American musician-cum-entrepreneur Will.i.am thinks he’s got a radical gadget to beat the band: a massive app-infused watch that he says can do everything a phone can, and more.
The self-proclaimed tech fashion guru unveiled the Puls on Wednesday, a smartwatch-type device designed to be worn throughout the day, which will run at least a dozen apps handling everything from Twitter to phone calls to fitness and maps.
Will.i.am unveiled the device onstage at the Salesforce Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, after at least a year of backing from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Will.i.am said. It comes after months of teasing by the artist/tech developer.
The device will be sold during the December, through a variety of channels including fashion stores and online sites, Will.i.am said during an interview with the press following the formal event. A firm price was not disclosed, but it will cost less than a smartphone by a big margin, Will.i.am said.
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Will.i.am’s gadget marks the entrance of yet another smartwatch in a sea of competitors vying for consumers’ attention. Google is now a big player in the space, partnering with a number of companies like Fossil and LG to get its watch-sized Android Wear software on their timepieces. Apple is slated to launch its Apple Watch early next year.
But unlike those devices, Will.i.am’s will make phone calls without needing to be tethered to a smartphone. In the UK, users will need a data plan with O2, which would point to Three being a partner if and when The Puls arrives in Ireland. Pricing details for those plans were not disclosed.
The device has 1Gb of memory, 16Gb of storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a pedometer, and accelerometer. It has a curved screen and wraps around the wrist like a cuff.
“This is not a watch,” Will.i.am stressed during the event. “It’s a new type of communication on your wrist,” he said.
But beyond the on-board calling features, Puls works pretty similarly to many smartwatches already on the market. A slew of apps will run on it, with partnerships through other companies like contacts management company Humin and mapping analytics firm Esri.
The look of the smartwatch is sleek, and it will come in a variety of colours. It’s not quite as over-the-top as Samsung’s Gear S, which does not hide the fact at all that it’s a smartphone plopped on your wrist.
Two years ago Will.i.am launched the foto.sosho, a $400 iPhone case that tried to transform the phone into a camera with a slide-out keyboard. It failed to catch on with consumers.
Zach Miners, IDG News Service
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