There’s a flood of new smartwatches and other wearable devices coming just around the corner, and every one of them will require a connection to your smartphone. Wireless NFC technology has already made things a little easier when it comes to pairing, but researchers at Disney want to make things even easier by just having you shake a couple of devices in unison.
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If you walk through a Chinese electronics market, you’ll find countless wearables, including a variety of smartwatches. Why, then, is this China-exclusive a significant introduction? Well, the Appscomm Fashioncomm A1 is the first smartwatch to include the Mirasol display we first saw in Qualcomm’s Toq prototype, which means that 1.55-inch MEMS panel is actually coming to market. The A1 delivers much of the functionality we experienced with the device in our September hands-on, with an added GSM chipset, enabling you to make and receive calls directly from your wrist.
It’s not the first watchphone we’ve seen — and past iterations can hardly be deemed a success — but as the first such device to integrate Qualcomm’s new Mirasol panel, it’s at least worth a casual mention. With the A1, Appscomm is also bundling an integrated camera, letting you snap stills and video clips a la Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. There’s also Bluetooth connectivity, along with a 450mAh battery that’s rated for up to 190 hours of standby time. Smartwatch enthusiasts based in China can pre-order the device for RMB 1,299 ($213) beginning today.
Qualcomm’s rather lovely looking Toq Smartwatch
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In its first major update since it began shipping early this year, the Pebble smartwatch is gaining a slew of new notifications today thanks to an updated SDK and integration with iOS 7. Now, any banner notifications you get on …
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If idea of fiddling around with a tiny, wrist-mounted touchscreen is enough to make you want to give up on smartwatches before they even really arrive, then whoa. This 3D gesture-recognition might actually make these things useful.
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By now we know that basically every manufacturer in the world has been trying—and
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Adidas is the latest company to hop on the ever-growing smartwatch train. It just showed off its fitness wristwear, which goes on sale November 1 for a whopping $400.
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The Samsung Galaxy Gear is basically a tiny phone on your wrist
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Sure, tech ads repeat the same tropes over and over and over
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