One of the challenges smartwatch makers face deals with the tiny batteries that power these things. That’s why Bluetooth Smart (or Bluetooth 4.0) technology is so great. It consumes only a fraction of the power required by previous Bluetooth implementations and can wake up devices nearly instantaneously.
Enter Buddy, a crowdfunded Bluetooth smartwatch with a claimed battery life of as much as ten days, or an impressive two weeks on standby. Besides telling time, the Buddy also relays notifications from your iOS, Android or Windows Phone devices, lets you control music playback, place calls, receive and display data from your device like turn by turn navigation, display your media like pictures and more…
The team is asking for $320,000 to build the first run. So far, they’ve raised a cool$42,000.
Here, key features:
• thickness: 8 mm
• screen: tactile, capacitive, 2″ ultra high contrast panel
• buttons: just one, on the left bottom corner
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 (Smart)
• SoC: MTK
• memory: internal 8 GB
• frame: metal
• band: elastomer
• USB port: at the end of the band USB port
• battery life: 10 days or 2 weeks standby
• water-resistant: 3ATM
• shock resistant: yesÂ
• OS support: iOS / Android / Windows Phone
Mind you, this tiny smartwatch features a two-inch capacative color touchscreen and packs in eight gigabytes of flash storage. And because it works over Bluetooth 4.0, the Buddy works with iDevices that incorporate Bluetooth Smart, like the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPad and latest iPads.
Here’s a photo of a black Buddy variant.
And a black Buddy next to a white iPhone 5.
It’s just 8mm thick, or 30 percent thinner than analogue watches.
The team is targeting an August 2013 delivery to backers who are willing to support the project with a pledge of $150.
If you’re interested, head over to the Buddy page at the IndieGoGo web site.
[via TechCrunch]