[ExI] smartwatch update

[William Flynn Wallace]

OK, so I bought a Samsung 3, top of the line.  I was instructed in how to
charge it and I did.  Ditto turning it on.

There was no instruction as to how to turn it off, or even if you were
supposed to, so I bought not one but two manuals for it on Amazon, one
marked 'senior'.

When I got the books, neither of them showed me how to turn it on or off,
and I have not managed to get it off.  There is a button 'sometimes'
(depending on which manual, or the tiny piece of paper that was the only
thing accompanying the watch.) labeled 'power' which I used to turn it on.
So I held that down to try to turn it off.  Nope.

I think technology has reached a point where only teenagers can handle it.
More fluid intelligence.  My first shock was quite a few years ago when I
bought a smartphone - also Samsung.  200+ page manual.  No way you can do
without a manual unless you have a brain substantially different from
mine.  Maybe I have lost a standard deviation, but even so I can still
qualify for Mensa.

I feel sorry for old folks who think they need a watch that measures heart
rate and even, with one lead, give you an ECG.  I suspect there will be
many returns.

If you know:  are they depriving us of any really useful enclosures with
tech equipment so we have to buy manuals and such?  If so, this is just
shameful treatment of old people.  One manual I bought was clearly written
by an Asian whose knowledge of grammar was at best barely sufficient
(meaning that it was not correct but you could figure out what he was
saying), and at worst incomprehensible.  Where are the English copy
editors? Too expensive?  It honestly reminded me of Japanese printer
manuals of the 1980s, at the time the most complex writing I ever
encountered.

(aside - in France they have contests where the contestants try to figure
out what the other person is saying and it's all in French!!  And I'll bet
the spelling contests there are won only by people with perfect memories)

It promises to be a marvelous thing, able to link with my phone and so on.
But the learning curve is really rather flat at this point.  Very
disappointing.  Will I ever walk with a cane?  Given these pills,
probably.  Will I pay someone to learn to use this watch and teach it to
me?  Hmm.  At this point, likely.

bill w
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