Hasta La Gadget!

A lot of Japanese watches aren’t that easy to read, but this one makes things look eve more undecipherable since it’s inspired by cryptography. The watch certainly looks distinctive, but will it be legible enough to be useful in daily life?

Based on Firdaus’ CODEX concept watch, the Tokyoflash Kisai X uses segmented triangular shapes and lines to display the time. The hours are shown on the left side of the display, while the minutes are shown on the right. You’ll have to get used to the way that the numbers are displayed, but once you understand the trick, I’m sure that it will get easier.

The watch has a lightweight solid stainless steel body and band, and its face features a pyramid design which gives it a small amount of depth and dimension. It’s USB rechargeable and one charge should last you a month.

The Tokyoflash Kisai X is available in black or polished stainless steel, with either a blue, green, or red LED display. The watch will cost you $99 until March 7th at 4PM Japan time, after which it will jump to its regular retail price.

Ever since the rumor started floating around that Apple was working on its own smartwatch, companies have been rushing to get competing products to the market ahead of Apple. Some of the smartwatches that had turned up have been very interesting. Another new watch has turned up called the I’m Watch and bills itself as the world’s first real smartwatch.

The watch is currently on sale for $349 and is available for purchase now. The normal retail price is $449. The watch features Bluetooth connectivity and allows users to see calls, text messages, e-mails, and other notifications directly on the watch face. Users can answer or decline calls right from the face of the watch and the watch has a built-in speaker allowing you to use it as a speakerphone.

The watch is designed to run multiple apps directly on the watch face ranging from playlists to a digital compass to various games. The watch comes with various band styles the user can choose from the color collection, tech collection, or jewel collection. The jewel collection is available in silver or gold. The watch measures 15 mm thick by 37 mm tall by 37 mm wide.

It has an integrated rechargeable battery promises 48 to 72 hours of standby time and actual talk time depends on usage. The watch has integrated GSM connectivity allowing it to operate on a mobile network without a smartphone. It also has built-in GPS and a lot more. The price of $349 is for the color collection. The tech collection is available in titanium or black titanium and starts at $1049. The Jewel collection is available with a silver case, yellow gold case, white gold case, pink gold case, and white gold with diamonds. Pricing starts at $1999 and goes up to slightly under $20,000 for the diamond encrusted version.

[via imsmart]

i’m Watch claims be the world’s first real smartwatch is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Dedicated GPS navigation devices have been around for quite some time already, although there is the very real and present danger of such a niche market to go out of vogue with the plethora of devices these days (smartphones and tablets, especially) that already come with their fair share of built-in GPS navigation capability, hence doing away with the need for a dedicated GPS device. Still, companies like TomTom and Magellan are still around, and the latter has decided to expand the worldwide availability of their Magellan Switch Series of crossover GPS watches across the pond, specially targeting athletes who run, bike, swim or participate in a wide range of outdoor activities. The Magellan Switch and Switch Up watches will be made available from this month onwards from select retailers and via Magellan’s European distribution network.

In order to offer more support for their European users, Magellan has decided to expand its Magellan Active website (active.magellangps.com) by throwing in more languages such as French, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch, and of course, the mainstay, English. Magellan Active makes it a snap for multisport athletes who want to record their performance data on Magellan’s Switch Series, as it is easy to upload and track data online using intuitive charts, maps and metrics, all from a single location.

The Magellan Switch Series of crossover GPS watches will include some more innovative features including an ‘Activity Pacer’ which will tell runners should they be on target with their goal, while offering specific targets in order to attain the desired result. There is the Switch GPS watch which was specially designed for runners, and remains as a powerful fitness training device that has been packed with innovative features which will include nine customizable sport profiles, easy-to-read high resolution display, eight hours of battery life, a high sensitivity GPS receiver, 50 meter water resistance, and compatibility with ANT+ sensors.

The Magellan Switch Series will be available as of now from Magellan’s European distribution partners serving UK, France, Germany, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Benelux.

Company Page
[ Magellan GPS watches arrive in Europe copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Rumors about the potential for an Apple iWatch continue to build, and adding fuel to the fire is a patent filing from Apple discovered by Apple Insider which shows off a curved, touchscreen display which could be worn on the wrist.

The U.S. Patent filing, originally submitted in August 2011, but updated as recently as today, starts off as follows:

A wearable video device arranged to be worn by an end-user, comprising: a flexible substrate having a flat state and a curled state; a flexible display disposed upon a first surface of the flexible substrate, wherein in the curled state the flexible substrate conforms to an appendage of the end-user, the flexible substrate further comprising: an electronic module in communication with the flexible display, the electronic module providing information to the display, at least a part of which is presented in real time for presentation by the flexible display; and a mechanism for detecting an end portion of the flexible display, the detection for adjusting the arrangement of information shown on the flexible display to match the size of the appendage the wearable video device is mounted on.

…or in layperson’s terms – a watch with a flexible touchscreen and flexible electronics.

The design would wrap around its wearer’s wrist, and automatically adjust the display UI based on their wrist size – pretty slick stuff. The capacitive touch display would be wrapped around a “bi-stable spring substrate,” which would allow the watch to conform to its wearer’s wrist, much like a slap bracelet. In addition curved screen and bracelet, the patent describes the inclusion of an inertial orientation  sensor which would automatically reorient the display based on how the user is looking at it.

In order to keep the patent sufficiently broad, they don’t specify all of the potential use cases for the watch, but one example sounds like it could offer smartphone connectivity similar to that found in other smartwatches already on the market:

…the end user could respond to alerts sent from the portable electronic device and even direct the operations of the portable electronic device to an extent limited by the accessory device user interface. With a touch screen user input a user can accomplish a number of different tasks including adjusting the order of a current playlist, and reviewing a list of recent phone calls. A response to a current text message can even be managed given a simple virtual keyboard configuration across the face of the flexible display.

The patent also describes the potential for using a kinetic energy device as well as an ambient light energy collector to help keep its battery charged. It also envisions a possible configuration which would include bright edge-lighting for displaying alerts with increased peripheral visibility. They also hint that the device could support both 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth connectivity, with Wi-Fi being used for content like video streaming, and Bluetooth for smaller data payloads.

While it’s always possible that Apple won’t bring any or all of these ideas to market, it clearly shows that there’s still innovative thinking going on within the walls at Apple, and that if they do release an iWatch, it won’t be like any other watch you’ve seen.

You can read the full patent application here.

[via Apple Insider]

While there’s plenty of hype going on about smartwatches these days, most of the watches out there solve fairly superfluous problems – like seeing that you have a phone call because you’re too lazy to get the phone out of your pocket. On the other hand, this smartwatch could really help deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

The Android 4-powered Moneaual Smart Care System (SCS1000) can be used to alert people with hearing difficulties to emergency situations by relaying information to the LCD screen of the watch, as well as an accompanying vibration alert.

The device can detect specific sounds and alert users to them on the watch display. In indoor mode, the watch is smart enough to identify everything from the sound of a doorbell ringing, to a smoke alarm beeping, to a crying baby to a phone ringing or boiling water. In outdoor mode, it can detect car horns and other loud noises to protect wearers from dangerous situations. The watch also offers an emergency mode which can call 911 and request help on your behalf.

There’s no word yet on pricing or a release date for the Moneaual Smart Care System, but it could definitely be a great gadget for those with partial or total hearing loss when it’s ultimately released.