Samsung is sunsetting Tizen and fully ending support for the smartwatch OS
Samsung is sunsetting Tizen and fully ending support for the smartwatch OS
'Looks at perfectly functional Galaxy Watch 3 on my wrist'
This is a huge problem for Samsung. This is proof they cannot maintain an OS, making them further dependent on Google. They chose a Linux compatible toolkit (EFL from Enlightenment) and tried making their own OS. It was terrible and filled with security holes.
I think they should rebase Tizen on PostMarketOS, as I don't believe Samsung can create their own base.
Of course they can't. It's gotten so bad they ship their TVs with antivirus on them. The only reason anyone uses their Android phones is they have the best hardware, most of their add-on software is just useless gimmicks people turn off. Tizen on watches was never going to work. Apple has a large enough ecosystem to attract app developers. Google has a large enough ecosystem to attract app developers. Samsung does not. Smartest thing they could do now is shut down their remaining software development. Ship the TVs with vanilla Google OS like LG, strip the bloatware off their phones, etc. They would lose face but their products would become way better.
Doesn’t LG use WebOS?
Or at least they did three years ago when I wanted to buy a TV but everything was back ordered to he’ll…
Smartest thing they could do now is shut down their remaining software development. Ship the TVs with vanilla Google OS
I think there's a difference between smartwatches and TVs in terms of being able to monetize the operating system. On the tiny screen of a watch you can't really put any advertisement (at least not without destroying the usability completely) and most of the things you can analyse are happening on the smartphone.
A TV on the other hand gives you a huge surface in the living room of a families home and if you have control of the OS there are plenty of ways to monetize it (and companies willing to pay for it). You can preinstall certain streaming apps (and get payed for it), promote newly released movies and give links to rent them (either your own shop or again for commission), you can collect userdata and sell that to other companies, and much more.
I used to develop smart TV apps, and Tizen / Orsay (older SS TV OS) we an absolute nightmare to develop for. LG's Web OS, and Android TV were so easy in comparison.
Perfect, now Google can kill Wear OS without fear of tizen taking it all.
Mission accomplished!
Isn't tizen also on their smart TVs?
Yes, but this article and the sources only say this is impacting their watches.
Are they going to allow me to reflash it with whatever i want tho?
haha ha haaaaa
No. Why? Because, duck you, that's why.
Can we get Louis rossman onto it?
A problem I deftly sidestepped by avoiding "smart" watches altogether.
Garmin watches are semi-smart and have great sensors. My Epix 2 Sapphire runs for 11 days on a charge as well.
Tried a Pixel, returned it for refund. Don't use iPhone or Samsung phone so their bespoke software wouldn't work for me.
Garmin Instinct 2 Solar gives me 31 days on a full charge if it doesn't get any sunlight. It is smart enough to vibrate me awake without waking my partner and receive notifications, no matter what Android/iOS phone I use.
What were your main gripes with the Pixel watch?
Another vote for Garmin, wearing a Descent mk2i as my daily and dive computer. Two weeks on a charge, all the tracking I could ask for. It's big, but so am I so it doesn't look ridiculous.
What phone do you use, if I may ask?
Me too. I don't see the point. My life is already full of distractions and I bet the batteries in those are hard to replace when they inevitably don't hold charge any more.
Buy g-shock, know time. Good.
They're useful for people with sleep issues, and people who are trying to get fit or lose weight. The sleep and fitness tracking features are great for statistic nerds like me. Or people with a heart condition who don't want to carry a bulky ECG machine with them everywhere. But if you fall into neither of those categories, I can understand why you would say such a thing.
I don't go anywhere without my smartwatch. Only time I take it off is to shower and charge. Owning one has improved my life for the better. For example, I found out that I have sleep apnea because of my watch. And I can track whether or not my workouts are burning muscle or fat, and adjust accordingly.
Best watch I ever owned cost me $7 at Wal Mart. I don't wear a wrist watch anymore.
I had a Motorola one about 7 or 8 years ago. I was working at a grocery store at the time and we weren't allowed to take our phones out on the job, so I could use it to see and reply to important texts from my parents. I also drove my parents' car to and from that job. Their car at the time had no phone integration at all. Just a Bluetooth to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle plugged into the AUX input. So when driving that car, I used the watch as a makeshift hands-free system. Not actually hands free mind, but I could use it to skip songs and pause without taking my eyes off the road while listening to Spotify.
I loved my Fossil watch. And eventually I switched over to iPhone (which was a painful transition but 95% fine now), and Apple Watch is fantastic.
I also hear the Garmin ones are really nice.
I like my Bangle.js 2.
Pebble all over again.
I'm just not getting a smartwatch. I don't even trust Apple to keep supporting their watches after a couple of years.
Built-in obsolescence is bad enough. At the very least, these things should work until the hardware dies. Nope. Not anymore.
Pebble is still going pretty well though, so I don't know if that's a good comparison
Apart from a lack of an app store or online services...
I’m still using an Apple Watch 3 that I got in a bundle with my iPhone X from my telco.
I need to charge it twice a day for ~30 minutes each, but it’s still chugging along.
I think I’ll finally upgrade to the new generation this year, but at that point it will be 7 years old - which is commendable for tech.
I just get a miband every two generations.
Samsung switched from Tizen to WearOS literally 4 months after I got my Galaxy watch 2. That was annoying. $200 is way too much to spend on such a short-lived product.
I mean, Fossil ended support for my Gen 5 a while back and... It still works. I mean, I mostly use it as an alarm and "ability to feel my phone vibrate when ringing" machine but it still operates...
Until it doesn't, I guess. The battery life is already shit and I'm jealous of my partner's Garmin.
Garmin is the way to go.
Their hybrid models are chefs kiss
Garmin did the same thing with Forerunner. They stopped software support 6 months after release of 220, and the very moment 235 was released. Their tech support's answer to any problem was "do a factory reset". And yet they are still considered one of the best brands for navigation and sports.
Still fine with my Pixel Watch I got for free with my Pixel 7P.
I would have never get a smart watch though. Not my jam.
Similar thing happened to me. Bought a bunch of watch faces too, only to discover that none of them would transfer over when I got a new watch.
Casio gang report in!
Casio Is GOD TIER
Available in gold.
F91W will never not be supported
Solar charging, atomic time sync, durable. Much better than any smartwatch.
Perfectly? Your battery really lasting all day long? I gave up my 3 last year as unless I started making compromises, I could not get a full day without charging (mind you I'm an up very early and bed very late person, so it's a long day I was asking for).
Yep, mine still lasts 2 days if I push it, though Ive been plonking it on its puck every morning while I get up since I got it at launch, its only ever dropped below 20% a handful of times. Sure ive been charging it more than most, but it doesnt do full battery cycles per charge so its lasted longer
46MM Galaxy Watch here and I can get 24H or sometimes a bit more provided I switch it to night mode when I'm sleeping. Still using AOD, cont HR monitor etc. Yeah, this old thing is getting long in the tooth, but I came to it from WearOS, really don't want to go back.
Not a lot is appealing to me in the smartwatch market currently. Good for my wallet, I suppose.
I have the OG 46 mm (since its launch) and still charge it only about every 3 days.
Mostly use it to track steps, check time (obviously) and skip songs on my phone.
That's suprising to hear for me. I got a HUAWEI smartwatch and its battery lasted about two weeks.
That's also surprising as I had an older Huawei and it could not last more than 24h
I remember Samsung trying to run a WWDC-like conference in San Francisco many years ago. They were offering free Tizen watches as enticement for developers to show up (AppleWatch devs had to buy their own). None of the professional mobile devs I knew back then said they would go.
As Microsoft found out with WindowsPhone, it's really hard to get traction if you're third.
Tbf that’s because Microsoft got in bed with Nokia and gave the finger to everyone else
Nokia era Lumias were amazing phones, and I loved the OS, but a lack of apps kept it from ever being a contender. Still miss my live tiles though.
They also didn’t treat devs very well. A lot of folks pulled their apps or let them die on the vine instead of having to majorly replatform to support the latest versions of their mobile OS.
This made their App Store go from mediocre to downright anemic.
This is not about the smart tv tizen, no? I see the article talks about smartwatches. The naming on Samsung's side is confusing.
Nope, purely about the watch os
Samsung even used to have a Tizen alternative to Android on smartphones way back when.
Android also has "Android TV". I suppose "Wear OS" is more unique.
There are still issues with WearOS, but I think some of that is hardware. Last I heard, Qualcomm's wearable SoCs were trash, but Samsung is in a good position since they have both the SoC fab and make the watch itself.
Many industries are shifting to a model where Android is the de facto OS for consumer-facing interactions. It's not well optimized outside of phones yet, but it is rapidly improving. Many cars run Android now, for example.
I'm moderately optimistic about the next generation of WearOS devices.
WearOS, at least the Samsung variant of it, is goddamned awful. It seems to want to be a full standalone device when I want it to just be an extension of my phone, and it's an extension of my phone when I want it to stand alone. Worst of both worlds.
I miss my Pebble. Week-long battery, truly always-on-screen, and knew what it was trying to be (just show me notifications)
I used to have a Pebble too but I've long since given up on any hope of the market building something similar that looks as cool as the Pebble was. What exactly do you think is awful about Samsung's Wear OS? I tried both the Pixel Watch and the Galaxy Watch and I greatly prefer Samsung's.
I'm still rocking a Galaxy Watch 4: one of the first Samsung watches with WearOS. It has a true always-on screen, and most should. The always-on was essential to me. I generally notice within 60 minutes if an update or some "feature" tries to turn it off. Unfortunately, that's the only thing off about your comment.
It's a pretty rough experience. The battery is hit or miss. At good times, I could get 3 days. Keeping it locked, (like after charging) used to kill it within 60 minute (thankfully, fixed after a year). Bad updates can kill the battery life, even when new: from 3 days life to 10 hours, then to 3 days again. Now, after almost 3 years, it's probably about 30 hours, rather than 3 days.
In general, the battery life with always-on display should last more than 24 hours. That'd be pretty acceptable for a smartwatch, but is it a smartwatch?
It can't play music on its own without overheating. It can't hold a phone call on its own without overheating. App support is limited, but the processor seems to struggle most of the time. Actually smart features seem rare, especially for something that needs consistent charging.
Most would be better off with a Pebble or less "smart" watch: better water resistance, better battery, longer support, 90% of the usable features, and other features to help make up for any differences.
It's not a now thing. It's already here. My thermostat, sprinkler controller, and rice cooker all run Android
It makes sense. Everyone knows how to program and develop hardware for it and it is free to use. The worst that will happen is that Android development goes in a different direction, and you can fork it if that happens.
I'll buy a phone and laptop, but I'm done investing in any other products that won't guarantee a basic feature set for the life of their device.
Furtunately (at least for the users), gadgetbridge exists.
As far as I know, gadgetbridge does not support tizenOS smartwatches
Well, then all the users are fucked.
Aren't smart watches almost universally bricked by default unless you undergo an online activation, sharing all kinds of personal information?
I'm stuck on miband 3, since it's the last model sold unlocked.
Well, or mi unlock, where you need to share your e-mail and phone number. You can't do anything about it anymore.
Huawei watches support gadgetbridge and don't have vendor pair.
LOL! And that is why I didn't get one.
I've been contemplating getting a galaxy watch, but I was waiting for Samsung to get it right.
As long as I can still get notifications and see the time, I don't think I care.
Looking forward to getting a Pinetime. It might not be polished, but community support never truly ends.
Lame. WearOS is laggy garbage. My Watch 2 Active was way more responsive and functional than my Watch 3 4 Classic is. Animations stutter constantly and half the time it doesn't even react to my touch. Bring back Tizen.
My wife's watch6 just falls off sometimes. The pins in the upper strap just let it go.
Replace them? Or take it to a jeweler and have them do it thoroughly
First of all uninstall unused apps!
why can't someone make a nice flagship Android watch with a large rectangular screen? the apple watch ultra is so nice. i have pixel watch 2. it's ok but it's pretty lame.
Bad headline. They’re sunsetting Tizen for watches, but not other products.