Introducing its next pair of entrants into the wearable markets, Sony debuted its Android-powered SmartWatch 3 and an e-ink smartband at IFA 2014 in Berlin.
The SmartWatch 3 completes the line's transition to full Android support, as the latest smart watch in the series runs on Google's Android Wear platform. The two previous entries into the line ran on Sony's in-house micro OS, though they supported interaction with Android devices.
The SmartWatch 3 is stocked with 4 GB of internal storage and 512 MB of RAM. The watch runs on a 1.2-GHz Snapdragon processor that pushes a pixel resolution of 320 x 320 to the watch's 1.6-inch display.
Anticipating Android Wear's support for local navigation, which is said to be arriving soon, the SmartWatch 3's inclusion of a GPS chip enables wearers to track runs without the assistance of a smartphone. The smart watch also includes an accelerometer to track progress and a compass to make sure steps are headed in the right direction.
Wearers of the SmartWatch 3 can set their runs to music, streaming audio from its 4 GB of storage to Bluetooth headsets. And when the watch and a paired smartphone are within range of one another, the SmartWatch 3 will offload some of that time spent looking at Twitter and Facebook notifications by delivering the content to the wrists of wearers.
Sony's SmartBand Talk wearable is a high-octane fitness band that offers a bit more functionality than most of its contemporaries, employing a 1.4-inch e-ink display that sips power while delivering text to wrists. The SmartBand features HD call support so that wearers can place short phone calls -- Sony says the SmartBand voice support can also be used to bookmark events with assigned sounds.
Both the SmartBand Talk and SmartWatch 3 are waterproof and each wearable also can report data to the LifeLog platform via the LifeLog fitness app that Kunimasa Suzuki, CEO of Sony Mobile Communications, says is at the core of Sony's wearables experience.
"Life is a journey, and journeys are made up of stories and experiences that define you -- this is the underlying principle for Lifelog, the Android app at the heart of our SmartWear Experience. We're going beyond mere fitness tracking and number crunching, to help you log and preserve those emotional moments that matter," says Suzuki. "As a pioneer of smart and wearable technology, SmartBand Talk, SmartWatch 3 and Lifelog don't merely affirm Sony's leadership in the space, but as the innovators who dare to be different -- bringing the world choice; products and services no else can, or will."
The LifeLog app tracks daily activity and presents it in a digital timeline, telling users where they were when they took a particular photo, hit a certain fitness goal, or played a specific game.
