#smartstrap

Garmin has undoubtedly established itself as a serious contender in the wearable-tech world, so it's no surprise it's looking at evolving its range of devices.

 The Wena watch strap upgrades any traditional watch with fitness tracking, contactless payments and phone notifications. All of the technology has been carefully designed to fit within the gentle curve of the watch clasp, including a small OLED screen where notifications are displayed. So it is not "vibrate only" alerts but even has a small OLED display.

 Two strap designs are available: the Wena Wrist Pro, a classic metal link style in either silver or black, or the Wena Wrist Active, which has a silicone strap made for fitness.

 The Active model comes with additional GPS and heart tracking. It also has a "quick-release system" that allows the watch face to be easily removed during exercise, making the accessory lighter and giving it the appearance of a Fitbit-style fitness tracker.

 Both band styles are 20 millimetres wide and attach to any watch that takes an 18-, 20- or 22-millimetre lug, although Sony also offers the option of five of its own watch face designs.

 Sony has sold the watch strap in Japan since 2015, but is now launching the product internationally.

 There are also two solar-powered models and two entry-level quartz models, each available in Three Hands and Chronograph styles.

 I seriously believe, due to the versatility of this working with most other mechanical watches, that this is hitting a real sweet spot for lovers of classic mechanical watches. It has a display but it is very discreet and you are getting all the typical notifications that smartwatches get. Only thing really not there are the smartwatch apps like grocery shopping list apps.

 Battery life for the strap is about 1 week which is acceptable. The bigger issue for me (lesson learnt from the LG WAtch Sport) is everything is built into the strap, and the strap is usually what wears so how long is the strap expected to last?

 See https://www.dezeen.com/2019/03/29/sony-wena-smartwatch-strap/

CLASSI trasforma il tuo orologio in smartwatch

Volete comprare uno smartwatch, ma avete paura di non usare più il vostro inseparabile orologio? Siete timorosi che questa tecnologia possa in qualche modo mettere da parte gli orologi tradizionali? Nel 2017 arriverà la soluzione a questo problema! Non sappiamo se Main Tool, in collaborazione con Arrow Electronics, si sia posta queste domande, ma sta di fatto che grazie alla smart strap CLASSI…

This smart ‘module’ (it’s not really a strap, after all) looks like a promising attempt to bring much desired heart rate monitoring to the Pebble Time/Steel via its ‘accessory port’. Since this port doubles as a charging port, TYLT has wisely opted to bundle Qi wireless charging into the package. I’ve never bothered with backing Kickstarter projects before (I bought my Pebble at Best Buy like a normal person), but I’ve backed this. I won’t go so far as saying its a great idea (a great idea would be Pebble building this basic health connectivity into the watch like every other smartwatch out there and that will probably happen sooner or later) but it’s the kind of thing I’d like to add to my Pebble (and, judging from the fact that as I write this the Kickstarter is at $73,199 out of its goal of $100,000 with 28 days still to go, so do quite a few other Pebble owners).

Are there drawbacks? Absolutely. Aside from the obvious design drawbacks (speaking of smartstraps in general here for the moment), there is still the distinct possibility that this heart rate monitor is not going to have compatibility with the apps I like to use to track my fitness — Runtastic being the main one. Of course, the Vü Pulse is going to come with a companion iOS app and will pair with Apple's HealthKit, so I may be able to work around this. It’s also possible that Runtastic will be compatible with it — if the app can extract heart rate data in real time from HealthKit — or will build compatibility into it to coincide with its already-existing Pebble compatibility. All-in-all this is a minor quibble.

Interestingly, the kinds of design problems I discussed in my review of the Pebble Time/Steel, which I see as being an inevitable shortcoming of the accessory port model continue to stand; however, I’m willing to give it a try based on the convenience of not having to strap a second heart rate monitor to my arm or chest. On the other hand, this little module highlights the design decision Apple and others made in including a heart rate monitor at the hardware level: there is an inherent inconvenience to attaching a module to your watch, arm, chest, etc. that can get in the way when (as happens from time to time) you’d rather do anything else than exercise. I don’t plan to wear the Vü always attached to my watch — regardless of whether or not it will have a black/grey colour scheme. It is inherently ugly in a way that is entirely unavoidable and which I do not fault the creators for. I think they made all the right engineering decisions — the material allows it to be put on and removed relatively easily, the wireless charging mitigates the inconvenience of having the accessory/charging port occupied, and, I guess, for those philistines who gleefully destroy all of their devices' aesthetic qualities by inexplicably wrapping them in protective cocoons — what value are you hoping to derive from your device by avoiding all scratches or scuffs at the expense of screen quality, feeling and aesthetics? “But when I take my precious out of its protective wrapping it is PERFECT LOOKING!” “Uh. OK?” — they’ve got that angle covered, too.  But unless they were to make one out of the same material as my Gunmetal Pebble Time Steel, which would obviously be woefully impractical, I have no interest in permanently turning my watch into rubbery abomination — even then I’d still have to think about it.

Pebble réinvestit pour porter son projet de smartstrap. Lorsque la Pebble Time Steel a été annoncée, Pebble a assorti cette nouveauté emballante d’un nouvel accessoire qui permettra à la Pebble de décupler ses possibilités. Le smartstrap n’en finit pas de faire le buzz depuis son annonce, aussi bien auprès du public technophile qu’auprès des développeurs qui…

La société Aria est en train de mettre au point un smartstrap à destination de la montre connectée Pebble. Les smartstraps sont des ajouts fonctionnels sous forme de bracelets à pour la smartwatch minimaliste Pebble Time ou Pebble Time Steel. Notez que les bracelets Aria sont également disponibles pour des wearables Android Wear. Le but du…

Pebble Promises to Fund Smartstrap Crowdfunded Startups

One of the new features of Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel, in addition to a color screen, is what Pebble calls “Smartstraps“. Basically, the new Time/Time Steel watches will have connectors near the straps that will allow the straps to add new hardware options like GPS or heart-rate monitors to the watch, making Pebble Time extremely upgradeable and modular. (more…)