BLINDED BY THE LIGHT:
WHY
WEARABLES
WHY
WEARABLES
ARE OUTPERFORMING
TABLETS AND
LAPTOPS
OUTDOORS
AS SMARTWATCHES BEGIN TO USE
OUTDOOR-FRIENDLY DISPLAYS, OWNERS OF OTHER DEVICES ARE STILL STUCK SQUINTING.
As summer wanes, many
parts of the country will be still balmy enough to enjoy any number of outdoor
leisure activities. But if you plan to enjoy some fresh air as you toil away on
your laptop, you'll likely be seeking the shade. This is because most LCDs—the
displays on virtually all laptops and many tablets and smartphones—are
notoriously prone to being washed out by the sun. Companies routinely make
trade-offs between display size, brightness, and resolution, so it's bizarre
that nobody has solved this problem. But with wearables, the tide may be
starting to turn.
The smartwatch
category has opened up a lot more creativity when it comes to displays. Many
companies, including Apple and Samsung but also luxury startup Olio, have cranked up the brightness of their OLED
displays to provide better outdoor readability. But others, including
smartwatch startups Pebble and MetaWatch, have used reflective
displays—technologies such as Sharp's Memory LCD. Another such reflective display is from Mirasol,
a Qualcomm subsidiary that the chip giant has invested heavily in but has seen
little commercial use. Mirasol screen technology was in Qualcomm’s Toq watch
that served as the reference design for the Timex Ironman One GPS+ smartwatch offered via AT&T.
Most recently,
Motorola has addressed the outdoor visibility issue with its new 360 Sportdesign. The Android Wear device integrates two
display technologies—a reflective one for outdoors and a more traditional one
for indoors. However, Motorola has hesitated to use that approach on the other
new models of its watch because doing so involves some compromises in terms of
indoor screen quality. Indeed, the colors on watches such as the Qualcomm Toq and Pebble Time are muted at best; the
latter offers poor contrast and
viewing angles.
A few dynamics of the
smartwatch market make it a better candidate for experimenting with these
displays. For one thing, it’s a smaller market with less competition that is
targeting early adopters more forgiving of the displays’ drawbacks. According
to Jennifer Colgrove, president of Touch Display Research, these can include limited viewing angles, low contrast, poor
visibility in low light, high prices, and low manufacturing yields. The screen
sizes are also smaller and the curved nature of some wearables lend themselves
well to these flexible display technologies. In terms of user requirements,
with so much of a smartwatch’s value in notifications available at a glance,
there’s a premium on being able to see that information outside when a phone is
often in a pocket.
Few larger reflective
display products have been attempted. In 2007, with the original XO kid-oriented computing device, One Laptop Per Child served a specialized
market with a display that could shift from outdoor to indoor mode. And In
2011, the much-hyped Notion Ink Adam tablet used similar technology but
became a pricey failure. Pixel Qi, the company that developed that technology,
faded away like a ghosting screen image.
Since then, trying to
track down such a tablet or laptop with a reflective screen has involved
an X-Files-like search to the fringes of computing. One
crowdfunding project to build a laptop-like "e-writer" called Fusion Writer (similar to the name of aneducational writing appliance) attracted little more than $100 of its
$50,000 goal. A more successful
Kickstarter campaign spurred Freewrite,
a chunky cloud-synced typewriter-styled throwback with a small e-paper screen.
It focuses more on simplicity, durability, and typing experience than
portability.
In what has become a
crowdfunding cliché, the product has been beset by delays. The product missed
its initial estimated ship date of June 2015, and then missed its estimate of
reopening preorders in July. It now expects to ship this winter for $499.
There have, of course,
been successful e-paper e-readers. But few have any integrated apps or support
for an app store such as Google Play. A rare exception is the $340 Icarus
E1051BK, an iPad-sized e-reader that supports Google Play and
Bluetooth keyboard input.
Until the pieces come
together, outdoor laptop users are stuck with trying to minimize the impact of
the sun from their screens. One option is a pop-up shade. These are often pricey because they are
usually intended for pro photographers and videographers in mind. Another is
a polarized sunglasses
Kickstarter project from a pair of
MIT alums. While its results look promising, one must choose between glasses
optimized for laptops or smartphones. It’s due to ship next summer. At least
until then, those looking for an easier read will have to come up with another
bright idea.
BY ROSS RUBIN
http://www.fastcompany.com/3050797/blinded-by-the-light-why-wearables-are-outperforming-tablets-and-laptops-outdoors?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=2&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=09192015
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