The Vatican continues to take great pains to bring Catholic faith into the modern era, and this week it’s transforming the faithful rosary — adapting today’s popular fitness tracker idea into a $110 bracelet that tracks your prayers.
Does praying burn calories? Here’s the pope’s $110 e-rosary
Brought to you by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and Acer
Brought to you by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and Acer
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
No, we’re not joking: this is a real gadget launched at a Vatican press conference whose specs include:
- Six-axis inertial sensing
- Bluetooth 5.0
- IP67 water and dust resistance
- Wireless charging
- a 15mAh lithium-ion battery
- 10 black agate beads and 11 hematite beads
It’s basically an adapted fitness tracker, and it still doubles as a fitness tracker, too:
“Once the prayer begins, the smart rosary shows the user’s progress throughout the different mysteries and keeps track of each rosary completed,” writes Vatican News. It was designed by GadgeTek, a division of computer company Acer, and pairs with an iOS or Android app you can download right now.
Here’s one early review from the Google Play Store:
Good fitness tracker app. Helps me to work out regularly. Didn’t understand how praying works though. Maybe needs some tutorials For now 4/5
It only appears to be for sale through Amazon Italy or Acer’s Italian storefront, but the app is available in English and Spanish as well as Italian.
Remember when Pope Francis blessed an electric racecar? Here are some other interesting intersections between the Catholic Church and technology:
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