Officially unveiled this morning at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona after a few months of teases, the OnePlus Watch 2 does get some points for originality.
Battery continues to be the lowest hanging fruit in the smartwatch world.
Like the Apple Watch, OnePlus’ Watch 2 has a Power Saving Mode.
The company notes,WearOS apps and the Always On Display will not work when the device is in Power Saving Mode.
Other features such as calling, messaging, and exercise modes will still work on Power Saving Mode however some of their more power intensive functions will be limited to preserve battery life, eg.
TikTok’s latest viral superstar is Reesa Teesa, a Georgia woman who posted 50 videos — just under 10 minutes long apiece — chronicling her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband.
But Reesa’s videos marked the first time that I went for a walk while listening to TikToks, my phone tucked away in my pocket.
“The series, ‘who the f— did I marry,’ is not something that you have to sit down and hold your phone and watch,” Reesa said in a TikTok on Wednesday.
But Reesa is taking advantage of TikTok’s playlist feature, which transitions from one video to the next in order.
When we watch Reesa do mundane things in her TikTok “audiobook,” she subtly signals to us that no matter how bad things got with her ex-husband, she’s still standing.
All smartwatches should offer multiple days of battery life, full stop.
According to a blog post, the company took a “three-year hiatus and a reflective pause following the OnePlus Watch 1.”Battery is precisely the sort of thing OnePlus needs to lean into.
That said, it doesn’t take hours of direct conversations with users to know that battery life is paramount on smartwatches.
Perhaps leaning into battery life in a meaningful way will improve its fortunes for round two.
That said, anything that re-centralizes the importance of better battery life is probably a net positive for the category.
Nielsen today released its January report on viewing usage across linear TV and streaming, which revealed that YouTube is once again the overall top streaming service in the U.S., with 8.6% of viewing on television screens.
The new data points to YouTube’s dominance in the TV streaming arena and marks 12 consecutive months of the platform being in the top spot.
HopeScope, a creator who reviews viral products, notably saw a 172% jump in TV watch time in 2023.
YouTube has reached a few other milestones in recent months, including the 100 million users who pay for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
Additionally, YouTube TV now has more than 8 million subscribers and YouTube Shorts recently achieved over 70 billion daily views.
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Apple’s Vision Pro launch resembles its Apple Watch debut in more ways than one, but to me the most telling similarity is in the marketing approach.
The company took the same approach with the Apple Watch, which like its face computer cousin, was more or less a solution in search of a problem when it originally debuted.
But the iPhone debuted with a much more focused, and much more accurate idea of what it would become for users than the Apple Watch did.
The Vision Pro, I’d argue, is even more adrift from how and why people will come to appreciate it.
It’s terrible at a lot of other things – chief among them being the next big thing in the vein of personal computing or mobile.
Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 sales will be halted again in the U.S. starting at 5 PM tomorrow, January 18, due to the rejection of a bid by Apple to have the sales ban paused throughout its appeal of an ITC decision that found its blood oxygen feature infringe on patents by medical tech company Masimo.
Meanwhile, Apple has another route available to avoid a halt: U.S. Customs said earlier in the week that it would consider a software update that disabled Apple Watch blood oxygen sensing features to put the devices beyond the scope of the ITC ban, which means the company could effectively keep selling them if it pushes a firmware update to turn off all the pulse oximetry stuff.
Apple’s appeal will still continue, however, and this doesn’t mean they won’t eventually win that, which would allow for a resumption of sale with the blood oxygen features included.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow when that 5 PM ET deadline hits.
For those keeping track, this means the current Apple Watch models have now been removed from sale, resumed sales, and are pending another sales stoppage, all in under a month.
Axiom Space is gearing up to launch its third fully private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.
Per NASA rules, all private missions to the ISS must be led by a former NASA astronaut.
Houston-based Axiom’s first private mission launched in April 2022 and the second followed in May 2023.
But Axiom is not stopping at private astronaut missions — as if that wasn’t ambitious enough.
Instead, the company aims to eventually attach commercial modules to the ISS, that Axiom owns and operates, which would detach by the end of the decade to become a free-flying Axiom Space Station.
But a French startup is going further, allowing bivalves like clams, mussels, and oysters to act as all-natural water quality inspectors.
The company began as a research project some 15 years ago at the University of Bordeaux.
As largely stationary filter feeders, they are quite in tune with their surroundings, and their habits are affected by things like temperature, pollution, and so on.
The molluSCAN-eye system won’t replace traditional water monitoring, but as a living part of the water ecosystem, its health and the health of its surroundings are closely linked.
Quinault is hoping that municipalities and natural resource authorities will shell out for the tech as a totally natural, harmless, and low-touch way to watch their waterways.
The product is a relief within the constant buzz of notifications and fitness goals and the relentless race against time.
Bring on the AIThe company uses its AI back end to learn the wearer’s biorhythms and can send gentle personalized vibrations to remind you to calm the hell down, already.
“I would like to see if her heart rate heart is going into certain zones that might be worrying.
He also points out that the company is seeing increased interest in B2B sales, especially in stress management and scientific research.
I love a good oddball curveball company, and it was interesting to see the company continue to grow and evolve.
