Haven’t we all suffered enough abuse at the hands of Big Smart Watch? No? Well now there’s Buddy, a Bluetooth smartwatch that aims to solve the problems associated with all those other watches. Buddy is focused on social networking and notifications so it will ping you when your Facebook or Twitter feed is updated as well as send the standard call/text/calendar notifications you expect from a smart watch.
The ambitious watch is the product of Vea Digital, a smartwatch company best known for their Sportive work-out watch. The company’s new project, however, is wildly ambitious. It has a capacitive color touchscreen, works with iOS and Android, and contains 8GB of memory in a package 8mm thick. It’s a huge watch, to be sure, and the renders/prototype models show a unique and colorful icon-based UI that might work better than the cramped black and white design of other devices.
What can it do?
Allow you to control your smartphone (initiate calls, control music…)
Receive and display data from your smartphone (turn by turn navigation…)
Display smartphone content (pictures…)Your smartphone and the VEA BUDDY connect with Bluetooth…
The makers claim a battery life of “10 days or 2 weeks standby” which sounds like crazy talk. They’re asking for $320,000 to build the first run and have raised $42,000 so far. A black watch can be had for a pledge of $150 and they will be delivered in August 2013.
I’ll believe it when I see it, but if you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of an acceptably cool-looking smart watch, Buddy might be the way to go.