Fitbit officially debuts in India

In India their is really a small number of smart watches & trackers available, now Fitbit, one of the best fitness trackers & other watch maker is debuting in India, and today they announced the same officially. Company will offer a range of health & fitness devices which will be of diffrent styles and will be within a price range of INR 3,990 - 19,990.

James Park, CEO and Co-Founder of Fitbit says,

“With a growing focus on personal health, fitness and wellbeing across India, and the strong demand for mobile devices and technology in the market, Fitbit is thrilled to provide consumers in India with our full line of trackers—at affordable prices across all mobile platforms—ensuring that everyone can find the right fit for their lifestyle and their goals. Our mission has always been to deliver innovation through exceptional, wearable design in a way that empowers consumers with greater knowledge of their overall health, while understanding that everyone’s approach to health and fitness is different.”

Pricing and Availability of the smart trackers are as follow:

• Fitbit Surge:: 19,990 INR
• Fitbit Charge HR:: 12,990 INR)
• Fitbit Charge:: 9,990 INR
• Fitbit Flex:: 6,990 INR
• Fitbit One:: 6,990 INR
• Fitbit Zip:: 3,990 INR
• Fitbit Aria:: 9,990 INR

The Fitbit products are available for pre order on Amazon.in
The full-line of Fitbit products are available now for pre-order nationwide on Amazon.in.

VU Technologies launches 60" Smart LED TV

Vu technologies today launched a new Smart LED TV the Vu 152 cms (60") FHD Smart LED TV, this is another set from Vu which falls into energy efficient lineup, it features Dolby Digital sound, and Smart Networking features, which include connectivity through a Ethernet RJ45 port. You can browse the web with the TV itself, and can use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter on the TV itself.

The Vu TV uses an A+ Grade Panel which provides Ultra Slim Line Bezels and is said to be perfect for families with kids as it is coming with a parental control locks.

Ms. Devita Saraf, CEO, Vu Technologies, commented, 

“This is perfect for people who believe in a larger than life entertainment experience. Every product launch adds to our confidence and resolution to offer the best of technology without compromising on the aesthetic aspects of our products.”

The Life of the display is claimed to be of 1,00,000 Hrs which is quite high it also supports 4 HDMI ports for FHD playbacks and even Wi-Fi web browsing, the Price quoted for the Television is INR 92,000 /-.

Acer Announced three new wearable

Acer announced three new wearable in the Liquid lineup of its wearables , the three devices are named as following

• Leap Active
• Leap Fit
• Leap Curve

Leap active is a tracker and comes in diffrent interchangeable bands, and are designed for Young generations. The tracker will notify you for Messeges, calls and other things and even will be a remote for Music playback.

The Leap fit comes with heart rate sensor and a stress sensor which will measure your stress level. The Liquid Leap is IPX7 certified and hence you can wear it full year even in rain, the major con with the Leap fit is the battery life which is 4 - 5 days as stated by Acer.

The Leap Curve is a premium product over the Leap Fit, and Active. The display is surrounded by metal frame, and comes with a curved touch display.

Acer said that the pricing, specs and availability of these three new wearables will differ depending on the region.

Moto 360 2nd Generation passes Bluetooth certification

If you are a Motorola fan then you must have liked the Moto 360 which was their first smartwatch, and was the first round faced watch in the wearable section in electronics. Now its about 1 year for that watch since it was launched and now it is the 2nd Gen of the Moto 360 to appear, what it will be named the Moto 360 2nd Gen or Moto 360 2015. Recently the Moto 360 2nd Gen passed the Bluetooth certification.
The original Moto 360 had the model number BTMW01 while the new Motorola Android device that just passed the certification holds the model number to be BTMW03. It looks like the release date for the 2nd Gen of Moto 360 is really soon.

The Moto 360 2nd Generation might see the day light in the coming days or at Google I/O 2015 which is soon to be their, so let us wait for some official announcement from Motorola.

Source 

Motorola 360 now Available in Metal Strap Option too

Motorola introduced the Moto 360 with metal bands in India till now we were only having the Moto 360 watch in the rubber bands from now we will be getting the watches with a Metalic strap option too, the normal or maybe the base variant of Moto 360 can be bought on Flipkart for INR 17,999 while with Metal Strap option is coming for 19,999 INR.
The Watch offers you the iconic round design of the watches, and gives you the elegant feel from its premium materials that it is made for, like most of the Motorola products does, it too respond to your voice 'Ok Google'. 

If you were waiting for the metalic strap option of the Moto 360, you can go ahead and have it at flipkart. The watch offers you to use some options of your phone while it's in your pocket, so if you were searching for such a accessibility device then it is for you.

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Moto 360 Black(Metal Strap)
Moto 360 Silver(Metal Strap)

Apple Watch and why IoT matters the most

Smartwatches have always been gadgets that have fascinated the society in general. For some the thought of having coputing power right on their wrists fascinates them while for others the repeated appearence of smartwatches in science fiction movies has fascinated them. The smartwatch has been a crowded market ever since Pebble came to the scene. After finding success with its Pebble smartwatch,Pebble has reinvigorated interest in a market which was rather dead after the failed attempts of Microsoft's SPOT and IBM's WatchPad.

A ton of companies have come to the smartwatch scene. The first was Samsung with the release of its Galaxy Gear that ran a custom version of Android and was later updated to Tizen. After Galaxy Gear, a continuous stream of smartwatches came to the market. This was the result of Android Wear which was a modified version of Android specifically designed for smartwatches. Companies such as LG, Sony, Asus, Samsung and Motorola launched their smartwatches running on Android Wear or some custom software. Some companies like Motorola released just one smartwatch whereas others like Samsung continued to refine/diverse their options and released multiple smartwatches.

Despite the recent interest in smartwatches because of Pebble's success, they are far from mainstream. Smartwatches are still a niche product and except for tech savvy users,adoption amongst the general public is still very low which was evident with the fact that Android Wear did not manage to ship more than 1 million units and Pebble has touched the 1 million milestone after almost a year or so. Many industry pundits have predicted that the smartwatch category will become popular after Apple's debut of Apple Watch. After all for the past decade or so with products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad Apple has revolutionized and changed the image of every industry it has stepped into.

Apple is entering a crowded market. There are already a plethora of smartwatches present from various companies at prices much cheaper than the Apple Watch.

There are basically three core functions of a smartwatch

1. Display notifications
2. Track fitness related data
3. Connect with other objects and perform tasks.

Displaying Notifications

Displaying notifications is probably the most core function of a smartwatch and something that every smartwatch maker is placing emphasis on. Google's Android Wear already provides notifications/suggestions in the form of cards. Pebble also placed emphasis on notifications with the launch of Pebble 2nd Gen and subsequently timeline. Apple Watch also displays notifications when connected to the iPhone. For its part Apple has made use of Glances and a special form of Haptic Feedback to make notifications on the Watch seem different. Almost every competing platform has some method or the other to display notifications.

Tracking fitness related data

Apple Watch comes loaded with a bevy of sensors to track fitness related data and analyze them using HealthKit. Pebble doesn't do as good as its competitors when its comes to fitness tracking but smartwatches from Android Wear manufacturers especially Samsung do a decent job of tracking fitness data. If we leave the smartwatch category for a moment and enter the wearables category in general then Apple has tough competiton to face. Fitness wearable makers such as Jawbone and Fitbit have some really amazing and well selling fitness trackers that track all forms of health - related data. In fact companies like Jawbone and Fitbit have a more established and wider werable market than the nascent smartwatch market which Apple is entering.

Connect with other objects and perform tasks -

This is the lesser know facet of a smartwatch which is its ability to connect with other devices and perform specific functions. This entire concept is based upon IoT i.e Internet of Things. Within few years a lot of devices such as your car, your water heater,your door,your windows,your fridge etc will be connected to the internet. Since they are connected to the internet,functions can be performed on them remotely without having to be present there in person to control the device. 

This is where a smartwatch's real strength lies. It can be to control various IoT devices. This facet of using a smartwatch as a to control IoT devices isn't well executed by any of the smartwatches such as Android Wear or Pebble. This is what Apple can execute better than any other smartwatch maker and make this as a point of differentation in an otherwise crowded and similar market.

Use cases of IoT

There are infinite use cases of IoT,I will list some of them down here

1. Being able to make payments is one of the best use cases of Iot and Apple has already achieved the same through its Apple Pay.
2. Imagine being able to unlock your door just by showing your watch at the door. The NFC chip in Apple Watch can communicate with your door lock and authenticate that its you.
3. Imagine your TV alerting you on your Apple Watch when your show is about to begin or you being able to ask your TV to record your favourite show when you're busy in the Kitchen.
4. Imagine if Apple Watch can command you water heater to start heating the water exactly 20 mins before your morning alarm.
5. Imagine the lights and fan switching on and off as and when you leave your room since your Apple Watch is tied to your hand and thereby is a perfect location emitter to know where exactly a person is.

The use cases of IoT are infinite and this is what will help Apple differentiate the Apple Watch from the competiton.

Apple is best positioned to capitalize on the upcoming IoT trend mainly for four reasons.

•  Iot capable gadgets will come expensive at first and only people with enough disposable income will be able to afford them, this is exactly the market which Apple is targeting which is evident from this chart at Counterpoint. In most markets except the US, Apple dominates more than 75% of the $500+ smartphone market which generally falls under the high end category.

• Even if initially third party support is low, Apple controlling both the hardware and software is another advantage for it to successfully develop a robust IoT ecosystem around the Apple Watch in house. This was very evident with the successful launch of Apple Pay. Google Wallet for example in contrast failed to gain as much traction.
  
  This was in part because manufacturers/carriers wanted to promote their own payments platform for example ISIS and did not pre - load Google Wallet. With Android Wear, Google tried to circumvent this problem by limiting the amount of customization a manufacturer could do on Android Wear, but this iron-fist control of Google on Android Wear led to a unique problem where a lot of top manufacturers such as Samsung and LG started using their own OSes for smartwatch like Tizen and WebOS. Since Google doesn't manufacture any Andorid Wear smartwtach on its own, it has to depend on its partners. Apple doesn't suffer this problem one bit, with everything from hardware to software to services,all being under its control.
•  Apple has the scale required to have IoT manufacturers interested. Despite its expensive price tags,the iPhones continue to sell boat loads every after year. Just last quarter for example Apple tied neck to neck with Samsung for the sales of its iPhones and was amongst the largestmanufacturer on earth. Although there is no guarantee that Apple can acheive the same scale with the Apple Watch but the  $40-45 million Apple is spending on marketing will definitely help Apple sell millions of these. In fact many analysts have estimated that for 2015 Apple will easily sell around 10-15 million Apple Watches depending on which research company you put your money on. Its not as impressive as the iPhone but when compared to the less than million shipments of Android Wear and almost a million shipments of Pebble, it does seem big comparatively. Such huge scale will definitely entice more manufacturers to adopt HomeKit, so that their device/appliance is able to work with Apple Watch.
• Apple has already done this in the past. For example with the launch of iPod, iTunes came into existence. With the launch of iPhone, the App Store came into existence. What iTunes did for the iPod and App Store did for iPhone, HomeKit will do the same for Apple Watch i.e differentiate it from the remaining devices on the market.

Conclusion 

I am not trying to say that its only with HomeKit that Apple Watch will succeed, maybe Apple Watch can succeed(if it ever succeeds) by just showing notifications and tracking fitness but that will make it similar to the plethora of smartwatches already present in the market. Apple Watch without a strong IoT ecosystem around is the iPhone without its App Store. Without the App Store the $600 iPhone would be similar to the  $20 Nokia feature phone in terms of function. Its just that the iPhone looks better, has a better UI and has better internals. This is how the Apple Watch is currently. It looks better, has a better UI and has better internals than the competition but in terms of function its still almost on par with the rest of the smartwatches/wearaes on the market currently. In terms of function what really makes the $600 iPhone better than the $20 Nokia feature phone is its App Store. Similarly even for Apple Watch to be functionally superior over its competition, I personally feel it needs a strong IoT eco-system developed around it.

*By Viranch Damani. 

Moto 360 Successor with an all new screen leaks

We got the very first round shaped dial Android wear that was the Moto 360 and after that their were a number of competitor with the round dial debuted. The 360 was known for its “flat tire” design, although a small section of the screen was cut off to make a hold of touch screen components. A new leaked product render shows a properly round screen, while the bezels are quite thin.

This time the screen is a full screen and without any cut off at the bottom which was to hold the touch screen components, although now it seems that the engineering team from Motorola has solved the issue with the new screen that we may see with the new device. The new device will have a 360 x 360 px display insted of 360 x 290 px found on the previous one.

As of now their is nothing to point that the increase in pixel is due to a increased screen size or to increase the sharpness of the display, so let's have a look when the Motorola will announce or say anything about the wrist watch.

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Vector Introduces two SmartWatches with Huge Battery Life and Metallic Build

So this is the era of SmartWatches, but as we know the era has just started and hence the first Gen's of SmartWatches had a con of Low-Battery life, then the 2nd Gen of Smart Watches introduced by the companies lost some features to increase the battery life, but now we have got two smart watches from Vector, they are promising for a 30 day's battery life, and that too without comprising for most of features.

The Vector introduces two models

• Luna 
• Meridian 

The two watches leaves behind the Pebble for its compatiblity it supports all the major Operating Systems which are as follow

• Android
• iOS 
• Windows Phone

The Smartwatch is equiped with a monochrome screen, which will do some functions like to:

• show Notifications
• show RSS news feed
• track activities 
• quality of sleep. 

But the SmartWatch is not equiped with a TouchScreen, Vector said that they ditched the Touchscreen to increase the sun-light legibility. You can pick between different watch faces from your phone and operate the watch itself with the three buttons on the side. 

Vector has partnered with smart thermostat maker Nest and others to provide additional functionality.

The Vector Luna is the premium option with a round screen and $350 price tag, while the Meridian has a rectangular display but goes after the Pebble with a $200 price. Both are waterproof up to 50m

The two will be available globally in the summer through Vector’s own web store and select retailers. Both watches have metal bodies and come with a selection of metal, stitched leather and rubber wrist bands. You can pre-order one of three limited edition models from Vector’s own web site.

Xiaomi to bring out its Smartwatch to compete with Apple Watch

We have already seen all the major smartphone players release their smartwatches, be it Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola or Huawei. Now Xiaomi is about to enter the playground and looks like everybody else should be worried.
Partnering with Hunami, the Chinese company is aiming to conquer the wearable market. Following the success of the Mi Band, Xiaomi has recently announced a second iteration of the smart band as well as the Xiaomi Smart Watch, which seems to be a direct response to the Apple Watch.

Improving on the Mi Band released last year, the Xioami smartwatch will be featuring a large dial, thus making pulse wave velocity identification possible. This would allow users to verify their identity using their own individual pulse waves. Currently, the technology has two major problems – light pollution and high energy consumption. However, Hunami is certain that its engineers have managed to deal with those difficulties, while achieving an amazing design. Whether the new Xiaomi Smart Watch will be able to deliver on said promises is yet to be seen. However, Huang said that their previous experience in the development of consumer electronics, such as MP4, GPS and PDA will help them achieve a great product at an affordable price. 
 
Further, the Xiaomi Smart Watch will feature a special design made from brushed metal material, similar to the one used in smartphones such as the HTC One M9. Hunami CEO, Huang Wang noted that “the watch industry has been around for many years and the classic dial shape is the most popular, as everyone can see. For everyday purposes, smart watches are relatively thick, thus they can sue some trimming of the design, so it looks more pleasing.”
Huang also mentioned that the Xiaomi Band and smartwatch will be priced lower compared to other devices in the market.

1st generation Mi Band

Xiaomi is also reportedly working on a sequel to its Mi Band fitness tracker. Launched last summer, as many as one million bands were shipped by Xiaomi in the first three months. We should see a new NFC sensor stuffed in the wearable, in addition to the Bluetooth and accelerometer that were present on the earlier version.

We will update you on the latest happenings on the matter. Stay tuned with us.

Have you checked out our video review of the Xiaomi Mi4 ?