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Perhaps “smartbracelet” is not a term your regular word processor recognizes or can find synonyms to. However, you’d better get used to it quickly, especially if you are a woman. Presented at the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Alley yesterday, the MEMI smartbracelet will soon make its entrance on the market, as one of those women-targeted gadgets that go beyond fashion. Without a doubt, MEMI is also incredibly useful, as it is able to solve some of the issues the male-driven tech world hadn’t been able to solve thus far. For instance, as most women can tell you, they wear purses and are used to carrying their cell phones in said purses.
Sure, you may be able to find women who prefer shoving their large, expensive smartphones in the pockets of their jeans, but they’re more of an exception, really. So, from a woman’s point of view, keeping one’s cell phone in one’s purse is the safest way to carry it around. Also, what about noisy, crowded places? It often happens that you don’t hear your phone ring or receiving text messages. In order to solve this apparently banal issue (but, oh, so important for those not obsessed with checking their phones every other two minutes), the MEMI smartbracelet simply alerts the woman wearing it that there is communication activity going on with her phone, by subtly vibrating around her wrist.
Here’s what Sarah Perez, has to say about the gadget in her coverage for TechCrunch. Incidentally, Perez wanted to buy the device right away, on the spot. She also got the opportunity to talk to the woman behind this ingenious project – Margaux Guerard.
[quote]The best thing about the MEMI bracelet […] is that it doesn’t look like a “wearable device.” It looks like jewelry. It’s a tad heavier than a similarly-styled bracelet I have at home, but the weight, explains Guerard, is something they’ve been experimenting with. She says that when testing prior, lighter versions, some of the feedback they received from women was that bracelets that were too light felt “cheap.” So the MEMI, which will be available in gold and silver, is designed with aesthetics in mind. It’s the kind of thing you might buy for yourself anyway, even if it didn’t come with its included smarts. And when someone sees the bracelet dangling on your wrist, they don’t immediately know it’s a device. Which is cool.[/quote]
The MEMI smartbracelet kills two birds with one stone: it offers women a way of keeping their phones safely tucked away in their purses, but also allows them to be reachable. To boot, it elegantly solves the style issue: most wearable gadgets currently on the market are impossible to wear with an evening dress or a cocktail party outfit. The MEMI smartbracelet, although functionally limited, in comparison with smartwatches and other futuristic devices, is a great idea. It will be available for pre-orders for $150, which is quite a good price for a hi-tech style accessory.
