Garmin last week rolled out three new GPS watches; this week, it finish its introductions with a new vivosmart tracker and a connected scale. The vivosmart HR (the missing capital letter is how they want it spelled) is an update to its current touchscreen fitness tracker. The major change is the incorporation of an internally developed always-on heart rate monitor -- the … [Read more...]
Bionic Eyes Are Smiling
What would you say to better than 20/20 vision, without having to worry about glasses or contacts—ever? Now what would you say to having a lens implanted in your eye? Dr. Garth Webb, a Canadian optometrist, and founder and CEO of Ocumetics Technology Corp., thinks he can do away not only with corrective lens, but also with cataracts. He and his team have developed the … [Read more...]
Blocks: DIY Modular Smartwatch
Wish your smartwatch came with more or different functions? Is there just that one thing missing that would make it exactly what you want? Blocks might have be able to make your day fairly soon. The Blocks modular watch has taken some two years of development just to get to Kickstarter. Their original goal was to raise $250,000; to date, they have raised more than $1 … [Read more...]
Toilet Training the World
Everything is getting smarter: running gear, watches, jewelry, fashion, you name it. Now from Japan, there's a smart device that reminds you to do what bears do in the woods. Dfree is a device from the Japanese company Triple W that fits (or sticks) on your underwear and warns you when you are going to need to get to a bathroom. "This device predicts faecal excretion. The … [Read more...]
Garmin Debuts New Top-End Forerunner Running Watch
Garmin is best known for its excellent GPS fitness trackers. Now, the company is getting set for the holiday season with a new top-line runners' watch and another unit adds a built-in heart-rate monitor for the first time. The Forerunner 630 is billed as having the company's "most advanced running watch technology." Among the new measurements the 630 can track are stride … [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...]
Lumo Runs the Numbers
All runners, amateur or pro, want to get better every time they run and avoid injury. That’s one of the reasons coaches keep stats and why fitness tracking devices are so popular. Lumo now makes it even easier—and quite possibly more accurate—by putting all the electronics in your running shorts. Lumo Run running shorts are the result of Lumo teaming up with sports … [Read more...]
Polar Intros Consumer-Level Heart Rate Monitor
Polar, best known by runners and endurance athletes for its chest strap heart monitors, has announced a wrist-based tracker aimed at consumers. The A360's swappable silicon wristbands will come in five colors and three sizes. The product is waterproof, and acts as a notification device paired with a smartphone as well as tracking the usual complement of heart rate, steps, … [Read more...]
Misfit Puts New Polish on Shine Wearables
Misfit, maker of the unobtrusive Shine fitness tracker, is freshening its flagship product with the Shine 2 -- smaller, with color LEDs and haptic feedback, and incorporating the control functions that the company's been rolling out with other products. The Shine 2 is 8mm thick at the center and about 3mm thick at the edge; the bad news is that it won't fit any accessories … [Read more...]
Itsy-Bitsy Solar Panel to Power New Google Lens
First smart glasses, now smart contact lenses? How are they going to get all that info on something the size of your thumbnail? Not to mention using solar power? Google thinks it can be done. The company has been granted a design patent for a wearable communication device shaped like a contact lens, including sensors, memory and a microprocessor. Power would be provided by … [Read more...]