Throughout the year we have written much about wearables. From smartwatches to VR sets, clothes and footwear, these devices are already here and there is a lot to choose from this Christmas.
CBR lists down ten smart devices that will be wrapped under many Christmas trees this holiday.
1. Samsung Gear VR set
Price: £90
With a weight of 318g, Samsung’s Gear VR headset includes an accelerometer sensor, a gyro sensor and a proximity sensor.
The device is simple to use with users simply having to place their smartphone inside the VR set. It works with Samsung Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge.
The company has launched a range of applications for the device, which include streaming services like Netflix and games like Gunjack.
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2. Ralph Lauren Polotech shirt
Price: $295
Ralph Lauren has been one of the first big luxury clothes manufacturers to launch a range of smart clothing.
With its distinctive logo on the shirt’s front left side, the brand’s fitness T-shirt works with an iPhone, Apple Watch, and any other Apple device running on iOS 8 and up to transmit real time workout data to the user’s device.
Machine washable, the garment has a Bluetooth-enabled black box built into it and a USB port. It contains a transmitter module FCC ID of TFB-BT2.
Polo said the shirt should never be worn during contact or combat sports, or activities such as but not limited to football, hockey, boxing, water sports or wrestling.
3. Fitbit surge
Price: £200
Still in the sports department, Fitbit has launched one more device to track people’s fitness habits including steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed and active minutes.
The surge device includes a GPS tracking systems, a heart rate monitor and has a multi-sport SmartTrack system built-in to track & record runs, rides and other workouts with multi-sport modes.
The company claims the device battery lasts over seven days. It can also display the time and data, show users’ notifications, control music, control sleep.
The gadget synchronises the harvested data wirelessly and automatically to most smartphones and computers.
4. Samsung Gear 2 classic smartwatch
Price: £299
Fully circular, with lots of different displays available and with more functions than previous products. One of Samsung’s biggest releases this year was the Gear 2 smartwatch.
It features a bezel, a touchscreen and home and back buttons. It monitors daily activity levels, tracks water vs caffeine intake, measures the user’s heartbeat, counts steps, and more.
The device can be charged by being placed on top of a wireless charging dock and can store up to 300 songs synced seamlessly from the owner’s smartphone. This allows users to leave the house without their phone and still listen to their music.
With a weight of 42g, the Gear 2 classic is shower proof, includes an accelerometer, a gyro sensor, HRM, a barometer and ambient light.
5. GoPro Hero4 Session
Price: £330
With GoPro launching its own drone in the months to come, it might be a good investment to get a GoPro camera this Christmas.
The company claims the Hero4 Session wearable camera to be 50% smaller than its predecessors, offering a battery life of up to two hours in HD 1080p mode.
Weighing 74g, the device records a continuous video loop that overwrites itself until the user presses the shutter button to stop it and save.
Files are stored into a microSD memory card of up 64GB. GoPro has also included a feature that allows the gadget to automatically capture a series of photos at timed intervals, allowing pictures to be taken when the camera is out of reach.
6. Recon Jet smart glasses
Price: £325
Recon has come up with a set of sunglasses that feature a camera and a display equivalent to a 30" screen viewed from two meters away.
The product has an onboard GPS and a sensor suite including an accelerometer, gyroscope, altimeter, barometer, and magnetometer. Jet also has ANT+, Bluetooth Smart (Bluetooth 4.0), and Wi-Fi connectivity to communicate with the runner’s smartphone.
Its biggest feature is a small screen located on the low right-hand side of the device that displays fitness data (calories burned, distance walked, and so one), as well as a real-time map of the user’s location.
Consumers can choose from a set of different colours including black and white for the frames, and transparent, meteor gray polarized, nova yellow and spectral red polarised lenses.
7. Moov
Price: £55
Moov is a fitness wearable slightly bigger than a two pound coin. It runs on both Android and iOS and has a battery life that lasts up to six months.
The device has a nine axis Omni Motion sensor to capture and analyse users’ motion in 3D. One of its selling points is that it helps fitness goers by becoming their personal coach, giving advice based on their real-time performance.
The device counts steps, offers heart rate monitor support, lets the user connect and compete with friends and is water and dust proof.
8. Cuff smart jewellery
Price: $30 to $215
Cuff has designed pieces of smart jewellery for women that call for help when needed. Users have to press the device to trigger alerts. The collection includes cuffs, smart bracelets, necklaces and sport bands.
The devices work on most Apple devices running iOS 8 and above with support for Bluetooth Low Energy. It also works on Android phones running Android 4.4 and above with Bluetooth 4.0.
The company claims the devices will stay charged from six to 12 months, and are water resistant. To use the device, the user’s phone will have to be within 20 to 30 feet.
In an emergency, wearers have to press and hold CUFF for 2-3 seconds. Those previously selected to receive the emergency alerts will be sent a text message indicating the user needs help. If they have a CUFF piece of jewelry, it will also buzz.
9. Lechal smart shoes
Price: £300
An Indian startup has this year put out to market one of the first smart shoes. The shoes come in different colours and different ranges, with the leather garment being the top of the range.
The ‘pod’ is on the side of the shoe, which collects the user’s data when walking or running. The shoes also have an outdoor and offline navigation mode, basic fitness metrics and pre-defined gestures.
The shoes cost £100, while the pods cost £200. Also available is a set of insoles that fit any shoe in the market with the same intelligence built into them at a cost of £140.
10. Voyce
Price: $199 (then $9.50/mo)
Designed for man’s best friend, Voyce is a dog’s collar that measures the animal’s heart rate, respiratory rate, activity and intensity of exercises, calories burned, distance travelled and quality of rest.
Owners have access to the data via the product’s Wellness Management Centre portal. It also allows to set up alerts for preventive care.
The device communicates with the major browsers currently in the market on desktops, tablets and smartphones. It requires Internet access and wifi connectivity for syncing (802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz) and supports up to 10 separate networks.
With a battery life of one week, Voyce uses radio frequency based technology, fully integrated triple axis accelerometer, an onboard microcontroller and proprietary, specialised algorithms to analyse data.
