Some time ago I saw an interesting video of a new gadget:
The WIMM One has a worthy ambition: shifting information from your smartphone screen to your wrist. The aim is to allow you to get on with life rather than pulling your phone from your pocket every thirty seconds. WIMM is a smart watch harnesses Android, a high-tech display and sensors.
The current developer kit version is targeted at developers. Commercial versions for end-consumers are expected in the coming months. For more details read WIMM One Developer Kit Review. Looks interesting based on the video and interview article.
Hy the way another interesting hacker watch product is EZ430-Chronos from Texas Instruments. I have seen this Chronos product in real life on hand of one TI field application engineer.
10 Comments
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony SmartWatch launches, delivers ‘Android power’ to wrist
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57412973-94/sony-smartwatch-launches-delivers-android-power-to-wrist/
Have you ever wanted a watch that can communicate with your Android phone? Sony sure hopes so.
Sony today launched its SmartWatch, a timepiece for the wrist that allows owners to read text messages, social updates and e-mail, manage calls, and control music. The SmartWatch connects to an Android phone via Bluetooth in order to deliver its functionality and capture what Sony calls “Android power.”
The SmartWatch might be useful for those who don’t want to continuously pull their smartphone out of their pocket, but it certainly won’t win a fashion contest.
The watch lets wearers read social updates, handle text messages, and manage calls directly from their wrist. It retails for $150. Sony’s SmartWatch is available now for $149.99 on the company’s online marketplace and in its stores.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rejected By VCs, Pebble Watch Raises $3.8M on Kickstarter
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2012-04-17-rejected-by-vcs-pebble-watch-raises-3-8m-on-kickstarter/
When it comes to the road to success in Silicon Valley, Eric Migicovsky was definitely on the right path.
His idea for creating a watch that can display messages from your smartphone was embraced by Y Combinator, the prestigious business incubator. While completing the program, he outperformed others by actually generating revenue. He later raised $375,000 from four angel investors, including Paul Buchheit, a partner at Y Combinator, and Tim Draper of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Then he hit a roadblock. A big one. Migicovsky couldn’t raise more money.
So Migicovsky posted his watch on Kickstarter, a “crowd-funding” website where anyone can pledge money for creative projects that have yet to be completed. In the last few days, roughly 26,000 people plunked down their cash, with many pledging hundreds of dollars and about a half dozen folks promising $10,000 or more.
In return, they get a discount on the watches. The startup, Pebble Technology, plans to ship the first batch in September. However, like all projects on the site, there’s no guarantee that the creator will follow through.
Migicovsky has raised more than $3.8 million, making the watch the highest-grossing project since Kickstarter was founded two years ago, a spokesman for the website said.
Migicovsky said he’s more adept at pitching to consumers than to venture capitalists.
“With VCs, they worry about models and size of market and stuff like that,” he said. “With consumers, one of the things I love about the videos, we just showed how you’re going to use it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony SmartWatch
http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-13404_7-10011945.html
Sporting an attractive silver-metallic trim, the Sony SmartWatch relies on a tiny 1.3-inch OLED display to showcase information. Also equipped with a touch screen, users interact with the gadget by tapping and swiping fingers across the display, much like a smartphone.
Designed to link to any smartphone running Android version 2.1 or higher, the Sony SmartWatch right out of the gate offers plenty of flexibility.
On the right side of the Sony SmartWatch is its sole physical control, a small power button. When powered down, pressing the power key for a few seconds will kick the SmartWatch into Bluetooth pairing mode.
Just like an Android handset, the Sony SmartWatch has its own app tray with multiple screens that house icons for app shortcuts. You can launch apps directly from the app tray or have them operate as widgets on the watch’s multiple home screens.
music app lets you control your phone’s audio playback
Using the Twitter and Facebook apps, SmartWatch wearers can view tweets and updates as they happen or dive into apps for more details.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pebble smart watch sells out on Kickstarter
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57432157-1/pebble-smart-watch-sells-out-on-kickstarter/
The record-setting project has raised more than $10 million and took preorders for 85,000 watches, which is apparently the limit for the tiny company.
There’s a very interesting sociological experiment going on over on Kickstarter right now, where the Pebble smart team watch has unwittingly tested the old notion that you can’t have too much of a good thing. Apparently, though, you can.
That’s right — Pebble doesn’t want any more of your money. It’s drowning in cash. Earlier this week, with 75,000 watches already spoken for, it announced that only 10,000 more would be made available in exchange for a pledge of cash (essentially a preorder). Now they’re all gone. All reward levels that would earn supporters their own smart watch are now all sold out.
When Eric Migicovsky and his crew set out to raise $100,000 to get their smart wristwatch project off the ground and into production a few weeks ago — the Pebble can run its own apps and also connects to an Android or iOS device via Bluetooth — they had no idea they’d raise more than 100 times that amount. The Pebble project surpassed $10 million dollars raised before hitting its apparent production ceiling, smashing the previous record for the crowdfunding record.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony SmartWatch Android remote
Bluetooth strap-on second coming
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/27/review_sony_smartwatch_android_phone_accessory/
actor says:
I’m looking for clothing and style ideas at a reasonable prices for a woman over 25.. . Anyone know any good sites or blogs?. . Seems like everything I find is either geared toward teens or is insanely expensive couture.. . Thanks!.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disruptions: The Next Wave for the Wristwatch
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/disruptions-the-next-wave-for-the-wristwatch/
Cellphones have already muscled onto watches’ turf as a time-telling tool. Now, some of the biggest technology companies are eyeing your wrist, too.
Companies like Apple, Nike and Sony, along with dozens of start-ups, hope to strap a device on your wrist.
It is quite a disruption for the wristwatch, which has not actually been around all that long. Though said to have been invented in 1868 by the Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe, it didn’t really catch on until after World War I. Before that, people carried watches in their pockets or on chains.
The new wrist devices won’t replace smartphones, but rather connect to them.
It is the extension of the phone that is appealing. “The wrist becomes a remote screen where you now have the ability to control your phone with a number of different applications,” said Stephen Sneeden, Sony’s product marketing manager. “By virtue of the intelligence of the smartphone, it’s going to help to redefine what goes on your wrist.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pebble smartwatch review
Can Pebble make the first smartwatch for regular people?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/28/3924904/pebble-smartwatch-review
The Pebble smartwatch is a lot more than just a watch — it’s the latest attempt to turn your wrist into the launchpad for a wearable computing revolution. It’s also the preeminent symbol of the Kickstarter hardware revolution. After 85,000 orders, 10 million crowdfunded dollars, and one or two slipped ship dates, the Pebble is finally here, ready to pipe emails and texts directly to your wrist.
The Pebble stands out by not standing out — almost every other smart watch is a bulky, chunky affair, but chances are most people won’t even realize you’re wearing the Pebble until you tell them.
As for the screen itself, I would call it just okay: Pebble calls it “e-paper,” but it’s really a 114 x 168 “transflective” LCD that’s designed for watches.
The Pebble app for iOS is basically a placeholder — you can download new watchfaces and troubleshoot connection problems, but that’s about it. Everything else happens at the iOS system level: you pair the Pebble and select “show notifications,” and you’re theoretically off to the races.
Unlike the iPhone and iOS, which offer skeletal native support for devices like the Pebble at the system level, Pebble on Android is all about the app. That’s where you manage everything, and at first glance it makes far more sense: all the settings are in one place, and you can quickly and easily make tweaks like having the watch show alerts for one email account but not another.
But there are some drawbacks to having an all-powerful app take the place of system-level support: Pebble’s Android app needs broad permissions to your phone, including your Gmail account passwords.
It changes the entire dynamic of being connected
After using the Pebble for a few days, I realized that I was daydreaming about it: I wanted it to do more. That’s unusual — I rarely trust new products to work correctly, especially new products from unproven companies. But the Pebble’s charming simplicity and fundamental competence inspires confidence.
At $150, the Pebble isn’t cheap, and it’s definitely not yet a must-have device. But it’s close — if the Pebble team can deliver on the rest of their promises,
Tomi says:
Scoop: Google acquired WIMM Labs to bolster its own smartwatch plans
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/30/google-wimm-labs-smartwatch-acquisition/
Samsung isn’t the only one looking to launch a smartwatch. Google quietly snapped up a smartwatch company last year that could lay the foundation for its own wrist-bound products.
Watch out, Samsung: Google has some smartwatch development projects of its own, and it quietly snapped up Los Altos, Calif.-based WIMM Labs last year to kickstart these efforts. WIMM Labs not only gives Google the talent and technology to build a smartwatch, but actually an Android-based app platform tailored for consumers’ wrists.
WIMM Labs was incubated around five years ago by Pillar Ventures, the investment company of former Rambus President Dave Morring, who subsequently became WIMM’s CEO. The company first developed an Android-based developer platform for wearable displays, and then followed up in late 2011 with its own, developer-centric smartwatch dubbed the WIMM One.