THE EAR BUDS I BOUGHT CHEAP DONT WORK WITH MY NEW WATCH

31 January 2022

See update 5 Feb.

The Samsung watch is a computer and like all computers, it needs an operating system, OS. It uses a version of Android 2.0 called Google Wear - an Android OS developed specially for wearable devices. 

FYI, an OS is software that sits on the hardware (the ear buds I bought, or the new Samsung watch, or any other device ... Windows is an OS for running PCs). 

You control a device using a software app. Any and all the apps you might use on a device send and receive data to and from the hardware via the OS, so the OS runs the hardware. The OS does the data logistics between the app and your device. 

In August last year 2021, Samsung moved their new watch, the Galaxy Watch 4, from an OS called "Mizen" to an OS called "Google Wear OS". This new OS works on the new watch, but not completely on the old watch - it is not fully "backward compatible".

Now look at the date of the buds on the photo of the box: 2021:01:04.

I'll bet you the buds I bought run on Mizen and not Watch 4. Maybe the ear buds are genuine (Samsung can't spell), but out of date - still running on Mizen. I dont know. So not all the new functionality for wearable devices will work with these buds.

EXPLANATION: An OS has libraries of functions - a function is a software routine with a specific purpose that sits in a library (a folder). It is a bit of software code that is called to do a specific job by the OS, as and when needed. Eg your watch might ring an alarm - so the watch wants to tell the buds to tell the user.

One of these routines is indeed "audible notifications". It's in OS Wear, not in Mizen. Means that if I buy a new Samsung watch, I wont get audible notifications on the buds I just bought (still running Mizen - remember the manufacturer's production date 2021:01:04). 

There will doubtless be other routines in the new library, not found in the old Mizen library.

So this is what happens when someone writes "open-source" software. Means developers the world over can write routines for the software that add new functions for a device. This is called an "ecosystem" - all the softwares that developers write for the new device and its OS.

In this case, Samsung switched from Mizen to Wear 4, and not all the routines that were migrated across will work - they don't all  respond to calls from the new OS - like here for Notifications.

UPDATE 5 FEB

NOPE, it's just a copy. Fine unless you're on the move, when it lags, cuts out. Bass is not great. Difficulty making and receiving calls. But overall, great value at a tenner!