I was on the Smartwatch development for sometime now after getting to know about the Pebble and Kreyos and then today Misfit Wearables have an invitation to let us see their latest gadget (in the meantime, the ONLY gadget). Like your typical press conference, they all gave you a bag of goodies with the press kit. In the bag was a OTG Bar, a silicon earphone cable wrap around that can be opened to house a SIM card (or Simcard adaptors), the pin and orifice stopper for your phone and this huge big box of…nothingness. Interest is piqued but like all things tech, I will keep cool first and let the surprise get to me.
Then John Sculley ex-CEO of Apple slowly introduces the genesis of the Misfit company and then about the Nisfit Wearables’ Shine. I was thinking. Ok. Misfits…I am not fit and so I miss-fit. Yup. Sounds right. I am really in need of exercise and it takes a gadget to dig me at that. And then Christine comes along and show us what is really inside the box.
Mr John Sculley with the Pebble….opps…SHINE…
It was small. It looked like 50 cent coin. It is really insignificant. I could really use that as chip at Marina Bay Sands casino? Maybe just to throw it at someone to annoy him or her. Ok. Put in the button cell battery, you know those you use for your Casio watches? And then…what? I saw light rimming around the coin. Wow. That was unexpected. And then flash and more flashes. I got confused.
It turns out that when you tap it, the first light is to show how much activity was logged. As more light got round the circumference, that would mean you are closer to hitting your calories burn target. If it lighted half way through the circumference, you have hit 50%. Simple. Really Simple…and elegant, cool, ZEN (i remembered Creative Technologies came out with the Zen MP3 player looked just liked a pebble!!!)
And then the second set of light is to show the time. At first there are 4 lights to show you the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock position and then there’s a solid light to denote the hour and a flashing light to denote the minute. OH! Cool! Just like those Tokyoflash watches that tells you time in different ways and yet don’t look like a watch!
At that moment, I was totally intrigued. Now I have a super duper cool looking watch that looks like a small pebble. I hook it up to the watch strap that was in the package (there was a clasp as an alternative way of wearing it) and just wear it next to my Seiko Kinetic. Christine then helped me set the thing up using the iPhone App with the actual time and also the alternative activity tracker I want to log – yes…sleep. Running? Nope busted knee. Cycling err well depends mood you know. Swimming? If the water logged field next to my house can swim, why not? Ah walking and sleeping is just fine.
Ah yes. At the moment you can only sync it with the Tracker App in iOS, totally ignoring 70% of the market that makes use of Android devices. Of course Apple stuff is cool and so if you want to launch cool stuff, then Apple should be the IT device (and Ex-CEO of Apple is in the team too!). Then was told it will come in January 2014. How long would the data last in the Tracker? 30 days. Ok. Just wear it until January comes along then. A bit of a disappointment but better late than never.
Interested? It is now available at SGD169.90. Not cheap but at least you got a cool stuff on your wrist. More accessories such as the necklace and leather strap (yup that look office-y) will arrive in the next two months. If you want to know the other activity trackers then you will have fitbit, Nike Fuel and Jawbone to compare. In the meantime, I have a cool watch to show off until Kreyos arrives at my doorstep.
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