By Andrew Liszewski
While its current aesthetics leave something to be desired, Casio is definitely on to something with their prototype Bluetooth Low Energy watch designed to communicate with smartphones. It’s not the first watch on the market designed with such functionality, but its BLE technology means that on a single CR2032 cell button battery you’ll get about 2 years of life, assuming it’s communicating with your phone ~12 hours a day. Other wrist-worn devices, while sporting lovely full color LCD displays, require you to charge them on a weekly basis which is simply annoying.
Of course functionality is a bit limited as a result, but I think the watch strikes a good balance between battery life and capabilities. A scrolling dot-matrix LCD display provides information on who’s calling, who txt’d or who emailed, and the watch can control or silence alarms and notifications on a smartphone in your pocket by simply tapping its face. There’s even a locator and/or security function that can let you know if your phone has been left behind, or simply help you find it by sounding an alarm.
However, as you can see the prototype being demo’d at Casio’s booth was communicating with an Android-based phone since the current limitations with the iPhone and Bluetooth connectivity when it comes to third-party apps once again means that Apple’s offerings might not be able to play nice with these devices that Casio is hoping to get to the market sometime in 2011.
[ PR – Casio Develops Watch That Communicates with Smartphones VIA Bluetooth Low Energy Link ]
