Metawatch, one of the first working smart watches that interfaced directly with Android and iOS cellphones, has announced plans to expand th...
Metawatch, one of the first working smart watches that interfaced directly with Android and iOS cellphones, has announced plans to expand their line with the new Meta. Designed by former Vertu/Nokia designer Frank Nuovo, the new pieces have stainless steel hardware enclosing a rectangular watch body and bold black face.
The pieces will feature better materials than the traditional smart watch including leather bands and nicer crystals. The company has launched a new web campaign for the timepieces and is hoping to distance itself from cheaper, mostly plastic smart watches.
Metawatch announced the partnership last February and this is the first of the pieces to come out of Nuovo’s workshop.
“The new Meta line provides a visibly unique, classically influenced style, which is inspired and driven by our theme: ‘Art of the Glance,’” Nuovo said in a release.
As the idea of a usable wearable devices becomes commonplace, companies like Metawatch have a distinct advantage. Founded by former Fossil engineers, the company’s earlier watches were at the forefront of smart watch tech and, although it took the Pebble to truly define the market, they have succeeded in doing some excellent work. This decision to go into these yet-unpriced luxury pieces makes perfect sense. By aiming at the higher end, it seems, they sidestep all competition from later players and rocket firmly into a very interesting and lucrative niche.
There’s no much more info right now but we’ll keep our eye on these pieces and hopefully have hands on at CES 2014.
The Aura connects to a pad of sensors via cable, providing power and collecting data from said attachment. This pad picks up “micromovements” according to Withings, which are far more subtle than the kind of tossing and turning detectable by most wrist- and pocket-borne activity trackers, including Withings’ own Pulse. The sensor can detect small movements from under a pillow-top or even a tempurpedic mattress (which are designed to minimize the effect of movement), and up to two can be used to monitor sleep patterns for two people in the same bed. It can detect not only movements, but also breathing cycles and heart rate to arrive at much more sophisticated conclusions about that nature and quality of your sleep. Using this data, it can help the Aura alarm unit start to wake you up more gently when it makes sense, rather than abruptly right at a specific time.
These can be used in combination with Withings’ existing suite of health products to provide a more complete picture through their smartphone app, the company says. It’s aiming to ship the Aura starting in spring, 2014 and the whole kit, including one sensor pad and one nightstand alarm/light will cost $299. That’s steep compared to the Philips wake-up light at $99, but Withings is essentially the first to combine that product with highly sophisticated sleep tracking. Still, you have to be very committed to the self-monitored health movement to make that leap, I’d imagine.
The LED-based WeMo connected bulbs come in either a starter set with three for $129, or individually in single bulb packs for $39.99. They have 800 lumens, and are 60 watt equivalent with a warm white tone. They can be controlled each on their own, or in pre-assigned groups, and they are connected to a WeMo link, which is included in the starter pack and can manage up to 50 bulbs. You can turn them on and off over the web, run vacation programs, dim them and control from both iOS and Android via the WeMo app.
The new WeMo crock-pot lets you turn the slow cooker on or off from anywhere, get reminders about the state of your meal, change the temperature remotely and either control things manually or use built-in calculators for time and temp. It retails for $99.99, which actually isn’t that far off from some nicer slow cookers on the market, and can be controlled from the WeMo app for iOS or Android too.
Finally, and most interesting of all, Belkin is making it possible to take legacy hardware and then turn that into a WeMo-enabled accessory. You can add Internet control to anything with a DC switch, the company says, and allows you to schedule those device or turn them on or off manually from anywhere you have a connection. It’s like a more sophisticated and integrated version of their smart outlet WeMo products, with additional features that let you watch and control a huge range of 5V DC-powered sensors. So if a moisture sensor connected to the maker notices that it’s rained, it’ll prevent your connected sprinkler system from going on as previously scheduled. The Maker can also be combined with IFTTT recipes for advanced intelligent programming.
The Sumo is a two-wheeled ground-only unit that does have a camera, just like the big AR Drone, and has a foot built in that allows it to stop pretty much instantly, and to leap up in the air up to 80cm. It’s a bit more rugged in keeping with its rough-and-tumble lifestyle, too, and reminds me a bit of the Sphero 2B that company just unveiled.
