Wearable Tech has Evolved! Review: Vufine+

Google Glass was an evolution in the wearable display industry, but due to its faults it never really was considered as an option. But Vufine of Kickstarter fame hopes to reignite the interest in what Google Glass had pretty much killed off, the head-mounted display with its newest detachable wearable display, the Vufine+ . Will it be a success, that's for you to decide?

The Vufine+, launched on Kickstarter last week, doesn’t attempt to do all of the social networking, notification flagging, and voice-controlled interactions which Google tried to persuade us in its Glass. Instead, it brings video from your phone, laptop, drone, or pretty much anything that has the relevant ports closer to your eyes.

Remember it's a wearable display and not a standalone wearable tech similar to your smartwatches.

In the Box

The box which I received was not in any condition I could even click pictures of it. So here's a picture of the box as appeared on Pokde.net. Luckily my box contained all the contents as specified.

So, The Vufine+ comes along with a number of accessories such as a Headband Mount which is rather useful if you do not wear glasses and do not want to wear one. Then it includes a standard HDMI cable and a micro-USB charging cable. The package also included an HDMI-to-lightning port adapter that may allow you to connect the Vufine+ to an Apple device.

The package also included some mounting docks. For the best experience, I would recommend the magnetic dock that allows you to pivot the Vufine+ to your comfort. If you wear thin metal band glasses, there is another accessory i.e. a metal clip. This metal clip elegantly slides on to your metal frame glasses and mounts the Vufine+ magnetically to it.

Moving on there are also a pair of non-prescription glasses and are the best to mount the Vufine+ as it's designed to fit the Vufine+ perfectly. You could take these glasses to your optician and get a custom prescription lens cut out to its size as an option. These glasses are very lightweight, making them rather comfortable to wear.

And finally, it included the L-shaped gadget i.e. the Vufine+ itself that has an LCD at one end and two ports at the other: the first, microUSB, is used to charge up the battery, which is good for around 90 minutes of solid use. The other, a mini HDMI, hooks up the Vufine+ to an external video source, and on the back is the power button. It weighs about 26g and has a dimension of 96mm (W) x 20mm (H) x 14mm (D) making it very lightweight and portable. There is a power button at the back of the unit, a round magnet in the center and a 21mm diagonal display that churns out the video output projection to the viewer.

My Experience

So before you start, the first and most important thing that you need to identify, is whether your device supports HDMI output or not. If you are using a GoPro or an iPhone, there will be no problems connecting to the Vufine+. I plugged it onto my laptop, powered it up and BOOM! An additional extended screen is now projected to my glasses! I used it to watch some videos while chilling on my couch! And I have to mention, I was pretty impressed with the picture quality. Moving on to gaming on you PC, it's definitely a no-go!  With that being said I struggled to find things on my laptop to use the Vufine with.

It's definitely something to be considered by the drone enthusiasts and extreme sports athletes like having your drone's video feed being streamed to your eye or having a GoPro plugged into it to show you what's behind you if you're a cyclist. It could also be useful for skilled trades workers such as mechanics, carpenters, exterminators, and other jobs that require you to see some inaccessible places.

With that being said the Vufine+ is not heavy and it's easy to use for long hours. At first, you might find it a little awkward to have a device hooked to your head/near your eyes, but it gets normal eventually. Once you have mounted it, you can extend the display to the center to find the best viewing position, after which you can pivot it to the top or bottom of the glasses where you will find it the most comfortable. The battery lasted me for well over an hour of continuous usage – which is rather noteworthy!

It's surely not an accessory for everyone, but if you've ever wanted a way to keep an eye on drone footage, remotely see your camera's viewfinder, or interact with your gadgets more discretely, it's an effective way of doing that. I’d love to see the company add wireless streaming options for better portability in its coming versions. Until then, the Vufine+ is well worth the purchase but not for everyone!

The Vufine+ launched on Kickstarter last week for $179 in a variety of colors, while the retail price will be $199 soon. So if you're planning on getting them, get them now!

Check out the Kickstarter
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Computex 2016: Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Wear 1100 platform With LTE for Wearables

Qualcomm has announced its latest processor for its Snapdragon Wear platform called the Snapdragon Wear 1100. Unlike the Snapdragon Wear 2100 that was shown off in February, which is meant for multi-purpose devices such as smartwatches, the Snapdragon Wear 1100 is targeted at performing specific functions.

Unlike the Wear 2100 SoC, the Wear 1100 SoC is more focused on simpler devices like fitness trackers. Apart from LTE, it also comes with support for WiFi and Bluetooth. Qualcomm has partnered with several companies like Aricent, Borqs, Infomark, and SurfaceInk providing reference software platforms in order to bring this new tech into the market.

The Snapdragon Wear 1100 SoC also brings slow power mode called Power Save Mode (PSM), a much needed in smartwatches today. Companies like Anda Technologies, inWatch and WeBandz announced plans to bring wearable products targeted for kids and elders using the Qualcomm chipsets alongside the reference platforms available.

Speaking at the keynote, Senior Director and Business Lead of Smart Wearables at Qualcomm, Pankaj Kedia spoke about the bright future of wearables and internet of things (IoT) in general. "We are truly excited about the wearable space by customer category, by OS, by product category," he said. Kedia concentrated on five key factors for the Snapdragon Wear 1100 platform. Small size, low power, smart sensing, always-on connectivity week long LTE standby, hardware based security and next-gen GPS. Snapdragon Wear 1100 is targeted to unleash the Kids smartwatch segment, he said.

The Snapdragon 1100 SoC joins the already existing Qualcomm portfolio available for wearables. Qualcomm has already introduced Snapdragon Wear 2100, CSR102x Bluetooth Smart 4.2 SoC, and Qualcomm SiRFStar location into the wearable market. The company claims that more than 100 wearable products are now available with processors from Qualcomm.

Qualcomm processors are synonymous with flagship smartphone with almost all OEMs across the globe. The IDC reports that wearable shipments increased by 171 percent last year. It grew from 28.8 million to 78.1 million units last year, and Qualcomm understandably wants to make the most of this acceleration.

The Snapdragon Wear 1100 measures 79 square mm, houses an ARM Cortex A7 processor, has a Cat 1 modem, supports Linux and RTOS and supports hardware level security. The chipset will start shipping on 31 May.

Apart from Qualcomm, Asus also unveiled a host of products at Computex. The company took the wraps off the Zenfone 3 (three variants), Zenbook 3, and the Asus Zenbo Household Robot with voice control.

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