[Aurornis]

Exposed terminals would need a lot more than a single transistor. It would need ESD protection and it would change the outer case from being a complete sealed over mold into something that had to seal against two exposed terminals. That’s a big change.

They would also need to ship a separate charger device to go with it, which approaches the complexity of the simple ring product.

These are solvable problems, but it would increase the cost, decrease their margins, or both.

For a niche, low volume product with an unknown market demand I think making the simplest possible version of the product is a good idea to start, but at $99 it’s getting into the range where buyers don’t want to think of it as a disposable item.

The bigger problem is that the 2 year battery life depends on the device being used for only short notes like “Add milk to the grocery list”. The people who expect to use this for taking notes or thinking out loud could exhaust the battery in a couple months.

[bArray]

> Exposed terminals would need a lot more than a single transistor. It would need ESD protection and it would change the outer case from being a complete sealed over mold into something that had to seal against two exposed terminals. That’s a big change.

This is a solved problem though. Wireless earbuds can do it. We're probably just talking about a TVS diode.

> For a niche, low volume product with an unknown market demand I think making the simplest possible version of the product is a good idea to start, but at $99 it’s getting into the range where buyers don’t want to think of it as a disposable item.

> The bigger problem is that the 2 year battery life depends on the device being used for only short notes like “Add milk to the grocery list”. The people who expect to use this for taking notes or thinking out loud could exhaust the battery in a couple months.

$75 for a use once device that could last as little as a few months under normal usage, or $100 for something that could operate for 5+ years. Knowing whether there is a market is always difficult, but if you do crack a market you typically only get one chance to get people onboard.

[Aurornis]

> This is a solved problem though. Wireless earbuds can do it

They’re all solved problems!

That doesn’t change the fact that every additional complication adds cost, complexity, failure points, more warranty returns, and time to market.

Saying it’s just a transistor and a TVS ignores the hard parts like sealing the enclosure and building an entire second device to charge it.

Solvable, but less so for a low volume product with unproven demand. You have to be building a lot of a product to offset the costs of developing it.

> $75 for a use once device that could last as little as a few months under normal usage, or $100 for something that could operate for 5+ years.

The retail price of this device is $99. The $75 is only for the promotional preorder period.

It’s already a $100 product. Adding charging ports and a separate charger is going to be even more expensive unless they start shipping 100,000s of these to build at scale.

[eptcyka]

Not only that, the charger thing also implies charging it weekly if not more often. I got a pebble watch because I can wear it for 2 weeks without charging. Would hate to have to charge a ring.

[mbirth]

Also ask any serious Garmin watch user about their charging/data contacts. They start to rot away after 1-2 years of being exposed to sweat.

[wartijn_]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about that, and I know a good amount of people who use Garmin watches. My own forerunner is still going strong after 5 (I think) years of use, with multiple runs a week for most of that time.

[mbirth]

I've had my Fenix 5 Plus swapped once during warranty because of this. And the replacement's contacts started to corrode again when I sold the watch. It might not happen to all models, but some are very prone to it.

Just have a look at Google results: https://www.google.com/search?q=garmin+watch+contacts+corrod...

[kadoban]

They make little ~rubber caps to cover the charging port when you're not using it. That, and make sure it's dry when you charge it to rule out galvanic nonsense.

[Alive-in-2025]

I know someone whose garmin watch refused to charge after a few years, not sure if it was caused by sweat. Mine is starting to get wonky after a few years. I keep worrying I'll plug in some time and it will stop. anec-data is not that reliable of course.

[martin_a]

Just looked at mine and wondered whether I should 3D print a cover for the contacts from TPU. Thanks for the idea!

edit: Done. :-D Better safe than sorry.

[ornornor]

We’ve figured out how to make reusable rockets and computers that can talk you into committing suicide.

I’m sure we can figure this one out too.