Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Will.i be the next big thing?
Rapper hopes his latest smart wristband will dial in the cash , writes DAVID PHELAN
BLACK Eyed Peas front man will.i.am raised eyebrows when he branched out into technology. Last year, when he released his first smart wrist device – the Puls – the critical mauling must have left him wondering, as the song goes, Where is the Love?
But, he remains undeterred. He now spends only about 10 percent of his time on music, he said, devoting the rest to tech and philanthropy.
His Los Angeles HQ, by the way, is called The Future. So, yes, I’ve seen the future – and it’s immaculately designed and populated by people in chic, monochrome outfits, chief among whom is will.i.am himself, who confesses he’s more nervous about showing off his new product than when he performed at the Super Bowl.
Still, tech has been a big part of his life for some time now. In 2008 he appeared as a hologram on CNN, beamed direct into the studio. From 2011 to 2013 he was director of creative innovation at Intel – and during that time, he was the first artist to have a track beamed to Earth from the surface of Mars. So should the launch of his new gadget at a London nightclub be turning our heads? As the man himself might say, “I gotta feeling”.
The Puls was released with a Make it Great public beta testing whereby thousands of customers passed on their tips for improvement. The new wristband is called “the dial” – a name which seems to have mislaid its capital letter – and its most striking feature is that, unlike most wearables, it is a standalone device.
That is, it’s not tethered to a nearby smartphone in order to work, but has a SIM card to connect directly to the mobile phone network or wifi.
Advances over the Puls include a camera, increased battery life, a thinner profile and a screen that is brighter in sunlight. More important, the dial has a software platform of its own. “The dial is the first physical representation of our new platform, AneedA, which is a voice operating system,” will.i.am said.
He demonstrated how you can ask for “flights to London” and, where other gadgets would give you a link to a website, AneedA does something much more wristfriendly, reading out a list of flight options, which suits the 3.80cm screen rather well. It does the same with news. So if you ask, for instance, “What’s up with Donald Trump?”, AneedA reads out a series of headlines, tweets and articles describing the mogul’s latest standing.
Indeed, “What’s up with…?” is one of the key phrases AneedA recognises, though other phrases are available.
But AneedA is sophisticated, too. Say “Play Hello by Adele” and it’ll stream the track to the dial. Then, ask when the next concerts are and it’ll speak a list of them.
“I don’t have to say Adele again,” will.i.am points out. “Obviously I’m still talking about Adele. I ain’t talking about Mary Poppins.” Not every voice recognition set-up can manage follow-up questions. But then, as he makes clear, this is a setup where voice is the operating system, not just a part of it.
So you can dictate texts, or make and receive calls using the supplied Bluetooth earpieces.
A GPS sensor means it can guide you, or measure your run accurately. These are a few of what will.i.am referred to as AneedA’s Skills – which are the next thing after apps, apparently.
“The last paradigm was the apps thing,” he said. “You use a mouse on a computer and apps are for smartphones where the interface is touch. But for this next paradigm, the interface is voice.”
The design of the dial is black, angular and minimalist, with a chunky strap that closes with a manly magnetic click. The battery occupies the rear half of the strap and can be quickly swopped – which is handy, as a single battery may not get you to the end of a long day if the dial is connecting to the internet extensively.
It’s hard to know before the dial properly enters the real world whether it will be a must-buy gadget. But for sure, it’s miles ahead of last year’s model.
And with it comes AneedA, a software platform with considerable ambition. The dial is released in April, exclusive to the Three network, price to be announced. – The Independent