The wearables market launched to a rocky start, but IDC sees nothing but growth over the next few years.

According to a recent report by IDC, a combination of new vendors, new devices, and greater awareness among potential consumers will lead to year-over-year growth that leads to 126 million of the devices shipped by 2019. IDC forecasts that the wearables market will see 45.7 million unit shipments in 2015, up from the 133.4% from the 19.6 million units shipped in 2014. Until 2019, IDC believes that every year the market will have a year-over-year growth rate of 45%.

“Smart wearables are about to take a major step forward with the launch of the Apple Watch this year,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Wearables team. “The Apple Watch raises the profile of wearables in general and there are many vendors and devices that are eager to share the spotlight. Basic wearables, meanwhile, will not disappear. In fact, we anticipate continued growth here as many segments of the market seek out simple, single-use wearable devices.”

What’s causing the growth?

The obvious reason why the market is poised for growth is the 900-pound gorilla known as the Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) Watch. When the Apple Watch launches many competing vendors will no doubt use its launch and first year on the market as a case study to adjust their own strategies accordingly.

There’s also the issue of the overall quality of the wearable market. When wearables first entered the mainstream public consciousness they were heavily fitness oriented. This appealed to a niche market, but to the not-so fitness inclined they were a questionable investment. Then the first smartwatch, Samsung’s (KRX: 005930) Galaxy Gear, came on the market to a chilly reception and ultimately had a sky-high return rate.

In a contrast, a maturing market shows that there’s nothing but demand for wearables. This is because the overall quality of device has improved, and consumers have taken note and responded positively. IDC’s numbers are realistic and definitely attainable if vendors keep building quality devices.

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After a rocky start, the wearable market is finally hitting its stride. The 900-pound gorilla of the Apple Watch is set to launch next month, and the incredible success of the Pebble Time’s crowdsourcing campaign proves there is a demand for wearables.

But what happened between the initial launch of the wearable form factor and today? App stores have matured. Initially the bulk of the apps on the app stores for many wearables were limited to basic sports and health functionalities. This may have appealed to a small, loyal market but the mainstream consumer wants something more. The powers that be have listened, and app stores expanded.

With the broadening of app stores, wearables suddenly came a hot commodity and the market took off.

“Wearable devices have exploded into the consumer consciousness in the last two years and, when use cases become established, they will be the ‘next big thing’ in consumer electronics,” Juniper Research noted in a recent white paper. “Exactly what that ‘thing’ is varies considerably depending on the market segment and purpose of the devices.”

Gartner Research is equally as bullish, predicting that the market will grow to 26 million units in 2016. This is up from a mere 100,000 in 2014.

Considering the chart below from Business Intelligence, there’s a direct correlation between correlation between the strength of the app store and the demand for the specific wearable.

The Pebble’s app store leads the way with approximately 1000 apps. Contrast that to the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, with a paltry 70 apps, and its easy to see the connection.

The next generation of wearables will likely have an even stronger emphasis on apps, as when the market gets more mature it’s bound to get more competitive. Consumers will want their wearables to become more and more independent from their smartphones, and app designers will have to take note and build apps accordingly.

Vendors that fail to nurture the development of robust app stores will be faced with their devices failing to gain altitude. Consumers will simply not be interested in them and will instead pick up something with more app offerings.

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The launch of Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) Watch, scheduled in approximately a month, will be a pivotal moment for the company. The Apple Watch will be an entirely new product line for Apple, the first for the notoriously cautious and conservative (when compared with its competition) company since the passing of Steve Jobs in April 2011.

Compared to the competition Apple is late to the game in the smartwatch field. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Samsung’s (KRX:005930) first smartwatch was launched nearly a year and a half ahead of the Apple Watch. Apple has had plenty of opportunity to learn from its failures, and also the success of the Pebble Smartwatch and demand for the Pebble Time.

There will be two factors that drive consumers to buy the Apple Watch: pure aesthetics, and its practicality to enhance productivity.

The Apple Watch comes in a huge variety of flavors and styles, with customizable faces.

There will be a large subset of consumers that buy the smartwatch simply because of its aesthetic. Apple is considered to be a fashionable brand, and there are many consumers who will simply line up to purchase it because of the brand and style. This holds particularly true in China, as demand for Apple’s iPhone 6 was record breaking leading to an underground economy of re-sales from Hong Kong (where it launched well it advance).

But many consumers will be unconvinced that the Apple Watch is a worthwhile purchase unless the device’s App store can prove to be viable, and full of useful, sustainable apps. Consumers that purchase the Apple Watch based on the strength of the app library will make up a larger subset of consumers that purchase the device beyond the initial hype phase.

Apple has already shown off a compelling library of apps at the device’s launch event in early March. At launch there will be apps that let the watch double as a boarding pass, a hotel room key, and even an Uber-hailing device. This is a good start, as when the iPhone launched in 2007 users had to wait months for the corresponding app store to launch.

Given the limitations of the Apple Watch, the majority of the apps that launch on the platform will simply be extensions of existing iPhone apps. For now that’s acceptable, as the Apple Watch is essentially tethered to the iPhone but as the platform matures developers will figure out use cases that are less dependent on the iPhone.

Success is already written, just add the apps

Many naysayers have pointed to Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Glass as reason that the wearable market as a whole is doomed. But, pardon the pun, this is comparing apples to oranges.

Google’s Glass was cursed from the get-go because of privacy concerns and the lack of practicality. At the end of the day, the Apple Watch is still a watch — a tried and true product line. It will still sell partially because of that alone. In contrast, Google’s Glass was something nobody could figure out how to practically use: the idea of strapping a computer to your face didn’t resonate with many.

The Apple Watch just needs a sustainable and in-depth app store. This alone will ensure that different waves of consumers buy the device, guaranteeing its success, not just those looking for a fashionable wrist piece.

The post The Strength of the Apple Watch App Store Will Determine Its Success appeared first on VR World.

$1 million in less than an hour.

Then $8.7 million in 24 hours.

That’s how fast Pebble Tech was able to crowdfund the money for its Pebble Time smartwatch, blowing past expectations and setting records. The company set a funding goal of $500,000, which thanks to the support of many enthusiastic crowd funders, it had no problem meeting.

But for every Pebble Time and Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) Watch there are also devices that don’t capture the imagination of the masses. Think of the Samsung (KRX: 005930) Galaxy Gear, the first wearable to the market. Despite the promise and potential of the device, it also had a staggering 30% return rate. Effectively it was dead on arrival. There are plenty of devices out there like Samsung’s Galaxy Gear that failed to capture the attention of consumers.

But this doesn’t mean that the market itself should be written off in its entirety. In many ways Pebble is proving that you can correct a wrong of previous devices to make a right. Demand will be there as long as you can prove to the market that lessons have been learned from previous market failures.

There’s plenty of potential in wearables, however the market right now is cautious. Investment is on the sidelines, and key players are waiting for the right time to invest.

As VR World has reported earlier, players in the ecosystem are waiting for Apple to test the waters before deciding to commit.

“Without Apple’s involvement, manufacturers would think twice about investing heavily in an unproven product category,”  Jeremy Huang and Jessica Hsu, senior analysts at the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), a research house affiliated with the Taiwanese government, said to VR World in an earlier piece.

Even though Pebble Tech has had this level of success in its crowdfunding campaign, Apple is still the trendsetter. Pebble has shown that there is demand for wearables, but ultimately Apple is the trendsetter. Conveniently for Pebble, the Apple Watch is due out this month whereas the Pebble Time will be out in May. That will give Pebble plenty of time to do last minute corrections if need be.

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Smartwatch maker Pebble has set a new crowdfunding record, raising at least $1 million in the first 49 minutes of launching its latest Pebble Time. Kickstarter originally cited 34 minutes, but this has since been corrected.

Pebble Time actually reached its funding goal of $500,000 in 17 minutes, and has, so far, raised $6.8 million in less than a day of launch. To compare, the first Pebble smartwatch reached $1 million in 27 hours. Even the Veronica Mars film, considered to be a fan favorite, took at least 4 hours to raise a million.

Update: As of 10:00 PM National Standard Time (Taiwan), or about 24 hours after the Pebble Time project launched on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding campaign has raised $8.7 million in pledges from at least 40,000 backers. That’s about $362,500 per hour or $6,041 per minute on average.

Focus on the Timeline

The new device builds upon the success of the original Pebble smartwatch, adding in a few key features aimed at improving the user experience. In particular, Pebble Time brings a new focus into the timeline. “You already plan your day around time, so it makes sense for your Pebble to be organized around the same principle,” the team says. So the watch’s operating system now lays out notifications according to chronology, rather than separated in distinct apps.

The buttons now take on a “past, present and future” functionality. The center button brings you the current time (and any current notifications). The upper button lets you review previous notifications. The bottom button lets you scroll through upcoming events.

Pebble Time retains the use of e-paper, enabling the watch to have a 7-day battery life. The new device features a color display, however. It is also 20% thinner than its predecessor. And within this thinner package is a microphone, which lets users dictate responses to text messages and emails and save voice notes.

Backers can pre-order Pebble time for $159 through the completed Early Bird promo, and currently goes for $179 apiece. The company also has other options for bundles of two, three, five, 10 and 30 watches (the latter for “distributors”).

Why crowdfund?

Pebble is not exactly cash-strapped, having received $25.7 million in three rounds from investors that include CRV, ACE & Company, Tim Draper, Draper & Associates, Paul Buchheit, Mark Friedgan and Y Combinator. Pebble Technology says it is going back to its roots, “where it all started,” in launching the new product on Kickstarter. “The Kickstarter community and our early adopters believed in us before anyone else even knew we existed. You blew us away with your support and kicked off a worldwide movement!”

The underlying reasons may be deeper than this, however. It does make business sense. For one, Kickstarter has been Pebble’s most successful sales channel so far, apart from sales on its own website. The first Pebble crowdfunding campaign raised $10.26 million from almost 69,000 backers.

Secondly, pre-selling on Kickstarter means better margins for Pebble Tech. Kickstarter only gets 5% of proceeds. Payment processor Stripe gets 5%, too. This means only a 10% margin from this retail channel. Selling goods on brick-and-mortar retail channels would mean a margin of 35 to 50%, which will severely dilute Pebble’s profitability.

Meanwhile, selling on established e-commerce services like Amazon might result in reasonable margins, but it means Pebble will have no control over when it receives the money. Kickstarter lets backers pay up-front, which means more working capital for any startup, compared with having to source funds elsewhere and then marketing goods once it is already produced.

A crowdfunding bubble?

Still, 30,000 backers are not such a big market, especially considering that many of these are early adopters — people willing to pay just for the privilege of being considered on the bleeding edge. The more mainstream consumers are likely to buy products either at established retail outlets (tactile experience in buying watches, is after all, powerful), or through e-commerce giants like Amazon.

If anything, launching on Kickstarter enables the company to position itself as an underdog — especially compared with technology giants like Apple and Samsung, and it is probably hoped that doing so will endear the company to technology users hoping to see an indie effort succeed amid such competition.

For now, Pebble will have to enjoy the advantage of being able to get the funds with the exchange of a promise to build the product and ship months afterward. It’s a good way of raising capital, without necessarily being bogged down by the common investor concerns on equity and control.

The post Pebble Time Crowdfunds $1M in 49 Minutes, $6.8M in a Day appeared first on VR World.

Developers of wearable technology have been gaining inroads into consumer end-markets, with the likes of virtual reality glasses, smart watches, fitness bands and other such devices becoming increasingly available and affordable. While the likes of the upcoming Microsoft HoloLens and AppleWatch bode well for consumer-facing products, the bigger potential is for platform and hardware makers that stand to gain from the boom in this space, just like how Qualcomm experienced a renaissance with the rise of ARM-based computing in mobile devices. One such startup that will stand to gain with the rise of wearable computing is Tel Aviv-based LifeBEAM, which designs and builds wearable instruments for measuring human performance.

Aerospace tech made accessible

LifeBEAM’s main products are hats and helmets with built-in heart rate and performance trackers. The novelty is with the fact that the technology behind these devices originated from the aerospace industry, in particular fighter pilot helmets. The startup is actually founded by former Israeli air force pilots who aimed to incorporate military technology into consumer products. Trackers embedded on these headgear help reduce the discomfort and weight associated with cyclists’ and runners’ having to wear chest straps for electro-cardiogram needs.

The startup launched its first product through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in 2013, and marginally exceeded its goal by 29%. The company also provides its bio-sensing technologies to other brands and partners. In November, it was announced that Samsung has picked LifeBEAM’s technology as one of the sensors that will power its Simband, which is the Korean company’s reference design for upcoming health-tracking wearables.

Finding the right form factors

For LifeBEAM, it’s a big deal to find the right form factors to build its technology into. “Our challenge is to keep finding ways to integrate our bio sensing technology into real products that users want,” says Omri Yoffe, LifeBEAM founder, in an interview with VR World. “This keeps us at the front line as a company who understands both the barriers and opportunities in these different wearable form factors and possible products and content to be created out of them.”

According to Yoffe, there are certain industries that more easily warm to wearable technologies, although it may not be fair to identify any single industry that is dominant. For the  company, leading consumer brands are a good place to start when looking for trends in this industry. “The emerging wave of wearable technologies popular in the last year or so apply to consumer lifestyle, safety and security, enterprises, health and such industries,” he says. “There are different barriers to entry and key factors, such as policy, privacy and pricing, at play.”

Finding the right applications

Yoffe says there will always be early adopters and that “the most natural place to start with should be the leading consumer brands that will look for feasible ways of implementing wearable technology into their current and future products and services.” He adds that “the goal is to provide more value to the users and consumers.”

According to Yoffe, health and fitness remain to be at the forefront of wearables, because of the relevance of bio- and motion-sensing technologies to this industry. “Looking at 2014 and seeing the main trends for 2015, there is no doubt that the well-being and fitness markets are currently pioneering vehicles for wearable technology adoption, because these provide the target users a real and valuable way to track their personal wellness and well-being.” he says. “This is done in a relatively seamless and convenient, but still fashionable way,” he adds.

A focus on user experience

There are still challenges, however. For LifeBEAM, these include optimizing devices for the component sizes, connectivity, convenience and wearability. “Smart textile production also involves questions about washability and pricing,” Yoffe says, adding that even power consumption and the “lack of new disruptive and mature charging technologies” can also be an issue that builders of wearable tech need to address.

But going beyond devices and sensors, the wearable technology needs to take into account user experience. “We need ways to provide users a simplified, unified and insightful feedback mechanism, without the need for extra effort in terms of both wearing a designated wearable form factor (such as wrist bands) and the need to drill down into lots of saturated data and statistics.”

Beyond glasses and watches

The future is not necessarily about watches and glasses. Yoffe says that segmentation borders between two major groups. First is wearable and sensing tech embedded into clothing and apparel. “Wearable sensing solutions are invisibly implemented into all sorts of wearable gear apparel, with focus on low power consumption and wireless connectivity to a display-enabled device and/or the cloud.”

The second group involves purpose-built devices. “These are consumer electronics — watches, earbuds, phones and maybe a bit of smart glasses — participating as the user’s data aggregation, display and communication ‘hub’ to be able to simplify data collection and pitch the data to the user in real time.”

At this point, the job of companies that produce wearable tech is to make this technology more accessible to the end user — in essence making it invisible so it becomes more easily integrated into our lives, Yoffe says. “We need more focus on the UX and the ability to provide the end user an insightful, meaningful, simplified and unified feedback about his daily activity and personal well-being, and less focus on the raw bio-sensing parameters the and other more techy parts.”

The post LifeBEAM: User Experience Should be Focus of Wearable Tech appeared first on VR World.

Taiwanese technology companies are poised to tap the fledgling wearable devices market on the back of their hardware prowess and ties with Apple, whose highly anticipated smartwatch is expected to spur mass consumer adoption of the gadgets.

Wearables track information for health and fitness purposes, such as the number of hours slept, steps walked or calories burned and are equipped with small motion sensors to take photos and sync with mobile devices. In addition to smartwatches, other common wearables include connected fitness bands, glasses and fabrics.

Thus far, devices from global brands including Samsung (KRX:005930) , LG (KRX:066570) and Sony (TYO: 6758) have failed to generate a devoted following. Consumers are put off by their limited functionality, analysts say. “People are asking themselves, ‘why would I want to put on this watch?’”says Amy Teng, a principal research analyst at Gartner in Taipei.

But many industry experts believe Apple’s smartwatch will solve that conundrum, creating a viable new product category as the iPad did for tablet computers. The research firm IDC forecasts wearables shipments will triple on year to 19 million in 2014 and reach 112 million by 2018. Juniper Research is more bullish, predicting shipments will rise from 27 million this year to 116 million by 2017.

“Without Apple’s involvement, manufacturers would think twice about investing heavily in an unproven product category,” say Jeremy Huang and Jessica Hsu, senior analysts at the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), a research house affiliated with the Taiwanese government.

Benefiting from Apple

While Apple remains tight lipped about details of its forthcoming smartwatch, several Taiwanese manufacturers are involved in the production of the device, market insiders say.

The most prominent of them is Quanta Computer (TPE: 2382), the world’s largest contract PC manufacturer. Quanta is a major supplier of Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) iMac computers and has also produced its iPods in the past. Quanta’s mobile device team is the primary manufacturer of the Apple Watch, according to Taipei-based Fubon Securities (TPE:2881).

Arthur Liao, a downstream analyst at Fubon, believes the Apple Watch will not be a major source of earnings for Quanta, contributing just 5-6% of overall revenue, but will help the company to move beyond hardware manufacturing. “Quanta wants to use the Apple Watch to get a foothold in cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem,” he says.

Liao believes Kinsus Interconnect Technology, a Taiwanese maker of electronics components, is in the Apple Watch supply chain because of its ability to mass produce curved printed circuit board (PCB) components required for the device’s flexible display. “Kinsus is the only company with both the advanced technology and production capacity to meet Apple’s requirements for these parts,” Liao says. “Winning this order from Apple will help Kinsus reaffirm its position in pioneering technology.”

Homegrown wearables

Taiwanese firms are also keen to gain a foothold in the burgeoning wearables market with devices of their own. At Computex, more than three-fourths of the 59 wearable exhibitors were from Taiwan, compared to six at the 2013 show.

Among those exhibitors was Acer (TPE: 2353), the No. 4 PC maker globally, who unveiled a hybrid fitness band-smartwatch called the Liquid Leap. The device has received a mixed reception. Wareable, a site dedicated to wearable device reviews, describes it as “a multi-tasker doing nothing particularly well.”

Asutek (TPE: 2357), the world’s fifth-largest PC manufacturer, launched its Android-powered ZenWatch earlier this year in the US and Japan and plans to roll out two additional smartwatches in 2015 in a bid to become a dominant player in the wearables market.

Consumers in the US and Japan have responded well to the ZenWatch, Asutek chief executive Jerry Shen said, in remarks to the audience at a December product launch for the device in Taipei. Shen did not reveal sales figures, but added that the ZenWatch would be released in China, Hong Kong and Europe in the future.

The Taipei-based startup JoyRay Technology, meanwhile, is focusing on wearables for children. Its open-platform Jumpy smartwatch, which can run Android or iOs, is slated for release later this year. Founder and chief executive officer Jerry Chang worked in Foxconn’s smartphone business group for more than eight years before leaving in December 2013 to launch JoyRay. As Chang’s ties with the world’s largest contract electronics maker remain strong, Foxconn will produce the Jumpy watches.

Chang had the idea to found JoyRay when he observed the fascination of his young son with one of the Foxconn smartwatch prototypes he showed the boy. “I realized there was tremendous potential in the children’s smartwatch market,” Chang says.

Jumpy faces a slew of global competitors, but Chang believes the device’s large screen, detachable watch head and varied apps will help it to stand out. “Most kids use smartwatches for two weeks and then lose interest,” he says. “Jumpy will keep kids engaged with educational, exercise, and entertainment apps that will be regularly updated and encourage interaction between kids and between parents and kids.”

Proceeding with caution  

Despite the steady rollout of new wearable devices, some industry observers remain skeptical about the products’ viability. Gartner found just 40% of wearables users between 2011 and 2014 replaced a wearable device at the end of its lifecycle. That low replacement rate does not augur promise for wearable technology, Gartner principal analyst Amy Teng says, adding that wearable devices could follow a similar trajectory to tablets.

Tablet shipments surged after the introduction of the iPad in 2010. But as vendors flooded the market with devices over the next few years, consumers felt little reason to upgrade to newer models that differed scantly from their predecessors. As a result, tablet shipments fell for the first time in 2014.

Taiwanese tech firms should look to integrate wearable technology into a larger service platform, say Jeremy Huang and Jessica Hsu of MIC. They offer Disney’s $1 billion MyMagic+ technology as an example. A key part of that technology is the MagicBand, a bracelet linked electronically to an encrypted database of visitor information. Within a Disney theme park, it serves as an admission ticket, hotel key, credit card or debit card. If the technology is successful, it may spread to airports, malls, museums and zoos, analysts say.

For now, Teng urges prudence on wearable technology. “We all want this market to continue to grow, but the products are still at an experimental stage,” she says. “Consumers have to be convinced of their value.”

Photo: Jumpy smartwatches for children. 

Photo by: JoyRay

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Wearables no longer refer only to fashion on the runways of Paris. Wearables will be on parade at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, 2015. Devices that snuggle into fabrics, wrap around your wrist or stick to your tummy make people into walking displays of cutting edge technology.

When you talk about wearables, you’ll hear about MEMS (micro-electro mechanical systems). One definition says: MEMS is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through microfabrication technology. You can learn more at a CES Conference Track running from 9am – 4:30pm on January 6, 2015.

Early this year, one research firm noted that the global wearable technology market was $750.0 million USD in 2012 and is expected to reach $5.8 billion in 2018. Not everyone agrees. In fact, a panel of analysts will chew on that prediction in the Venetian’s Marco Polo room.

Another presentation will be about Valencell’s PerformTek, sensor technology based on more than 20 patents, that measures real-time biometric data. Tiny optomechanical sensor modules are embedded in earbuds to provide information for gaming, performance coaching, and fitness training. The blood flow, heart rate monitoring technology removes extraneous noise to provide accurate readings. The sensor module includes an optical emitter, an optical detector, specialized optomechanics, and an accelerometer. It should be interesting to hear Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, President, explain the product during the conference.

Smart watches to wearables have been providing information about our movements and our bodies. From information comes knowledge. But what good is knowledge if we don’t act upon it? That’s where Ben Waber, CEO of Sociometric Solutions comes in. He analyzes communication patterns identified by social sensing technology. Coming at it with a PhD from the Human Dynamics Group at the MIT Media Lab, Waber translates information into suggestions for improving how employees work and collaborate.

Sociometrics Dashboard graphs information for use by organizations wanting to improve employee performance.

Wearable Sociometric Badges capture face-to-face interactions and extract social signals from speech and body movement and by measuring the proximity of each individual. Waber’s talk will incorporate ideas from his book People Analytics.

Discussions will also address how OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and embedded systems integrators can take advantage of MEMS and sensors for wearable devices. A roundtable will include top executives from several companies. InvenSense pioneered the industry’s first high-volume, commercial MEMS fabless business model. Benedetto Vigna, VP from STMicroelectronics, a large semiconductor company headquartered in Switzerland, will talk about his company’s involvement. Another company on the panel, Bosch Sensortec GmbH from Kusterdingen, Germany develops and markets a wide portfolio of MEMS sensors and solutions for smart phones, tablets, wearable devices. They offer 3-axis acceleration, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensors, integrated 6- and 9-axis, environmental sensors, and software.

QuickLogic helped make WiiU Game Pad possible.

If you’ve used a WiiU Game Pad, you’ve experienced the expertise of QuickLogic an inventor of customizable semiconductor solutions for mobile and portable electronics that should have a few words about gaming. Another panelist, PNI Sensor, develops geomagnetic sensors and sensor fusion technology for consumer products, the military, and scientific organizations. Stephen Whalley, Chief Strategy Officer, MEMS Industry Group will act as moderator.

In addition to this conference track, the Wearable Tech Awards will be given out the next day on Wednesday, January 7 on the Haymarket Stage of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Ten smart products from glasses to watches, health and fitness trackers, virtual reality, and new apps will take a walk in front of the judges.

Winners of the $1.3 million in cash awards from Intel’s Make It Wearable challenge that the company threw out a year ago will be announced. The Challenge combined competition and an entrepreneurial mentorship program. The products that were considered had to be a sensor or computing device that is attached, embedded or worn on the body. It had to be based on Intel technology. Steven Holmes, Vice President – Intel New Devices Group, will speak about Smart Device Innovation.

Instead of asking What’s in Your Wallet?, the question at CES will be What are You Wearing? and that’s not referring to Armani.

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Earlier this June, one small concept was unveiled to the world that introduced a pair of unique and cute looking headphones. The name of that concept was Axent Wear, and today, it is now ready to turn into a project. In fact, this project looks like it is already highly successful before it even began.

Axent Wear was introduced by its developers as a ‘swag’ product that combines style, functionality and anime-inspired cuteness in one neat little package. The design is already pretty straightforward and self-explanatory, however being a concept at the time, no technical specs was actually released. Fast forward to October, and they have finally launched the idea as an Indiegogo project.

Axent Wear’s primary functions stay the same for the most part; it is still a standard headset that provides alternative sound output using its external speakers located at its cat-ears shaped part. The futuristic design is still there, though the developers have pointed out that it doesn’t operate as a single unit, and its other functions can be turned on or off independently.

Pre-order notifications are now open at the Axent Wear official page. People who have been looking forward to owning a pair the last time can now browse most of the other previously left out details, which are neatly laid out in its own Indiegogo page.

Axent Wear headphones will be available in four primary (LED) colors: blue, red, purple, and green. If you’re interested to purchase one, a minimum of at least $150 is required to get a pair of Axent Wear headphones with the color of your choice. A “value pack” price of $575 will be needed if you want all four colors, with the price jacking up even higher for better customization packages.

Update: As of this article’s writing, almost $500,000 has been raised, or at least double the amount of the original goal.

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Sports are a kind of culture, representations of how our civilization improved and developed throughout the millennia. It is also a contest of the human’s body’s strength and endurance, and these reasons are perhaps why sports remained strictly a contest of raw physical capability.

One committee however is determined to change all of this, or at least provide a brand new way for sports to be held and made. The Superhuman Sports Committee is a recently formed group that believes in the concept of transcending or exceeding the limits of the human body with the use of wearable technologies and body systems. These so called superhuman sports will be a mesh of technology and physical strength, to be the next step towards the future evolution of sports.

If you’re thinking of powered suits and high-tech balls and energy discs with this concept, then your idea is not really far off from what the committee wants to do. It specifically wants to focus on the idea of a “device-integrated human”, using physical enhancement suits to provide a level of play that overcomes the boundaries of current sports today.

While the concept of “breaking the human limits” this way may mean faster sprints and more agile movements for regular athletes, it also means giving everyone equal privilege to play the sport competitively. The committee stresses the importance of letting all people, at any age, at any social group, and regardless of physical build, to be able to play superhuman sports at an equal level.

An enhanced Skeletonics Suit may be used for a superhuman sports event.

For example, a superhuman sports event that uses exoskeletal suits may allow people with smaller statures to enjoy the sport equally without worrying about their inherent physical disadvantages. This is especially more significant for those with permanent physical disabilities, who would normally fall under separate sports categories, and would have no chance to play against regular athletes at all.

Of course, with the level of play vastly increased for such superhuman sports events, new settings and rules would also have to be properly developed, and that is the current primary mission of the committee.

A kickoff meeting to discuss plans for the Superhuman Sports Committee will be held by the end of the week. The current goal is to provide an opening for the concept, a demonstration of the finalized idea, for the upcoming 2020 Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo, Japan.

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Pebble has released firmware 2.6 that enables continuous activity tracking on the smartwatches, also drops prices by $50.

Pebble just released firmware 2.6 update to the masses that enables continuous activity tracking and app  quick launch. The smartwatch company that was a huge hit on Kickstarter in 2012 and has enjoyed successful growth.  It is now celebrating that success by making its products more accessible by dropping the price by $50 on the Pebble  ($99.99) and Pebble Steel ($199.99).

Pebble took time to highlight some apps that will be making the most of the new functionality of continuous activity tracking.  Misfit app and Jawbone’s UP app are both two of the first apps to integrate the feature into them.  The novel addition to the group is an app from Swim.com that can measure distance, pace, times, strokes, and efficiency while swimming.  This is something that no doubt separates the Pebble from other smartwatches as there are none out that currently can do this, it helps that the Pebble is water resistant to 5 ATM (50m).

Pebble firmware 2.6 release notes

• NEW: Activity. Activity tracking apps (e.g. Jawbone, Misfit, Swim.com) for Pebble now work seamlessly in the background. View installed Activity apps and toggle preferences in the Pebble Settings menu. An Activity icon is visible within Pebble menus when a compatible app is installed and running.
• NEW: Quick Launch. Set shortcuts from a watch face to your favorite Pebble apps with a long press of the Up or Down buttons. Enable Quick Launch and set app shortcuts in the Pebble Settings menu.
• Battery icon is now persistent within Pebble menus.
• Select button once again dismisses notifications when paired with an Android device or iOS device on iOS 7 or lower. iOS 8 users get a notificaion dismissal for both Pebble and the paired device when pressing Select.
• Bug fixes and improvements.

In just 2 years the appstore now has more than 4,000 apps and over 18,000 developers.  This is a rather staggering amount and is being fueled by companies like Mercedes-Benz, Pandora, Yelp, FourSquare, and ESPN.   The Pebble is also selling at many retailers both online and big box stores, which is a big success for a product that got started on Kickstarter.  You can find a Pebble of your own at your local Best Buy, Fry’s, Sam’s Club, Sprint store, Target, and online at Amazon.com.

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Instead of implants under the skin that turned Steve Austin into the $6 million man, the Soft Exosuit fits outside the user’s body. It boosts a soldier’s ability to walk longer distances carrying heavy gear with less fatigue and improved resistance to injury.

Exosuits are a new class of applications for soft robotics. Soft, elastic sensors in an adjustable suit made of nylon, polyester, and spandex provide well-timed bursts of power intended to reduce the energy a soldier uses to walk. The suit mimics the action of the wearer’s leg muscles and tendons. Sensors embedded in the insoles of a boot send a signal to a computer processor in an actuator box on a backpack or waist belt. Cables transmit force to the joints. The system is continuously monitoring various data signals, including the suit tension, the position of the wearer, be they walking, stooping, or crawling. All the components, including a battery that gives out 50 watts of power for 4 hours, weigh about 13 pounds.

The US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering with a $2.9 million contract from their Warrior Web program.

The Warrior Web  says troops patrolling for long periods in rugged, hilly terrain usually are carrying 100 or more pounds of equipment. Musculoskeletal injuries can occur while bending, crawling or running, especially to ankles, knees and lumbar spine. Fatigue is common. The suit worn beneath the uniform promises to enhance strength and endurance of the wearer.

In the lab, scientists monitor the biomechanics and physiological implications from people interacting with these types of machines. This exosuit differs from others in that it is soft, not rigid as in the past.

Robot suit and its human wearer are monitored in the laboratory

Conor Walsh is Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Walsh is also a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. Additionally, he founded the Harvard Biodesign Lab. He illustrates the operating principle of the robotic suit with this explanation: If you have a person in a swing, and “you start them swinging, then you just have to give a little tap at the right time, and the swing will keep moving.” Similarly, if a person begins walking, swinging their legs, the sensors give a boast of energy to the participating muscles.

Mapping coordinates for the Exosuit

Team Leader Walsh is working with Wyss Institute faculty Robert Wood, Yong-Lae Park, and George Whitesides; Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Harvard University graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; Terry Ellis and Ken Holt of Boston University’s College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; and Sang-bae Kim of MIT. New Balance known best for their Made in America athletic shoes provides expertise in textile and apparel innovation.
The military isn’t the only segment of the population that may profit from the wearable robotic suit. Alternative versions of the suit could eventually assist those with limited mobility, such as individuals who have suffered a stroke or have cerebral palsy.

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Sony (TYO: 6758) had enthralled us with its unveiling of the newest SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk wearables last IFA 2014. However, despite the announcement of its availability this fall, we were still left wondering as to when exactly we’ll get our hands on one.

Well, the wait is finally over, at least for Japan. Sony finally announces that both wearables are going to be available around the end of November in the country. There are no exact prices revealed yet, but it is estimated that the SmartWatch 3 and the SmartBand Talk will be available in Japan with an equivalent price of about $230.00 and $165.00 respectively.

Giving a recap on both gadgets’ specs, the SmartWatch 3 will have a 1.6-inch transflective display that has a resolution of 320×320. This new iteration of the SmartWatch will ditch the old proprietary OS developed by Sony in favor of the more generic Android Wear OS. It will also ditch its OS backward compatibility option, and will only be compatible with Android 4.3 and higher. On the other side, the SmartBand Talk has a 1.4-inch 296×128 curved E-ink display, and is primarily designed for voice activated monitoring. It connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth, can take as well as receive calls, and can provide interactive notifications using its glare-proof display. Both wearables are compatible with Sony’s Lifelog app, allowing users to keep track of various things while wearing the device.

While Sony’s newest wearables are by no means revolutionary, they are generally considered as a significant step up from its predecessors, at least in terms of overall user convenience. Sony’s decision to use Android Wear OS for the SmartWatch 3 for instance, is a definite plus. The HD voice support and E-ink display features also provide the SmartBand Talk with a significant functionality boost.

Most importantly, the IPX8 and IPX6 certification standards of both devices basically make them weather-proof, so you can use them anytime anywhere.

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When it comes to smart eyewear, we usually think of floating interfaces, navigation guides, and augmented reality. Board games certainly weren’t on top of the list, but this idea from Japan takes the traditional game of Shogi and pushes it into the next generation with a new smart eyewear unit.

The Shogi smart eyewear unit is the product of the collaborative effort between software developers and prominent Shogi players in Japan. The unit has no official name, and it is probably best to tell you early on that this particular model won’t be commercially available soon. The primary function of the Shogi smart eyewear is as what you’d typically expect; to present the entire game environment to the user. This includes the entire board, as well as every single bit of data that the player might need for the match.

First is the status of the entire board, which is updated in real time as moves are set or made. Second is the “strategy advisor” system, which predicts next move sets or patters. This also provides each possible move with a grade or rating based on the validity of the move for the current match. Lastly, the unit is installed with brain scanning biosensors, courtesy of NeuroSky. The sensors check to see how calm/focused the player is, or the general level of tension in the match, adding a whole new level of excitement to televised Shogi matches.

Traditionally, modern Shogi match shows in Japan incorporate the use of computers, not just to track each move the players make, but also to present alternative strategies, future move sets and patterns as the match progresses (sounds familiar?). The idea is that a bulky PC unit might be too obtrusive for the Shogi player, distracting him or her from the match itself. By using a wearable device, the developers hoped that the matches can be played in a smoother, more natural manner.

Meanwhile, professional Shogi players in Japan had varying opinions in regards to the implementation of the wearable device, with some saying that it might be fun, while others stating that it is utterly unnecessary.

The units were recently used a few days ago last Den’ousen 2014, a Shogi tournament that pitted top class players against each other and against the best Shogi-playing computer AI.

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We always have known at some point that a true, direct rival would soon rise to compete with Google Glass, and it has indeed come in the form of Sony’s SmartEyeGlass. Now, the company has finally opened the smart eyewear for developers to tinker, with the release of its SDK.

First appearing as a simple prototype earlier this year last CES 2014, Sony’s SmartEyeGlass was reintroduced again a few weeks back at the beginning of September, during IFA 2014. Despite having the same concept, one of the most obvious differences of the SmartEyeGlass to the Google Glass is its display. Both use special projectors to display a floating holographic screen in front of the user, but Sony opted to make the SmartEyeGlass look more like a pair of ordinary eyeglasses. Its thin 3mm lens provides an almost 85% transparency rate, seamlessly combining its augmented reality info stream into the present visual environment.

The SmartEyeGlass will be packed a multitude of sensors including a CMOS image sensor, accelerometer, gyro, GPS, brightness sensor and even an electronic compass. Just like Google Glass, it is capable of transmitting your location and notifying the user about it in real time. For now, the updated version runs on Android 4.1, connecting via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, though it is unknown if the final version would use a proprietary OS similar to some of Sony’s other recently developed devices.

As for the SDK, it will include an emulator and a few sample codes. Tutorials and a number of API references, usage guides and design/test guidelines will also be available to help developers grasp the overall app environment of the SmartEyeGlass.

There were several demo apps that showcased what the SmartEyeGlass could do as a final product. Most of which fall into the visual info feed category (its Cookpad app for example), providing the user with additional info related to anything seen by its mounted camera. However, with the release of its SDK, we can expect the SmartEyeGlass to show more of its potential functionality as developers release more Android apps for the smart device before its official launch.

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We always have known at some point that a true, direct rival would soon rise to compete with Google Glass, and it has indeed come in the form of Sony’s SmartEyeGlass. Now, the company has finally opened the smart eyewear for developers to tinker, with the release of its SDK.

First appearing as a simple prototype earlier this year last CES 2014, Sony’s SmartEyeGlass was reintroduced again a few weeks back at the beginning of September, during IFA 2014. Despite having the same concept, one of the most obvious differences of the SmartEyeGlass to the Google Glass is its display. Both use special projectors to display a floating holographic screen in front of the user, but Sony opted to make the SmartEyeGlass look more like a pair of ordinary eyeglasses. Its thin 3mm lens provides an almost 85% transparency rate, seamlessly combining its augmented reality info stream into the present visual environment.

The SmartEyeGlass will be packed a multitude of sensors including a CMOS image sensor, accelerometer, gyro, GPS, brightness sensor and even an electronic compass. Just like Google Glass, it is capable of transmitting your location and notifying the user about it in real time. For now, the updated version runs on Android 4.1, connecting via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, though it is unknown if the final version would use a proprietary OS similar to some of Sony’s other recently developed devices.

As for the SDK, it will include an emulator and a few sample codes. Tutorials and a number of API references, usage guides and design/test guidelines will also be available to help developers grasp the overall app environment of the SmartEyeGlass.

There were several demo apps that showcased what the SmartEyeGlass could do as a final product. Most of which fall into the visual info feed category (its Cookpad app for example), providing the user with additional info related to anything seen by its mounted camera. However, with the release of its SDK, we can expect the SmartEyeGlass to show more of its potential functionality as developers release more Android apps for the smart device before its official launch.

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When Android Wear was released there were only two options available, the Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch (currently being reviewed).  Unfortunately, those were rather uninspired and were pretty bland design wise.  When Motorola showed its design for a Wear device, it really got a lot of people excited as it is a striking design with a round LCD display under Corning Gorilla Glass.  It really looked like a watch and not some band that so many other wearables have ended up looking like.

New notifications pop up on the watch

Taking a closer look at the watch it becomes very impressive after having used the Samsung Gear Live.  The round LCD under the Corning Gorilla Glass looks absolutely great and gives it an inset look. The edge of the glass is beveled and the metal case is also beveled giving the device a nice look.  The metal case has a metal button on the right side and looks great and fits in with the design of the watch very well.  The back of the case is plastic and has an optical heart rate sensor, these in general are not that accurate and should be used as a good best guess reading.  The device complies with the IP67 code which means that is is dust tight/sealed  and can withstand being submerged in water at a depth of one meter for thirty minutes.  It would be suggestible to not get it wet, so that you don’t end up ruining the nice leather band by repeatedly showing with the device.

Horween leather is used for the band, and is very comfortable

The band is made from Horween leather and is beautiful and feels great on the wrist, and unfortunately is not user replaceable.  The fit and finish is impressive and is even shown in the buckle of the band.

The fit and finish is rather impressive on the Moto 360

The card system that the Android Wear employs is easy to navigate through on the watch.  Sometimes certain notifications are cropped on the round display (as seen below), as on the Samsung Gear Live screen they displayed properly.  This will likely be addressed by the app developers soon and will be displaying properly again.

The Bright Weather app text was cropped wrong on this display, were Gear Live displayed it properly.

The battery on this smart watch was better than expected (based on early reviews) and would have probably lasted about 36 hours at best.  Charging the watch couldn’t be easier with the Moto 360, as it comes with an inductive charging (Qi) base that you rest the watch in.  While on the charger the face rotates to display the time and charging status in the proper orientation. This Qi wireless charging solution is very likely the reason why Motorola opted for a plastic back on the Moto 360 because most inductive charging solutions like Qi are incapable of transmitting through metal.

Nice looking inductive charger is included.

The watch seemed to charge very fast in the charger.  With this charging method you will be thankful when you read the many reports of people busting their Gear Live devices when putting on and taking off the charger back.  It was noticed that the voice recognition wasn’t always the best, though it would be tough to figure out what is causing it.  It could be that I was not speaking clearly, loudly, or slowly enough for it to catch everything. Regardless of the device I have found the need to repeat commands to Google’s speech recognition multiple times on various devices. The microphone is located in the left of the metal watch case.

The bottom of the case is plastic and has an optical image sensor

The Moto 360 comes with a pretty stock version of  Android Wear, though it does have some things to set it apart.  The watch faces that it is pre-loaded with look fantastic and can be customized with the Motorola Connnect app. With the app you can also set your default apps for different tasks, and it also holds your fitness profile which is used with the heart rate sensor.  The Fit app for the device not only takes your heart rate but also tracks how much activity you get each day.  The watch  reminded me daily to get at least 30 minutes of activity to stay healthy.  Included is also a pedometer that tracks the amount of steps that you take daily and will keep track of your daily figures.

The watch bands are not user replaceable unfortunately.

So what’s the verdict?

The Moto 360 really does the smart watch right as it really looks great and functions well with the Android Wear. You can really tell that Motorola has done something special here and by many accounts, out designed Apple and the Apple Watch.

The watch feels great on the wrist and with a band that buckles this is secure as well, as the Gear Live didn’t feel that way.  It is something that you can wear when you are dressed up and not feel self conscious as some might with having a plastic watch on.  There will be some display issues with the cards until the app developers make them display correctly on the round displays.  The $250 price is indeed worth the $30-$50 premium over the other two options.  If you are in the market for an Android Weat device, it will be very hard for you to be disappointed in this.

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From the legendary movie ‘Grand Prix’ in 1966 to controversial Breaking Bad TV series, TAG Heuer watches are presented as objects of desire. Today’s ad campaigns feature select number of actors, race drivers, F1 teams, pilots and the like, all touting the precision brought by TAG Heuer. Yet, the most precise watch you can buy is one of digital, not the analogue kind. Secondly, there is not one, but two generations of people that are growing up using a mobile phone to check for time, reducing the need for watches in its entirety.

Not even a week after Apple’s event, Reuters passed the comments made by Jean-Claude Biver, founder of Hublot and current head of watchmaking for LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) . His statement “We want to launch a smartwatch at TAG Heuer, but it must not copy the Apple Watch.” confirmed that the LVMH concern will make a smartwatch using the TAG Heuer brand. We believe this will not be just one product but a ‘platform’ which guarantees its reappearance in multiple watches not just in TAG Heuer, but across LVMH brands. Furthermore, the company is also pushing its electronics team to create another six-figure smartphone to rival Vertu.

Today, most avid watch buyers are ones that grew up in 1980s, with Casio G-Shock and Swatch creating a generation of buyers that are in their 30s and 40s – going for the collectable editions with prices measured from thousands even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Generation growing up today would probably skip on watches entirely, until we start seeing wearable devices such as FitBit followed by Pebble, LG and Samsung smartwatches, and now Apple entered the frame with its Watch (does the lack of ‘I’ means Apple’s 2015 phone will simply be called – Apple Phone? Apple Pad?). All of the smartwatch/wearable device push from the manufacturers is bringing horologie back into fashion, and if you are a smart manufacturer (pun intended) – you will have to react.

We don’t expect the smartwatch to make appearance before annual watch gathering in Baselworld (March 19-26, 2015) while the new smartphone is planned to make an appearance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (March 2-5, 2015).

All in all, luxury giant LVMH is reacting. The question is, how long until every other watch vendor starts following? We can only hope they won’t engage into a race to the bottom, like the standard consumer electronic companies.

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Today’s announcement from the well-known full service semiconductor company, Global Foundries and QuickLogic (NASDAQ:QUIK), will interest those looking for ultra low power (ULP) sensor hubs. The new ArcticLink 3 S2 is optimized for smartphones and the new wearable devices.

QuickLogic is known as being an innovator of ultra low power programmable Customer Specific Standard Products — silicon platforms plus software solutions. Its next generation ArcticLink 3 S2 platform is sampling on Global Foundries own lower power 65 nanometer process technology. Global Foundries also prides itself on its 14nm FinFET leading edge technologies fashioned for high-volume, high-performance and power-efficient SoC applications.

Sensor hubs like the 3 S2 store sensor data and sensor algorithms and run them. They should execute those functions quickly. The ArcticLink 3 S2 Sensor Hub a context-aware sensor hub. It promises OEMs four times the computational capability, four times the sensor algorithm memory, and eight times the sensor data memory in a pin-identical footprint. The hub’s active power consumption is ~150μW, meaning the sub-system consumes less than 2 percent of system battery resources. A video explanation of the new ArcticLink 3 S2 can be viewed here.

The 3 S2 is completely compatible with the Android 4.x OS, including KitKat 4.4, and RTOS-based systems. It can support 12 sensors simultaneously, such as gesture, heart rate, gyroscope, and ambient light. The developer provides standard Android driver libraries so OEM systems can quickly integrate with the hub. Software, sensor and sensor algorithm engineers are able to customize the functionality of the ArcticLink 3 S2 through QuickLogic’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Development Board.

Global Foundries’ 65nm LPe (low power enhanced) technology significantly improves power utilization while extending battery life by using innovative leakage reduction techniques. This makes it perfect for battery operated mobile applications that are cost sensitive. The semiconductor company’s technology is helping QuickLogic optimize its latest product.

Brian Faith, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at QuickLogic and an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University for Programmable Logic courses said: “This new collaboration with Global Foundries as the manufacturer for the S2 platform will help us meet our demanding time-to-market requirements with a technology that delivers the right balance of performance, power consumption, and cost.”
Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of product management at Global Foundries pointed out: “As the industry continues its seismic shift from PC to mobility, a whole new set of applications and devices are driving the need for differentiated silicon solutions,”

QuickLogic Corporation is traded as QUIK on NASDAQ and has held a value in the mid $3.00 for the last five years. Global Foundries is privately held, owned by Mubadala Development Company out of Abu Dhabi. Global Foundries has three 300mm fabs and five 200mm fabs providing a full range of process technologies from mainstream to the leading edge from the US to Germany to Malta to Singapore.

The S2 Sensor Hub is expected to be production-certified in Q4 2014.

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Google recently released Android Wear, their new platform for wearables that currently has only three devices running it. The first two to be released were the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live. Within the last couple days the Motorola Moto 360 was released for sale. These are the first generation of Google powered smart watches.

Samsung’s Gear Live offering is a nice piece with a few nice features. The body of the watch has a metal housing with a plastic back that incorporates an optical heart rate monitor and the charging contacts. The charger is essentially a backpack that hugs the contacts on the underside of the watch. The watchband is 22mm straps made of nice feeling plastic that has a metal tip that buttons into the band’s holes. This part is user replaceable and the securing method doesn’t seem as a buckle would be.

The interface for Android Wear is made up of cards, just like Google Now. It essentially will show you everything on the watch that would normally show up in your notification area on Android. Some like Google’s own apps will have nice cards, while others are really just the text from the notification. Using the interface is mostly swiping cards to close or expand them and move through the cards. Currently, there are not too many decent apps that can be found in the Play Store. The Navigation app’s tiles are by far some of the best uses of the watch. While driving there is no need to keep looking at your phone and the next directions will be fed to new tiles that are alerted by vibrating. Using it while going on a road trip to a new area was very pleasant since more time was spent watching traffic than down at the phone’s screen.

The Gear Live is IP67 certified for dust and water resistance, this equates to it is dust tight and withstanding immersion in 1m for a duration of 30m. It will be just fine in the shower, but probably not something that should be taken to the pool. The heart rate monitor and pedometer are not too accurate and should be used as a best guess for the info they provide. The battery is very small at 300mAh and can only last for a day of use. The display is a brilliantly vivid Super AMOLED touchscreen though does have the shortcoming in this design of having no ambient light sensor. The display will dim and then wake (brighten) when the wrist is rotated to view the watch face, but many times this had to be done upwards of 4 or more times to get a response. The voice commands are the same as Google Now, as it uses that app on the phone to complete everything.

Is it worth it?

Coming in at $200 this makes it an attractive price for such a gadget, though with the glaring drawbacks that this has it may be advisable to wait for the next generation. The fact that this has only a days worth of battery is the biggest drawback since you will need to charge it often, unlike the Qualcomm Toq. Having this rely on a constant Bluetooth connection means that it will drain your phone’s battery as long as it is connected. Overall, this is a great start, but there are many reasons to check what is on the horizon of Android Wear before deciding on the Gear Live.

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