Wearables – Page 3 – Product Management Confabulation

June 21, 2022

Finger on your pulse: API-first startup Vivanta hopes to be Plaid for health

API-first companies are on the rise, not just in fintech but also in sectors like healthcare. This diversification is boosted by the fact that employees who have earned their chops on banking APIs are now applying their skills to other problems.

Healthcare is one of the sectors that could benefit from API solutions. While there is value in knowing your heart rate or glucose levels, an API can help companies give its end users a much more global view of their well-being, allowing them to take the right steps to stay healthy.

Mexico-based startup Vivanta lives at this intersection of healthcare and APIs. Its focus is health data, with an eye on the fact that wearables are becoming ubiquitous. But its co-founders Alex Hernandez and Jorge Madrigal previously worked together at fintech companies: Arcus, acquired by Mastercard last December, and Belvo, which is API-led and sometimes described as “LatAm’s answer to Plaid.”

This API-centric track record was key for the startup to raise a $300,000 pre-seed round even before launching its product — Vivanta is doing a private launch next month.

“We invested in Vivanta because Jorge and Alex have a successful track record of pushing new API products into the market,” said 99startups managing partner Alejandro Gálvez, who participated in the funding alongside Guadalajara’s Redwood Ventures, Monterrey’s Angel Hub MTY and Mexico-focused syndicate Lotux.

Vivanta’s founders also invited a dozen individuals to participate in the round, with a focus on operators with relevant expertise. “Being able to ask questions to people who’ve done it before is invaluable,” Madrigal told TechCrunch. “We wanted to have a strong network of people that we can lean on.”

Some of Vivanta’s angel investors are founders themselves, such as Arcus’ Edrizio de la Cruz, Madrigal’s and Hernandez’s former boss. But the pair also made a deliberate effort to reach out to technical profiles that are perhaps less common on cap tables — including female engineers and CTOs currently building APIs.

June 6, 2022

WatchOS 9 adds new modes and watch faces

During a keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the company debuted the latest version of WatchOS, the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch.

Apple claims that it has improved the Apple Watch’s ability to detect arterial fibrillation (AFib), an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications. With the arrival of WatchOS 9, supported Apple Watch device models can now detect “burden,” or how often a person experiences AFib over a certain amount of time.

Apple was granted 501(k) approval from the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration this morning. As opposed to full approval, 501(k) approval doesn’t require companies to provide effectiveness data from clinical trials.

With WatchOS 9, supported Apple Watch models now show heart zones to get a sense of your intensity level. You can set up distance and time intervals, and there’s haptic and voice feedback to tell you when to switch modes while working out.

New complications and watch faces (including astronomy and lunar faces) and exercise modes are a part of the WatchOS 9 release, as well as “form metrics” for runners. There’s also a new workout type for triathletes that can auto-switch between cycling, swimming, and running. And for users who own a Meta Quest VR headset, Apple Watch can now show stats from Move, Meta’s fitness tracker for the Quest, on the Fitness mobile and Watch app.

Joining these are a new sleep-tracking feature: Sleep Stage. WatchOS 9 can detect REM, core, and deep sleep stages. Plus, WatchOS can now track medications and notify wearers when they need to take them. Most of the management is done via iOS in the Apple Health app, where you can scan a medication label to identify it.

Lastly, apps can be pinned for quick access in WatchOS 9. And there’s a revamped, streamlined Siri UI.

It’s unclear as of yet whether all Apple Watch models are due for the upgrade to WatchOS 9. WatchOS 8 supported the Apple Watch Series 3 onward, but it’s not uncommon for Apple to exclude older models over time — owing to limitations in those models’ hardware. With a public beta of WatchOS 9 due out soon — possibly this week — it fortunately won’t be long before we know for sure.

June 1, 2022

Garmin pops solar power onto its fancy Forerunner running watch

Garmin just brought solar power to its Forerunner line, a cult-favorite among runners.

Along with some other devices, the company took the wraps off its new Forerunner 995 Solar today. The $600 running watch packs a new touchscreen display (as well as physical buttons), up to 20 days between charges (thanks in part to its charging lens), multi-band GPS, and a new heart rate variability feature, among other things. Garmin is also selling a standard 955, which shaves $100 off of the price and five days off of the effective battery life.

Towards lower end, Garmin also announced the Forerunner 255, which (as the Verge pointed out) isn’t too different from the earlier Forerunner 245. The $350 device adds multi-band GPS, contactless payments and some new software features. It comes in two sizes, with optional music features that’ll set you back another fifty bucks. All of the new watches are available as of June 1.

Garmin’s Forerunner 995 Solar

Solar-powered digital watches date back to at least the early 70s, so this isn’t what you’d call a groundbreaking launch. Garmin released its first GPS watch with solar power back in 2019, and expanded its solar lineup a year later. But it’s still a pretty exciting to see solar on new feature-packed watches, in part because keeping them charged is still a pain.

Though specialized watches like Garmin’s can go a lot longer than generalist smartwatches between charges, never having to plug one in again is the dream. Plus, wearables often require proprietary cables to juice up—the sort that can easily get buried in a drawer somewhere. It’d be nice to lose those, too.

Sadly, you’ll still need a cable if you decide to snag a 955 Solar. In Garmin land, solar power simply stretches out each charge by a few days. For the 955 Solar, Garmin says the extra $100 for the charging lens can boost its life by as much as five days, with caveats: It assumes the wearer will spend three hours in 50,000 lux conditions per day—that’s about three hours spent outside in indirect sunlight. Office-bound city dwellers won’t hit those numbers year round, at least not in places like New York.

May 26, 2022

Gucci x Oura launch a $950 smart ring to help you discover yourself

It’s a common problem among the superwealthy. Sure they can buy fancy clothes, jewelry and fast cars, but at the end of the day, they’re stuck using the same boring gadgets as the rest of us. How can they possibly extend their expensive and flashy taste to consumer electronics?

Fortunately, from the bedazzled Nokias of Vertu to Apple’s $1,300 Hermès Watch, hardware makers have been more than happy to cater to extremely expensive tastes. It’s a proud tradition that Oura is furthering with a new Gucci collaboration. The pair are releasing an ostentatious edition of the popular wearable.

Image Credits: Oura

Gucci x Oura Ring is, effectively, an Oura 3 ring featuring the designer’s logo and a braided torchon detailed in 18-karat yellow gold, running along the outside of the band. The ring itself is made from black PVD-coated titanium — it’s similar to this ring here, trading some of the gemstones out for Oura’s sleep and fitness tracking sensors.

Here’s some copy from the release:

The vision of both brands is brought to life in a dynamic campaign that showcases the ring’s highly personalized and responsive capability through a playful time-loop storyline expressed through photographic stills and a video with the tagline, “A journey of self-discovery.” The narrative follows a central character’s fast-paced daily routine and highlights how she maximizes her day with the ring and app’s guidance.

Image Credits: Oura

Said journey of self-discovery will run you $950. Given how I often suggested the Oura Ring’s $300 barrier to more mainstream adoption, I’m probably going to sit this one out. The upshot here is that Oura’s tossing in a lifetime subscription to its service. The company caused waves a while back when it announced that it would be paywalling some insights behind a premium membership. So, really you can say this is more of an investment than anything.

May 24, 2022

Robotic rehabilitation glove wins Microsoft’s 20th Imagine Cup for student inventors

Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is something I look forward to every year. The students and young entrepreneurs who submit their extremely early stage projects to this global competition are like the seeds of future startups and potentially world-changing projects. This year’s winner, V Bionic, created a robotic glove to help patients with neurological damage recover faster at a fraction of the price of other options.

The team, from Saudi Arabia, was led by Zain Samdani, who although he is a student has been researching and inventing things in the robotics category for years. The rest of the crew are similarly at the starts of interesting careers in the industry.

The ExoHeal glove is a mechanized exoskeleton made to be worn by people who have suffered neurological damage causing problems with hand movements.

We’ve seen a few of these efforts come out of robotics labs and startups over the years; the general line of thought is that of replicating the work of a physical therapist, who observes a patient’s movements and creates a set of exercises to help restore lost functions. In the case of a limb injury it’s often muscles and tendons that need rehabilitation, but with neurological damage it’s also necessary to make sure that the brain is sending the right signals as well.

The team was focused on making the glove portable and affordable — other things like this can rely on pneumatic or hydraulic mechanisms, which are bulky and slow.

V Bionic's exoskeleton glove with its full covering.

Image Credits: V Bionic

The white structure you see in the image at top is a 3D printed exoskeleton, while the black covering and “backpack” house the sensors, servos, and other electronics.

“Flexor linkage-driven movement gives us the flexibility to individually actuate different parts of each finger (phalanges) whilst keeping the device portable,” said Samdani in an email to TechCrunch. “We’re currently developing our production-ready prototype that utilizes a modular design to fit the hand sizes of different patients.”

In early tests, the team found anecdotally that the glove helped patients recover more quickly, though there’s a lot of work ahead for a medical device like this. “We’re conducting our final clinical trials this year to better understand the scope of recovery for a variety of users and gain regulatory/medical device approval,” Samdani said. They plan to target India first as a high-need market with lower regulatory barriers.

The cash from the Imagine Cup victory will help with that — Microsoft gives them $100K plus $50K in Azure credits, and a mentoring session from CEO Satya Nadella. Check out how cute this moment they were told they won is:

Team V Bionic celebrates their victory in a video call.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Love it.

They were far from the only cool team in the running, though. Check out the final three here.

May 23, 2022

Google Assistant arrives on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 (for real, this time)

Google Assistant’s arrival on the Galaxy Watch 4 has been like a look time coming, for a variety of reasons. First, Samsung’s attempt at its own in-house assistant, Bixby, was essentially a non-starter from day one. Second, the two companies have been openly discussing their joint plan for taking on the Apple Watch since last year’s Google I/O. Oh, and then there was that belated April Fool’s prank.

The latest Galaxy Watch arrived in August, sporting a hybrid version of Google’s wearable operating system the companies christened, “Wear OS Powered by Samsung.” It was a return to the OS after nearly a decade of focusing on the open-source Tizen, now offering a kind of hybrid approach between the two. The deal meant Samsung’s devices dramatically improved their access to third-party apps through the Play store, while Wear OS got a big boost in market share ahead of the Pixel Watch’s release.

Also beneficial for both parties is increased access to Google services on Samsung’s wearables. Starting today, Galaxy Watch 4 owners will be able to download and use Google Assistant on their wrist, bringing enhanced voice commands to the small screen. “With access to both Bixby and Google Assistant, consumers will have access to more advanced voice assistant functionality right from their wrists,” Samsung notes, with a nod its first-party assistant, which is somehow still hanging in there.

I quite liked the Watch 4, which I reviewed it last August, noting that it, “builds on both companies’ smartwatch strengths.” Google has, no doubt, promised Samsung increased focus on Wear OS, which has largely been treading water in a market dominated by a single player. Of course, that focus will arrive with increased hardware competition when the long-rumored Pixel Watch arrives in the fall.

There’s an open question whether such a device can win over first-time smartwatch owners or convert Apple Watch users. If not, Google will likely be fighting for Samsung’s current sliver of the wearables market.

May 18, 2022

Withings doubles down on the classy with ScanWatch Horizon

I tried out the brand new Withings ScanWatch about six months ago, and concluded that it was a great smartwatch for people who prioritize their health over wearing a tiny iPhone-like device on their wrists. Today, the French company announced a classier-looking version of the same watch, borrowing design language from dive watches of yore.

As an avid scuba diver, I’m always a little confused by “dive watches”. Sure, the 10-bar water resistance means that you can go to 100 meters (300 ft), which is deeper than any recreational diver would — but if you’re going to those depths, you’d be well advised to bring a real dive computer along. Still, the style is snazzy; the luminescent watch face and the rotating bezel make it look even less like a smart watch, which is a bonus, if you, like me, care about such things.

Carrying a $499 price tag, it isn’t cheap, but with an impressive set of health-focused features and good looks, it’s still reasonably priced. The watch can go up to a month on a single charge, and can run ECGs, heart rate and O₂ sensors, activity tracking and sleep tracking.

“The luxury design and robust health features of ScanWatch Horizon are a great complement to the existing ScanWatch line and we are delighted to bring it to the U.S.,” said Mathieu Letombe, CEO of Withings. “Sophisticated health devices that monitor advanced vitals do not have to look like hospital equipment. With the original ScanWatch, the elegant Rose Gold version and now ScanWatch Horizon, we have a style option to meet every fashion preference, social occasion and budget.”

Available in blue and green. Image Credits: Withings.

Indeed. The watches are available from today, priced at $499, and come with blue or green watch face backgrounds.

May 17, 2022

Apple adds live captions to iPhone and Mac, plus more accessibility upgrades to come

Apple has released a bevy of new accessibility features for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac, including a universal live captioning tool, improved visual and auditory detection modes, and iOS access to WatchOS apps. The new capabilities will arrive “later this year” as updates roll out to various platforms.

The most widely applicable tool is probably live captioning, already very popular with tools like Ava, which raised $10 million the other day to expand its repertoire.

Apple’s tool will perform a similar function to Ava’s, essentially allowing any spoken content a user encounters to be captioned in real time, from videos and podcasts to FaceTime and other calls. FaceTime in particular will get a special interface with a speaker-specific scrolling transcript above the video windows.

The captions can be activated via the usual accessibility settings, and quickly turned on and off or the pane in which they appear expanded or contracted. And it all occurs using the device’s built-in ML acceleration hardware, so it works when you have spotty or zero connectivity and there’s no privacy question.

This feature may very well clip the wings of independent providers of similar services, as often happens when companies implement first-party versions of traditionally third-party tools, but it may also increase quality and competition. Having a choice between several providers isn’t a bad thing, and users can easily switch between them if, as seems likely to be the case, Apple’s solution is best for FaceTime while another, like Ava, might excel it in other situations. For instance, Ava lets you save transcripts of calls for review later — not an option for the Apple captions, but definitely useful in work situations.

Screenshots showing Apple watch apps on an iPhone and a multi-person video call transcription.

Image Credits: Apple

Apple Watch apps will get improved accessibility on two fronts. First there are some added hand gestures for people, for instance amputees, who have trouble with the finer interactions on the tiny screen. A pile of new actions available via gestures like a “double pinch,” letting you pause a workout, take a photo, answer a phone call, and so on.

Second, WatchOS apps can now be mirrored to the screens of iPhones, where other accessibility tools can be used. This will also be helpful for anyone who likes the smartwatch-specific use cases of the Apple Watch but has difficulty interacting with the device on its own terms.

Existing assistive tools Magnifier and Sound Recognition also get some new features. Magnifier’s “detection mode” normally lets the user know if either a person or something readable or describable is right in front of them: “person, 5 feet ahead.” Now it has a special “door detection” mode that gives details of those all-important features in a building.

Image of a phone showing information about a door it sees: "Muffin to write home about bakery"

Image Credits: Apple

Door mode, which like the others can be turned on automatically or deactivated at will, lets the user know if the phone’s camera can see a door ahead, how far away it is, whether it’s open or closed, and any pertinent information posted on it, like a room number or address, whether the shop is closed, or if the entrance is accessible.

Sound recognition is a useful option for people with hearing impairments who want to be alerted when, say, the doorbell rings or the oven beeps. While the feature previously had a library of sound types it worked with, users can now train the model locally to pick up on noises peculiar to their household. Given the variety of alarms, buzzers, and other noises we all encounter regularly this should be quite helpful.

Lastly is a thoughtful feature for gaming called Buddy Controller. This lets two controllers act as one so that one person can play a game with the aid of a second, should it be difficult or stressful to do it all themselves. Given the complexity of some games even on mobile, this could be quite helpful. Sometimes I wish I had a gaming partner with a dedicated controller just so I don’t have to deal with some game’s wonky camera.

There are a number of other, smaller updates, such as adjusting the time Siri waits before answering a question (great for people who speak slowly) and extra text customization option sin Apple Books. And VoiceOver is coming to 20 new languages and locations soon as well. We’ll know more about exact timing and availability when Apple makes more specific announcements down the line.

A quarter of a century later, Quake gets modern accessibility features

May 11, 2022

Google Glass’s successor teased at I/O

The consensus has long been that Google Glass was ahead of its time. But in recent years, much of the world has since lapped the company in the AR department. To close out today’s I/O keynote, the company showcased what may well be a spiritual successor to the hardware. As CEO Sundar Pichai noted, this is very much just an early sneak peek at what the company has been working on, but the demo video certainly looks promising.

The issue with the original version of the wearable was two-fold. First: the hardware simply wasn’t ready. Second: the company really never cracked the “why” of the product — certainly enough to justify its price point. For those reasons, it never made it too far beyond the developer community.

Enough time has passed to address the first part. As for the second, today’s video answers the question in a fairly compelling manner: translation. It remains to be seen how fully featured these specs would be if they ever actually come to market, but live IRL subtitles in a wearable head’s up display is a big deal, if the execution is right.

The video is a stark contrast from the bombast of the original Glass announcement at I/O. Gone are the skydivers and extreme sports enthusiasts. In their place, is a subdued promo that demonstrates real world value.

“Language is so fundamental to connecting with one another. Yet, understanding someone who speaks a different language or trying to follow a conversation if you’re deaf or hard of hearing can be a real challenge,” Pichai told the crowd. “Let’s see what happens when we take our advancements in translation and transcription and deliver them in your line of sight in one of our early prototypes.”

Unlike the deluge of Pixel announcements, Google’s making no promise that such a product will ever actually come to market. Today’s I/O debut was, no doubt, a way to gauge interest in a product that isn’t quite fully baked. The video included a “simulated point of view” of what such a display could look like, affording the speaker to look directly at a subject, while reading their words.

Questions around efficacy, pricing and more remain, but if the execution is there, it’s easy to see some true value in a product that marries AR hardware with the company’s longstanding work in translation and transcription software. At very least, it’s one of the most compelling use cases we’ve seen for a wearable AR display. If Google could find similarly useful implementations for things like Maps, if might eventually have a winner on its hands here.

May 11, 2022

Google’s Pixel Watch arrives this fall

Here’s something to wrap your brain around: Google has never made its own smartwatch. The company has played in and around the space at least since 2014, with announcement of Android Wear, but it’s never gone as far as making its own product. Given that the market has been as hot as it has for as long as it has, the news really boggles the mind.

All of that will change this fall, at the company’s annual hardware event. Alongside the recently teased Pixel 7, Google will finally — officially — debut the Pixel Watch. I say “finally” here, because 1. This thing has been leaking all over the place (including a very credible prototype lost at a bar in recent months) and 2. We are, at least, getting a decent peek at the product today.

Image Credits: Google

The latter is a tack that Google has also taken with the Pixel 7 and Pixel Tablet (which is even further from production) — it also offered an early look at the revamped Pixel 6 ahead of that product’s release. It bucks the standard industry trend of keeping things under as tight a lock as possible until the official release date, but it makes a lot of sense for a company hoping to dramatically swing its hardware fortunes.

The truth is that Google doesn’t have a great track record with consumer hardware. Last year’s Pixel 6 was an important step in that direction. This (well, fall) is the moment Google will finally cash in all its chips. That includes its $40 million January 2019 purchase of Fossil’s smartwatch technology and last year’s $2.1 billion Fitbit acquisition. Included in the wearable Katamari Damacy are Fossil’s Misfit purchase and Fitbit’s acquisition of both Pebble and Vector. Honestly, it’s stunning to take a moment to consider all of the time and money that went into getting us to this place.

Image Credits: Google

It’s not so much that the Pixel Watch is make or break for Google’s wearable fortunes, exactly, but there’s a lot riding on the product. It’s understandable that the company is doing its damnedest to keep the hype cycle going for the next several months — especially given the fact that its release timing will likely put the product right up against the Apple Watch Series 8 announcement.

The details are still fairly thin — as you’d expect for a product that’s not going to debut until the fall. We do, however, now know a handful of things about the upcoming smartwatch. For starters, the leaks appear to largely check out. From a design perspective, it’s more or less what we’ve been seeing in renders and lost devices. In contrast to Apple and Fitbit’s hardware designs, this thing is very round — something it may well have adopted from the Fossil acquisition. That appears to include a slight convex curve on the glass watch face.

Image Credits: Google

Like the Apple Watch, it features a physical crown, likely used to augment touchscreen navigation. The watch frame is made from recycled stainless steel, attaching to what appears to be custom bands. The device will — naturally — run the latest version of Wear OS, serving as the flagship product for the company’s beleaguered wearable operating system. It will be interesting to see what commonalities it shares with the Tizen hybrid Samsung’s been running on its latest Watch.

In its press material, the company writes, “The new Wear OS experience is designed to feel fluid and easy to navigate. It’s more glanceable than ever with refreshed UI and rich notifications, so you can stay present at home, at work, or on the go. And it delivers the apps you love, like your favorites from Google and others for download in Google Play, made for your wrist.”

Image Credits: Google

All we’ve seen as of this writing, however, are glimpses of what looks to be an extremely minimalist black and white interface. There’s a pop of color in the Assistant demo, which features the weather. The watch face, on the other hand, is straight-up black and white, featuring a number of elements pulled directly from Fitbit.

“It takes time to integrate a company with all the technology and people that Fitbit has,” Google hardware head, Rick Osterloh, says. “This is the first time you see it come to market. We’re really excited about the combination. I’ve personally been a Fitbit user for several years, so I’m thrilled to see this come together. I think it’s going to be a perfect combination.”

The company adds, “Get insights into your health with continuous heart rate and sleep tracking, see your Active Zone Minutes when you’re working out, and track your stats and progress against your personal fitness goals.”

Image Credits: Google

The Fitbit acquisition immediately catapults the product toward the head of the pack of health-focused consumer wearables. The company has made some great strides on that front in the hardware and software departments, including the recent announcement of an always-on A-Fib detection. It will be interesting to see if that makes it into the product at launch.

“[Fitbit CEO James Park] and his team are driving the development of this watch,” says Osterloh. “They bring a ton of expertise in this space and we bring a lot of exptertise with the smartwatch OS with Wear OS. That combination has been incredibly powerful. It helps add capability to Fitbit. It also allows Fitbit to build a very modern smartwatch.”

The executive added that Fitbit devices will continue to be developed under that brand, and that — as promised during the acquisition — health information will be siloed on the Fitbit side.

Image Credits: Google

Naturally, the device sports the standard Google suite of software, including things like Assistant, Maps and Wallet, which will be accessible without a smartphone, courtesy of an optional LTE connection. Naturally, the product will be designed to work better with the Pixel 7 set to be officially unveiled alongside it (including the use of features like Find My Device and smart home control). Interestingly — but perhaps not surprisingly — it won’t work with iOS devices.

I expect/hope Google’s still got some surprises up its sleeve here. It’s got a nice-looking piece of hardware and a wealth of resources from the Fitbit and Google software teams. But all of that and more are going to have to come together in an extremely compelling way to make a splash in the already mature smartwatch market. As for cost, Osterloh says the Pixel Watch will have “premium pricing,” which leads one to believe it will be more expensive than Fitbit’s $200 Versa. Hopefully it will fall somewhere between that and the latest $350 Galaxy Watch.