Apple Reportedly Testing Inductive, Solar and Motion Charging For Its Smartwatch 219
An anonymous reader writes in with the latest from the rumor mill about a possible Apple smartwatch. "We've heard that when Apple reveals its first smartwatch product, there's going to be a heavy focus on health and fitness, but There might also be a way to charge the wearable without plugging it in, according to a report from the New York Times. Inductive charging came in a wave of smartphones last year, including Google's Nexus 4 and Nokia's Lumia 920 range, although we don't often see it in anything smaller than a phone (or camera) form-factor. Apple, however, is looking into cramming the same technology into its iWatch, or whatever it eventually calls its debut wearable."
Apple tests everything (Score:5, Informative)
These are basically all the possible ways to recharge a wristwatch that currently exist, except for physical mechanical contacts. This shouldn't be surprising because if there's one thing history has taught us, it's that Apple tries out practically every permutation of hardware in the R&D process. There were rumours that the "Apple tablet" would come in three screen sizes; it was later revealed that Apple had been testing three sizes on its campus to decide which one it preferred. There were rumours that they'd launch a version with no mechanical buttons; it was disclosed that Apple had tested that permutation too.
Whenever you read an Apple product rumour, before you even question the legitimacy of the source, ask yourself: is there any reason to suppose this is any more than a speculative prototype on their part?
Re:Apple tests everything (Score:5, Informative)
Except you can write off solar instantly. There is not enough square inches to charge your smartwatch on your wrist. Some regular digitals get away with it because displaying the time on an LCD takes almost no power. Talking BT to your phone and all the smart stuff takes a buttload more power, way over what a small solar cell can deliver. (And honestly, the solar watches do NOT recharge, they simply offset power use their batteries eventually die and need replacement)
Re:Apple tests everything (Score:4, Informative)
You measure power in gallons?
(a "butt" as a unit of measure is approximately 126 gallons)
Re:Apple tests everything (Score:5, Funny)
You are baiting for a "your mom" joke, you know that, right?
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I finally have a definition for "assload", which I will now define as approximately 130 gallons, or maybe 1040 lbs (of water).
"how much does that truck weigh?" "About 3 assloads"
Now if only I could define english vs metric fucktons...
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Except you can write off solar instantly.
Especially since people today are very rarely outdoors, in sunlight. Solar panels generate much less power from artifical light.
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It is only because the amount of light is drastically lower, an office is tens of magnitudes dimmer than outside in full sun. when you put a solar panel under a 2500 watt grow light that is close to solar output, they do fine.
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a 2500 watt grow light
So, Apple is developing a product that will only work for stoners who grow pot in their parent's basement?
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Works best if you buy the iphone 5c in Green...
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I don't think you can write off solar instantly. The point wouldn't be so much to recharge the battery to full as delay the arrival of empty as long as possible. Any watch is going to have a necessarily small body. If Apple wants the watch to last at least a full day, be slim AND do lots of stuff, they'll have to come up with something novel.
So, yeah, it's a hard sell to keep the watch charged all the time through solar, but it may give the battery just enough life to make it for 16 hours (which is what cou
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From wikipedia:
The most efficient mass-produced solar modules[disputed – discuss] have energy density values of up to 175 W/m2.
Let's say Apple uses a big solar panel of 5x5 cm behind a screen. This corresponds to an optimistic 175/400 = 0.44 W output.
For comparison: a typical idle phone uses about 50mW of energy, while a phone in "talking mode" consumes 2 W of energy.
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I’m going to assume nobody is talking on their watch, but also assume idle isn’t the norm either. .44W is 440 mW so that’s 800% of idle mode, but 25% of talk mode which may not be bad for just BT.
Not bad for casual charging.
If you consider Citizen watches with solar vs Pebble, what are the values for consumption and generation?
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That is a pretty reasonable fraction of the power needed to talk say ~25% well (most people) aren't talking 25% of the day (well I guess 12.5% of the day since you don't have daylight charging at night :)). Presumably you can take it off and charge it overnight too so the solar just needs to stretch it out the a ~18hr battery life and you are golden. This is actually what I would prefer: a smart watch/phone. No bluetooth/iPhone in the pocket. An iPhone nano. Basic functionality (say weather, clock and calen
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Good points. I also find that eReaders fail via that Made In California crowd. I find my Kindle doesn't work -5C which pretty much is Dec-March where I live. So you can read anywhere as long as it isn't while waiting for a bus/train etc. The no touch with gloves bit is annoying too when you want to pause a video, change a setting etc and you have to chose between staying entertained or keeping your fingers.
One day battery life: I have a dumb phone and it usually lasts 3 days or so without a charge. But oc
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Don't forget to add the additional 83 minutes of charging during talk time. That's an additional ~2000 joules.
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an optimistic 175/400 = 0.44 W output ... For comparison: a typical idle phone uses about 50mW of energy
Apple has patents on putting solar into a display.
Really?? Prior art on commercially available solar embedded displays goes back to the 70's...
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Prior art on commercially available solar embedded displays goes back to the 70's...
Really?? Do you have a link to some of that prior art?
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Timex "ironman" watches. all have a transparent solar cell in the display. There are about 600,000,000 pieces of prior art floating around the united states on people wrists and in landfills.
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[...] it could make sense on a watch that is in light most of the time [...]
I wear a long sleeved shirt, you insensitive clod!
Re: Apple tests everything (Score:4, Funny)
Are you nuts? How the heck should we then sell you a new one every other year?
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Also, I'd much rather have them release a new model every year than try to sell the same old model for the same old price year after year.
*cough*TI-89*cough*
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In point of fact, nearly every mainstream Android device released over the past 3-4 years at least has received at least one major upgrade overs its lifetime and usually more than one. Sure, some of the cheaper ones may suffer the "no updates" fate, but that's one of the unseen prices you pay when you get a cheaper device. They're cheap *in part* because they don't receive updates. I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but it's *generally* true.
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eInk could be updated every minute for a (wait for it) 60x power savings over updating every second, but even running an LCD all the time is possible with only solar, there are watches that do that right now.
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It's quite possible that the source is correct; but you hardly need insider information to hypothesize that 'If Apple is making a watch, they'll test today's common methods for recharging watc
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Yeah, how about the one where they put motion charging on the Iphone , so the more you talk , the more energy it stores.
Doesnt this seem a more natural evolution for the product? We can turn a problem into an asset.
Sing with Ving ! :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
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motion charging on your watch... its not porn, its an "interactive battery charging assistance aid"!
Re:Apple tests everything (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they don't.
Apple's hallmark is to rush a product to market without thoroughly testing it. Hence, all the technical and usability problems since Jobs took over on the second go round, and, hence, the classic line by Apple apologists, "Never buy the first iteration of an Apple product."
It's usually a good rule do thumb to never buy the first iteration of any computer software or hardware product at all, especially software.
The rest of your post is either blatant trolling or a symptom of some psychological disorder and so not worthy of a response.
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moving controls off the main unit is an absolute abortion of a design decision. Case in point: the Grundig MD-P1 personal minidisc player. All the controls are are on a pod, the only control on the unit itself is a mechanical eject. It works great until the cable splits, then you have a paperweight unless you want to fork out for a spare control pod - which is also the only way to connect a pair of headphones.
(source: had one)
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I think your are mixing things up. The iPhone 4 was not the 4th generation of a product. It was the 4th series of mobile telephone produced by Apple, but the first geneation of that particular series. Depending on what you call a generation, your might agree or not with this view, but considering very little remained from the 3rd series in the design of the 4th, I'm inclinded to believe this view is correct.
It's a bit like with cars... you never buy the first cars produced on a new production line. never. I
just walk over the inductive pads for buses (Score:2)
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I get the feeling you dont understand how inductive power works.
£10 says.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:£10 says.... (Score:4, Funny)
isn't it just an iPod nano with a wrist-band?
Re:£10 says.... (Score:4, Insightful)
If Jobs was still around that would probably be it. Except it wouldn't have taken this long to develop.
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That's what we'll get from Apple.
I don't believe they will go for the samsung-like tiny screen, they'll provide a much better interface by making it half the length of your forearm. And it will be much better for the fanboys to show off, and to sell customization products.
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"& make morning toast for you"
That would really cut down on the battery life...
But seriously who TF wears a watch these days?
I haven't had a wrist watdh for more than 12 years.
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Fitness junkies - watches with pedometers built in.
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This might be the first time I've ever heard someone speculate about Apple putting in too many features.
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I would take that bet. Not on smart watches in general. On Apple's smart watch. Over the last decade or so, they've gotten pretty good about waiting for others to make the obvious mistakes and then come out with something that "just works".
Just look at their music player, laptop, tablet, phone, etc...
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As an aside, my first guess is that they use color e-paper (regardless of cost) for power efficiency reasons.
"Motion charging" (Score:3)
"Motion charging".... hehehehe.... yeah I bet they test that a lot at Apple.
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Re: "Motion charging" (Score:2)
Yeah bunch of wankers :-P
30% (Score:3)
And of course, 30% of all harvested energy belongs to Apple.
prior art (Score:2)
My brother has one of those Chinese phone watches that does everything - even has a camera, SIM and MicroSD in it, and it's about the same size as my Breitling Navitimer. Maybe a smidge thicker. He also has a Tag Heuer analogue watch that has motion charging built into it. I'm pretty sure I can combine the two and get a patent on the corners...
I was right (Score:2)
Energy from the blood stream. (Score:4, Interesting)
A watch can be easily connected to the blood vessels in the wrist and use the O2 / glucose mix as an energy source like the rest of your body. Recharge by eating. This would be real bleeding-edge technology.
Note that the use of blood as a power source (for implants) is seriously being researched. Look up "biofuel cell".
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Interesting definition of "easily" when talking about a consumer device you slip on and off your wrist at least once a day.
How often do you take off your watch? (Score:2)
I wonder if Apple is aiming to eliminate the need to remove your watch for charging.
I've owned basically waterproof watches since the 1980s and seldom take them off for any reason except for situations where the watch might get in the way.
One limitation to any smart watch seem to me to be how often it needs to be taken off to charge.
It's hard to see any smart watch that does anything useful charging solely by the means listed, but I do wonder if there's some way to maintain or extend the charge so that the
Apple fanbois ... (Score:3, Funny)
Better still... (Score:2)
Apple needs to figure out a way to harness shame, anger, frustration and greed to charge their devices.
Talk about an inexhaustible energy source.
Re:Duh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple didn't make a success of the iPhone by being first to market with a smartphone, they did it by getting it right. I'm no Apple fanboy, and I own no Apple products, but current smartwatches are a joke, and if anyone is going to take the concept beyond niche/gimmick level, it wouldn't entirely surprise me if it was Apple.
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Pippin. Newton. The list goes on.
Re:Duh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, they didn't make a success of the Apple TV, so its not like everything they touch magically becomes popular. They had their failures in the past.
Apple TV outsells for example Xbox 360 for the last two years, Wii U, and probably a lot of other devices that you think are very successful.
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The XBOX 350 had sold about 80m units worldwide last year, compared to about 13m for the Apple TV. The only reason the Apple TV is now selling more is because the 360 has reached saturation point. The Wii U is widely regarded as a failure and the sales figures reflect that.
Not disputing that the Apple TV has done okay, but your claims are distorting the truth somewhat.
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The XBOX 350 had sold about 80m units worldwide last year, compared to about 13m for the Apple TV. The only reason the Apple TV is now selling more is because the 360 has reached saturation point.
Your writing is misleading - Xbox 360 sold maybe 80 million units up to and including last year, not last year. Big difference. And of course Apple TV is just at the beginning. But right now they are selling more than Xbox 360 every quarter, and have done for two years, and still increasing.
Lies and More Lies (Score:2)
Your writing is misleading - Xbox 360 sold maybe 80 million units up to and including last year, not last year. Big difference. And of course Apple TV is just at the beginning. But right now they are selling more than Xbox 360 every quarter, and have done for two years, and still increasing.
You are a fantasist; Sales of Apple TV (its 3rd Generation Product) over the last year has sold a (none too shabby) 6 Million units http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... [wikipedia.org]. Its in its 3rd Generation and has been on sale 2007. Its market is now threatened by (media) consoles (and yes the xbox sells better...as does the Playstation note I don't separate the revisions), Intelligent Blu-ray players, Streaming devices like the Roku and Android devices, and the Chromecast, and that is without mentioning the massive gro
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Apple TV was launched in 2007, it's getting on for seven years old. 13m is the stated lifetime sales.
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Pebble users would generally disagree with you. What they do, they do very well.
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microsoft had those timex smart watches that updated by facing the watch to the monitor which then flashed to transfer the data. that was what mid 90's.
Smart watches have existed in some form for a while. the problem has always been the UI is to small to do much with.
personally I think Apple will wait until they can get a decent laser projector to work on your arm. Sort of like that laser keyboard only wrist worthy.
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Wow.. I totally forgot about those. And I HAD one. Timex Datalink. Talk about a walk down memory lane... Thanks! :)
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current smartwatches are a joke
I don't know. The pebble is ugly, but I'm pretty partial to the smartwatch2 from sony. It looks nice, it's the thinnest out there and it doesn't have any "deal-breakers". Everything about it is pretty decent, although there's no killer features. It does only what you would expect a simple smartwatch to do.
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Both the iPod and the iPhone arrived pretty late in their respective markets.
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Google is your friend (Score:3)
The iPhone arrived late? What else was available in 2007 with a touch screen, browser, etc? I mean I don't like them any better than the next guy, but I'm interested to know what prior art you speak of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... [wikipedia.org] browsers have been available on phones since at least 1994 ironically the first example given fro a mobile browser is the Apple Newton!? It suggests the first mobile phones was in 1996 with " Unwired Planet (later to become Openwave) put their "UP.Browser" on AT&T handsets" So beating Apple by 11 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... [wikipedia.org] capacitive touch screen work began in 1965!? Hell the nintendo DS even have touchscreen back in 2004. In fact a whole host of companies
Re:Duh? (Score:5, Interesting)
They are still testing something like this? Samsung's Galaxy Gear came out already. The capability to quickly bring attractive and reliable products to market is a key factor in modern electronics industry.
Why are they testing this iPod thing? I mean Creative Labs and others have come out with MP3 players already. The ability to quickly bring attractive and reliable products to market is a key factor in modern electronics industry (so there isn't a hope in hell this iPod thing will ever be a commercial success).
The thing is that first to market is not everything. You also have to design the stuff you bring to market well and Apple has a history of appealing to customers by successfully reinventing/redesigning stuff that others have implemented badly and Apple evidently believes they can do it again.
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I'd argue that most first generation Apple products are implemented badly too. The iPod took a good couple of years to really gain traction, by which time they had managed to improve the hardware and most critically the software to a usable state. Beyond that the hype machine made sure every new product would sell, but did little to improve the implementation of early versions.
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And first generation Microsoft stuff is great? Pretty much everything north of a mouse has problems on Rev A hardware. I like Apple, I have a lot of Apple stuff, but I never buy the first generation of any Apple hardware and never run any software earlier than a .2 level.
Same with pretty much everything out there. I'm tired of being a beta tester.
Re:Duh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Its more like marketing. BTW the only MP3 player I ever bought was from Creative Labs and at least their bundled headphones weren't a complete POS. I plugged it in and i looked just like any other USB pen and I can drag and drop MP3 files into it easily. Much better than having to use iTunes.
And yet for some reason millions upon millions of people disagreed and bought the iPod, and don't tell me it was just marketing. There is always more to a blockbuster hit it than just marketing.
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Of course, millions upon millions of people bought Windows. Sometimes the mob is not smart.
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Of course, millions upon millions of people bought Windows. Sometimes the mob is not smart.
Actually, most of the millions upon millions of people who use Windows did not explicitly buy Windows. Sometimes the mob isn't even given a choice.
Its also worth noting that sometimes you can only push the mob so far. Its interesting that many hardware vendors that had previously gone along with Microsoft and changed their entire home PC lineup to be Windows 8 exclusively are now offering Windows 7 preloaded PCs again. There's only one reason to do that, and that's because those vendors believe forcing
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I think the 20/40 GB of music vs the 64 mb that conventional MP3 players offered was the key. I hate itunes with a passion but i only have to deal with it to sync music.
I was in the market for a MP3 player at the time. In my neck of the woods the most common variety was the 32mb memory stick type. Other than that there was the NOMAD which was expensive and I had to look for quite a while until I found a shop that sold it, then there was the iPod. I picked the iPod because it was a nice compromise between small size, capacity and a UI that seemed to be designed for efficient one-handed use which was nice since I'm a keen cyclist. I didn't like iTunes either (still don't), b
Smartphone Revolution (Score:3)
the Slashdot crowd still hasn't gotten over the shock of people preferring simplicity and portability over features.
Actually most have their music on their phones. I use https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com] Vanilla Music on Android. In fact people everywhere are ditching their iPods for Android.
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and the samsung gear is a complete and utter failure. the Sony smartwatch is a failure as well and that was out before samsung.
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Not really first post. Sony has had smartwatches for longer. Heck IBM demonstrated a smartwatch running Linux year back.
Apple is a Joke (Score:2)
As the previous AC said, it was just like the typical "First!" posting on any forum.
Ironically Apples smartwatch is still vaporware. the Galaxy Gear is out and selling; I suspect a better Galaxy Gear Revision will be out before Apple gets itself organized. Samsung have learned having prototypes in the back room causes them to be kicked around in the courts over a few design/interface patents, because Apple said "First!". I am not sure who will control the smartwatch market or even if there is one, but if there is Samsung are in a strong position to capitalize on it...Apple not so much.
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Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially cancelled.
The Apple smart watch is a rumor and speculation by people outside Apple. Apple might be working on a smart watch and may have been doing so for years, but Apple isn't going to announce it until it is ready for sale.
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It depends: you can turn off the Apple section in your user settings, unfortunately there isn’t a “Wild Speculation” section you can turn off.
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Thanks! I had trouble finding that...seemed I had an empty list to select from...but a 'reset' populated the list and I will see if that does the trick :D
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You are not their target market, that is why it is priced that way.
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Nobody wears watches nowadays.
Instead they wear a small clock attached to a strap wrapped around their wrist.
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I use one. A Casio G-Shock.
Inaccuracies by AC (Score:2)
1. Near as I can tell, it's approximately 10 seconds of 'active' wear per hour of time-keeping. With a 48 hour reserve, that's approximately 4 minutes a day of 'active wear' to keep the watch 'fully' charged. source [selfdefensearmory.com]
2. Watch winders are often hideously priced, but should only be necessary if you keep self-winding watches like women keep shoes. If you have one, no problem, with 2 you're still fine if you alternate.
That being said, I'd imaging power requirements for something apple would be higher than sim
Re:Haute horologie. (Score:4, Informative)
Except they are mechanical winding. The Sekio Kinetic which turns that into electrical charging seems to keep my watch working just fine, and I sit at a computer all day as my job.
Of course the issue is that mechanical electrical generation aka Sekio Kinetic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... [wikipedia.org] and solar electrical generation aka the Citizen EcoDrive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E... [wikipedia.org] provide tiny amounts of power to keep a watch going, and could not provide anywhere near sufficient power for a smart watch.
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Or if you're me, the worst phone you could ever imagine (battery life, robustness, size, speech quality, too many button presses until i can do what i want to achieve).
I see you've never owned a Motorola RAZR then.
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I have a MotoRAZR V3i and a V3r, I'm pretty sure you guys can't be referring to either of those as "worst phone ever" because frankly, they're the best phones ever.
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