Wearable

Realme has announced that its second-gen Buds Air will launch in India on February 24, 2021. It has also confirmed multiple leaks about these TWS earbuds in teasing their specs prior to this event. They include the (expected) ANC, as well as the fact that they will have 10mm "Diamond class" drivers, improved battery life and a low-latency Gaming Mode.

The GSMA has announced that it is currently considering running its flagship conference live and in Barcelona once again, albeit with up to 50,000 in-person attendees. Meanwhile, its Chinese counterpart, MWC Shanghai, is slated to begin on February 23, 2021 with 20,000 such attendees and in accordance with anti-Covid-19 health checks. Its success may determine whether MWC 2021 will return to something like "normality" this year.

Garmin has unveiled the Enduro, a new smartwatch with up to 65 days of battery life. The Enduro has such long runtimes thanks to solar charging technology. Still, it is more than capable in other areas, including GPS tracking, NFC contactless payments and all the fitness functionality one could expect from a Garmin.

Google made its acquisition of the health-tracking household name Fitbit official in January 2021. As if to provide more evidence of this, the Mountain View's online shop now lists products from this brand alongside those of Nest, which it has also absorbed. Therefore, consumers can now buy devices such as the Charge 4 through this Store.

Xiaomi has added several features to the Mi Watch with this month's software update. One of the highlights is Amazon Alexa support, as is the inclusion of a camera shutter button. V1.2.52 is hitting devices globally now as an OTA download.

Realme is rumored to launch its second-gen Buds Air in India soon, in partnership with the Chainsmokers EDM group. These upcoming TWS earbuds have allegedly popped up on an OEM's app early, inadvertently revealing that they have active noise cancellation (ANC). They may also boast features such as Transparency and a Game Mode.

Images of the OnePlus Watch's probable design have been published online, courtesy of the German Patent and Trademark Office. The images show two designs, which are seemingly sports and luxury models of the same smartwatch.

The Deauther Watch V3 is an intriguing smartwatch. Based on an ESP8266 board, the device can hack Wi-Fi networks and can even create fake ones. The Deauther Watch V3 also has a 1.3-inch OLED display and is orderable for US$65.00.

The LS02 smartwatch from Haylou has a simple design and is aimed at price-sensitive buyers. The smartwatch, which has a 1.4-inch display and up to 20 days of battery life, is now orderable for US$25.99, or under US$20 if you are happy to have the device shipped from China.

The WhatsApp privacy policy change, in which the company will oblige users to agree to hand the data they have given it to Facebook, has caused controversy and virtual boycotts worldwide. However, the EU market is effectively immune to these changes. The Indian Supreme Court has argued that this should apply to all markets in which the messaging service is used.

NVIDIA secured an agreement to buy the often-essential chip-design company ARM for ~US$40 billion in late 2020. However, regulators are still scrutinizing it and its ramifications for the tech industry prior to approving it. Now, Qualcomm has sent an official notice of concern over the same with these bodies.

The market research group Above Avalon has studied the fortunes of the Apple Watch series up to 2020, and has put the number of its adopters at 100 million. This would make it the OEM's fourth biggest product, with iPhones, iPads and Macs the only lines to sell better than these wearables. Should this trend continue, they may in fact be able to overtake the PCs by 2022.

The Watch GT 2 series debuted in 2019, so it was only a matter of time before information about a new series of Huawei smartwatches appeared. According to a well-informed source, the Watch GT3 and Watch 3 will feature a host of impressive hardware, and will be part of a major Huawei hardware refresh this year.

The Gocomma W5 retails for a mere US$63.99, and yet it features LTE and GPS connectivity. The W5 has a 1.54-inch display and runs Android 9.0 Pie natively.

What Apple's mixed reality headset looks like remains a secret, but there have already been some hints about the so-called 'Apple Glasses. The designer Antonio De Rosa has taken up the topic and, based on previous leaks, has published photorealistic renders of how Apple's upcoming headset could look.

A new device from Realme has leaked via the regulator TENAA, suggesting that it will launch soon. Based on its model number (RMX3161), it is now thought that it will be the Narzo 30 (or, possibly the 30 Pro). The OEM is hyping the new phone already as a "fan-powered" product.

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei recently unveiled his new company as being called Nothing, which, as he also had no new devices to launch at that time, was pretty apt. Now, however, Pei has confirmed that the new OEM will roll its products out soon, with true-wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds to start.

RedMagic is a brand based on Android gaming phones with the specs and design required for players in this arena. However, it is now slated to branch into smartwatches in 2021, something confirmed by a new FCC listing. It is a round-faced wearable with an AMOLED display and heart-rate monitor.

The S21 is a surprisingly comprehensive package, with Lemfo having equipped it with an LTE modem, GPS and a heart rate monitor, among other features. The S21 supposedly runs Android 10.0 and can access the Google Play Store too, for better or worse.

GoPro has announced its first full-year financial report since it switched to an online retail and subscription-based business model. The customers in question are now just over 760,000 in number, beating the company's most ambitious goal for the year. This may suggest that the action-cam's brand new strategy works, although that is not the full story of GoPro's 2020.

More details have surfaced about Apple’s mixed reality headset including an impression of what it looks like and its eye-watering price tag. If you thought that Apple jumped the shark with the pricing of the Airpods Max at US$500, it pales in comparison to what could be an eye-watering US$3,000 price tag for its new headset.

With the S2, Lenovo has created an affordable smartwatch that includes a lot of features. The Lenovo S2 has a 1.4-inch touchscreen, a real-time heart rate monitor and a purported battery life of up to 7 days.

Samsung marketed the latest generation of their Galaxy Buds with a number of new modes, an Ambient Sound mode being most prominent among them. It is a form of ANC with environmental awareness mixed in. The TWS earbuds' latest updates should improve the hand-off between these two modes.

Sony has released its financial performance report for October to December 2020. They show that the company shipped approximately 4.5 million PS5 units during that time, compared to about 1 million phones. It also posted 208% greater operating profits year-on-year (YoY), even though there were also 2% less sales for this quarter.

SQFMI has released the Watchy on Crowd Supply, having sold out of the open-source smartwatch on Tindie. The Watchy, which was an e-Paper display, can be ordered from US$50 and will begin shipping in May. SQFMI is offering the Watchy with CNC and injection moulded cases this time around.

The Huawei Watch GT 2e has received a new feature courtesy of its latest software update. Huawei also claims that the update improves system stability and fixes some known issues that the Watch GT 2e had.

MediaTek has posted an arguable win by securing a contract with Apple to supply it with components for next-gen audio accessories. Then again, these products are not future AirPods, but those of the Beats series instead. This would be the first incidence of this product line not being made with completely in-house hardware.

Xiaomi has lodged a complaint with a US court against the same country's government for placing it on an investment blacklist earlier in 2021. The company asserts that the action against it is unwarranted, as it is based on an association with the Chinese military which (according to Xiaomi) does not in fact exist. This, in turn, has apparently affected its ability to do business in the electronics market as usual.

SQFMI has brought its open-source smartwatch to market, and for just US$44.99. The Watchy features an e-Paper display and features an ESP32 processor.

The tipster Digital Chat Station claims to have found new premium phones from Meizu on the 3C regulatory website. One might be called the 18 and support 30-watt (W) charging, while the other might be a 40W 18 Pro. However, despite these specs, it is said that the company will follow Apple and Samsung's example in leaving the necessary power bricks out of their retail boxes.

The FCC has published another Amazfit smartwatch certification, albeit one that currently goes by two names. The smartwatch, which has model number A2013, is either the T-Rex Pro or the T-Rex 2. Regardless, the upcoming smartwatch will have a round screen, GPS, automatic training detection and will support music playback.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 has gained some new features courtesy of its latest software update, despite its release in October 2019. The latest firmware, which Huawei has called v1.0.11.20, is a 24.11 MB download and is rolling out to smartwatches now.

Wireless smart tags for possession-tracking seem to be one of the major trends for mobile device OEMs in 2021. According to a new patent application discovered on the CNIPA database, OPPO may be the next to jump onto this bandwagon. Its new Bluetooth tag looks much like that of Samsung's, although there are no indications as yet that the two would work in the exact same way.

The Samsung Health Monitor app has finally acquired the CE mark of approval in Europe. This means that the Galaxy Watch3 can finally use its electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood-pressure monitoring features, as can the Galaxy Watch Active2, across the European Economic Area (EEA). This is also true of the UK, UAE, Chilean and Indonesian markets.

A first leak of Xiaomi Mi Band 6-related specifications has offered up a goldmine of information about the upcoming budget fitness tracker – apart from its release date and probable price. However, Xiaomi’s habits with previous Mi Band launches and the state of the wearables market offer up some useful clues for predictions.

A report out of South Korea has claimed that both Apple and Samsung are preparing to include a blood glucose monitor in their upcoming 2021 smartwatch releases. This means that an Apple Watch 7, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, or Galaxy Watch Active 3 could end up being fitted with a vital, and non-invasive, sensor for checking glucose levels.

The Redmi Watch - or Mi Watch Lite for global markets - has been spotted on the BIS regulatory documentation, hinting that it will launch in India soon. It is slated to be the Redmi-branded version as it has been registered under that name. By any name, it has a 1.4-inch square face, 5ATM water resistance and up to 9 hours of battery life.

The first details of the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 have been posted online, and it seems likely there will be a global variant called the Mi Smart Band 6. The upcoming activity tracker has all the features that the Mi Band 5 offers but with additional utilities, such as SpO2 tracking (blood oxygen level measurement) and Alexa support. The Mi Band 6 may have a larger display too.

The Realme Buds Q are TWS earbuds that launched for about US$30 in 2020. Now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has inadvertently confirmed that their second generation is likely to launch soon. They have been registered as Bluetooth devices with black and fluorescent green colorways.

As TSMC pushes ahead with their plans for 3nm FinFET lithography, Samsung's reportedly investing over US$10 billion in an Austin, TX facility to take their own 3nm manufacturing strategy forward.

Huawei has trademarked the name 'Nova Watch' in China. Undoubtedly, this suggests that the Chinese company plans to release at least one smartwatch as part of a new series soon. Huawei reserves Nova for its mid-range smartphones, so it may have a new midrange smartwatch in the offing.

The OnePlus Watch is coming to India, according to a new regulatory certification posted by a well-known tipster. It has been presumed that this wearable would have a round face; however, the new registration specifies 2 variants with different model numbers. Therefore, a square-faced option from OnePlus might be back on the cards.

Realme's first-ever smartwatch was an Apple Watch clone, whereas its second had a round face and a Pro variant. A new FCC registration reveals the OEM has gone back to a square face for its next wearable. It has an on-trend blood oxygen monitor, as well as "dynamic" heart-rate tracking and IP68 ingress-protection.

Huawei has updated the Watch GT 2 Pro once again, this time with general system stability improvements. The update follows the release of the New Year Edition that Huawei announced last week. There is a New Year Edition of the Watch Fit, too.

Carl Pei is well known as the co-founder of the successful smartphone brand OnePlus. However, he has since left this company with plans to start another. It will launch on January 27, 2021; in the meantime, Pei has tweeted that he is giving 10 MacBook Airs with the new M1 chipset away, presumably to drive hype for his own new products.

The High Court of Seoul, South Korea has sentenced Lee Jae-yong, who had held a key role at the electronics giant Samsung, to 2.5 years in jail. The court has ruled that the executive has been involved in leveraging political influence to lock down power within the company. Its decision will reportedly be appealed at a later date.

The OPPO Band is a 2020 fitness tracker with a blood-oxygen sensor that launched in China for about US$31. Now, it has reportedly acquired an EEC certification, which suggests that it may go on sale in Russia soon. Therefore, this could this be the first of further global releases for the device.