The Black Eyed Peas artist William Adams, ‘Will.i.am’ as everyone knows him, is back in the wearable business once again. The rapper has been working in the space of technology since a long while now. In 2014, the singer launched wearable device known as Puls. He also tried his hands on a series of exclusively designed iPhone cases. Both the new products failed to leave a mark, but it certainly hasn’t stopped the solo artist from coming up with the latest timepiece, a smartwatch known as the Dial.

The Dial is a self-contained wearable device that requires SIM card, which will be exclusively available in the UK on THREE. It starts at £22 / month with an upfront fee of £49, or £25 / month with one-off payment of £19.

That’s right, in order to get the Dial, you’ll need to grab a separate and new contract. Unlike most smartwatches available in the market, this smartwatch by Will.i.am doesn’t require a phone tethering. That’s because the wearable arrives with SIM, allowing you to text, access the internet, and call with nothing but the wearable present on your wrist.

The smartwatch by Will.i.am is being claimed as a voice-first wearable with its personal virtual assistant, AneedA. Similar to Alexa, Cortana, and Siri, the motive behind the Digital Assistant is that you can fetch information and perform tasks even when your hands are occupied. However, the manner how AneedA will work as compared to the high-end alternatives mentioned above is a mystery, at least for now. According to the Three, the digital assistant can learn and modify a response to each consumer accordingly. The internet service provider also claims that this piece of technology will make the traditional form of internet search on mobile, irrelevant.

These are just big claims for now, which we’re certainly skeptical of since the flop performance of the Puls. In fact, early in 2015, it was criticized as “riddled with problems” and a “wearable nightmare” by the media.

However, its successor has a fantastic trick to win the client base back. The Dial gives an access to free music streaming. Powered by the service, 7Digital, the smartwatch by Will.i.am has a stock of more than 20M soundtracks in ad-free version. There are absolutely no subscription charges or promotional periods either to worry about. The data spent on streaming will be written off as well, so there is no chance of hitting the monthly internet cap. It’s a bonus, but are you willing to gamble on Will.i.am’s latest stint, again?

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