All the less credible stories of the week in one place
Welcome to another Sunday at the high church of wearable tech, where we gather to round up the less credible and groundbreaking stories in the wearable tech world.
And Finally is where these whispers and rumours gather, and this week we have a bumper congregation of stories for your perusal.
Praise be.
Android Wear newbie surfaces
Until now the choice of Android Wear smartwatches has been limited to the big players, but now Chinese manufacturer Elephone could be about to end the lockout. Pictures have surfaced on Android Headlines of a rather fetching looking smartwatch, which the company claims will run Google’s software.
The watch is reported to have a 1.5-inch 320 x 320 display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB storage and an IP67 rating.
We’re assuming that Google has licensed the ELE Watch to run its OS, after the Com 1 smartwatch disappeared under a cloud of litigation last year. However, Elephone has a long history of building Android handsets, so it looks like this one could be all systems go.
Samsung Gear S2 sells out within hours
The Samsung Gear S2 has gone on sale in South Korea, and all stocks have been snapped up within two hours. However, let’s not panic too quickly. The company only released a paltry 1,000 watches into its homeland market – and unsurprisingly, they sold like hot cakes.
The early Samsung Gear S2 reviews have been unanimously fawning, and it looks to lead a huge smartwatch push this Christmas.
Alibaba launches payments watch
Chinese retail giant Alibaba has launched the Pay Watch, in partnership with fitness wearable brand FiiSmart.
The smartwatch unsurprisingly puts wearable payments first and foremost and uses China’s biggest mobile payment service AliPay, which boasts over 100,000 supported outlets.
However, it also does all the usual smartwatch stuff, including notifications, fitness tracking and even heart rate monitoring. The design is extremely reminiscent of the Asus ZenWatch, and features a 1.63-inch 320 x 320 AMOLED display, dual-core processor, 300mAh battery and works with both iOS and Android.
Allen band is designed for the elderly
Allen Band is a new wearable device aimed at helping care givers monitor elderly relatives. It was design by Thor Schrock, whose elderly father suffered a fall and wasn’t found for 24 hours. After looking at possible wearable devices to help, Schrock discovered that high subscription prices made them unrealistic – so he made his won.
The $399 Allen Band monitors the wearers movements looking for signs of a fall, as well as temperature, heart rate and GPS location. If it spots anything amiss, it will summon messages to two caregivers. More can be added for just $1 per month.
It’s a neat system that takes advantage of a host of wearable technologies – but as with all devices aimed at the elderly, it raises the same questions. Schrock says that the Allen Band will last 48 hours on a charge, and the regular need for re-juicing means there’s a chance it won’t be on the user when they need it most.
