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The Dick Tracy smartwatch era has been an up-and-coming generation for decades, never hitting realization beyond the adoption of a select few. There are a number of contributions, but I can’t help but think that in many ways, they’re trying too hard to do too much. When I first saw the Cookoo watch at CES, first and foremost I thought it looked great as a watch. Just a watch.
Simple and stylish, the Cookoo smartwatch looks great, and in an era where smartphones tell the time leaving watches as fashion statements, looking great is arguably the most important feature.
So where does the “smart” fit in? With simple notifications that alert you when you’ve got e-mails, text messages, Facebook messages, and more. But once again, Cookoo keeps it simple, providing you with the notifications in a stylish manner and otherwise getting out of your way.
The result is a great looking watch with fun/brihgt colors that also add value with notifications and alerts. And that’s the formula for success: not trying to do too much, just being an attractive watch with some basic but helpful mobile integration and functionality. Apple was onto something with the iPod nano watch but for some reason that was nixed, leaving a hole in the market waiting to be filled.
The name “Cookoo” is obviously a reference to the famous clocks but the company also incorporates their name into a packaging gimmick of sorts- the watches come in a birdhouse.
Crack open the birdhouse and not only do you get your watch, but you also get a functional birdhouse that you can actually put in a tree right before you hug it.
I’ve got two main gripes about Cookoo:
- It only works with iOS. While the company is working on an Android version and have told me that they hope to have it working soon, the Cookoo is useless to me until it plays nice with our robot friend.
- The wrist straps are cheap and ugly looking. I love the watch faces, but a more refined wristband would go a long way in my opinion.
Hopefully we’ll see Cookoo get Android compatability soon, because while the smartwatch reality has yet to hit the mainstream, the Cookoo watch is something I can get behind.
I think I’ll hold out for the Pebble. I like that it allows for dismissing calls with the shake of your wrist and seeing the content of texts on the watch face.
Hopes got up!…. Then let down. No android compatibility yet. :-
Does it have to be over wifi or blue tooth?
If a high quality looking watch, something with some quality options on a leather and/or metal band and a conservative look would come out, I’d buy it in a second and pay a premium if it had features along the lines of this watch for Android. Just saying.
I think I’ll just let my pulse notification light let me know.
I’d be all over this if they would make it Android compatible. Also, only if it was at a cheap price like $50ish. It’s basically a cheap watch with very cheap mobile connectivity, which is completely fine, but it’s nothing worth charging an arm and a leg over if they hope to compete with Pebble and all the other big name options. $100 absolute maximum, but it really should be a bit less.
Meh, its a larger 80’s Swatch that tells you what the notification bar on my android tells me. Regardless, I’m pretty sure this thing chews through batteries pretty quickly invalidates any tree hugging you’ve done in the past.
http://simurl.com/dudmun.
Thank you for posting this article about a “smart watch” based on iOS, because the reason I read Android blogs is to hear about devices that run on competing mobile operating systems…