Verizon doesn’t currently sell a lot of “connected”
wearable devices, sticking to the Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 3, Samsung’s
old Gear S3 Frontier and Gear S3 Classic, as well as a carrier-exclusive GizmoKids
line of children-focused products.
The newest member of that family is called the
GizmoWatch, eclipsing the LG GizmoGadget and GizmoPal 2 in terms of capabilities
in a few important ways. First and foremost, this bad boy earns the title of
the “first 4G LTE kid’s watch in the U.S. powered by Qualcomm.” That means it
can make and receive voice calls on Verizon’s high-speed network without
connecting to a phone.
But don’t worry, parents, as you’ll need to manually
approve and individually add each trusted contact in a companion GizmoHub app
for calls to actually go through. There’s a limit of ten contacts for “2-way
voice calls and messaging”, including a number that must be registered as a
primary caregiver.
There are also other ways to keep tabs on young
GizmoWatch wearers, like a GPS locator app that will send you alerts whenever
your child tries to leave a predetermined “safety zone.” You can pause all
watch activity if you feel the device becomes too much of a distraction at
dinner, for instance, or program the thing to switch off automatically during
school hours.
