Recent comments in /f/gadgets

TheTjalian t1_ivmfgcs wrote

Reply to comment by VictorHelios1 in LG's latest display can be stretched by 20 percent | The 12-inch full-color display can be stretched to 14 inches. by chrisdh79

Because stretchable screens could eventually mean things like decent foldable phones, smart braclets, smart gloves, or even smaller things like being able to embed screens into fabrics for clothes, curtains or sofas. All things that need flexibility that current screen tech currently cannot do.

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TheTjalian t1_ivmf17v wrote

Reply to comment by dandroid126 in LG's latest display can be stretched by 20 percent | The 12-inch full-color display can be stretched to 14 inches. by chrisdh79

This isn't a product, this is a tech demo. This could very well be the tech that makes foldable phones nice to use rather than watching a crease down a video. Or maybe even a smart bracelet rather than a smart watch. Smart watches are okay and all but their utility is limited due to their size. A smart bracelet could quite easily be 4 or 5 inches wide and wrap around the whole wrist, allowing for a whole variety of applications that are impossible on a smart watch and impractical on a smart phone.

Edit: Or even smart gloves.

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_softlite t1_ivm9x7v wrote

Reply to comment by Tyrilean in How Apple Watch is helping veterans and active service members deal with nightmares from PTSD by chrisdh79

I didn’t mean to make it sound like the hardware was specialized, only that it’s not a prescription for software but rather an entire “medical device.” Existing as a physical object is probably a requirement for their product to qualify as a “Class II medical device,” which then allows them to sell the package for an insanely high price—even if the physical component is just off-the-shelf tech. And while I can see how you might think this is them “withholding” the product, in the sense that it’s not freely available, it isn’t completely inaccessible—at least, not for the people who need it.

A less cynical reason for their strategy might be that the project received funding specifically for the development of a breakthrough medical device. That funding may have included limitations on what they could do with the result of that development, including limitations that prevent them from either selling it directly to the public or from commercial profit (I.e., profit from a source of payment that doesn’t qualify as a medical expense).

There are a lot of medical devices/other types of objects that require a prescription for no particular reason. My doctor once prescribed me a sandal, which was in every way the same as something I could have bought for $5 except it was a medical-ish pale green and 20x the price.

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