Fin Robotics, a startup from Kerala, has taken India into the global wearables market with Neyya ring, the device formerly known as Fin. Fin was announced at the January 2014 CES show. Then it was to be an optical device that could turn your hand into a tap-and-swipe interface. With crowdfunding and mentoring by the Startup Village in Kochi, as well as interest from technology … [Read more...]
US Commerce Department to Host Smart Fabrics Summit This Spring
The US Commerce Department, in partnership with the Industrial Fabrics Association International, announced today that it will host a Smart Fabrics Summit on April 4, 2016 in Washington, DC. A release from the Commerce Department says that the day-long session will be designed to get fashion, technology, and policy players around the same table. Specific issues include … [Read more...]
Movado Announces Two Tracker Lines; One with MMT, One with HP
The fashion watch company Movado has unveiled not one but two distinct lines of connected watches, one built with HP and the other with Fullpower's MMT movement. MMT, long-time readers will recall, is a Swiss company created by Philippe Kahn's Fullpower Technologies to provide electronic movements to the Swiss watch industry, enabling watchmakers to retain the … [Read more...]
Weather Changes Transform Pricey Accessories
The Unseen, a London-based design studio, has developed an ink that changes color in reaction to, basically, weather conditions: air pressure, wind, heat, and light. It might not sound earthshaking, but the company partnered with the very upscale London Selfridges, voted best department store in the world in 2014. The result is limited editions of some very beautiful leather … [Read more...]
Power Dressing with the ION Belt
Smartphones have become pretty much indispensable, but no matter which brand you have, you have to return them to a mothership periodically to charge up. Now a Kickstarter product, the UK-based ION Belt, solves the problem of all those interruptions in your high-speed life. ION Belt is a leather belt, with a built-in 3,000mAh battery—enough to charge an iPhone 6 1.5 … [Read more...]
Vogue Picks Best-Looking Wearables
Interested in getting into wearable tech but afraid that your chi-chi fashionista friends will pivot in their Louboutins and leave you hanging? Vogue to the rescue -- or at least, Vogue online, which is the next best thing. The fashion arbiter just published a slide show featuring the eight best-looking wrist wearables. The Apple Watch appears, of course, although in the … [Read more...]
Fossil Announces Long-Awaited Trackers and Android Wear Watch
As long expected, Fossil announced an Android Wear smartwatch today, as well as three fitness trackers. The Fossil Q line comprises four models: the Reveler, the Dreamer, the Grant, and the Founder: The Reveler and Dreamer are display-less fitness trackers and notification devices, which vibrate and show LED lights when triggered. The Dreamer has swappable bands. Both … [Read more...]
A Bikini That Takes Out the Trash
A swim suit—a bikini—that filters toxins out of sea water as you swim can sound either ecologically wonderful or personally, well, yucky. It has to be said, though, that the prototype is quite attractive. The cleaning part of the suit, Sponge, is made of heated sucrose combined with a 3-D printed elastomer frame. Engineers at The University of California Riverside created … [Read more...]
Tag Heuer Sneaks $1800 Smartwatch
You might want to mark your calendar for November 9, because that's apparently when Tag Heuer is going to set a new top price point for Android Wear watches. Several reports gathered by Ars Technica point to that date and an $1800 price tag for an upgradeable watch powered by an Intel SoC. There's a web site that counts down to the launch date, but have patience because it … [Read more...]
Throwing Your Money into the Ring
London-based startup Kerv is Kickstarting its smart ring into the contactless payment arena, as Europe prepares to go completely contactless by 2020. Although the U.S. is well behind in new payment technology, the Kerv ring is expected to be available—and work—in both markets. It just might take longer for the U.S. to come up to speed. The Kerv ring design is slick and … [Read more...]