Buzz Africa: SmartWatch The Top 5 for 2013

Getting a SmartWatch in 2013

“ SmartWatch” will have to be the newest gadget in vogue for 2013. This can be shown by the speed at which most electronic companies are building or developing a SmartWatch concept, from the Kick-starter funded “Pebble” to the Android powered “I’m Watch”. The main competition is coming from Apple’s rumoured “iWatch”; Google and LG are also creating a smartwatch, while Samsung is concluding plans on their smartwatch called “Galaxy Altius”. At the moment Sony is the only big company with a smartwatch in the market with Pebble a big contender.

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Sony SmartWatch

The Sony smartwatch works by installing simple software that sync’s your Sony Android mobile to the SmartWatch. The watch give you the control to all sorts of application on your mobile like answering or rejecting call, interacting with social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, you can equally check your mails, play music etc. The connection is done through Bluetooth between the android mobile and SmartWatch. The major flaw in this smartwatch is the battery life which is easily drained due to the Bluetooth connection.

Pebble Smartwatch

The pebble Smartwatch is one best gadget project powered by Kickstarter’s crowd funding. The smartwatch is developed by Pebble Technology a company formerly known as inpulse. The CEO Eric Migicovsky in January 2013 confirmed that Pebble project has received a total of $10,266,844 from 68,928 pledgers on Kickstarter making it the most funded concept on the platform. The watch has a black and white e-paper design with a 144 by 168 pixels resolution display. It gives the user ability to see the screen clearly under a bright sunlight which is similar to Amazon Kindle. Pebble works with iOS and Android smartphones through the Bluetooth technology. It display all calling activities, different notification including mails, appointment and update from social media site like Facebook, Twitter etc. The Pebble battery is designed to last for seven days after which it can be recharged through a USB port. The watch is water, dust, scratch or shatter resistant, so you can take it running, swimming or hiking. The lovely smartwatch is been shipped at the cost of £90 and comes in jet black, arctic white and cherry red

I’m Watch

The I’m Watch made its debut in 2013 CES show, owned by an Italian luxury company. This smartwatch ticked all the boxes in paper as far as smartwatch is concerned. The watch is designed with a 1.5 –inch 240 by 240 pixel screen, it runs on Android OS with Droid 2 user interface, a 453MHz processor and 450mAh battery. This smartwatch will connect to iOS and Android smartphone via Bluetooth syncing all mobile activities like your calls, SMS, e-mails or any other app notifications to the comfort of your wrist. This luxury Smartwatch has a starting price from £220 which maybe a good price considering the stylish chunky responsive touchscreen design. The I’m Watch is truly mobile with a clear and bright display brings most apps close to the pulse. It is fitted with a 4GB internal memory for music, games, office and apps. This expensive smartwatch is still yet to justify the premium price considering the lack of stead Bluetooth connection, limited battery life and poorly designed apps.

Samsung Galaxy Altius

It is an obvious truth that Samsung is taking over the world one electronic gadget after the other. So as the buzz about smartwatch is going on expect some creative innovation from the Korean company. This was confirmed by CEO Lee Young Hee, who revealed to Bloomberg that Samsung is seriously working on a smartwatch. With Code name “Galaxy Altius”, there is no set design, price or specs. One thing for sure is Samsung is going against Apple on the “iWatch” rumour which means the race is on who will launch first.

Google Smartwatch

Google Android is the main OS powering most of the smartwatch out now in the market which means Google will soon join the party early this time to avoid what happened in the smartphone platform. Google is working hard to gain market share in the hardware market with the smartphone, tablet and PC. The company’s innovative glasses is gradually gaining acceptance so smartwatch is the future considering the importance of mapping and GPS that’s comes handy. The Financial Times has confirmed Google is designing a new smartwatch that will be launched on the android platform in partnership with other gadget manufacturing companies. LG electronics is another company working on a smartwatch; it is possible they are working together with Google.

Apple iWatch

Apple iWatch is the reason for the entire buzz about smartwatch in 2013. We know Apple has committed about 100 staff to the iWatch project which is much needed considering Apple’s last invention was the iPad and it has been years now. The iWatch is designed to be integrated with iPhone, iPad and icloud where data can be synced.