Google is talking officially about an upcoming update to Android Wear, an update that will include several interesting improvements to the UI. Several of the improvements are designed to trim the number of times that using your watch becomes a two-handed operation. You'll soon be able to move your way through screens by flicking your wrist instead of touching the screen. … [Read more...]
A Long-Form Inside Look at Disney’s MagicBand Project
Disney, like any company that adapts and rebuilds reality, is a famously controlling place with a frequently difficult culture. So the high-stakes project to re-engineer theme parks with the wearable MagicBand was even more full of internally corporate competition than it might have been at a "normal" company. FastCompany has an exhaustive and exhausting blow-by-blow of how … [Read more...]
Jawbone Announces UP4, including Amex NFC Payments
Jawbone, which is just now getting its long-delayed UP3 fitness tracker to market, is already talking about the next version, the UP4. The major differenceis apparently the addition of an NFC chip that will link the device to your American Express card and use it for contactless credit card payments. Jawbone says the UP4 will be available this summer, but no pricing was … [Read more...]
First-Day US Apple Watch Sales Estimated At About 1 Million
Someone tell Tim Cook that he can start the production line. The e-commerce consulting company Slice Intelligence estimates that 957.000 Apple Watches were pre-ordered on Friday, the first day of "availability." The average customer bought 1.3 watches, and spend $504 per watch. Sales were skewed to the less-expensive Sport watch -- 62 percent of those buying -- at $383.83 … [Read more...]
Jawbone To Ship UP3 Fitness Tracker April 20, Not As Waterproof As Hoped
Jawbone's UP3 fitness tracker was supposed to ship before the end of 2014. It didn't make it, and its web site had been citing delivery intervals of "6-7 weeks" since then. The company has now announced that initial shipment of back orders will start April 20, with the expectation that all pre-orders will be fulfilled by mid-May. No word about wider retail distribution. The … [Read more...]
The Apple Store Try-On Experience Tried Out
We stopped by an Apple Store this morning -- the one in Soho, Manhattan -- to try on a Watch and see how smooth the try-on experience is. The short version: it's a very nice piece of hardware, and the experience is a little bumpy. In fairness, a lot of the experience is new for everyone involved; one of the sales associates reminded a customer that they themselves have only … [Read more...]
Want an Apple Watch? Oops — Too Late
Apple Watches went on sale at 3am Eastern Time today, for arrival on April 24. (No link; you know how to get one.) By all reports, the first quantities sold out as fast as a Taylor Swift secret club date; delivery intervals are now stretching into May and June, even for the $10,000 gold Edition. It's highly unlikely that anyone who wanted to wait and actually try one on will … [Read more...]
Apple Watch Review Roundup: This One Will Take Some Getting Used To (Updated)
The flood of major reviews of the Apple Watch is coming in, and they're consistent: Apple Pay is magical. Nice hardware. Third-party apps are pretty bad. Haptics are cool. 3D emojis are not. This is the best smart watch. Using one will take some getting used to. Joshua Topolsky at Bloomberg writes about how it's a fair amount of work to figure out which … [Read more...]
NYTimes Apple Watch Review: Rough and Revolutionary
We suspect that the New York Times jumped the gun this morning by publishing a full-on review of the Apple Watch, [UPDATE: other outlets have been publishing reviews today, too] even though Apple won't even start taking orders for it until Friday. On balance, though, we don't think Apple will complain too much. Tech columnist Farhad Manjoo pretty much ratified Apple's aims … [Read more...]
Diamond-Encrusted Apple Watches, In Case $17,000 Is Too Little To Spend
Much as we'd like to, it seems impossible to write about anything this week that isn't related to the Apple Watch, so we offer this: You may know that there is actually a business of gold-plating iPhones. (Android phones too, but that's not what we're talking about right now.) One would think that a $17,000 18k gold Apple Watch would be the top of the market, but one would … [Read more...]