While a lot of the wearable world has been distracted by not-quite-launches at IFA in Berlin and Fashion Week in New York, or vague rumors from some tiny startup in Cupertino, Motorola was actually shipping product this week. The Moto360 became the first Android Wear smartwatch to hit the market, and the first reviews are pretty positive. The Verge was nearly rhapsodic, … [Read more...]
More About the LG G Watch R Smartwatch
We wrote the other day about the imminent launch of a round-faced smartwatch from LG: the G Watch R. LG now says it'll go on sale October 14, but isn't saying which markets it'll be available in. Pricing, the company said, will be higher than the $230 it gets for the rectangular LG G Watch. Engadget's got a pretty good hands-on with the thing. They were underwhelmed. You … [Read more...]
Reports: iWatch Will Include Curved Screen, NFC for Payments
More iWatch leaks from Apple, this time to the Wall Street Journal. Now comes the unsurprising news that 1) the iWatch's display will be curved and with an OLED screen, and 2) the iWatch will include an NFC chip to allow contactless payments. The NFC news is only slightly surprising, and less so in light of a recent drumbeat of news reports that Apple's been talking with … [Read more...]
Meta Watch Review: Nice Hardware, So-So Software
The Verge is out with a nice review of the Meta Watch M1 smartwatch. The short version: it feels much more like a "real" watch than a smartwatch, which is a Good Thing. But the screen is just good enough (and the backlighting is awful), and functionality is limited. Starting at $249 and going to $449, the M1 seems to be aimed at less of a tech audience and more of a … [Read more...]
Luxottica CEO Caught Telling The Truth About Google Glass
Leonardo Del Vecchio is CEO of Luxottica, the world's biggest eyeglasses company. Besides owning huge retail brands including Lenscrafters and Cohen's Fashion Optical, Luxottica makes frames under the names Ray-Ban, Oakley, and tons of others. It also has a deal to make Glass for Google. Which makes an interview he gave the Financial Times (which is behind a paywall) a little … [Read more...]
Fashion Designer Rebecca Minkoff Debuts Wearables
It's Fashion Week in New York, and (as we regularly report) designers are dipping their toes into wearables. The designer Rebecca Minkoff is showing a couple of teched-out bracelets. One bracelet that turns into a USB/Lightning charging cable, for $60. The other -- pictured here -- is a notification bracelet based on her existing Studded Magnetic Bracelet. The notification … [Read more...]
New Sony Wristware Reportedly Coming at IFA
We told you last week that there was going to be a drumbeat of news coming out of IFA this week. Sony is apparently joining the conga line with a refresh of its Smartwatch and a new lower-end Smartband. The Smartwatch 3, according to 9to5Google, is a follow-on to the company's earlier Smartwatches, which have proven popular in Europe but not the United States. The Smartwatch … [Read more...]
iWatch Won’t Ship Until 2015. Or Maybe It Will.
The guy who pegged September 9 as the date for the new Apple product roll-out (and how sad is it that that qualifies as a scoop?) is now saying that the iWatch (or whatever it's called) will be shown then but won't ship until 2015. Let's say it's true. The thing is: it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter to Apple, surely. No wearable is going to make a significant … [Read more...]
Samsung Unveils Gear S Curved Tizen Smartwatch
We saw a lot of curved electronic components earlier this year; now they're finding their way into products. Samsung today introduced the Gear S smartwatch, with a 2-inch curved rectangular Super AMOLED display. There are a couple of particularly interesting things about the Gear S: It runs Tizen, not Android Wear It's not a smartphone companion; it has its own 3G … [Read more...]
LG G Watch R Goes Official
We warned you the other day about the forthcoming round Android Wear smartwatch from LG. The company officially announced it today -- and it looks pretty sharp. According the company, the G Watch R uses a 1.3-inch OLED screen, carries 4 GB of memory, and included an accelerometer/gyro/compass, barometer, and heart rate monitor. It's water-resistant to 1 meter; it's not clear … [Read more...]