It's hardly news that Samsung is serious about the wearables market, but it now appears that it intends to put its considerable global weight behind a health-tracking platform and a set of health-related APIs. The Simband reference device and the SAMI (Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interface) platform tie together sensors, software, and cloud. The president and chief … [Read more...]
WSJ Says Samsung Will Ship Wrist Communicator This Summer
The Wall Street Journal is saying that Samsung, which already has several bits of wristware in its product line, will come out this summer with a wrist-worn communicator that will not require a cellphone. Citing "people familiar with the company's plans," the Journal says the device will run the open-source Tizen operating system (like the Gear Fit and Gear 2, but unlike the … [Read more...]
Want Glass? Go Right Ahead.
Google has now opened its Glass Explorers program to anyone (in the United States) with a spare $1500. If the devices are in stock, and you've got a US address, you can step right up and order one. Keep in mind, though, that Glass remains a pretty much roll-your-own kind of thing... And speaking of Glass, there's another estimate out of its material cost. IHS put the cost at … [Read more...]
OMsignal Starts Taking Orders for Biometric Shirts
Montreal-based OMsignal has started taking orders for its smart workout wear -- base layers that track heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate and depth, calories burned, and steps taken. The shirts, the first set of which all of which are in men's style, have embedded monitors; reportedly, silver-based thread connects them to a small black box that clips onto the … [Read more...]
More Facewear Ships, but Not From Google
Now there are two commercial wearable glasses on the market. Epson has just shipped its Moverio smart glasses, which first saw the light of day at CES in January, for $700. (Vuzix was the first. Google still isn't saying when Glass will actually ship to the general market.) The Wall Street Journal has a hands-on. The Moverio isn't something you'd want to strap on and wear … [Read more...]
Report: No Apple Wearables at WWDC
Apple's big annual geekfest is its Worldwide Developers' Conference, slated this year for June 2-6. It's usually focused on software, although there are usually small hardware-related announcements. With all the smoke surrounding Apple's likely entry into the wearables markets, there are those who thought that WWDC would be the Grand Unveiling. Re/code says otherwise. It's … [Read more...]
Components for $1500 Glass Cost $80
Teardown.com has disassembled Google Glass, identified its components, and says the pieces can be had for about $80. Google tells the Wall Street Journal that's nonsense, and even severe Glass critics (like us) would have to acknowledge that the company has a point even if the bill of materials is accurate. There's lots more to a sophisticated piece of gear like Glass than … [Read more...]
Updated: The LeapBand Hopes to Gamify Kids’ Play. (What?)
The LeapBand, from the folks who make the popular LeapPad kids' e-book, is a gadget that straps onto the wrist of a 3-to-7-year-old and encourages them to move around. Our experience with kids that age is that it's far harder to get them to not move around, but we understand that people's mileage on that may differ. There are some 50 different activities that the LeapBand … [Read more...]
Apple Hires Exec With FDA Approval Background
A couple of months ago, you may remember, Apple apparently sat down with officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to talk about ... well, no one really knows what, but the widespread guess is that it had something to do with the much-rumored iWatch. Now, there's word that Apple has hired Divya Nag, an up-and-comer in the medical device world who has significant … [Read more...]
MEVU Wristwear to Trigger Bitcoin Payments
We confess to an extracurricular curiosity about Bitcoin, the electronic currency and payment system, and MEVU is the first wearable device we've seen devoted to it. MEVU is a wrist device with software written to the Coinbase wallet API. To authorize a Bitcoin payment, a wearer gestures in some presumably user-programmable manner. Apple, Coindesk points out, doesn't like … [Read more...]