While you wait for Apple Watch, here are five wearable gadgets you can connect to your iPhone now
CAN’T wait for Apple to launch its own smartwatch? There are already wearable devices that will work with your iPhone right now, from watches to jewellery.
SEVEN months after its announcement, Apple Watch anticipation is at fever pitch.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook revealed the smartwatch is “right on schedule” to launch next month, and analysts predict it will break smartwatch sales records several times over.
CCS Insight forecasts “around 20 million” Apple Watch sales in this year alone, while Telyste expects Australian smartwatch use to jump 50 per cent due to its arrival.
But there is wearable technology you can connect to an Apple iPhone right now, including smartwatches and smart jewellery.
Below are five of the best Apple Watch substitutes to use while you wait or even in place of the highly anticipated timepiece.
Ringly smart ring
$195 - $260 / ringly.com
Don’t want to wear a smartwatch with your ball gown? Ringly provides an unorthodox solution in jewellery that combines a gemstone with a smartphone connection. This smart ring replaces a display with a vibration motor and a coloured LED light on one side. After connecting the ring to an Apple or Google-based smartphone, and downloading its app, users can choose one of five colours for notifications from the phone. The light can glow green for phone calls, for example, and blue for Twitter updates. Ringly rings are available with 18-karat gold or rhodium plating, and gems including pink sapphires and emeralds. The ring charges inside its ringbox, connected to a power point with a Micro USB cord.
Garmin VivoActive
$339 - $399 / garmin.com/au
Garmin is not just blurring but erasing the line between running watches and smartwatches. The freshly released VivoActive watch delivers phone call, text message, calendar and email updates from a connected Apple iPhone to its square touchscreen, and users can also change its watch face or add apps. Naturally, the watch also records the wearer’s steps, the pricier version tracks their heart rate, and built-in apps for sports record running, golfing and cycling, making use of its GPS chip. The watch is also waterproof to 50m to allow for swim-tracking and, of course, underwater social media notifications.
Fitbit Surge
$349.95 / fitbit.com/au
It’s the first Fitbit with GPS, the first Fitbit to deliver SMS notifications and music controls, and the first Fitbit that really acts like a watch. Potential Apple Watch investors who lean more towards the serious fitness training end of the spectrum may prefer the Surge’s approach, with a black and white touchscreen that showcases the wearer’s steps, staircases climbed, calories burned, heart rate, distance travelled, and a host of exercise modes for activities like free running, elliptical training, yoga and hiking. The watch connects to Apple and Google-based phones, but only phone and SMS notifications are delivered from its host.
Witlings Activite and Withings Activite Pop smartwatches
$US150 - $US450 / withings.com
Witlings calls its smartwatches the only Swiss-made activity trackers, but they look much more like traditional analog watches. The Activite smartwatch is a timepiece with actual hands, rather than a screen, though one hand indicates progress towards a daily step goal. As well as steps, the high-end Activite tracks sleep, delivers silent alarms, logs swimming workouts, automatically adjusts time by location, and works from a button battery for up to eight months. The cheaper Pop version also tracks steps, running, swimming and sleep, though comes in a colourful, plastic form. Neither delivers notifications, but share health information with iPhone over a Bluetooth connection.
Pebble and Pebble Steel smartwatches
$US99 - $US199 / getpebble.com
The original smartwatch, crowdfunded on Kickstarter, is still one of the handiest, most versatile smartwatches on the market. The plastic Pebble has been bested by a Steel version, but both deliver the full range of iPhone notifications, from SMS messages to social network updates, in full text, and will let you reject or accept incoming phone calls. An improved app store delivers plenty of clockfaces, step trackers and weather forecasters, and its e-paper display means it still delivers up to a week of life between battery charges. Swap to or from Google Android, and this watch will work on it too.
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