Editing 1372: Smartwatches

{{comic
| number    = 1372
| date      = May 23, 2014
| title     = Smartwatches
| image     = smartwatches.png
| titletext = This is even better than my previous smartphone casemod: an old Western Electric Model 2500 desk phone handset complete with a frayed, torn-off cord dangling from it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Smartwatch|Smartwatches}} are fairly recent innovations which function something like smartphones which are attached to one's wrist, although the screens are often shorter than those of typical smartphones, and they typically need to be attached via bluetooth to a smartphone. This comic shows someone "{{w|Case modding}}" some smartwatches and a broken smartphone; that is, taking the electronic innards of two smartwatches and putting them into the sawn-in-half case of a smartphone before attaching the two halves with a hinge, allowing it to open and close like flip phones, a type that was popular before the rise of smartphones.

The {{w|Model_500_telephone#Model_2500|Western Electric Model 2500}} is the last standard desk-style domestic telephone set issued by the {{w|Bell System}} in North America. It contains the # key and the * key, so it can be said it has same application features as the first cellphones, but it's obviously much bigger, and of course not wireless. Smartphones usually have much more functionality. {{w|Case modding}} is the art of building machines (usually computers) into nicely shaped non-standard cases. The opinion about "niceness" of the result vary, as usual in art. The point is that changing the case doesn't change the functionality, so the niceness (or, usually, "coolness") is generally the only relevant feature (although, badly done modding can affect cooling).

It appears that [[Randall]] has a rather low opinion of smartwatches, as he suggests that it would be better to take out their screens and mount them onto a dead iPhone than to use them the way smartwatches are normally used.

However, Randall's suggestion to cut open the dead phone with a hacksaw is unsound for several reasons:
1. Any attempt to saw through glass will cause it to shatter. To cut glass, one needs to grind it, not saw it.
2. Even if the phone is dead, the battery may be charged (if dead means that the battery is dead, not that the phone does not work, in which case the procedure destroys a perfectly functional iPhone). Saw blades conduct electricity, so the person might get electrocuted.
3. Some batteries contain chemicals that are toxic or explosive.  Even if the battery is discharged, sawing through it is very dangerous.
To add which, the hinge depicted in the cartoon is an ordinary household hinge. It is overly large for using in electronics compared to hinges on old clamshell-style cell phones, and drilling holes in the watch cases to attach one would potentially damage the internal electronic circuits. It could also puncture the battery, causing it to catch fire. Either render the watch useless.
4. Also, it's possible the watches wouldn't fit that nicely into the iPhone.

While no phones such as the one depicted existed at the time of the comic (2014), in November 2019, Motorola officially announced a new Android phone, to be released under the Razr name, which is extremely similar in form-factor to the fictitious phone shown in this comic, albeit with a single flexible OLED screen, rather than two separate screens.

==Transcript==
:A USE FOR SMARTWATCHES:
:[Depicted are two smartwatches, both labelled as "Working" and showing generic color displays, and one smartphone labelled as "Dead" with a blank screen.]

:[A hacksaw cutting through the smartphone, throughout the middle of the long edge of the case.]

:[The two smartwatches are shown with the wristband and case broken around the edge of the display because the displays with the associated electronics are removed. Arrows are shown coming from the smartwatch cases to the smartwatch displays, then from the displays to the smartphone case halves.]

:[The smartphone halves are installed with the smartwatch components and a hinge with screws beside is shown. Another view shows the hinge screwed into the back of the smartphone case.]

:[The smartphone with the working smartwatch components installed is shown, with the hinge three-quarters open and fully closed - resembling an early flip-phone.]
:World's first flip iPhone

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]