Tag Archives: Smartwatches

Microsoft Joins The Wearable War!

Remember the internet of things? Remember how everything is getting smarter? Well Microsoft has joined the bid to make us wear technology by introducing their own smartwatch, rightly named the Microsoft Band!

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Recently Microsoft has been trying itself in every technological race by making their own devices, they broke into the race with their own tablet the Surface! This announcement doesn’t come as a shock as it was only time they came up with theirs, after the announcement of the Apple Watch.

If you are looking for a difference between this and any other smartwatch then you are out of luck, asides that it can be used with the most common smart phones out now. The microsoft band, like any other smartwatch, needs your phone to enjoy the full features, has a GPS, mainly for healthy living and of course has Cortana (Microsoft Digital Personal Assistant).

Slick Design
Slick Design

Like most smart watches, it records your heart rate, your steps, and other health data and connects to your phone to tell you more on your activities and even suggest some for you. Microsoft even threw in some snazzy features like UV sensor, and calories counter.

With almost all big tech companies making their own type of watch/band, it is definite we will be seeing more and more of this around. Only if you have got $199 to spend on one!

Your Wrists Are About To Get Smarter

Ever heard the word smartwatch? You should, as big tech companies like google, Samsung, LG, Motorola all think this is the next big thing. How did I come to this ? They have been spending millions to make them and market them to get them into our homes and on everybody’s arm.

What are smartwatches? They are watches that do more than tell the time, they do more like answer your call, listen for your voice commands, display the weather and much more. With the new system Google recently announced, they can even control your TV or order that sweet pizza within minutes.

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Google recently announced amidst other announcements that they have developed Android Wear, an official android version that will go on these smartwatches. Android is a system that runs on many smartphones. If you download your apps from the Play Store, then your phone definitely runs android.

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Any need for these smartwatches I hear you ask? Well I’d say it depends on how much you would like to use your watch to do most things your phone can do already. In fact most of the smartwatches out today like the LG’s G watch (£159), Samsung Gear Live (£169) need you to have a smartphone running android before they can function fully. But all is not useless in the land of smartwatches, as you can quickly view appointments, check your text messages or see who is calling you on your watch while your phone is tucked away, if that is something you’d like. Might be very useful in UK where there is a lot of rainfall.

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I should add, Apple (Iphone) users should not feel left out as Apple has been rumoured to have its own smartwatch in the works. Stay tuned as we will be bringing you news on that if they are any different from the android counterparts.

Conclusion: Smartwatches might not take over your life like smartphones have done in the past years, but there is definitely potential for the smartwatches as they would make life easier for those of us who prefer not to bring their phones out in public or those of us who like quick access to text messages and features that you would access on the phone. As for me, until the smartwatch can do what my phone cannot do, I won’t be spending £170 on a smartwatch.

 

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