Chinese technology conglomerate Xiaomi has unveiled the Mi Band 2, the second iteration of its fitness tracking band. The tracker features an OLED display -- which is touted as resistant to scratches and fingerprints, and helps the wearer track time, notifications, heart rate, calories burned, and number of steps taken among other things. The company says that Mi Band 2 can function for 20 days on a single charge. It is priced at $23. It is currently only available to purchase in China, but the company says it will be launching the wearable in other regions as well. To recall, Xiaomi has already begun selling some of its products in the United States.
Venture Capitalist Bryce Roberts said: "$23. If you're thinking of doing a consumer hardware startup let that sink in a bit."
Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman at Alphabet in an interview said that we need to focus more on the possibilities of advances in biology and medicine as well as AI. But he feels people are spending "all our time arguing about political issues that are ultimately not that important." He urges people to stop doing that and work on things that are transformative. He added:
"We've gone from an era where we thought about solving problems that were very, very big," he said. "We now define them as problems of special interests. Everyone's guilty. I'm not making a particular political point here." Schmidt seemed excited enough about the possibility of medical breakthroughs that Rose asked him: If he was starting over today, would he be more likely to go into computer science or biology? "Both are having a renaissance," Schmidt said.