Neptune Pine Is an Android Phone in Watch Form

Most smartwatch companies are almost certainly trying to produce the slimmest, best looking watch possible. After all, we’re expected to wear them all day every day, something that’s not going to happen if it looks like a great, big wart on your wrist. But what if design comes so low on the to-do list, it was only discussed just as everyone was going to lunch? The answer is, you end up with the Neptune Pine.

The Neptune Pine started life as a Kickstarter project at the tail end of last year, and after being successfully funded, the team brought it to CES 2014, where we got a hands-on demonstration. The Pine was hard to miss as we wandered into the, “Wrist Revolution,” section, as it was the biggest product there by miles. If we were Neptune, we’d have employed some pro-wrestlers to demo the Pine, as it’s surely only their wrists which will have a hope of making it look vaguely sensible. Instead, the sweetest, but smallest person available showed the watch off.

It. Is. Gigantic. Ever seen those images comparing the planet Neptune to Earth? That’s how the Pine looks when put next to something like the Pebble. It’s hard to get an idea of just how big it is from the pictures, but balance a pack of 20 cigarettes on your wrist, and you won’t be far off. You’ll also get fewer weird looks if you go out in public like that. Looking at it positively it’s not heavy, but it makes up for that in ungainliness.

The selling point of the Pine, and undoubtedly what drove it to Kickstarter success, is that it’s an actual phone. It runs full Android, takes a SIM card, runs Google Play, has up to 32GB of memory, and a 5-megapixel camera. The Pine’s party trick is the removable face. The entire 2.4-inch screen section unclips from the strap, and you then use it like a tiny smartphone, right down to a miniature QWERTY keyboard. Provided you go slowly, it works shockingly well, and overall the interface is really snappy; but we’d be too self-conscious to use it.

So, the Neptune Pine is either a ridiculously large watch, or a stupidly small smartphone. We can’t think of a situation where we’d want either one.

Image: Neptune Pine

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Razer's Smart Band Hides Notifications From Prying Eyes

Gaming hardware maker Razer announced its plans to enter the wearable tech market with a hybrid smart watch and activity tracker, called the Razer Nabu, at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday.

The Nabu is a "smart band", a rubber bracelet with two OLED screens that offers users a mix of notifications from their device, which tracking everything about their daily habits.

The Nabu's top screen is the public icon screen, which will display icons if users receive calls, texts or other alerts from their iOS or Android devices. There is also a 128x32 pixel private message screen on the underside of the band, allowing users to see notifications without showing them to anyone nearby.

"We wanted to address the lack of privacy for most current smart watches," Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan told Mashable. "The big problem there is anyone can see your calls and texts right on your wrist."

The Nabu can track your sleep cycles, and its fitness tracker functions include an accelerometer and an altimeter, Tan said. It can also track gestures, such as handshakes, and detect other nearby Nabus to exchange information with.

All the data can be used by third-party developers on what Tan describes as an open development platform. Developers can update their existing apps to work with the Nabu, or create new ones. To encourage adoption, the Nabu is $49 for developers. The Nabu already works with existing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Runkeeper and Twitter.

Tan said another smart watch problem the Nabu addresses is battery life, as the smart band can last for 7 to 10 days without a charge.

Razer is generally known for gaming hardware, but Tan said he thinks the Nabu can integrate well into Razer's current user base.

"We want to create something for our users that will make their lives better," he said. "It can get people out of the nasty habit of staring at their phones all day, and live smarter."

The Nabu will be available at the end of Q1, Razer said. The company has not announced its retail price.

Image: Razer

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Smart Bed Watches While You Sleep, But It's Not Creepy

Your next bed may be able to track how well you slept the night before and if you should lay off the caffeine.

Manufacturer Sleep Number introduced the x12 bed at CES this year, a voice-activated bed that monitors your sleep and aims to improve the quality of your snoozing. With a few commands, it can adjust firmness, elevation or give you a massage.

"Consumers are taking more of an active role in managing their total well being," Chief Product Officer Annie Bloomquist told Mashable. "While diet and exercise have long been the focus, sleep is emerging as an integral part of living a healthy life. You spend a third of your life in bed, and until now, you haven’t had real insight into how you sleep and what to do to improve it."

The product integrates technology found in other sleep-monitoring trackers and apps directly into the bed. While sleeping, it collects data related to breathing rate, movement and heart rate, and sends that information via Bluetooth to the accompanying iOS app. Users can also access the web-based dashboard through an Android browser. The app scores your nightly sleep quality and makes suggestions on how to improve that number in the future.

The x12 bed, which will hit select markets in February and roll out nationwide in April, also tracks your partner's sleeping habits, so you can examine the impact you have on each other. If your bed mate is snoring, it will gently raise his head to reduce the noise.

You can also program the bed to morph into your favorite position, one that also reduces pressure points that can cause tossing and turning. Users are encouraged to use the journal feature within the app to track and identify routines that affect your sleep, such as exercise, caffeine intake and TV usage. It also advises on tactics to sleep more soundly.

Not surprisingly, the bed won't be easy on the wallet. The company didn't announce a full pricing list, but said a queen-sized bed starts at $7,999. The SleepIQ technology, which tracks sleeping patterns but doesn't include voice commands, will be available across more Sleep Number beds later this year. For example, the Queen Sleep Number c3 bed with SleepIQ technology will be available for $999.

Image: Sleep Number

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SMART-WATCH Wearable Technology

iWatch

Apple, on the other hand, has more or less confirmed that wearable technology is in the making, so we can expect to see a smartwatch, presumably named the iWatch, surface at some point during the year. 

Google Gem

The Google Gem is Google’s own version of the smartwatch, which should appear at some point in 2014. The smartwatch will allegedly be centred around Google Now, although Google is, for once, keeping schtum about any other details of the device.

HTC smart watch

News broke just days ago that HTC is set to launch a smartwatch in the second half of 2014, which will aim to rival Samsung’s Galaxy Gear.

As always, we don’t know much about the rumoured device except that it will run Android.

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