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January 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

F68 Smart Watch Review

After No.1 D3 and SMA-Q smartwatches, Makibes F68, or just F68, is my third attempt at reviewing a smartwatch, and on paper it matches all of my main requirements namely always-on display, fitness tracking with heart rate monitor, one week of battery life, and IP67 ingress protection rating to have some waterproofness. I’ve already taken pictures of the device, so today I’ll go through the user interface on the watch, and Android app, and report my experience after using the watch for over 10 days. The watch has an e-Paper display with decent viewing angles, and very good readability during the day, however at night, you’ll need to find the light switch or use a torchlight, as the watch does not have backlight at all, and it’s unreadable. There’s actually no buttons at all and everything is controlled via the touchscreen, and/or the app available for Android or iOS. The […]

January 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Hexoskin Smart T-Shirt Keep Tracks of Your Activity with 42,000 Data Points per Minute (Crowdfunding)

There are now many smartwatches with electro-optic hear rate monitors, but based on my short experience so far, if you want something accurate and reliable, you’d still better use a chest trap. Another potentially more comfortable option would be to use Hexoskin Smart T-shirt, and on top of the usual fitness data (step count, calorie burn, distance and heart rate), also measure your breathing rate and volume. The T-shirt also supports Bluetooth Smart to send back all the data to your smartphone or other devices such as bike computers or smart watches. The company already has Bluetooth Classic T-Shirt, but there latest versions will offer longer battery life and Bluetooth 4.2 LE connectivity. Hexoskin T-shirt 2016 specifications: Bluetooth Smart 4.1 connectivity via Cypress EZ-BLE PRoC module Heart rate, RR intervals, fatigue and stress indicator (Heart Rate Variability). Breathing rate and breathing volume. Activity intensity, peak acceleration, steps and cadence. Analog 256Hz […]

January 5, 2016May 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mediatek Unveils MT2523 SiP for GPS Enabled, Bluetooth LE Wearables

Silicon manufacturers are starting to launch ever more integrated solutions specifically designed for wearables, and after Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor unveiled a few days ago, MediaTek has launched MT2623 ARM Cortex M4 System-in-Package (SiP) with GPS, Bluetooth LE, and a MIPI DSI interface. Other details are sparse but here’s what the company disclosed for MT2523: MCU core – ARM Cortex M4 GPU – 2D accelerator supporting true colors, per-pixel alpha channel, anti-aliasing fonts, and 1-bit index color to save memory. Connectivity – Dual-mode Bluetooth Low Energy and GPS Display – MIPI DSI and serial interfaces Integrated PMU Battery Life – More than a week (typical) The SiP’s printed circuit board area is said to be 41% percent smaller than competitors’ solutions. MT2523 will be available to manufacturers in H1 2016, and found in active and fitness smartwatches a little later. Thanks to Nanik for the tip. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software […]

December 23, 2015December 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Makibes F68 is a $35 IP67 Rated Sports Smartwatch with HRM & 7-Days Battery Life

So far my quest for a smartwatch as not been successful, with massive disappointments with both No.1 D3 smartwatch and SMA-Q color e-Paper smartwatch, with the latter completely failing after a week. The next potential candidate is Makibes F68 with similar features as SMA-Q, but instead with a grayscale display, IP67 ingress protection rating which should make it suitable for swimming (apparently not, see comments), as well as a promised 7-day battery life during “normal usage”. Makibes F68 specifications: MCU/Memory/Storage – Not disclosed but it’s supposed to run Nucleus RTOS. Display – 1″ round capacity touchscreen display, 128×128 resolution, always on Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 Sensors – 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope Battery – 180 mAh charged via magnetic connector Dimensions – 38 x38 x 10 mm (aluminum alloy material) Weight – 31 grams IP Rating – IP67 meaning it’s been tested for 30 minutes under one meter of water. The […]

December 22, 2015December 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

SMA-Q Smartwatch Mini Review and Teardown

I had great hopes for SMA-Q smartwatch, as it features an always on color e-Paper display, a built-in heart rate monitor, and promised 30-day standby battery life, as well as being 30-meter water resistant. But last week, I found out that the latter did not mean waterproof, and instead the watch was rated IP65 that’s only good enough to wash hands and a little rain, but not showering let alone swimming. In the last week, I could play with the watch, and found some serious Bluetooth connectivity issues (with Iocean M6752 smartphone), and I was recommended to upgrade the firmware of SMA-Q watch, and after that my Bluetooth issue have somewhat improve, but everything pretty much went downhill, and the watch is now out of order, and shows no sign of life. So while I was expecting to write a full review, I’ll simply report with experience with the watch […]

December 4, 2015October 13, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Cypress Unveils a $49 Solar Powered IoT Development Kit with Bluetooth LE Connectivity

Cypress Semiconductors has recently launched a Solar powered IoT device kit, with the easy-to-remember codename S6SAE101A00SA1002, featuring the company’s CYBLE-022001-00 Bluetooth Smart module, and S6AE101A energy harvesting power management IC (PMIC) on the main board, as well as all accessories such as a small solar panel, a BLE-USB bridge, and all necessary components and cables. Target applications include battery-less wireless sensor node (WSN), IoT device that monitors various sensors, BLE Beacon, wearable device, building energy management system (BEMS), Home EMS, Factory EMSystem, wireless lighting control,wireless HVAC sensor and security system. The main features of the Energy harvesting motherboard include: Cypress CYBLE-022001-00 Bluetooth Smart module with ARM Cortex-M0 @ 48MHz, 128 KB flash, 16KB SRAM Cypress S6AE101A energy harvesting PMIC Sensor – Temperature & humidity sensor USB – 1x USB port for programming and debugging Debugging – SWD (serial Wire Debug) connector, JTAG header for USB-BLE Expansion – Sensor expansion connector […]

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Omate Rise is a $199 3G and WiFi Smartwatch Powered by Mediatek MT2601 SoC (Crowdfunding)

Most smartwatches sold on the western markets are designed to be smartphone’s companions, and only come with Bluetooth LE connectivity, while we’ve seen many smartwatches (aka watchphones) with SIM card slot originating from China in the past, including the lower end No.1 D3 smartwatch which I reviewed recently. But this may be changing, as Omate is going to launch a new smartwatch called Omate Rise that will include 3G connectivity via a micro SIM card slot, as well as WiFi, Bluetooth Smart, and GPS. Omate Rise specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT2601 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.2GHz with ARM Mali-400 MP GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash Display – 1.3″ round muti-touch color display with 360×360 resolution (Innolux) Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.1 LE (A2DP profile), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS Cellular Connectivity – 3.5G HSDPA (2100/1900 MHz), GPRS / EDGE /GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz); micro SIM card […]

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

NanoPi2 is a Tiny Board with Samsung S5P4418 Processor, WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity

FriendlyARM released NanoPi board this summer, a small and inexpensive development board based on Samsung S3C2451 ARM9 processor with both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The company has now unveils a more powerful, and slightly wider, version with NanoPi2 featuring Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor with 1GB RAM, AP6212 wireless module, a new HDMI output, and the same connectors for I/Os and LCD displays. NanoPi2 specifications: SoC – Samsung S5P4418 quad core Cortex A9 processor @ up to 1.4GHz System Memory – 1GB 32bit DDR3 Storage – 2 x Micro SD Slot Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth LE 4.0 via AP6212 module Video Output / Display I/F- 1x HDMI 1.4a, 0.5 mm pitch SMT FPC seat for type-A full-color LCD (RGB: 8-8-8) Camera – 24-pin DVP interface USB – 1x USB Host port; 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port for power and data Expansions Headers – 40-pin […]