While in San Francisco this week I got to sit down and chat to Michael Bell, Intel’ vice president & general manager of the new devices group. Other than discussing how his car’s suspension tricks most fitness bands (I found I had a similar problem when riding my horse) and sharing a dislike for gimmicky wearables that tie you into a smartphone infrastructure, he showed me MICA.
MICA is beautiful. We’ll ignore the ridiculous albeit straight forward name for now ( short for My Intelligent Communication Accessory) and drool over the gorgeous design. This “smart” piece of jewellery was designed by Opening Ceremony and brags a water snakeskin surface with the top of the bracelet bejeweled with semi precious stones like Pearls, Lapis, Tiger’s eye and Obsidian.
Turn over your arm and look at your wrist and the tech engineered by Intel comes in. For starters MICA doesn’t need to be paired with a smartphone to work. Collective cheers should be happening round about now. MICA allows you receive text messages, meeting alerts and general notifications. Bell says more functionality and features for MICA are still going to be introduced.
Smart or not – it’s pretty darn sexy. And if you think it may be too big think again. Intel supplied hardware that would allow MICA to be half the size but Opening Ceremony wanted to design it an over sized bracelet as that was what the fashionistas demand!
MICA is only available in the States and costs just under R10 000… Thus why I pulled a rather sad face when it was time for me to give MICA back to Mike.
