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Can't decide on a wearable? Lumoid lets you try a box full of them
It's increasingly easy to find a decent wearable these days -- the real problem is deciding on the one that fits you the best -- perhaps literally. Now Lumoid, the startup best known for its short-term camera rental service, has got you covered. The company just added a new wearable section to its rental offerings (which also includes drones and other photography gear), allowing you to try out five different health trackers at home. Once you decide on something you like, you can order it from Lumoid's online store for a new unit and return the box of used gadgets. And if nothing strikes your fancy you just have to pay a $20 handling fee to ship them back.
Android Wear's Lollipop update adds a slew of new watch faces
It's like an early Christmas for the handful of Android Wear users out there. A long-awaited upgrade to Android Lollipop is rolling out for the platform today, bringing with it a big focus on customization through watch faces. There are now dozens of stylized face designs available on Google Play, including some featuring the likes of Pac-Man and Despicable Me minions. You can install them right from Google's app store, or via the new Android Wear app (which also lets you quickly switch between faces). Not surprisingly, Google is also officially launching its Watch Face API for developers today, which means we'll see plenty more new designs rolling out over the next few months.
Samsung Gear S review: an ambitious and painfully flawed smartwatch
Samsung's wearables strategy seems to be: "Throw everything at a wall and see what sticks." In a little over 12 months, the electronics giant has launched six -- yes, six -- different smartwatches, each with its own unique personality. The latest is the Samsung Gear S, and its particular claim to fame might be the most ambitious yet: It's the first Gear watch that lets you make and receive calls from your wrist, no phone required. Yep, the Gear S actually has a 3G modem inside it, along with WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS radios. It's basically a watch that's also a phone. You can even respond to emails using a tiny onscreen keyboard. But, at $350 a pop, can it replace your phone? And more importantly, would you want it to?
Feedback Loop: Building PCs, running headphones and more!
The leaves are starting to change color and the air is getting cooler, signaling that fall has finally arrived. You know what else has arrived? Feedback Loop! This week's edition features the Engadget community discussing the benefits of homebuilt PCs, recommending affordable running headphones, sharing fun Raspberry Pi hacks and dishing on smartwatches. Head past the break for all this and more.
Apple Watch: Much ado about nothing
I don't get it. Based on my demographic standing; by sheer dint of my position within the tech press; as someone who grew up with the first Macintosh in his house and a subscription to Macworld, I should be standing and applauding and ferociously tweeting my awe and amazement at the unveiling of Apple Watch. Yet, I am not. Apple did not save wearables, as many thought it would. Apple caved to the incredibly high bar of expectations set by the public. Apple unveiled something, at best, lukewarm. At most, it's prettier than the smartwatches that've come before, and that's likely its greatest innovation.
Moto 360 smartwatch on sale now for $250, metal bands coming this fall
Motorola's long-awaited smartwatch is finally ready to be released, at least in the US. After roughly five months since being unveiled, the Moto 360 is due to hit the consumer market at last, one that's been so patiently awaiting its arrival. Starting today at noon ET, those of you in the States can order your very own for $250, from Motorola's website, Google Play and Best Buy (both online and at retail stores). That's not it, though, since Motorola also revealed that its circular Android Wear watch in metallic flavors will be coming later this fall -- although those sleeker silver and black options are set to be priced for $50 more than its leather counterparts. That said, Motorola does want early adopters to feel blanketed, so it's making the metal, swappable bands available separately for $80 a piece. Across other parts of the world, meanwhile, the Moto 360 smartwatch is going to hit the UK in "early October" for £199, and Canada in the fall for $279. Your move, LG.
Samsung Gear S preview: What's it like to type emails on a 2-inch screen?
Six. That's how many smartwatches Samsung has unveiled in the past 12 months. If these devices were Friends episodes, there'd be the original Galaxy Gear ("The one announced last year at this time"), the Gear 2 ("The one with fewer bugs"), the Gear Fit ("The one designed for fitness tracking"), the Gear 2 Neo ("The one that didn't cost as much") and the Gear Live ("The one that ran Android apps"). If nothing else, it shows that Samsung is willing to experiment -- and maybe even listen to feedback from users, and reviewers like us. Now, as the original Gear turns one, Samsung is showing off its sixth watch, the Gear S: the one that can run without a smartphone. Thanks to its very own nano-SIM card, the Gear S can make calls, as well as show you emails in full, with the option to reply directly from the device using a tiny on-screen keyboard. To Samsung's credit, it's unlike any other device it's made before. But the age-old question still remains: Was anybody asking for this?
Motorola will unveil new smartphones and the Moto 360 on September 4th
With Samsung's Note 4 announcement on September 3rd and Apple's iPhone launch expected a few days later, September is shaping up to be a busy month when it comes to smartphone (and wearable) unveils. Motorola's just sent out invitations for its own launch in Chicago, scheduled for the day after Samsung's big event in Berlin. Of course, we don't know exactly what to expect, but given the "choose your own adventure" invite, it looks like two smartphones (perhaps the X+1 and a new G model), Moto 360 and an in-ear wearable (Bluetooth headset?) are on order.
Google confirms Android Wear will support custom watch faces
Since its beginnings, the Android platform has been known for being heavily customizable. As such, it's not exactly a surprise to hear Google say its new smartwatch ecosystem, Android Wear, is due to support watch faces from third-party developers. However, having actual confirmation makes for perfect peace of mind. In a Google+ post, Wear's Senior Developer Advocate, Wayne Piekarski, affirmed this would be the case, stating that the team is already working on a custom watch face API. "Customization has helped Android thrive, and the same will be true for Android Wear," he wrote. The incoming API will make it "as simple as possible" for devs to make all-around great watch faces, ones which can look good, not drain a battery and blend well with the watches card-based UI. Piekarski said "some" of these things won't be available until later this year, but that they are, without a doubt, on their way. So, don't worry, soon enough you'll have better (and official) choices to deck out that smart tick-tock wearable of yours.
Engadget Daily: Sony RX100 III review, explaining crowdfunding and more!
We review Sony's latest camera, the RX100 III, explain what this crowdfunding thing is all about, discuss whether sapphire glass is really the next big thing and look back at 100 years of smartwatches. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Baby steps toward better wearables at Computex 2014
Google's latched on to Diane von Fürstenberg as the solution for making Glass fashion-forward, unveiling a collection of frames made by the famed Belgian designer last week. While it remains to be seen whether trendy-colored frames can make a $1,500 wearable more appealing, a few smaller companies here at Computex in Taiwan have some novel ideas that could make you more willing to strap a mini-computer on your face... or your wrist.
E Ink's working on a smartwatch with a full wraparound display
E Ink's perhaps best known for its e-reader displays, such as the Pearl used in Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite, but the company's black-and-white panels can also be found in a variety of smartwatches, from manufacturers such as Archos, Phosphor and Seiko. Most of these are simply traditional wristwatches with small, low-power screens, but an upcoming model could have a much larger curved display that covers the majority of the wearable's footprint, according to company representatives we spoke with at Computex. Such a device would have a panel that stretches from one end to the other, letting you change the entire watch's design just as you would the face on devices available today.
Switched On: Birth of a platform
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Regardless of what one may think about the potential for smartwatches, one of the most exciting things about a new device category is that there is so much experimentation with form factors and capabilities. We've already seen products with different display technologies (Memory LCD, LCD and OLED) and varying screen sizes. Some have various combinations of microphones, speakers, cameras, touchscreens, WiFi or cellular radios. Their prices have ranged from less than $100 to $400 and beyond and their battery life has varied from a day to a year. And then, of course, there are many of the factors that differentiate traditional watches -- size, design and materials.
Pebble's smartwatch app store finally comes to Android
iOS users had a bit of a head start in receiving access to the new Pebble application store. Thankfully, the Android crowd won't have to wait for this feature any longer, since what's known as Pebble 2.0 is, at long last, available on Google's platform. Sure, it took weeks and weeks of testing, but Pebble promises it was all for the best and expects its smartwatch owners to be delighted by the changes. Aside from the long-awaited appstore, this Pebble for Android update also features a completely redesigned interface (pretty similar to the one found on iOS), a new locker for apps and notification improvements. You've waited long enough, though -- so go on, grab the update and deck out your Pebble some more.
Meet Samsung's new smartwatch family: the Gear 2, Neo and Fit
Samsung's new Gear smartwatches are no longer card-carrying members of its Android Galaxy. That's because Tizen, the company's open-sourced OS, has taken over the reins for the line begot by the barely five-month-old Galaxy Gear. And, in typical Samsung fashion, the company hasn't released just one new Gear, but three with very specific areas of focus: the fashionable Gear 2, the functional Gear Neo and fitness-focused Gear Fit. The newly announced trio was on display here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, giving us a chance to get acquainted with their particular quirks and let you know whether or not to free up some space on your wrist.
Smartwatches are dumb, but they don't have to be
If recent trends are any indication, there are two roads that lie ahead for smartwatches and the companies foisting them upon us: the all-you-can-eat, tracker + smartphone approach and the single-minded focus on health and wellness bands. One meanders off to a fuzzy horizon laden with disregarded Dead End signs, a jumble of features and an overload of quantified-self data. And the other... well, that narrowly focused path to wellness simply falls off a cliff. It's not because dedicated health and wellness devices have no place in the wearables market -- right now, they do. It's because that area of lifestyle tracking will inevitably be consumed by the smartwatch borg as a subset of ancillary features. And yet, here we are -- about to enter into the irrevocable phase of mobile technologies as wrist-worn wearables with questionable (for now) benefits. A future we'll preview more intensely at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as some big-name manufacturers unveil their in-development takes on what can currently be described as redundant lifestyle tech.
Hot Watch about to ship to Kickstarter backers, here's the (almost) final version
The last time we saw the Hot Watch, the wristband was held together with a temporary strip of Velcro. To be sure, it was in good enough shape for us to test its voice-calling feature, but it was desperately in need of some TLC in the design department. A lot's changed in the past five months, however, and now the startup is ready to ship the watch to early Kickstarter backers. We got a chance to check out a (nearly) final version here at CES where, indeed, there were a few Kickstarter buyers milling around Hot Watch's suite, hoping to get a sneak peek. Read on for a rundown of what's new. And hey, all you backers out there? Don't shoot the messenger if it's not all good news: You backed it, you bought it.
Archos' Smartwatches don't want to be smartphones-lite
Archos is coming at the burgeoning smartwatch space in a different way. Rather than hedge its bets on a single device offering, it's planning to release a trio of smartwatches for every end of the consumer spectrum. The water-resistant smartwatches in question don't have specific branding attached as of yet -- that will presumably come before launch later this summer -- but they are easily distinguished by screen size and display tech used. Unlike the half-baked, it-can-sorta-do-everything Galaxy Gear, Archos' smartwatch line is hewing more closely to the Pebble route. These Android- and iOS-compatible devices are designed to supplement your smartphone experience, not replace it. And so, users that buy in will have access to notifications (i.e., SMS, emails, text, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), media playback controls and, of course, a clock. What they won't be able to do is snap photos on a low-resolution camera, talk into their wrists or reply to messages.
Martian Notifier watch uses custom vibration patterns to signal what app's bugging you
Martian Watches is back at CES this year, bringing with it a new semi-smartwatch in the company's traditional timepiece style. The Martian Notifier, as it's known, is a slight departure from previous efforts given it drops voice control -- the feature that's previously been the company's "hook" (although you can still remotely trigger Siri or Google Now with the press of a button). The watch keeps all other good stuff common to Martian's range, though, like the small OLED screen for displaying contact names or text messages, and the ability to engage a device's camera shutter remotely, among other things. The Notifier pairs with iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth, and as the name suggests, it's focus is on alerting you to notifications. Rather than just vibrating every time something happens on your phone, though, you can select exactly what will trigger a buzz on your wrist. Furthermore, using the companion app, you can set up vibration patterns, so you know one long buzz and two short buzzes means someone's calling you out on Twitter, for example. Any software that uses the iOS or Android notification back-end will feed into the watch app's settings, so you aren't reliant on this or that app specifically including support. While simple, we think it's actually pretty clever, and doesn't look half bad, which is a bonus. Anyone that's intrigued by the Notifier and its semi-smarts will have to wait until Q2 2014 to pick one up, when Martian will start selling them for around 130 bones. Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Qualcomm's Mirasol smartwatch display debuts in Appscomm Fashioncomm A1
If you walk through a Chinese electronics market, you'll find countless wearables, including a variety of smartwatches. Why, then, is this China-exclusive a significant introduction? Well, the Appscomm Fashioncomm A1 is the first smartwatch to include the Mirasol display we first saw in Qualcomm's Toq prototype, which means that 1.55-inch MEMS panel is actually coming to market. The A1 delivers much of the functionality we experienced with the device in our September hands-on, with an added GSM chipset, enabling you to make and receive calls directly from your wrist. It's not the first watchphone we've seen -- and past iterations can hardly be deemed a success -- but as the first such device to integrate Qualcomm's new Mirasol panel, it's at least worth a casual mention. With the A1, Appscomm is also bundling an integrated camera, letting you snap stills and video clips a la Samsung's Galaxy Gear. There's also Bluetooth connectivity, along with a 450mAh battery that's rated for up to 190 hours of standby time. Smartwatch enthusiasts based in China can pre-order the device for RMB 1,299 ($213) beginning today.
