Now that Microsoft has finished seeding initial developers, the company is opening up availability for a first wave of commercial customers. Go to hololens.com and you can pick up as many as five of the AR visors, for a mere $3,000 each. Along with the developer's software, there's a Commercial Suite that adds enterprise features like a kiosk mode, device management, an app … [Read more...]
About Dan Rosenbaum
Philips Debuts Connected Health Platform
Philips, the Dutch electronics powerhouse, is dipping into the connected health business with a line that includes a body monitor scale, blood pressure cuff, in-ear thermometer, and motion-monitor wristband. The company hopes to use its strong brand and FDA approval to help differentiate itself. The company (disclosure: I worked for a small obscure division of Philips … [Read more...]
Intel Pulls Plug on Basis Fitness Tracker; Will Shut Down Hub at Year End
Intel appears to have thrown in the towel on its Basis fitness trackers, telling all users to send them back and saying it will turn off the server they need at the end of 2016. Basis was an early and fairly successful wearables startup, with a wrist device that was one of the first dedicated to serious athletes. Intel, which had never been in a consumer-facing business … [Read more...]
Fitbit Promises New Trackers This Year, Probably Including NFC
When Fitbit announced its quarterly results yesterday, CEO James Park said that the company would announce "more new products for this holiday season that we've ever had before." Given the company's iffy record of making holiday ship dates, that may translate to "two or three." The top of the company's line are the Charge HR, the Surge, and the Blaze. The Blaze was announced … [Read more...]
Wearables AR Pioneer Skully Hits the Wall
We're seeing reports that Skully -- the company that made an augmented reality motorcycle helmet that was one of the first high-profile wearables startups -- has fallen apart. And those reports indicate that the end is not peaceful. Skully's helmets were essentially heads-up displays mounted inside the visors, giving wearers views of their bikes controls as well as … [Read more...]
Wearables Cause Gaps in HIPAA Security, Feds Say
A federal report (PDF) says that consumer wearables are putting their users' health privacy at risk, and that more federal oversight may be required. The National Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, within the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote that it's frequently unclear where the boundaries of confidential information lie. … [Read more...]
Samsung Licenses Valencell’s Ear-Worn Sensor Tech
We get many announcements of corporate alliances and licensing deals crossing our desk every day, but the one between Valencell and Samsung looks particularly provocative. Valencell makes interesting biometric sensor sets that sit in the ear. If you've got earbuds that count steps or track your pulse rate, odds are good that they use Valencell tech. But there aren't many of … [Read more...]
Smartwatch Sales Plunge, says IDC, and It’s All Apple’s Fault
IDC is out with its latest quarterly numbers for the smartwatch industry, and it shows a whiplash kind of decline. Overall, shipments fell 32 percent in the second quarter of 2016 compared to a year previous, with Apple's sales dropping by 55 percent. Even at "only" 1.6 million watches shipped, Apple remains far and away the market leader, with 47 percent of the market. … [Read more...]
Canalys Predicts 7.5M Cellular Smartwatches This Year; 54M by 2020
The market research house Canalys is projecting that 53.6 million cellular smartwatches -- ones that don't need to be tethered to phones -- will be sold in the the year 2020. At first blush, that looks like a pretty enthusiastic prediction, particularly in light of the company's wildly optimistic count of 7.5 million being sold this year. The underlying logic, though, … [Read more...]
Intel Says to Stop Wearing the Basis Peak Watch
A posting on the website of Intel's Basis fitness tracker is advising customers to stop wearing the watch while an overheating problem is getting fixed. On June 13, Basis posted that a "small number" of users were experiencing overheating problems with the Peak and B1 trackers, to the extent that the device "in some cases caused discomfort, blistering or burns on … [Read more...]