Wrist Mounted Smartphone - A BAD Idea - KICKFARTED ep1
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Have you been burned by a crappy crowd funded product? So have we. Sponsor link: linustechtips.com Pricing & discussion: linustechtips.com Support us: linustechtips.com Join our community forum: bit.ly twitter.com @LinusTech Intro Screen Music Credit: Title: Laszlo - Supernova Video Link: youtube.com iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com Artist Link: soundcloud.com Outro Screen Music Credit: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High youtube.com Sound effects provided by freesfx.co.uk
KickFarted ep1 dives into a crowdfunded product that promised to be a fully functional wrist mounted smartphone and ultimately delivered a mixed to negative experience. The episode opens by laying out the premise of the new Linus Tech Tips series focused on projects funded through Kickstarter or Indiegogo that shipped late or failed to meet expectations. The Neptune Pine is introduced as a bold concept: a standalone wearable device with front and rear cameras, full app support, and the ability to video chat, all housed on the wrist. The hosts explain their initial enthusiasm after backing the Pine in 2013, drawn by claims of true smartphone capability from a wearable, and discuss how crowd backers were sold on a vision of improved wearables that went beyond mere notifications and fitness tracking. They outline the reality check: delayed shipping, communications gaps, and an eventual pivot to Neptune’s misleading and dwindling presence, including a shift to the Neptune Duo and Neptune Hub concepts rather than delivering the Pine as promised. The review portion then tests the Pine in real life, noting a stiff bulky build, poor ergonomics, and a screen with bad viewing angles that degrade image quality when worn on the wrist. They attempt to use the device for everyday tasks like Instagram, calling out the lack of Google Play access unless the device is rooted, and criticize the battery life which proves insufficient for a full day. The hosts highlight that even with rooting and workarounds, usability remains poor, and they contrast the device’s promised standalone capability with practical limitations like connectivity and non-ideal SIM usage. They conclude that while the Neptune Duo and Hub ideas offered an intriguing concept of centralized computing and a larger display, the Pine itself is unusable for long-term daily use, reinforcing the broader skepticism around crowdfunded hardware. The episode ends with reflections on the long road of crowdfunding, a cautionary tone about lofty promises, and a nudge toward exploring future episodes in the series that will unpack more crowdfunded tech and whether it delivers value to backers.
Topics · science_and_technology · product_review · crowdfunding · consumer_electronics · wearable_tech · hardware_review · product_failure · tech_culture
Questions answered
- What was Neptune Pine advertised to do as a wrist mounted smartphone?
- Neptune Pine was advertised as a standalone wrist mounted smartphone with front and rear cameras, full app support, and features like video chat, enabling smartphone-style functionality from a wearable.
- Did backers receive their Neptune Pine devices and what happened to the Neptune company?
- Many backers did not receive their devices on time, and the Neptune company eventually became unresponsive, with the Pine website and Kickstarter updates drying up and the project appearing abandoned.
- What future products were proposed by Neptune after Pine, and were they released?
- The company proposed the Neptune Duo and Neptune Hub as successors to improve display size and central computing, but as of the video and its follow ups, these products were not released and the Pine remained problematic.