smart watch

Image via <a href="http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/10/16/will-introduces-wearable-puls/" target="_blank">The Next Web</a>

Pop musician Will.i.am has just taken the wraps off of his first wearable, the Puls smartwatch, during Salesforce’s Dreamforce 2014 conference (via The Next Web). The watch ships with a software suite that includes Facebook and Twitter connectivity, Instagram, and even integration with Salesforce. It also features a voice control system dubbed “Aneeda” that’s powered by Nuance. Aneeda also supports basic features such as reminders, music control, alarms, and more.

On the hardware side, the watch sports standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections along with a pedometer, GPS, acceleromter, and even a 3G connection powered by AT&T (or O2 in the UK) that will allow users to place calls or send text messages and emails without pairing the Puls with a phone at all. The battery is built into the strap, providing plenty of space beneath the face for the other internal components, which includes 16 GB of storage space and a full gigabyte of RAM. It also has built in speakers for music and alerts.

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Basis, a company backed by Intel, has announced a new smart watch compatible with iOS devices that places a focus on health and fitness applications. The device is capable of keeping track of several health-related data points, such as steps, calories, heart rate, prespiration, the temperature of your skin, and in-depth information about your sleep habits.

The Peak doesn’t yet support basic smart watch features like email and text notifications, but Basis says those functions will come in a future software update.

The company says that the device will be available by the holidays. Pricing information hasn’t been revealed yet. You can see photos and the full press release for the Peak below:

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Motorola has finally officially launched its much-leaked circular smartwatch, the Moto 360. Pricing has been set at $250 with a leather strap, and it goes on sale in the U.S. at noon today ET . If you want it with a silver or black metal strap, you’ll have to wait until sometime in the fall and pay $300 – or buy it today and add the metal strap later for $80 …

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BGR.in today received some interesting information about the rumored smartwatch by OnePlus. In case you haven’t heard of them, OnePlus is a company that sells the OnePlus One smartphone (our review here), which boasts a 5.5″ 1080P display, 2.5GHz SnapDragon 801, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of on-board storage, and other top-tier features for the low-range price of $349 off contract. Their “invite only” system spawned a polarizing response from their most dedicated fans, as OnePlus required anyone who wanted the phone to be “invited” to purchase it. 

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French site Les Numeriques is reporting that LG France has said that its G Watch will launch in the country in June, priced at €199. While a straight currency conversion would mean a U.S. price of $276, gadgets are typically priced higher in Europe than in the USA (partly due to taxes), so it’s likely that LG would match the $199 price of the Galaxy Gear 2.

If the watch does indeed launch in June, it’s likely to be the first Android Wear smartwatch on the market, ahead of Motorola’s Moto 360 expected sometime in the summer. Samsung’s Galaxy Gear 2 uses instead Tizen OS. Google announced the Android Wear platform and SDK last month. As we exclusively revealed last October, the platform puts Google Now functionality at the heart of the offering … 
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Photo: engadget.com

When a whole new category of technology arrives, you can usually rely on tech-heads to get excited about them even if the mass-market doesn’t. So far, though, smartwatches don’t seem to have made as much headway as many expected. When a confirmed gadget addict like me is left wondering why I’d want one, something somewhere is wrong.

But where functionality hasn’t persuaded many of us, perhaps price will. Archos is planning to launch a basic smartwatch in the summer for just $50, a price it may be hoping will lead people to stop asking ‘Why?’ and instead ask ‘Why not?’ … 
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Left: Pebble Steel. right: original plastic Pebble

If you like the functionality of the Pebble smartwatch but are less keen on the plastic finish, it looks like you won’t have long to wait for a metal version. We’ve seen a couple of leaks of the Pebble Steel, seemingly the exact same innards as the existing Pebble watch but with a stainless steel casing and Gorilla Glass.

There are said to be two versions, one in brushed stainless steel (shown alongside the original plastic version above) and a matte black one (shown below the fold) … 
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Samsung could see itself getting priority access to new glass technologies after taking a 7.4 percent stake in Gorilla Glass maker Corning and simultaneously signing a 10-year supply agreement.

The net effect of a complex series of share swaps and cash investments, allied to a long-term procurement commitment from Samsung, is a $2B deal that will enable Corning to boost its R&D investment, accelerating the pace of development of new types of display.

With closer cooperation between the two companies, Samsung may prove well positioned to gain access to those new technologies ahead of the rest of the market … 
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GigaOM has confirmed suspicions that the leaked photos of the Galaxy Gear smart watch were indeed of a prototype device made available to developers. The actual device being launched on Wednesday will be a much more finished product.

Battery-life was also added to the things we now know about the watch.

• High quality OLED displays will show the full spectrum of colors.
• The display will be around 2.5 inches diagonally (and 3 inches diagonally including the case.)
• It will be powered by a dual core processor, probably a Samsung Exynos 4212 dual core 1.5GHz with Mali-400 MP4 GPU.
• It has a camera and a microphone integrated into the strap and even tiny speakers.
• It has Built in NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• The Gear is powered by Android 4.3, with keyboard featured turned off.
• The device won’t have a browser and will need the phone to tether to the Internet.
• It will need a Samsung device with a watch-focused app store to install apps on the watch.
• It has a built-in accelerometer and other sensors that will allow it to act has a quantified self device.
• Expect battery power to be 24 hours with modest use, but around 10 hours with more active usage … 
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https://vimeo.com/69352543

Yesterday we noted that Best Buy retail sources indicated the popular ‘Pebble’ Bluetooth smart watch would be landing on at least some of the retailer’s store shelves this weekend. Today Pebble and Best Buy have finally made things official by announcing the partnership that will bring the most successful Kickstarter-backed device of all time to both Best Buy online and across all its U.S. brick and mortar locations.

It’s definitely big news for the company ahead of Apple’s rumored smart watch, as well as Sony and others getting deeper into the space. The exclusive retail partnership with Best Buy also marks Pebble’s first retail launch of the device after raising over $10.2 million from around 68,000 backers on Kickstarter.
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KGI Securities analyst Mingchi Kuo, who has been known to have accurate information regarding Apple product launches in the past, is out today with a new note that includes some surprisingly specific specs for upcoming products from Google. One of the products Kuo expects to see at Google I/O later this month is a new Nexus 7, but the note also included info on what he thinks Google has in store for the months after the event, including: an Android powered notebook, a new TV product, and even a Google smart watch.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about an Android-powered notebook over the years, and just last month Intel executives confirmed that the majority of its new sub-$200 notebooks running on its mobile Atom CPU will be Android based. However, according to Mingchi, don’t expect to see the notebooks making an appearance at I/O this year. That’s because Android 5.0 won’t be ready to show off at I/O, says Kuo, but vendors such as Samsung will apparently move first with Android 4.x powered notebooks coming within 3-4 months:

Android Book – Android Book won’t be introduced at the upcoming Google I/O as development of Android 5.0, which is targeted at NB, is incomplete. We think Android Book featuring Android.4x will be rolled out in the coming 3-4 months because some brand vendors, like Samsung (Korea), want to move first. But shipments will be limited as the current Android OS isn’t well supported for laptops.

As for Google’s rumored over-the-top TV content business, Mingchi says an Apple TV-like competitor is on the way but delays due to a change to Nvidia Tegra from TI OMAP means we likely won’t see it at I/O. Kuo also said in his note to clients today that he expects Google to launch a smart watch-like wearable device alongside Google Glass, but it apparently won’t go into mass production until next year:
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Update: The Korea Times reports that LG too is developing a smart watch and even testing products similar to Google Glass:

A source familiar with the matter told The Korea Times Friday that the Yeouido-based firm’s development of the next-generation watch, along with an innovative smart product similar to Internet giant Google’s Glass, was part of its long-term strategy to keep its competitiveness in the volatile information technology (IT) industry

While Apple and even Samsung have been at the heart of the rumors that new smart watch devices could be the products to keep an eye out for in 2013, Google too might try its hand at bringing a wearable computer in wristwatch form. According to a new report from The Financial Times, citing “a person briefed on the project,” Google’s Android unit is working on a smart watch platform of its own:

Google’s latest venture into wearable technology was more an attention-seeking gimmick than a serious new venture. But with the search giant ploughing significant resources into Google Glass, which embeds a screen, camera, microphone and other sensors into a pair of futuristic spectacles, it’s another indication that Google is serious about moving from the digital to the physical.

While Glass is being created in its X Lab, home to experimental “moonshot” projects such as the self-driving car, Google’s smart watch is being developed by its Android unit, according to a person briefed on the project

The fact that the device is reportedly being developed by Google’s Android unit, and not its experimental X Labs like Google Glass, could be an indication that Google plans to bring its watch product to the masses sooner rather than later. FT’s source also confirmed that the project is separate from the recently announced smart watch project from Samsung that is rumored to run a new operating system called AltiusOS and not Android.

Bloomberg reported in February that Apple had around 100 product designers working on its smart watch, and many analysts expected the product to be released by Apple as early as this year. Today’s report from FT doesn’t provide many details on what exactly Google has planned, but it’s a sign that Google isn’t betting on Glass as the be-all and end-all of wearable platforms. The report did note that Google is developing its smart watch “to act as an extension to the smartphones using” Android.

At first glance, the alleged Samsung Galaxy Altius looks like something pushed out by Microsoft. However, this Windows Phone-esque device is said to be one of a kind. The Galaxy Altius is a rumored smart watch from Samsung and presumed to be a direct competitor to the rumored Apple iWatch and other speculative future wrist devices. Leaked screenshots today posted on Slashgear show different tasks running on the device, such as a clock app, the boot-up screen and alleged home screen, which show live tiles very similar to the ones seen in Windows Phone devices. The leaked shots are said to come from a Korean message board website. Slashgear said that because of the “SKT and SKTelecom” words found on some of the leaked screenshots, it’s implied that the watch will be tied to a carrier. It’s also said the OS on the device is not Android but rather a new operating system titled “AltiusOS”. This could imply it’s running a specialized operating system designed for future Samsung watches or an unannounced OS entirely.

Making do with what it has, Slashgear stated that judging by the screenshots the device would feature a 500-by-500-pixel display. And, since the home screen is in a slider like format, it’s presumed the device will in fact be touchscreen (unlike the other smart watch on the market, Pebble).