Image: Mashable, Karissa Bell
Will.i.am thinks that wearables are much more than smartwatches.
The Black Eyed Peas frontman unveiled the Puls, a new voice-enabled cuff that can make phone calls but doesn't require a smartphone to use, at an event in San Francisco Wednesday.
Many of the details about the device, which will be available from AT&T in the U.S and O2 in the U.K, are still unclear but Will.i.am promised the wearable would go on sale in time for Christmas. Mashable got some time with the wristband after the event Wednesday, here's our first impressions of the Puls.
The most noticeable aspect of the Puls is its size- the thing is huge. While the nascent smartwatch category is still struggling over the question of how big is too big, the Puls' sheer size is a definite statement (again, Will.i.am insists it's a 'cuff' not a watch.) At launch, it will only be available in one size, but more size options will be added to the line later.
Image: Mashable, Karissa Bell
But despite its size, it doesn't feel overly heavy although you will certainly notice the added bulk on your wrist. The device itself is housed in a plastic casing with a magnetic closure and has charging pins on the back side.
Specs for the battery life and charging time have not yet been revealed but the company promises the battery will last a full day with typical use and that charging time will be on par with smartphones.
The small touchscreen display is bright and crisp, though specifics about the resolution and display itself have yet to be revealed. Unlike the always-on display of the Moto 360 smartwatch, the Puls' screen sleeps after a period of inactivity, though it also comes with customizable watch face designs.
The wearable is equipped with a 3G radio and has a slot for the SIM on the side. Though it's meant to function as a standalone device, it will be able to use the same phone number as your existing phone.
While some of the elements feel very much like other smartwatches, it's clear throughout the user interface that Will.i.am helped create a device unique to his sensibilities. When using the dialer to make a phone call, for example, his voice sings the digits as you dial.
The watch is powered by a voice-enabled digital assistant called AneedA, which was built by Nuance, the same company behind Siri. AneedA can recognize voice commands for making phone calls, dictating texts, creating calendar events, sending tweets and playing music.
In my tests, voice commands worked well for making phone calls and dictating text messages- the feature was even able to remember some previous answers, so I didn't have to repeat the same information between questions. But the assistant got hung up when dictating a tweet, though we were in a noisy room so it's difficult to say whether this was due to a bug or noise interference.
Throughout its apps, the Puls uses a small predictive keyboard that fits in the very bottom section of the screen. The keyboard was developed by Minuum, the Y Combinator-backed company that has also devleoped keyboards for Android Wear and Google Glass.
Typing on the tiny screen takes some getting adjustment but text input was surprisingly fast and accurate, though words like 'Dreamforce' gave its predictive abilities some trouble. Like much of the rest of the device, keyboard functions are gesture-controlled. Swipe over letters and the keyboard predicts the words you want, a swipe to the right enters a space while a swipe to the left deletes your last character. It's definitely not perfect but it's efficient given the tiny amount of screen real estate.
At launch, the Puls comes equipped with a phone, music player, calendar, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter app. But the platform will later include more third-party apps. Will.i.am said they plan to open up the API to third-party developers eventually and he demoed a few of early app partners onstage Wednesday, including a mobile payments app, a Salesforce client, Vibe+, an app that can detect your emotions based on the tone of your voice, and Humin, a contacts app that reorganizes your phone book based on relationships.
There's no word yet on when the Puls will be available or how much it will cost but the hip hop star promised the smart cuff will be on sale 'in time for the holidays' and will cost 'less than a smartphone.' subsidized prices.
Check out the photos, below, for an even closer look at the new wearable.
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Posted by Unknown on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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