Report: Smartwatches in use to reach over 100 million by 2019

According to Juniper Research, more than 100 million smartwatches will be in use worldwide by 2019. The report reveals that over the next 12-18 months, a number of premium brand launches will help bring the category into mainstream consumer consciousness.

The report, entitled “ Smartwatches: Market Dynamics, Vendor Strategies & Scenario Forecasts 2014-2019,” highlights that differentiation is now shifting from merely hardware to other connectivity features, such as GPS and near field communication (NFC) technologies.

Juniper Research also claims that the range of functionality available means that it is unlikely that a ‘killer app’ for smartwatches would evolve, using Fitbit as an example, which grew to dominance in the fitness space with a varying device form factor.

“Given the greater scope for development in smart watches, the industry should not expect a single capability to make or break the category,” the report argues.

Additionally, if international vendors like Google, Apple, Sony and LG roll out high-end products, the demand for notification-based watches will diminish, even in markets where budget pricing is the biggest purchase driver. What this means is that smaller players will need to respond to increasing consumer expectations or lose further market share.

Juniper goes on to note that high functionality and premium branding means that the average smartwatch price will remain north of $200 over the next five years, while smartwatches will slowly gain more sales outlets as brands outside of the tech sector enter the space.

As wearable developers continue to push the boundaries of performance and power, Atmel’s underlying design technology will make it easier to use, secure and afford.

will.i.am launches Puls, a smart cuff

We’ve seen him at Maker Faires. We’ve seen him create 3D printers. We’ve seen him drive futuristic cars. Now, will.i.am is entering the wearable market with a next-gen smartwatch, or cuff as he calls its.

With 19.2 million wearable devices set to ship this year and over 112 million expected be in use by 2018, it’s no wonder will.i.am has decided to embark on his latest venture. With brains and beauty, not only is it a SMART idea, his newfound company I.Am.Plus Electronics LLC hopes to make body-adorned tech more fashionable!

The device, which has officially been named Puls, was first exhibited by will.i.am on Channel 4’s Alan Carr: Chatty Man back in April, and has also made appearances on The Voice in the UK. “I don’t carry my phone anymore, this is my phone. A lot of these smart watches need phones — mine doesn’t need a phone,” will.i.am explained.

On October 15th, the entrepreneur and Grammy Award-winning artist took center stage at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce 2014 in San Francisco to debut his newest product, which is expected to rival others on the market — such as the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear S. Wearers will be able to use the gadget like a phone, by making calls, using apps and of course, listening to the latest tunes from the Black Eyed Peas.

The smart cuff will be voice-controlled via a Siri-like feature called Aneeda. This meaning that the wearer can tell the digital personal assistant when to play a song, make a call, among number of other tasks. For those who prefer to type than speak, the Puls has a touch keyboard as well.

(Source: WSJ)

With its battery located all around the strap, the gadget delivers about five hours of continuous power, which means you’ll need to charge it daily. Luckily, power-ups should take less than an hour.

Not only will the smartwatch be equipped with Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi capabilities, it doesn’t need to be paired with a phone in order to have full-functionality. The untethered cuff, which boasts 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, even features applications like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as the ability to text, read and write emails, and track your steps.

“This is not a watch, by any means,” will.i.am told the crowd. “Watches don’t have SIM cards. This is a new type of communication.”

And in true will.i.am fashion, he will also stay ahead of the curve… literally… by including curved display. Not only will this make for a better format to watch videos or read lengthy emails, but the “onscreen keyboard overcomes the challenge of small keys with software that accurately guesses words that are being typed within a few taps,” .  

The Puls, which will hit stores before the end of the year, will start at $499 and be offered exclusively with carrier partner AT&T.

will.i.am emphasizes that, “This conversation that we’re having about wearables, the thing on your wrist that talks to your phone, that’s not the future… There’s no reason why the thing on your wrist shouldn’t be able to do everything. There’s no reason for it to talk to a phone at all.”

“Now there’s tools for people that have idea to quickly materialize them, the democratization of everything possible.” As previously reported on Bits & Pieces, the technophile founder of the Black Eyed Peas has offered a ringing endorsement of the Maker Movement — surely not a surprise given his passion for innovation and recent creative roles at a number of tech giants.

“Every young person is going to be inspired to be a Maker from now on. It’s like how everyone used to want to be a vian, an actor, an athlete — but a Maker is what people are going to want to be.”

Gartner shares its top 10 predictions for 2015 and beyond

Before a sold-out Symposium/ITxpo crowd, Gartner revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and users for 2015 and beyond, examining a shift in the age old relationships between man and machine due to the emergence of digital business.

“For some time now, there has been an ongoing shift in the roles machines play in our everyday lives. Machines are taking on more human characteristics in order to affect a more personalized relationship with human beings,” explained Daryl Plummer, Chief Gartner Fellow. “And we find ourselves contemplating a near-term future of a world in which machines and humans are co-workers, and possibly even co-dependents.”

Gartner’s top 10 predictions encompass these ideas of human machine cooperation and growth.

1. By 2018, digital business will require 50% less business process workers and 500% more key digital business jobs, compared with traditional models.

2. By 2017, a significant disruptive digital business will be launched that was conceived by a computer algorithm. Through 2015, the most highly valued initial public offerings (IPOs) will involve companies that combine digital markets with physical logistics to challenge pure physical legacy business ecosystems.

3. By 2018, the total cost of ownership for business operations will be reduced by 30% through smart machines and industrialized services. Plummer explains that smart machines will not replace humans as people still need to steer the ship and are critical to interpreting digital outcomes; rather, will displace the complacency, inefficiency and add tremendous velocity to business operations.

4. By 2020, developed world life expectancy will increase by 0.5 years due to widespread adoption of wireless health monitoring technology. As Gartner points out, wearable monitors — many of which powered by Atmel MCUs — hold huge promise.

Today, a simple wristband can collect heartbeat, temperature and a number of environmental factors. Wireless heart monitoring patches, smart shirts and sensors in accessories promise more accuracy, choice and comfort to wearers. Soon, data from remote monitoring devices will provide continued access from patients to medical practitioners.

5. By year-end 2016, more than $2 billion in online shopping will be performed exclusively by mobile digital assistants. In addition, these mobile digital assistants will have taken on tactical mundane processes, such as filling out names, addresses and credit card information, come late next year.

6. By 2017, U.S. customers’ mobile engagement behavior will drive mobile commerce revenue in the U.S. to 50% of U.S. digital commerce revenue. Increasingly powerful smartphones and tablets, and the correspondingly rich and powerful applications available for each, enable consumers and business customers to interact seamlessly with companies, content and commerce experiences at virtually all stages of the purchase process.

7. By 2017, 70% of successful digital business models will rely on deliberately unstable processes designed to shift as customer needs shift.

8. By 2017, 50% of consumer product investments will be redirected to customer experience innovations.

9. By 2017, nearly 20% of durable goods e-tailers will use 3D printing to create personalized product offerings. As consumers increasingly show an appetite to control more product features and capabilities, e-tailers are recognizing the business potential of moving from “configurable” products to “personalized” made-to-order products enabled by [AVR XMEGA, megaAVR and SAM3X8E powered] 3D printers.

According to Gartner, nearly every single durable goods category will see a surge in 3D-printed enabled personalization, and manufacturers will develop capabilities for bringing the consumer closer to the design experience. The companies that set the strategy early will end up defining the space within their categories, the research firm urges.

10. By 2020, retail businesses that utilize targeted messaging in combination with internal positioning systems (IPS) will see a five percent increase in sale. Gartner notes that indoor positioning systems have become increasingly viable.

Rather than using satellites, these systems use low-energy Bluetooth and Wi-Fi access points to pinpoint a mobile device’s location inside a building, with accuracies in the centimeter range. Support within newer mobile devices for IPS will enable location cues for targeted ads and messages, and real-time mapping to lead customers not only to store locations, but to specific products themselves.

Interested in exploring each of these 10 predictions in more depth? You can find the full list here.

ATmega32u4 powers these wearable turn signals

Metasphere, who recently created a motorcycle remote started using an Arduino and a smartphone, has transformed a once-ordinary biker accessory into a “smart riding jacket.” The garment displays right and left light-up turn signals synced with the bike’s own blinkers via the ATmega32u4 powered FLORA wearable platform and NeoPixels sewn into the jacket’s fabric.

Metasphere — a responsive platform that acts as mission control for Makers’ programable hardware and software projects — allows the data to be instantly relayed from the bike to the jacket, creating a real-time integrated product that communicates a rider’s intentions clearly and safely.

The Metasphere SDK enabled the Atmel based Arduino board within the motorcycle and the FLORA microcontroller embedded in the jacket to communicate with the iPhone via Bluetooth.

Adafruit NeoPixels were then lined up in a symmetrical pattern on a fabric swatch, sewn with conductive thread and sealed on the back with sugru to preserve the connections. Once completed, corresponding holes were cut into the jacket lining. A SparkFun LilyPad Vibe Board, which was stitched into the inside collar, produces a small vibration whenever the jacket comes within range of the motorcycle and completes the connection.

According to the team of Makers, a FLORA Lux Sensor was added to the outer shoulder area to sense outside light intensity and adjust the brightness of the NeoPixels accordingly. Once these NeoPixels were secured into place, the FLORA and XBee LilyPad were tucked securely into a closed inner pocket, keeping them from getting tangled or interfering with the function of the jacket.

To read more about the wearable turn signals, zoom on over to Metasphere website here.

 

Kaivan Karimi talks IoT and wearables at Designers of Things

Designers of Things — a two-day conference dedicated to the explosive and exciting potential of wearable tech, 3D printing and the Internet of Things — kicked off this morning with a session from Kaivan Karimi. During his presentation, the Atmel VP and GM of Wireless Solutions broke down the evolution of technologies necessary for wearable devices to succeed.

Undoubtedly, wearables have emerged as an extremely hot topic within the technology industry with big name enterprises and small startups alike working endlessly to develop the next high-profile device. Wearables, which are not only being integrated into smart fashion and allowing users to access technology hands-free, are now accelerating the self-quantification movement and paving the way for the upcoming always-on healthcare revolution. Using specific examples from the smartwatch and smart fashion realms, Karimi educated event attendees on the underlying hardware, software, sensing, connectivity, and security technologies needed to make wearables happen, and get them integrated into already existing broader networks.

Karimi began the session by making it clear that wearables are a subset of the IoT, which is the wider umbrella of connected things. When explaining the size of this umbrella, Karimi stated, “The Internet of Things is like sunlight, it covers everything.” He emphasized to attendees that the IoT will go on to impact all aspects of industry and commerce, therefore migrating to devices that collect data: “If you can’t track it, you can’t improve it”.

Despite the fact that it is a mere subset in today’s ever-evolving, constantly-connected world, Karimi stressed that the wearable tech space is not a single entity. “Wearables are not a single segment. There are different categories with different requirements,” he urged. High-end or local processing wearables include smartwatches that run standalone systems such as Android Wear, Tizen for the Gear line of devices and the upcoming Apple Watch. Mid-range wearables are more along the lines of smartphone accessories, which use thin client models and rely on applications on the smartphone. The third category, low-end or limited devices, usually boast no display or feature a limited user interface and act more as a sensor aggregator. This category includes devices such as Fitbit, Polar Loop and other fitness trackers.

“Wearables is one of the edge nodes of the IoT infrastructure,” Karimi continued as he put wearables in perspective of the IoT. Karimi then went on to share several reasons as to why wearables have experienced immediate adoption so far — seamless and ability to integrate into our lives; ease-of-use; inexpensiveness; health and fashion-focused; the potential to save lives; and, the quantified self movement. “The value created by IoT is not just dollars and cents but how we live our lives,” he added.

However, as more devices become connected particularly those adorned to bodies, security and privacy concerns will arise. According to Karimi, this can and will inhibit the growth of wearable tech and IoT as a whole; therefore, how we secure the devices will play an integral role in the development of IoT. “Security and privacy are major growth inhibitors of wearables,” explained Karimi.

Karimi then depicted a time in the relatively near future where hackers could open your doors, access your neighborhood’s streetlights, as well as take control of your toaster oven. Creating the necessary hierarchal gateways to protect access to connected devices and its data will be key in a connected tomorrow. “When it comes to security for the Internet of Things, stakes are much more severe,” he told the Designers of Things audience.

Major advancemetns in technologies like semiconductors are attributed to growth of wearable tech, Karimi revealed. Semiconductors are getting faster, cheaper, smaller and more powerful yet less power consuming, which make them well-suited for smaller devices that need to be on all-day. But one of wearables biggest allies will be contextual computing, which Karimi revealed “will be the driving force behind the next wave of technology.”

The use of big data, sensor fusion, personal history, GPS and social media will also enable computers to know who we are which in turn will let them better serve us. “The future of data analytics will see a shift from reporting to prediction,” Karimi said. “In the future, your devices will know you better than your spouse knows you or you even know yourself.”

Wearables aren’t limited to smartwatches and fitness trackers; in fact, Karimi teased the audience with new form factors coming down the chain. “New form factors are on the way. It’s like pills you take to authenticate yourself,” he noted.

Karimi went on to conclude with a discussion around wearables and IoT in the healthcare setting. “The future of healthcare with wearables is the always-on revolution,” he told attendees. “In order for IoT and wearables to work in healthcare, you have to link the databases.”

So what does the future have in store for wearables? According to Karimi, over the next four to five years, we can expect that wearables will:

• Be here for the long-haul
• Enable a variety of new services
• Allow medicine to become more personalized
• Revolutionize healthcare
• Focus on prevention vs. disease management

According to analysts at ABI Research, over the next five years businesses will integrate into their wellness plans more than 13 million wearable devices with embedded wireless connectivity. Wearable tech also ties into the rapidly evolving Internet of Things, which refers to a future world where all types of electronic devices link to each other via the Internet. Today, it’s estimated there are nearly 10 billion devices in the world connected to the Internet, a figure expected to triple to nearly 30 billion devices by 2020. The inherent versatility of Atmel’s microcontrollers and radio chips have made our silicon a favorite of Makers and engineers. As allude to in Kaivan Karimi’s presentation, Atmel is smack dab in the middle of the wearable revolution, with a comprehensive portfolio of versatile microcontrollers (MCUs) that power a wide range of platforms and devices.

SKULLY AR-1 is the world’s smartest motorcycle helmet

Well, if hoverbikes are going to be hitting the streets in the near future, riders are going to need a space-age headgear to go with their new vehicle. In comes the SKULLY AR-1, the world’s smartest motorcycle helmet. In a show of support, riders across the globe have responded with unprecedented funding. In fact, the Indiegogo campaign skyrocketed past its original goal of $250,000 in just eight minutes on August 11th, and by midday had nearly tripled that goal with 340 preorders. The Skully AR-1 is the fastest IndieGoGo hardware campaign to reach $1 million to date.

What more could a motorcycle helmet do than protect your precious brain? The AR-1 boasts enough technology to make even most savvy engineer look twice… even our very own Paul Rako! The one-of-a-kind helmet combines a 180-degree rear-view camera, heads-up display, a rear-facing camera, turn-by-turn GPS, electro-chromic face shield, voice control, Bluetooth connectivity and smartphone pairing — all while DOT and ECE-certified for safety!

Just last month, SKULLY Founder and CEO Marcus Weller announced, “We are beyond excited to begin production on what has become the most anticipated motorcycle helmet in history. We are doing something so few companies have the opportunity to do… we are changing an industry and forcing the world to adapt.”

The lightweight polycarbonate helmet features all the regular expectations of a top-of-the-line helmet, such as an anti-fog and anti-scratch visor and a customizable (albeit 3D laser cutting!) fit. To go with these high-end features, the AR-1 does utilize technology in a way never before imagined in this field.

The rear-facing camera provides a 180-degree view on the HUD, along with select vehicle telemetry statistics. The helmet will also come equipped with onboard GPS technology, so even if a rider finds himself or herself outside of cell coverage, they can find their way back home. An embedded high-speed microprocessor aids the device in analyzing and displaying all of the collected data. In the spirit of the open source movement, the company will be releasing an SDK in the coming months so that the riding community can help improve the onboard software applications.

“The AR-1 is our little dent in the universe. The AR-1 will introduce a new era in intelligent transportation by combining optics, intelligent vehicle systems and connectivity to deliver unprecedented levels of safety,” its founder adds.

The AR-1 currently costs $1,399 when pre-ordered with an international price of $1,499, or $25,000 for one of four original prototypes. Interested? More details can be found on SKULLY’s official page here.

SKULLY’s dynamic helmet is just one of many of the latest wearable innovations making an impact. Smart helmets call for smarter designs which call for the smartest MCUs.

Maestro, this wearable fashion orchestra deserves applause!

Our friends over at Adafruit have alerted us to another spectacular collaboration between the fashion and technology communities.

Gerard Rubio (who you may recognize from his OpenKnit project) and his team have developed a live show entitled “The Wearable Fashion Orchestra,” which can best be described as a musical composition through contemporary dance choreography and fashion.

Each garment is outfitted with a Wi-Fi mesh that enables a computer to create synthesized sounds in real-time. While the stretch costumes come straight from the high fashion world, the tech realm is well-represented in this orchestra by an Arduino Fio (ATmega328P), which handles the Xbee communication thereby facilitating the wireless data transmission between the dancers and the corresponding computer systems.

“We wanted the expand the capabilities of this idea in a catwalk, so we thought instead of having one instrument, have an entire band that would play music with the movement of their body; the fashion collection would be the instruments. We didn’t win the call, but we just couldn’t keep that idea on a paper. We wanted cool moves, so we combined all this with a contemporary dance company,” Rubio explained.

While have featured a few other high-fashion wearable designs in the past, this entire production takes it to a whole new level. The coalescing of two extremely creative spheres has allowed this project to be demonstrated to countless individuals, who otherwise may not have ever encountered the materials.

For more information about the Wearable Fashion Orchestra project, you can view their community page here.

How wearable tech may improve gun safety

University of Pennsylvania researcher Charles Loeffler believes that gun safety can be vastly improved by readily available wearable technology.

In a report released last week in the online journal PLOS ONE, Loeffler reported that wearable accelerometers, similar to those commonly used to track the distance logged by joggers, could also be used to track when someone fired a gun. Shooting a handgun, it turns out, forms a hard to miss pattern on accelerometer readouts, IEEE Spectrum reveals.

“A gunshot is pretty distinctive. You’re typically at rest because you’re trying to aim, and in a split second, your hand, wrist, and arm experience an impulsive transfer of energy,” Loeffler says. Therefore, if a wrist accelerometer were employed to monitor an individual’s movement, law enforcement officers could be alerted the precise moment a gun was fired.

The researcher worked diligently to prove this theory correct. He employed the local university police officers to fire a series of guns while wearing wrist accelerometers, and recorded their data while pulling the trigger. Upon completion of his study, he discovered that out of 357 gunshots, only 3 were not correctly identified by his technology.

Individual and averaged gunshot acceleration readings along the (a) X-axis, (b) Y-axis, and (c) Z-axis. Individual gunshot acceleration readings (in grey) are a 10% sample of the 359 gunshot acceleration readings (in black) in the sample average.

Loeffler has found that his accelerometers can correctly identify muzzle blast, recoil, and lift leading to very few “false positives.” Ideally, the researcher would like to implement his accelerometer into existing GPS monitoring technology. This combination would streamline the law enforcement process and lead officers to the exact location that someone illegally fired a weapon.

In collaboration with the engineering team over at UPenn, Loeffler is working on a prototype, though he does envision a slight setback. “Getting departments to adopt [this technology] would really depend on how much value they perceive from this offering,” he explains. “It will be more expensive than doing business as usual. The most likely places to deploy something like this are those that are dealing with a more pronounced gun violence problem.”

Having proving the utility of such a simple technology, there should be little trepidation from law enforcement units and judicial entities to test out this platform.

Interested in learning more? You can find the entire report here.

Report: People are talking about wearable tech

According to an analysis of over 8 million online conversations about wearable tech over the last year, there has been a 190% increase around the topic. Brilliant Noise recently carried out some desk research and used data supplied by Brandwatch to examine recent discussions around wearable device.

When users of wearable devices were asked how useful these gadgets have been, 82% of them believe that wearable tech has enhanced their lives. If you ask us, that’s a pretty good number for a product category that has only recently taken off. As previously reported on Bits & Pieces, wearable tech is projected to experience a surge in the coming years while Atmel will remain smack dab in the middle of the revolution — both in terms of hardware and social conversation.

Considering the 190% increase in mentions of wearable tech over the past year, more people are exhibiting interest than are not. With its jump in online discussions around wearables from 2013 to 2014, Google Glass was the most talked about product, closely followed by Fitbit, Nike Fuelband and of course, the recently-announced iWatch.

According to the report, Google Glass accounted for about half (51%) of the conversation as the smart glasses garnered over 2.8 million mentions. Fitbit, which has been talked about almost 1.5 million times, made up 27% of the wearable conversation volume with Nike’s Fuelband just behind at 11%. While a lot of the buzz is around the newly-unveiled iWatch and highly-popular Google Glass, the study showed that people are more likely to be actively talking about purchasing a Fitbit and Pebble, which have become quite ubiquitous amongst “affluent modern city-dwellers.”

Furthermore, 32% of U.S. adults have or plan to purchase wearable tech within two years while nearly 61% of the current wearable tech market is sports and activity trackers — some of which powered by AVR or ARM-core 32-bit chips.

“One of the interesting things that came from this research – perhaps that we weren’t expecting – is that chatter about wearable tech is no longer confined to the water cooler in the engineering department. Discussion about wearables has become far more commonplace in mainstream society, and we’re seeing more types of people talking about it, and in more kinds of places. Just like with smart phones or tablets almost a decade ago, we’re on the cusp of a cultural shift that reflects our changing attitudes towards how we live with technology,” explained Natalie Meehan, Marketing Insights Analyst at Brandwatch.

Most wearable discussions are coming from the United States with 70% of mentions and the UK – which actually only accounts for less than 10% of the mentions — with men making up nearly two-thirds (65%) of the conversation. However, the study found that women are more positive than men when discussing ownership of wearables (women’s commentary is 17% positive, unlike men whose commentary is 12% positive).

Wearable technology doesn’t stop at the wrist or eyes either. In fact, clothing and accessories embedded with computer and advanced electronic technology is among one of the fastest growing segments. In 2015, the smart clothing worldwide market revenue is projected to be worth $1.24 billion. As the report notes, ‘smarter’ clothing will likely be used not only used for health and wellness tracking, but for industrial, military and infotainment purposes as well; reason being, embedded clothing itself is seen to offer a more ubiquitous experience than separate sports monitoring accessories, potentially making the latter obsolete.

Beyond providing users with real-time data about their health or an augmented view of their world, wearable tech will continue play an integral role in the Internet of Things, which refers to a future world where all types of electronic devices (including those adorned to our bodies) link to each other via the web. As this market continues to take shape, you can expect to find a number of Atmel’s versatile microcontrollers (MCUs) powering a wide range of innovative platforms and wearable devices.

You can read the Brandwatch report or check out its infographic in their entirety here.

Motorola unveils Moto X and Moto 360 smartwatch

Last week at IFA 2014, Motorola announced a refresh of its product line with the revealing of the new Moto X and Moto 360 smartwatch.

In what may have been the most highly-anticipated Android Wear smartwatch to date, the Moto 360 comes equipped with a bold round face, heart rate monitor, both black and gray metal finishes. The wearable boasts a 1.5-inch 320×290 display with a backlit LCD touchscreen, powered by an Atmel MXT112S capacitive controller as a recent iFixit teardown revealed (in blue above). The body comes in at a diameter of 46mm and height of 11.5mm, while the leather band model weighs 49g – essentially, the same weight as your everyday wristwatch. Enhancing its durability, the attractive display is protected by a Gorilla Glass 3 covering.

Like all Android Wear devices, the Moto 360 features a wake-on-wrist-flick and automatic voice response via the “Ok Google” trigger, which allows a wearer to send texts, set reminders and such. It is compatible with any Android phone or tablet running Android 4.3 or higher, and has IP67 water resistance with submersion of up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. What this means: Shower, good. Swimming bad.

The Moto 360’s 320mAh battery should get you about a day of mixed usage. Additionally, the smartwatch comes with a pretty standard 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM, in addition to the vibration motor included for notifications. Like other smartwatches, the Motorola accessory can be connected to your mobile device using Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy.

(Source: Business Insider)

Not just beauty but it has brains as well! Unlike some of its competition, the Moto 360’s round dial not only tracks and displays a wearer’s heart rate, but with its embedded monitor and pedometer, can analyze activity intensity.

In terms of pricing, the Moto 360 will go for $249 in the U.S. and £199 in the UK with a wider European rollout expected in October. Within three hours of making the Moto 360 smartwatch available on sale in the U.S., Google Play Store and Motorola’s website listed it as sold out.

Motorola has several competitors in the market, including the similarly-shaped LG G Watch R, the Samsung Gear S, the Sony SmartWatch 3 and the newly-unveiled Asus Zenwatch. With that said, the Atmel powered Moto 360 looks to differentiate itself with its wristwatch-like appearance — comprised of stainless steel and comes with a Horween leather band.

(Source: Forbes)

Motorola has now also taken aim at the affordable smartphone market with the new rendition of its Moto X flagship Android smartphone. The Moto X sports a 5.2-inch 1080p full HD display, 13-megapixel camera and a new dual LED flash that the company says provides more balanced light. Under its 1080p AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, there lies a 2.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.

“It’s high quality screen: it’s sharper, brighter, bigger, and just nicer to look at than the previous model. It has tremendous viewing angles, punchy colors, and can be seen in bright sunlight without issue. It’s everything the display on a flagship smartphone in 2014 should be,” Verge‘s Dan Seifert reviews.

The new Moto X measures 140.8 x 72.4mm (5.54 x 2.85 inches) with its tapered back ranging from 3.8 to 9.9mm (0.15-0.38 inches). To make room for the bigger screen, the phone itself needed to grow just a bit. The second generation Moto X retains the curved back from the original, but with a slightly slimmer width; as a result, the sloped design allows for the device to rest comfortably in a user’s hand. Despite its increased size, the Moto X may actually feel smaller than it should because of its new, metal frame that replaced the plastic on its predecessor.

“The new Moto X is shorter than the HTC One M8 and the Galaxy S5, while still having a larger display than either of them. It’s big, but not nearly as big as I normally expect a 5.2-inch smartphone to be. Part of that is because Motorola has maximized the screen’s footprint and shrunk the bezel surrounding it even further than before. Even so, it’s still managed to find room for a camera, light sensors, a new speaker, and new infrared sensors on the front of the phone,” Verge reveals.

Not only can you still launch the Moto X camera with a flick of the wrist, that’s not all. The new 13Mp camera starts to cache photos before you press the shutter so that it can capture the best looking photo, filtering out blurry shots or pics of people blinking. If you like taking selfies, this feature will surely be music to your ears!

(Source: Verge)

As with the original Moto X, the look of the new device is customizable through Motorola’s Moto Maker online design studio — adding new colors and materials like eco-friendly woods and new leather finishes.

You can now create your own launch phrase as well, ranging from a simple “Hello, Moto X” to something that better suits your personality like “What’s up, Moto X?” Motorola has included a number of new Moto X features such as voice, gestures and more, thereby helping deliver a distinct Moto X user experience. These include Moto Voice, Moto Assist (changes the phone’s options based on your current activity), Moto Display (shows notifications on the display even when the display is off) and Moto Actions (three IR sensors on the front of the device enable a user to wake the device with a simple wave of the hand).

Here is a breakdown of the Moto X’s specs that enable many of its key features:

• 5.2-inch 1080P Display
• 2.5Ghz Snapdragon 801 processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 16GB and 32GB storage options
• 2,300mAh battery
• 13MP rear facing camera w/ 4k video
• Dual LED ring Flash
• Android 4.4 KitKat

“The new Moto X looks and feels like the premium smartphone it should,” Verge concludes.

Those looking to purchase the new flagship device can do so for only $99.99 on-contract, or $499.99 (£419.99) if you decide to get an unlocked one. Currently, it appears that the U.S. carriers will likely be AT&T and Verizon. As for availability, the Moto X will be out later this month in countries across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.