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Sony’s SmartWatch 2 will hit the streets in September, giving you a new way to interact with your mobile phone without pulling your phone out of the pocket. It’s a wristwatch with a 1.3 inch capacitive touchscreen display which you can use to tell the time, manage phone calls, read email messages, and more.
Word on the street is that Apple will introduce a smartwatch this year. Pebble already offers one, and it seems like every other day a new smartwatch project hits crowd-funding site Kickstarter.
But Sony actually introduced a wristwatch which pairs with your Android phone to let you access music, email, weather, maps, and other data more than a year ago.
Recently the company opened up that device to outside development.
Sony’s second SmartWatch has a better display, longer battery life, more software, and adds support for NFC communications — you should be able to pair it with a smartphone by tapping the two devices together. It also supports Bluetooth, which lets it communicate with your phone.
It’s not a WiFi-capable device, so when your phone isn’t around, the watch will more or less function as… a watch. It’ll still support a few apps and let you read messages that have already been downloaded, but it’s really most useful when you have an internet connection.
The Sony SmartWatch 2 can also function as a remote control for your phone, acting as a remote trigger for the camera, for instance, or controlling music playback or presentations on your phone.
Other features include a mapping app, support for the Runtastic fitness app, Facebook, Twitter, and calendar apps.
The Sony SmartWatch 2 has a 1.6 inch, 220 x 176 pixel display. It’s a transflective LCD screen which should be easier to read in direct sunlight than most smartphone displays. The watch is also water-resistant (which is to say it can withstand a few splashes, but you won’t want to wear it into a swimming pool).
