The next big thing in CES 2014 are the wearables – gadgets that you can easily wear, stylishly don and be more effective, more efficient, and better informed. And here’s one contender which won the Best of CES2014 – People’s Choice – Razer’s Nabu. Why is it so endearing to people? Because of the thoughtful design that went through the prototyping of this amazing gadget. Nabu’s soft-touch form feels natural against your skin, allowing you to wear your Nabu day and night, to sleep and even into the shower.
Imagine you are wearing this compact band out for a night’s out with friends or colleagues. Packed into the Nabu are the accelerometer, altimeter and Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) communication, which enable a new world of interacting with the wearer.
Your Fitness Pal
With the accelerometer, exercise becomes convenient as you track the number of step you took, the calories you burned, and with the altimeter, you could even know how many flight of stairs you climb to burn off those calories as well.
Your Informer – The Discrete Public Screen (32×32 pixel OLED)
With a small little vibration, you will be notified of new updates in your digital world. Simply glance at the top of the band – a convenient, public-safe row of OLED-based icons. They call this the “Public Screen”. What can you be notified about? Text messages, incoming calls, emails, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and the list goes on. Emails notifications take the form of an envelope icon, incoming calls show up as an old-school phone icon and SMS messages appear as a chat bubble icon. When there are no notification, the screen is blacked out and keeps the band discreet.
Your Advisor – The Informative Private Screen (128×32 pixel OLED)
To see the actual content of the notifications, just rotate your wrist conveniently, and you will be able to see the content via the larger, OLED screen, in what they called as the “Private Screen”. You could see at least 3-4 lines of information, so that’s quite a bit of real estate to inform the wearer what’s up in their online world.
Your Collaborator – Nabu to Nabu!
One of the strong features is the special ‘proprietary band-to-band communication technology’ that let the wearer exchange information with other fellow Nabu users, simply by shaking hands or giving a high-five. With this, the possibilities are endless – you could become friends on Facebook, following your new found friend on Twitter or even provide a way to play augmented reality games with him or her.
Developer Kits
As this is a fresh new idea and gadget that’s built on an open development platform, the Nabu is making available a developer kit so that third-party app developers can find ways to embrace and mainstream the Nabu technology. Instant messaging service WeChat would probably be one of the first application developer to support the device with notifications and content.
The Nabu will hopefully launch in this year, with developer kits becoming available in the coming months costing just $50. And yes, it is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. As for power and battery, the Nabu runs off a Lithium-polymer battery, which lasts 7 days between charges, with USB charging cable included in the package.
