The best wearables of CES 2014
Wearable technology is in the midst of a transitional period, moving from fanciful, off-the-wall ideas to more refined products for the real world. CES 2014 provides a snapshot on how far along these devices have come, with smartwatches like the Pebble Steel and Meta now looking a lot more like classic mechanical timepieces. For them and the rest of the newly announced wearables at the Vegas show, stay tuned to this stream.
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MetaWatch's Frank Nuovo on design, smartwatches, and humans
MetaWatch's big announcement this week was the launch of its new Meta branding and design philosophy. The company is ditching its old, utilitarian smartwatches and replacing them with more elegant designs that take cues from the world of traditional watches. The man behind the new design is Frank Nuovo, the founder of Vertu and designer of many of Nokia's most iconic phones. Nuovo sat down with The Verge to chat about design, smartwatches, and where we're at in the world of smartphones.
From smart phones to smart watches -
Spec Sheet: the wearables of CES 2014
Wearables are everywhere. It's hard to find a big technology company at CES this year that isn't unveiling a gadget that straps a sensor or a display to your body in one way or another. The idea is nothing new, but we're seeing companies start to make more of them, in more forms, that can perform more functions. To see exactly what these manufacturers are turning their wearables into, we're looking across some of the most exciting, intriguing, and gorgeous products that have been announced so...
It isn't just wearables that are everywhere: it's sensors -
Razer tries on wearables with the Nabu smartband
Every year there are a few obvious trends at CES, and this year wearables are everywhere. We've seen fitness tracker announcements from Sony, Intel, Garmin, and one rather surprising candidate: Razer. Best known for its stylish peripherals and gaming laptops, the company is jumping into the fray with a smartwatch and tracking band mash-up called the Razer Nabu. It's a stylish band that melds smartphone notifications with a suite of fitness-tracking features, but unlike its competitors — who...
Part smartwatch, part fitness tracker -
A quick look at MetaWatch's new premium smartwatch
MetaWatch's new Meta smartwatches are looking to be the answer to the plastic, nerdy-looking smartwatches that have flooded the market of late. Featuring a design by former Vertu designer Frank Nuovo, the new Meta watches give aesthetics and comfort as much priority as the watch's actual smart functionality.
Though MetaWatch doesn't expect to launch the Meta until later this year, we were able to take a brief look an early prototype device. This particular unit had an aluminum chassis and...
A smartwatch for watch fans? -
XOne brings Google Glass-like interactivity to safety glasses
It's coming up on a year since Google began shipping Glass to its first round of public testers. In that time, wearable computing has become the buzzword for the entire consumer electronics industry. But the core capabilities of a Google Glass-like device – capturing hands-free photos, video, and audio in real-time, and instantly sharing it with others – may appeal more to blue collar businesses than to ordinary consumers. Enter XOne.
Blue collar glass -
Intel partners with the fashion industry to make beautiful wearables
Intel just announced that in the coming year, it's partnering with fashion industry leaders like Barneys, The Council of Fashion Designers of America (the CFDA), and global fashion retailer Opening Ceremony to develop smart wristwear. The first product of the collaboration will be a smart bracelet concept powered by Intel technology and designed by Opening Ceremony. Barneys will carry the smart bracelet, Intel says, but there's no word on exactly what the bracelet will do. Will it bear...
Fashion forward -
Sony's new Core fitness tracker will be the 'heart' of its wearable experience (hands-on)
Sony's not new to the wearable market, but the company just entered the fitness-tracking market in a big way — during its CES press conference, the company announced Core. It's a tiny chip that Sony called perhaps the tiniest gadget it has ever made, and the company's planning to put it into a number of products, starting with a smartband that'll be released this spring. Core will include the typical fitness-tracking metrics, but Sony says it'll also function as more of a life journal as...
We're Sony, so we'll do things a little differently. -
ZTE's first smartwatch takes more than a page from Pebble's book
Along with the odd and unique Projector Hotspot, ZTE is showing off its first venture into wearable technology at CES this year. The BlueWatch is the company's first smartwatch effort, but it will look awfully familiar to anyone that's seen a Pebble before. In fact, it’s so similar looking, if the branding were to be removed from the front of it, you’d be hard pressed to tell it apart from a Pebble.
The BlueWatch has three buttons on the left and one on its right — just like the Pebble — and...
Borrow or steal? -
The striking Pebble Steel could change your mind about smartwatches
CES 2013 was the big coming-out party for the original Pebble smartwatch and now, a year later, CES 2014 is hosting the launch of the startup's second device, the Pebble Steel. It costs $100 more than the original — which will continue to be available as the entry-level Pebble — and adds a touch of classic watch design, underpinned by the use of higher-end materials.
Sprouting as a Kickstarter success from the remains of the unfruitful inPulse smartwatch project, Pebble is a company...
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High tech, high fashion: CSR's Bluetooth jewelry puts notifications around your neck
Glanceable notifications have long been the promise of smart watches like the Galaxy Gear, but clumsy designs and poor interfaces have traditionally hindered them. British chipmaker CSR today unveiled a new line of Bluetooth Smart jewelry with a more traditional approach to notifications. Like the Blackberry's hackable, blinking Pearl trackball, CSR's jewelry boast Bluetooth Smart-connected LEDs that can be customized to display different colors when you receive different kinds of...
High tech, high fashion -
Garmin jumps into the fitness-tracking market with the Vivofit
Garmin was long known for being one of the biggest providers of GPS units, but smartphones have done a good job at shrinking its market pretty significantly. At CES, the company announced a new plan to stay relevant — it’ll focus on the booming wearables market with its new Vivofit fitness band. The Vivofit bears a strong resemblance to other options like the Nike+ Fuelband and the Fitbit Force. It’s a wrist-worn fitness tracker with a small screen that logs your steps and activity level,...
Garmin's taking on a number of established competitors -
A premium smartwatch? MetaWatch launches new brand with former Vertu designer
MetaWatch, the smartwatch company born from ex-Fossil engineers, is launching a new brand of devices called Meta. Meta watches differ from the company's earlier efforts in that they have as much of a focus on design and aesthetics as they do on functionality.
One of the biggest criticisms leveraged against smartwatches is that they are just ugly and not something that most people care to wear on their wrists. MetaWatch's earlier models, the Strata and Frame, were more about utility than...
A dose of style for the smartwatch
