Today, Glide unveiled CMRA, an industry-first smart watchband for Apple Watch featuring two HD cameras for seamless photo and video capture directly from your wrist.
The CMRA wristband is the brainchild of former Apple Watch engineer, Shawn Grening, and Glide CEO, Ari Roisman, who began developing the product together at Glide in June 2015.
The dual-camera band equips Apple Watch with the same camera capabilities as a smartphone—a self-facing camera for photos and video chat and an outward-facing camera for the amazing and unexpected moments you share with the world.
“Life’s spontaneous moments happen fast and are easy to miss. Having a camera instantly accessible on the wrist makes capturing and sharing incredibly simple and convenient,” said Ari Roisman, CEO of Glide. “As smartwatches become independent of the phone, wrist cameras will become commonplace for capturing memories and communicating visually. We are thrilled to be the first to deliver on this long-awaited vision—something science fiction has imagined for over half a century.”
With CMRA’s dual high-definition cameras, Apple Watch users will soon experience:
• Instant photo and video capture: Snap a hi-res photo or capture HD video from the 8-megapixel outward-facing camera and 2-megapixel self-facing camera.
• Photo and video chat from the wrist: Snap a selfie or share live video directly from your wrist with a single tap. CMRA enables futuristic, science-fiction-like visual communication on your watch. It’s fast, natural and feels like magic.
• Immediate sharing, robust storage and all day battery: Photos and videos captured with CMRA can be shared instantly on popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Glide’s visual messenger, all directly from the CMRA Apple Watch app. Photos and videos are saved to the device’s 8GB embedded memory that holds thousands of photos. Embedded rechargeable battery lets you capture hundreds of photos or more than 30 minutes of live video on a single charge.
• Capture without compromise: CMRA users can capture life’s moments hands-free, with no need to retrieve, hold, or stare through a phone. CMRA is designed to facilitate quick, natural capture and sharing of everyday moments, without interruption.
• Seamless integration: CMRA is Bluetooth and WiFi enabled for rapid and seamless media transfer to iPhone or the cloud. Photos and videos, captured on the CMRA Apple Watch app, automatically sync to your iPhone’s camera roll.
• Stylish functionality: The durable, splash-resistant elastomer bands are soft and flexible and come in four colors: blue, black, white and a limited-edition gray.
• Simultaneous charging: CMRA comes with a thoughtfully designed charging stand that simultaneously charges your Apple Watch and CMRA band. In addition, the CMRA charging stand includes an embedded battery that holds enough power to charge both your Apple Watch and CMRA two times on a single charge.
• Companion app: CMRA is controlled by the CMRA app, available for download from the App Store. CMRA owners will also be able to use additional Apple Watch Apps offering camera functionality through the CMRA Developer SDK. Photo and video apps supporting CMRA will be announced soon.
CMRA is now available for pre-order starting at $149 with plans to ship beginning Spring 2017. The CMRA band is available for pre-order starting today at a discounted launch price of $149 for a limited time at http://getcmra.com. Afterward, CMRA will be available for pre-order online for $199. CMRA will then be available in stores at a $249 MSRP.
CMRA will open its SDK to select developers later this year. Developers can apply for early access to the hardware and SDK at: getcmra.com/developers
MacDailyNews Take: Hello, Dick Tracy!
We’re looking to get our hands on a CMRA wristband to review ASAP.
Nice.
Apple Watch will FAIL! Right Fitbit? Right? FU naysayers. With this new CMRA band the rest are TOAST. The blackest form of burnt TOAST…
http://finance.yahoo.com/m/0817c333-b2be-3a2f-93f2-3e8e611b0003/ss_fitbit-shocks-wall-street.html
How much of that money are you getting?
What will you be saying when/if they come out with the Android version?
As a former Apple Watch engineer, he is in no hurry at all.
BTW, here at MDN, we read first THEN, we watch the clip if clip there is…
I went directly to CMRA’s site. No Android version was mentioned. Why would I give a crap about yahoo finance, I’m not an investor, I care about tech, not finance.
Umm… an “Android” version? Android doesn’t define how OEMs implement changeable bands… that’s completely up to the OEM, which means they are all incompatible. Furthermore, Samsung is the next largest smart watch maker and it runs Tizen, not Android.
Looks like Android is already effectively included. Glide’s app is available for android devices. Been available for Android Wear since 2/2016.
Android follows whilst Apple leads.
If I’m not mistaken CMRA made this product…
ooh, this is kinda cool.
Apple – buy that company fast.
This is a game changer.
It effectively has failed. The entire “industry” has failed. For all the hoopla, the only segment that works is fitness and that’s a smaller market than AppleTV. Demand is completely lackluster. Nothing about smartwatches has captured the imagination of consumers outside the geek-sphere. Applications like this might help, somewhat, eventually.
http://www.businessinsider.com/smartwatch-and-wearables-research-forecasts-trends-market-use-cases-2016-9
Wow! GREAT commercial! I don’t know about the product and how it might ding battery life or how great it works, but that’s a cute and funny commercial and I kinda like the spelling of CMRA. I’m guessing that CamRa was already taken.
Good luck to them and we’ll wait for actual user reviews and pricing info.
And this is less creepy than the Google Glass how?
uh, it’s not on your face as a third eye?
An eyeglass wearer turning their head to look at you is pretty normal. A person clasping their watch wristband while holding their watch arm up at a particular angle is just a tad more obvious.
A Glasshole wearer turning his/her (only seen them on guys) head to look at you is creepy. It is very obvious and you never know if the damn things are recording.
From the looks of things, I could just fold my arms together at my chest and shoot away like mad. *Very discreet*.
Unlike the Google Glass, it’s not at all obvious you’re shooting images with the thing — that’s what makes it creepy, not the aesthetics of wearing the thing.
A real boon to locker-room Peeping Toms.
Google Glass made you look like a dick.
If it works, this is more discrete.
Being “discreet” makes it even more creepy.
When I first heard of this, what C++ said is the first thing that popped into my head.
In Japan there was a law passed to require cellphones to make a sound when taking a picture to prevent people from taking unwanted shots discretely. I wonder if the band will do the same.
On a different matter, how does this band affect the water-resistance of the wearable?
Also, there is the distinct possibility of a social backlash (like what happened with GoogleGlass users when some got caught surreptitiously filming others without permission, or people thought they were doing that) and if there is, it is probably going to be Apple that gets hit with the fallout… not the watchband maker.
Glass got banned in some places
Thank you for agreeing with me.
“more discrete” is exactly the problem, not the aesthetics. Or did that go right over your head?
…thought some more about your comment, I changed my mind, I think you’re right…it’s just too surreptitious mocking a regular watchband.
Change your ‘C’ to ‘S’ idiot.
As in Shinola…
CMRA is Bluetooth and WiFi enabled
Both! Remarkable visual design. Quite reasonable cameras for the tiny size. Want.
Really happy w/ the Glide implementation of this– it looks fantastic *BUT* why hasn’t Apple done this?? It seems like a no brainer for Apple to at least offer this feature as an add-on?
MDN take: “We’re looking to get our hands on a CMRA wristband to review ASAP.”
Regrettably, so is Anthony Wiener. And as Joe Biden said, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAcO5TacXVU
is it waterproof