First Australian review: Ringly smart jewellery combines wearable technology and cocktail rings
WEARABLE technology is taking the next step, moving from wrists to fingers. But is the new internet-connected cocktail ring just a flash new fad?
MY middle finger twitches every time a tweet arrives.
It’s not an angry reaction to social media, but the work of the world’s first smart ring.
The Ringly cocktail ring transfers wearable technology from the wrist to the finger, keeping your digits connected to the digital updates from your smartphone.
But can this female-friendly wearable technology be more than just decoration?
Behind a genuine gemstone lies a computer and battery. The ring charges inside the ringbox in which it arrives — a handy case with a two small metal connectors and Micro USB power connection out the back.
Charge this smart ring and you can connect it to a recent Apple or Google-based smartphone via Bluetooth.
Notifications can be managed inside the Ringly app, with an LED light on the side of the ring able to flash five different colours in four different patterns to alert you to updates.
A phone call, for example, could make the ring buzz four times and flash red. A tweet could flash blue and vibrate once.
With no display, you cannot tell who is behind the update, but users can add priority contacts in the app to deliver customised notifications.
In practice, the Ringly is surprisingly responsive and often buzzes before a competing smartwatch.
Its ability to work with iPhones and Androids alike is also worth praise, although it frequently disconnected from an iPhone in our tests and worked consistently with a Samsung phone. Hopefully, it’s nothing a software update cannot rectify.
Users will also have to charge this ring’s battery nightly, and must choose a size carefully as the Ringly cannot be resized.
It is water-resistant for drama-free hand-washing, however, comes with a wide variety of gemstones, and looks much more like a cocktail ring than a piece of technology.
Ringly / 3.5/5 / $US195-$260 / ringly.com
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