Awesome Stuff: Not Quite A Smart Watch

from the but-not-not-a-smart-watch-either dept

Sat, Jun 14th 2014 9:00am — Mike Masnick

There are now tons of smart watches on the market, many from smaller players, but the big guys are increasingly moving into the market as well. While many are still not convinced of the smart watch concept, as a happy Pebble owner, I can say that it really does change my relationship with my phone (i.e., I use the phone a lot less, and am better able to stay informed on important things, without having to constantly pull out my phone). For me it's been pretty powerful. That said, for this week's awesome stuff, we're looking at three crowdfunding projects for things that aren't quite smart watches, but might interest some people who are curious about smart watches, but haven't quite made the leap yet.

The Sim

First up, we have the Sim. Rather than a smart watch, its wrist strap has three NFC chips built in, which can be programmed to trigger functionality on your phone. In many ways this is a lot closer to projects like the Pressy or the Dimple.io that enable outside forces to power your smartphone to do simple tasks like take a photo or open a particular app.
The Glance

Next up, we have the Glance, which is a little device that you stick inside your regular watch wristband, which acts just like a typical smart watch. In other words, if you like the notification features of a smart watch like the Pebble, but hate the actual look of smart watches, you can keep using your own, and just slide this little device into the wrist band. It's a "smart accessory" to a watch to make it like a smart watch.
The Modilillian Smart Strap

Finally, we have the Modillian Smart Strap, which is very similar in concept to the Glance above, except rather than being a device that you slip into any watchband, this is a watchband itself that you can attach to basically any standard watch, again, allowing you to turn a more typically designed watch into a smart watch-like setup with certain notification powers.

That's it for this week...

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: awesome stuff, nfc, smart watch, smartwatch

13 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2014 @ 9:22am

"I can say that it really does change my relationship with my phone"

masturbation monitoring , calories burnt , beats per min , hours a day, to improve your stroke and to optimize and achieve better efficiency , GET THERE FASTER WITH A STROKEX SMART WATCH APP.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jake, 14 Jun 2014 @ 12:25pm

How long do you give it before there's a pocket-watch version of these for the steampunk crowd?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2014 @ 8:05pm
  
  Re:
  Maybe they just keep a non-flip phone on a chain to be a pocket-watch?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2014 @ 8:04pm

I have some friends that are early adopters of various smart watches but I'm going in the opposite direction. I just ordered a Tense watch from amazon. All wood. Some things I like techie, but a lot I like simple.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Emelio Lizardo, 15 Jun 2014 @ 5:23am

Are you guys ever going to apologize for gushing over the solar road inanity? Maybe publish a denouncement of that idiocy?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2014 @ 7:54am
  
  Re:
  Relevance?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mike Masnick (profile), 16 Jun 2014 @ 5:17am
  
  Re:
  Are you guys ever going to apologize for gushing over the solar road inanity? Maybe publish a denouncement of that idiocy?
  
  We didn't gush over it. We wrote about it in one of the awesome stuff posts, which often includes wacky projects we don't think have any chance to succeed. It's all about highlighting various crowdfunding projects. We also noted that this was "crazy, ridiculous" but that it was ambitious. So, uh, no.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous, 15 Jun 2014 @ 6:08am

Mad watch! Mad watch!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
jezsik (profile), 16 Jun 2014 @ 9:11am

Can someone explain why I might want an NFC watch?
I really don't get it. The best I can figure is that you can use your watch to send a signal to your phone, but I can't figure out why you'd want to do that. I mean, what's the advantage over using just your phone?

I know far too many people who've given up their watches because their phones do a better job with time.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mason Wheeler (profile), 16 Jun 2014 @ 10:57am
  
  Re: Can someone explain why I might want an NFC watch?
  Can anyone explain why I might want a watch, period? They've been as obsolete as film cameras ever since the development of the smartphone, and for the same fundamental reason.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mike Masnick (profile), 16 Jun 2014 @ 11:06am
  
  Re: Can someone explain why I might want an NFC watch?
  I really don't get it. The best I can figure is that you can use your watch to send a signal to your phone, but I can't figure out why you'd want to do that. I mean, what's the advantage over using just your phone?
  
  I know far too many people who've given up their watches because their phones do a better job with time.
  
  I was among those who had given up my watch... until I got the Pebble. The notification feature really changes things. The fact that I no longer need to pull my phone out to check who's calling or to receive text messages or other notifications is a really big deal (for me, at least).
  
  A quick glance at my watch to see a text from my wife? Rather than having to think "did I just get a text?" then p ull out the phone, find the notification... etc. It just integrates the notifications much more directly into daily life in a very non-intrusive manner.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Berkleys (profile), 11 Sep 2014 @ 5:50pm

Watches are still in fashion?
I have a few watches, but never seem to wear them as i have my phone to see the time :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2014 @ 5:17am
  
  Re: Watches are still in fashion?
  >Watches are still in fashion?
  >I have a few watches, but never seem to wear them as
  >i have my phone to see the time :)
  
  This is just the return of the pocket watch.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]