The new startup that manufactured the Onyx push to talk wearable device had announced its $9million fund raising from a Motorola Solution Venture Capital and Avalon Ventures. The Startup is also unveiling the newest version of its Onyx Wearable for Push-To-Talk app-enabled voice communication device which had been compared to Star Trek Communicator Badge.
OrionLabs which now had thousands of people using its wearable devices that was unveiled to the public back in the late 2014 is expected to get fully upgraded to a newer version just in two no the time founder and CEO Jesse Robbins told VentureBeat in an interview.
Motorola’s investment into the new start up would be a sensible approach for both the startup and its target in return.
According to Robbins words, he made it known from his interviews that
“We’re making a consumer product. They have an expensive, large, and incredibly important business, and we are focused on the consumer applications for the smartphone and wearable era,”
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Robbins told VentureBeat.
Now with the speciality of the wearable, the company’s boss had narrated that the device was made to enable people to have a seamless connection with their devices. Now while someone might be on for a camping, sports outing, It would be dry efficient while one wouldn’t need to look directly at their mobile phones according to Robbins.
Upgrades include longer battery life, smaller size, a consolidation of buttons, the move from classic Bluetooth to Bluetooth low energy, and higher-quality sound. In the future, the new version will support end-to-end encryption, Robbins said. There’s also a new metal clip that allows the wearable to be attached to more things, including a keychain, a purse, or even a necklace.
The price is going up, too. The new version will be available for $129, up from $99 for the original version. As before, the Orion app works on iOS and Android.
The team is currently testing out the ability for a personal digital assistant — sort of like Siri or Cortana — to respond to straightforward procedural questions that users ask while holding down a button on the Onyx. For example, the assistant could page a given user or provide a status update. “But it’s really easy to build new stuff,” Robbins said.
Orion Labs started in 2013 and is based in San Francisco. To date, the startup has raised around $16.25 million, including the $6.25 million round from 2014.
A blog post on the new version of Onyx is here. A statement on the funding news is here.
Source: Orion Lab, Venturebeat
