatever I want. the Samsung crap is closed up tight with not even any promises of opening it up yet.

        • Most critical production systems have alerts to pagers and phones. Nobody exclusively relies on email for this kind of stuff.

        • If the boss is coming to fire you, then the server is no longer critical information. The boss coming to fire you isn't really critical information either, since having it doesn't give you any options anyway - the decision has already been made.

    • Works a LOT better for what a smart watch is good for, critical Information display.

      See that's the problem I have with watches generally. 99% of the time they provide me no information that I critically need that I cannot get from my surroundings or my smartphone. I don't need a clock to be available to me at the flip of a wrist except very rarely. My day is not scheduled that tightly and there almost always are at least 2 clocks within eye shot anywhere I usually go. Occasionally they are useful for things like flight navigation or diving where knowing the time immediately is really

      • I used to wear a watch all the time. I felt naked if I wasn't wearing one and would compulsively look at my wrist to see what time it was. Then I realized just what you said and I decided to try going without one. I haven't worn one in months except for one day where I knew I wouldn't have access to my smartphone and I was going to need to see what time it was. During that time, it felt just wrong to have this "thing" on my wrist. I don't miss my watch at all and if I needed to see something that a "sm

    • I have a Pebble was thinking of getting a Gear just for the better screen and generally better quality materials.

      It's handy in the car for reading texts. It would be illegal to do that on my phone here, but I can sit right beside a cop car and scroll through them on my watch with no issues. Obviously have to stop to send them though.

      Also great having the GPS rangefinder on my wrist when golfing as opposed to constantly checking a phone.

      It's rudimentary first gen tech, but I can see it getting better and m

  • If you aren't happy with the current features of a smart watches then sit down and make your own, that's what I did, so instead of complaining I just solved my own issue.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Arkh89 ( 2870391 )

      Or wait for the one from Microsoft...

      // insert laughs here

      • Re:All smart watches suck (Score:4, Funny)

        by Jesus_666 ( 702802 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2014 @12:35PM (#47361669)
        It'd probably have a 5" display, quadrophonic sound and an octacore CPU and run an unmodified Windows RT. Due to weight concerns most of the battery had to be sacrificed, limiting its life to an etimated fifteen minutes - but no other smartwatch has both Office and HDMI and you can always use the USB port to hook it up to an external power source if you want to use it on the go. You see, Microsoft gets mobile devices.

        Or they decide they actually want to make money and release a generic Android-based smartwatch. Their Nokia arm doesn't seem too hung up about reinforcing the Windows hegemony if it gets in the way of business.
        • So true, if Microsoft actually makes a watch it will be train wreck. They have no concept on slim, power saving designs.
    • Because, you know, everybody is an engineer.
      • You don't have to be an engineer to build a basic circuit, or write simple software.
        • No, but I own a small shop with a couple of rental computers and I'm seeing more and more (young) people who don't even know access the web on anything other than their smart phone let alone write software and build a circuit.
          • Fair enough but I don't think comparing electronically illiterate kids to engineers in fair. This actually backs on to the lack of quality of the school system but I'm going to not even touch that one.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by antdude ( 79039 )

          10 HOME
          20 PRINT "Hello World"
          30 GOTO 20

          Like that? :P

          • Haha well if you have to get an engineering degree to figure that out then switch jobs :P

            I would even go as far to saw a basic / simple firmware.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nyder ( 754090 )

      If you aren't happy with the current features of a smart watches then sit down and make your own, that's what I did, so instead of complaining I just solved my own issue.

      I just strap my cellphone onto my wrist.

    • If you aren't happy with the current features of a smart watches then sit down and make your own, that's what I did, so instead of complaining I just solved my own issue.

      That's what I did too, years ago! ... but it really weighs heavily on my neck.

      Thanks fans! -- Flava Flav

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jon3k ( 691256 )
      I'd love to see this...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      Well, I am not an engineer. I do SQA test though! I'd like a smartwatch that doesn't require a phone and is like a PDA watch. I still wear an old school Casio Data Bank (DB) 150 watch that does schedule (very important), times, phone books (address books would be nice too), alarms, calculator, etc.

      • I've designed my watch with the capability of expansion, so if you really wanted to write a module to do that you could.
  • Seriously? He cannot get Apple to send him preview builds of their hardware?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by FlyHelicopters ( 1540845 )

      Apple does I'm sure... he is still a full time paid employee of Apple, receiving about $120K a year.

      He doesn't actually do anything there, he just gets paid... well, because... :)

      Woz likes to stand in line with everyone else and buy them because it makes him feel normal. He doesn't have Job's ego, and for that, I applaud him.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cabriel ( 803429 )

        Besides, what better way to make sure you know what the consumers are experiencing by making sure your gear (no pun) is acquired from the same place?

        If Apple (or any company) gave him special supplies, maybe they might deliberately make his item somehow superior (whether through special hardware or software options or optimizations that aren't available for the general public)?

      • Apple does I'm sure...

        Yeah, Apple will give a blabber-mouth like Woz unreleased hardware. Sure.

  • Consumers are fickle (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Iniamyen ( 2440798 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2014 @12:36PM (#47361675)
    Wasn't it only a year or two ago about how we were congratulating ourselves on not having to wear watches, because hey, everyone's got a smart phone and you can just check the time on that.

    I don't wear a watch day-to-day. When I do wear one, it's with a suit as a fashion accessory. And I seriously doubt smart watches will ever look classy. Flashy, yes. Classy, no.

    It's pretty amazing how short the average consumer's attention span is. I guess I can't blame companies for gettin' while the gettin's good.
    • >Wasn't it only a year or two ago about how we were congratulating ourselves on not having to wear watches, >because hey, everyone's got a smart phone and you can just check the time on that.

      That was obviously short-sighted and just plain dumb. And I say that as someone who made that very claim. I just didn't anticipate all the health tracking and messaging functionality that would become available in watches.

      >I don't wear a watch day-to-day. When I do wear one, it's with a suit as a fashion

    • And I seriously doubt smart watches will ever look classy.

      See I think watches either look anachronistic or make you look like a showoff in most cases. There are a few niche use cases for wearing one but I really don't see the point most of the time. If the watch is expensive enough to be bling (read Rolex) then it isn't really for function - it's jewelry. Whatever function it serves is incidental to its real function of showing off. If the watch is cheap enough to be practical for uses other than showing then there no longer is a point to wearing it most of th

  • Salesmanship (Score:3)

    by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2014 @02:02PM (#47362619) Journal

    By far, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, which The Woz says he sold on eBay after half a day's use. "It was so worthless and did so little that was convenient,"

    Well jeeze, Woz, with salesmanship like that, I'm surprised you managed to sell it at all!

  • My wife has one and loves it, for one reason. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by smellsofbikes ( 890263 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2014 @03:46PM (#47363521) Journal

    There aren't any current cellphones that fit in the pockets of the sort of clothes she wears. Size zero/one fashion clothing often doesn't even have pockets, much less ones that'll fit the half-tablet-sized cellphones these days. She had an HP Veer, the size of a credit card, that she loved, until it died. So now she has the same smartwatch and has what she calls a GIANT cellphone in her purse or stuck in her desk at work, and takes calls using her watch.

    Size zero clothing is probably not on Woz's radar, but there are people who want tiny connectivity.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      There aren't any current cellphones that fit in the pockets of the sort of clothes she wears.

      I can think of only three possibilities:

      1. Baywatch lifeguard
      2. Bikini model
      3. Playboy bunny

      Well, I can think of more, but it's your wife dude so I'll shut up now :-)

  • of keeping you in that company's ecosystem every time you look at your watch.

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