I’ve had a Samsung LTE smartwatch (Galaxy Watch 4) for several years and from Day One it has reminded me of Dick Tracy’s “2-way wrist radio.” I don’t recall which of two sizes I have but it’s notably large, like a man’s watch, on my scrawny little wrist.
If you’re asking “Who’s Dick Tracy?” you’re likely a lot younger than I am. He was a cartoon character, a cop, that I followed back in the 1950’s or thereabouts. Fascinating to see his “wrist radio” become a reality decades later.
Anyway, as an old woman living alone, it’s reassuring to have close at hand a way to call for help (and actually talk to someone if I need to). Of course, incoming calls work too. I don’t use it for calls, but I can get weather warnings, police warnings, etc. You may recall some years ago there was a shooting a few doors down from here that I didn’t hear, and it’s nice to know now that if police send out a neighborhood warning, a shelter-in-place order, etc., I’ll get it on my watch, day or night.
Which brings me to a recent incident. I was still in bed dozing when my watch started vibrating. One glance and I was wide awake. A red SOS and “Emergency call.” WTF? I tried answering, with no success. Tried several other commands and nothing worked. I didn’t hear anything unusual in the house or outside. My phone wasn’t ringing. Spam text? (The watch and phone have different numbers.)
After what seemed like a very long couple of minutes, the watch message changed to “Cooled. Your watch is now ready to use.”
What!? The watch may have cooled but I hadn’t. To say I was mad at Samsung would be an understatement. Scared me half to death when the message could have just said “watch overheating – please wait” or something similar. I considered sending a nasty suggestion to Samsung but after reading that the overheating was a known issue — previously unknown to me — decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
That said, I still love smartwatches and am getting a new one soon. A beautiful Pixel 4 this time. Not because of the Samsung incident but because I’ve long wanted the smaller Pixel and it seems they’ve finally caught up technologically.
Hmm, I wonder if Tracy’s wrist radio ever overheated …
Vitamin Flintheart was an industry magnate and would probably be in the hight-tech watch business if he were still around!
Wow, your memory is way better than mine. I don’t recall that name at all. I do remember Tess Trueheart, however, although I’d not thought of that name for many decades … until just now.
We sisters always read Dick Tracy in the cartoons section of The Sunday Times. There were also Mandrake the Magician, Dagwood (Bumstead), Popeye, The Phantom – although he was enlarged into his own comic book, along with Superman, Captain Marvel (“SHAZAM !”) and Batman. There now ! 🙂
Ah, Dagwood and Blondie. And Popeye. Yep, along with the superheros you mention. Also Wonder Woman, Archie, and Little Lulu. I’d forgotten the Sunday comics. We had a Sunday morning radio show where a guy would read the comics aloud and we’d follow along, sitting or lying in front of the radio with the comics spread on the floor in front of us. It never occurred to me that you might have had the same comics in Australia. Of course I also had the relevant comic books, too.
BTW, did you just wander by or did WordPress see fit to notify you properly, like the subscriber you are?
No, me old china: WordPress hasn’t let me into the normal environment of email advice. Sighh …
I now have a shortcut to your blog up there on top of my laptop screen among all the other shortcuts (my banking, Audible, Netflix, etc.) and check it every couple of days.
You did reregister, yes? And it still didn’t work? I’ve got to try again with WP support. You’re not the only person who’s reported this and it really frustrates me.
I appreciate the shortcut. That’s valuable space up on that bar; mine’s been overflowing for years.