The Puls, introduced at Dreamforce, looks like a nice chunk of tech.
The Puls is not a tethered device. Unlike nearly any other wristware, it has its own SIM card, with service provided by AT&T in the US and O2 in the United Kingdom. The thing itself looks to be about 1 2/3 inches wide with a curved passive matrix OLED touchscreen of 180×280 pixels. The black band closes with a firm magnetic clasp. It contains 1GB RAM, 16GB of storage, and a hefty 780 mAh battery. It’s got a 3G radio, Bluetooth, GPS, pedometer and accelerometer.
It’s available in black, white, pink, blue and red. Will also showed blinged out versions with gold and diamonds. Will.i.am told a press briefing that the Puls will be available this holiday season. Pricing is still not set other than “affordable.99,” and “less expensive than a smartphone.” The Puls will be available through AT&T and O2 stores, as well as unnamed fashion outlets.
As previously reported, the Puls can cycle though a watchface, Twitter, Salesforce, Instagram, calendar, maps, a phone interface, Instagram, Facebook, and texts.
The Puls has an “emotion monitor” from Vibe, which appears to analyze your voice and report on how you feel.
Maps come from ESRI. Contact management from Humin. Voice interface from Nuance. (The voice is Anita, as in “Anita know what time the movie starts.” Clever, and it got a laugh from the audience.) There’ll be an alliance with News Corporation for news content, although it and a music deal were not detailed.
Andre Leon Talley, the long-time creative director of Vogue, blessed the proceedings — a very big endorsement from the fashion industry. He informed the crowd, “I shouldn’t have. to sacrifice form over function… Why can’t these devices be fashionable? Where is the fabulous in wearables? Most of what i see is ghastly. It looks too much like technology. Make it fabulous and allow people to connect and express themselves.” Hard to argue…
Will.i.am showed a line of jackets with batteries; it touches the Puls and can provide up to 2.5 days of power. Another concept were a pair of shoes that can report on your weight.
This is not will.i.am’s first technological venture. He was an original partner in Beats — and that worked out pretty well, right?
Gizmodo’s got an interview with will.