Puls cuff severs smartphone-wearable tether

A wrist-mounted smart device called Puls that connects directly to telephone networks has been unveiled.

Pop singer turned technology entrepreneur Will.i.am has launched the Puls smartcuff – Source: i.am+ Puls is built by i.am+, a US design company founded by Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am. Commenting on the new product he says: 'This is not a watch, by any means. Watches do not have SIM cards. This is a new type of communication.'

The device can connect to the internet, send text messages and make phone calls directly following inputs to its curved touchscreen.

To emphasise Puls's difference from existing smartwatch formats, it is being marketed as a smartcuff.

Independence

As major smartphone makers like Motorola, Apple and Samsung has come to dominate the burgeoning smartwatch market they have chosen to sell the devices as interfaces to their handsets. A key component of this is to use short-range Bluetooth connections to allow the wearable device to access the Internet using the phone's antennas.

Puls has been built with its own WiFi and 3G antennas, allowing it to be independent of any such tethering. This has increased its size and critically users will need to buy a separate data plan with a service provider - AT&T in the US, or O2 in the UK.

Smartcuff

The Puls will be made available for sale before Christmas 2014 at a base price of $499(€390). It has 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a curved battery that delivers a modest five hours of power.

The device is designed to integrate into a suite of electronically-augmented garments made by i.am+. This includes a charging jacket that when in contact with the cuff can power it for two and a half days, a back pack with built-in speakers for the pre-installed music streaming service, and shoes that incorporate a pedometer.

Producing a non-smartphone dependent smartwatch is a bold move. Tethering is a restriction, though it is not a major one as the vast majority of customers who buy a smartwatch are likely to already be heavy smartphone users. Thus an independent platform has little appeal - especially when the unboosted battery life is so limited - and may be no more successful than Will.i.am's previous hardware offering, a $475 iPhone case and camera with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

By John Nelson, follow John on Google+

Puls cuff severs smartphone-wearable tether

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