For all the product variations from tracker company Misfit, the core product has always been in the shape of a disc. Until now. At CES, Misfit, recently acquired by the Fossil Group, introduced the Ray -- a 12mm by 38mm aluminum tube. It performs the same function as the flagship Shine 2, but with a tubular form and a single multi-color LED instead of a flat disc with a … [Read more...]
About Dan Rosenbaum
Garmin Goes Tactical With New Tactix Bravo: CES Day -1
Garmin has done a great job segmenting the fitness band market from the most casual user to the most ambitious. At CES, it's debuting a device for the most hard-core audience yet: the tactix Bravo, a rugged device with a scratch proof screen and a display optimized for night-vision goggles. The tactix Bravo comes with "specialized software optimized for both aerial and land … [Read more...]
Withings Announces Connected Temporal Thermometer: CES Day -2
Withings, maker of the popular Activé line of dual-dial smartwatches and a line of connected health appliances, has announced a temporal thermometer, the Thermo. It works by pressing the device to a patient's temple, pressing a button, and holding the device steady for two seconds, until it vibrates slightly. The temperature, measured by an array of 16 infrared sensors … [Read more...]
Wearable Claims to Reduce Nausea: CES Day -1
If you suffer from motion or morning sickness, you are probably familiar with surprisingly effective over-the-counted elastic bands that suppress nausea by pressing against a nerve on the inside of your wrist. ReliefBand Technologies is at CES with an electronic version of that, an FDA-cleared device that claims to send specific patterns and intensities to help settle your … [Read more...]
TempTraq Debuts 48-Hour Continuous Temperature Monitoring Patch: CES Day -2
Taking your temperature is a simple thing, but is essentially a one-time act that's repeated as desired. TempTraq, a $20 connected device from Blue Spark Technologies, deploys a surprising amount of technology to track your temperature for up to two days -- and make it sharable as you need it to be. The TempTraq is a patch that the user activates with a smartphone app via … [Read more...]
New WiFi “HaLow” Standard Uses Less Power, Has Greater Range
The WiFi Alliance, which controls the WiFi standard, has approved the 802.11ah version of the ubiquitous wireless standard, dubbing it "HaLow." WiFi HaLow operates in the 900MHz frequency band, below the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band. That lower frequency means lower bandwidth than the other bands, but greater range and less power draw. That makes it particularly well-suited for IoT … [Read more...]
MediaTek Debuts SiP Tailored for Wristware: CES Day -2
The semiconductor company MediaTek is kicking off CES with a new system-in-package for wrist-worn wearables, including GPS, Bluetooth Low Energy, and support for 320x320 MIPI displays. Finbarr Moynihan, MediaTek's general manager of corporate sales, told Wearable Tech Insider that the MT2523 series is based on a Cortex M4 with 4MB RAM and 4MB flash memory. "This would … [Read more...]
Wearables in 2016
We posted earlier today our outlooks on what's going to happen in the wearables industry in the year ahead. For the purposes of consolidation and ease of reading, here are those links: Wearables in 2016: On the Wrist. We predict segmentation and IoT integration. Wearables in 2016: On the Face. We predict rapid adoption by industry and enterprises. Wearables in 2016: … [Read more...]
Wearables in 2016, Part 3: Consolidation Looms
Investors like exits because exits are where they make their money. When a VC drops $5 million into a company, it wants to know that it'll get double, triple, or 10 times that money back, preferably on the sooner side of never. 2015 was the year that funders started to see exits; 2016 will be the year that they'll start to insist on it. Fitbit, of course was the biggest … [Read more...]
Wearables in 2016, Part 2: On the Face
There is no surer bet in 2016 than on the success of face-worn wearable tech, and there is nothing more certain than that it will be primarily in places where most people will never see it. The past year brought an explosion of trials and test runs of visors in industry: warehouses, field service, construction, aerospace, medical. 2016 is the year that tests become actual … [Read more...]