Neptune announces the Duo, a standalone smart wristband and a “Pocket Screen”

Neptune, the folks behind the Neptune Pine, are back with an interesting wearable concept. It’s called the Neptune Duo, and it aims to fix all of your smartphone problems. If you’re unfamiliar with the company’s previous offerings, the Neptune Pine was a full-blown Android smartphone on your wrist. It featured home screens, an app drawer and everything else a normal Android phone has. Unfortunately, the concept fell a bit short, since the end product turned out to be incredibly bulky with a small screen. Though the Pine didn’t really work out, it was an interesting idea. So, in hopes to fix the problems with the Pine, the company released the Duo.

The concept behind the Duo, while a little farfetched, is pretty compelling. The “Hub” or the wearable itself, looks like a big bracelet that has a curved screen. It has a 2.4-inch curved display, a quad-core processor, a 1000mAh battery, 3G/4G connectivity, Wifi, GPS and NFC. The Hub is where Neptune hopes the majority of your interactions will take place. You can read and reply to messages, take phone calls and much more, directly from the watch. But what if your watch screen is too small for the task you’re trying to accomplish? That’s where the “Pocket Screen” comes in.

The Pocket Screen is basically a bigger Hub screen. It doesn’t keep any of your information saved on the device, and is meant to carry out the tasks that the Hub is too small to complete. The Pocket Screen has a 5-inch 1280 x 720 display, an 8MP rear-facing camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, and a microphone, speakers, and loudspeaker so you can carry out your normal smartphone-friendly tasks. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and has a 2800mAh battery, so you shouldn’t worry about losing a charge that quickly, especially if your watch is going to do the majority of the work. Neptune explains, “The Pocket Screen isn’t very smart, but it doesn’t need to be.”

Now, this isn’t the worst idea we’ve ever seen, and the Duo actually brings a new idea to the technology world. But don’t get us wrong, there is plenty that could use some work. First, the Hub is big. It resembles a will.i.am PULS, that isn’t exactly known for its great design. The Hub seems very uncomfortable to use, though we haven’t tried it, so we’ll need to reserve our judgement until we have one in-house.

The second, and arguably most interesting aspect of this device, is the Pocket Screen. Our smartphones do a lot for us. They hold information, allow us to make calls, and much more. And sometimes we don’t want to take our gigantic smartphones out of our pockets. That’s where wearables come in. Since our phones are already bulky, the last thing we want is for our wearables to be big and clunky. That’s why Android Wear and Pebble watches work so well, because they’re small enough to not notice them, but large enough to read text and get a few important tasks done without taking out your phone. But the Duo has it backwards, it seems. Not only do users need to carry around an average-sized smartphone-like device, they also need to carry a smart wristband that’s seemingly too bulky. To clarify, users don’t have to carry the Pocket Screen if they don’t want to, the Hub works just fine without it.

Interested in picking one up? The Neptune Duo costs $798 in all, but you can pledge a certain amount if you’re looking to save later. If you pledge $498 now, you’ll save $300 and pay nothing when the device ships. If you pledge $199 now, you’ll save $200 and pay $399 at shipment. Pledging $49 now will save you $100 in the long run, and you’ll need to pay $649 at shipment. If you’d rather pay nothing now, you’ll owe the full $798 when the device ships.

Be sure to check out the promo video below to see the Duo in action. What do you think of the Neptune Duo? Is this a good idea, or do you think it could use some work?

Report: US carriers are still making it difficult to unlock phones

Inquisitr

It used to be illegal to unlock your phones through wireless carriers, but that all changed last week. The FCC and CTIA came to an agreement on February 11th, 2015 that forced carriers to unlock smartphones and tablets upon the user’s request. But according to a new analysis, unlocking smartphones isn’t going as swimmingly as planned.

Sina Khanifar, a consumer rights activist who was a big advocate against phone unlocking restrictions, has rated the four major US carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) on phone unlocking restrictions after the agreements passed. Unfortunately, he found that three of the four carriers are still not complying with all regulations set forth by the FCC.

As a quick overview, mobile service providers are now obligated to unlock users’ phones in addition to meeting six conditions. The carriers must:

• Post clear, concise unlocking polices on their websites
• Provide lenient postpaid policies
• Provide lenient prepaid policies
• Provide eligibility notifications to the customer when their devices are able to be unlocked
• Respond to unlock requests within two business days
• Unlock devices to deployed military personnel

Out of the four major US carriers, Verizon complies with all six agreements, AT&T meets five (maybe not the sixth), T-Mobile complies with three (maybe four) and Sprint only meets three of the six guidelines. Khanifar even created a handy chart for a more concise look:

Sina Khanifar

Now, this chart absolutely requires some explanation.

Verizon

Verizon must follow a more strict unlocking policy because of the conditions the FCC posed on the carrier during a spectrum auction. Khanifar says that Verizon has almost completely stopped locking their smartphones, making it easier to unlock devices from here on out. While the carrier passed on the score card, Khanifar says it’s still a little too difficult to unlock devices through Verizon. He wrote, “Their Bring Your Own Device” program makes it clear that your phone needs to be a “unused Verizon phone” to be elligible.

AT&T

Moving down the line, AT&T scored quite well on the score card. They meet every goal except in providing eligibility notifications to its customers. Khanifar says he was unable to find any notification system on the carrier’s website. On top of AT&T’s site providing unclear results, he spoke to two different customer service representatives, who both gave him conflicting notification delivery methods.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile will unlock postpaid devices, though the carrier posts restrictions on consumers who would like to unlock two devices on the same account within a 12-month period. Postpaid devices on the carrier also need to be active for at least 40 days for the unlocking process to commence. To unlock a prepaid device, the account must be active and in good standing. This means a prepaid device can’t be unlocked if a consumer buys a T-Mobile phone and cancels service within a few months. Additionally, T-Mobile doesn’t notify prepaid or postpaid customers as to when their devices can be unlocked.

Sprint

Last but not least, we have Sprint. The carrier specifically states that they won’t activate a phone that was originally sold by another carrier. Khanifar explains:

In Sprint’s case, those restrictions even apply to their own MVNOs. Virgin Mobile devices run entirely on Sprint’s network. But even if Virgin Mobile unlocks it for you, Sprint won’t activate it for use on a prepaid or postpaid account. It’s patently absurd: there’s simply no good reason to prevent users from bringing their own devices – in fact, it makes it even hard for consumers to switch to your carrier. The only justification for that kind of policy is to gouge customers and force them to buy more expensive, “carrier-approved” devices that come with 2 year contracts.

While Sprint provides unlocking information on their website, it can’t be described as “clear, concise and accessible.” The policy Sprint posted only applies to postpaid devices, and the prepaid device policy is actually a full two links away from the original policy page. For postpaid devices, the carrier will only perform an International SIM Unlock for active customers. Also, customers don’t qualify for an international unlock if they’ve unlocked a device within the last 12 months.

Again, (even for deployed military personnel) the company will refuse to unlock devices if the customer has “previously unlocked another device within the past 12 months.”

What’s the solution?

Khanifar also talks on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and how exactly Congress needs to revise these “voluntary agreements” that most of the carriers aren’t following. He writes:

There’s a simple and easy fix to all this. Congress could pass a bill clearly stating that it’s not illegal to circumvent a lock as long as there’s no intention of copyright infringement.

This is exactly what the Unlocking Technology Act would have achieved in 2013, but unfortunately the bill was postponed due to “opposition from special interests.”

If you haven’t read Sina Khanifar’s full report, I really urge you to do so. It offers some great insight and analysis as to what exactly the big US carriers are up to.

What are your thoughts on this analysis? Do you think carriers have a right to interpret the rules differently? Or do you think these conditions should be more closely enforced? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.