By Soumya Raj:
Sean Connery did it. Roger Moore did it. Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig did it. They all portrayed the legendary spy James Bond in a series of movies and used the iconic spy gear that has made the hearts of many tech hungry individuals throb with desire — the watch that did it all. And now, all of them can soothe the itch because a team of four from India, the youngest of them being Siddhant Vats, aged only 18, have designed the first ever fully functional smartwatch operating on Android, called Androidly.
Androidly is the world’s smallest Android device and takes manageability to the next level. It looks elegant and sleek, and is a storehouse of features, enabling an experience where you no longer have to worry about skipping a call in the middle of a meal, losing a watch during a crowded party or missing out on any important updates and urgent notifications. Androidly’s dimension is a mere 6.4 x 4.2 x 1.4 cm, which is about as big as an average sized matchbox with a powerhouse of qualities that only make your organization’s portability as easy as being wrapped around your wrist. Androidly makes phone calls through the watch’s speakerphone and a Bluetooth enabled headset when provided with a SIM, has a built in WiFi, GPS navigator, accelerometer and a USB device on the strap and also has a 2 MP camera to capture moments as you go. Androidly’s developer, Siddhant, calls it a “Digital Limb”, it transcends through usage to become a part of your routine, fashioning itself in such a way that it becomes an indispensable part of your life. Since the device is integrated with Android operating system, over 100,000+ apps can be downloaded into it through the Google Play Store; moulding it in a format that is fashioned according to the patterns of the user’s preferences. Androidly runs on Froyo, which is Android version 2.2. Although by no means the latest version, it is just apposite to smoothly run the concise smart watch. With a proper working connection, Androidly runs on 2.5G internet and keeps the Twitter and Facebook alerts, news updates, stock tickers and headlines coming your way efficiently. One can also stream media, such as songs, important documents, PDF files, videos to other integrated devices via Bluetooth.
Although a lot of brainstorming and engineering by many gizmo giants (such as Pebble and Sony) has already gone into the concept of “smart-watches”, Androidly has beaten them all in designing the one that works independently and self sufficiently without having to be latched onto a primary device to run. The apparatus was launched just a week after Apple announced its very own concept of iWatch, thus beating companies like Samsung, Apple and Google in the smartwatch race. Siddhant Vats, one of the co-founders and CMO of team Androidly Systems, has shown remarkable calibre as a manager and an innovator. A self taught inventor and an epitome of humility, he has been quoted as referring to these tech giants as his inspiration, rather than terming them as Androidly’s competitors. Siddhant believes in open source technology and has decided not to patent the apparatus’s design or concept. Not only has he made it to the list of the top hundred most influential business leaders world over, he is also the youngest member/speaker ever on board the Horasis Business Summit conducted at Belfast, Ireland, and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). A love for the miniscule and technology and the drive to make human life simpler has been the impetus behind Siddhant’s success at a very tender age.
Androidly looks like a very promising candidate in the ongoing technical revolution. As I ponder about all the times I’ve lost my gadgets, I breathe a sigh and thank team Androidly for this innovation. Marrying affordability with convenient technology, it is priced at just £ 150 on Kickstarter and the Androidly site, www.droid.ly in the colours grey, white and black. First we had the invention of the cellphone and now we have this radically designed smartwatch, Androidly just might be the mirror reflecting the revolution about to burn up the technological front worldwide.