Two small funding stories of note: Owlet, which makes an instrumented baby bootie that tracks skin temperature, heart rate, blood ox, and sleep data, has raised $1.85 million in seed funding. R/GA and Techstars, which incubated the company, participated in the round. Owlet, which costs $249, hopes to ship the summer, company officials say. APX Labs, a software company … [Read more...]
CNET: Nike Lays Off Most Fuelband Hardware Staff (Update)
CNet's Nick Statt reports that Nike has laid off as many as 55 people in its Digital Sport hardware team, essentially ending development of the Fuelband and Nike+ sportswatch. Sales of the Fuelband will continue, as will development of software, CNet saod. With the increasing sophistication of motion sensors built into phones themselves -- particularly the iPhone 5S -- Nike … [Read more...]
Bill Gates Patent To Cloud Men’s Minds, Deter Paparazzi
We just learned about a patent awarded to Bill Gates a few months ago that appears to be designed to keep you safe from cameras around you. Patent 8,600,110 describes A system for detecting and responding to an intruding camera, comprising: an electronic media display device having a screen configured to display content; a sensor; and a processing circuit configured to: … [Read more...]
Intel Announces First “Make It Wearable” Winner
Lovey, a device that monitors kids' whereabouts and their environment, is the first winner in the Visionary track of Intel's "Make It Wearable" challenge. The challenge has two tracks. the "Visionary," which requires a general idea accompanied with a 1-minute video, and the "Development," which is considerably more rigorous and for which winners get $50,000 in … [Read more...]
Is Nike Edging Away from the FuelBand?
CNet is carrying a lightly sourced article suggesting that Nike may be getting ready to be out of the FuelBand business. The site cites "a person familiar with the matter" as saying that the sportswear company has had internal talks about suspending development on the popular device. The NPD Group, the article says, puts Nike's share of the $330 million wearable fitness … [Read more...]
Update: Want Glass? One-Day Only on April 15
Update: Google says it will sell Glass to the general U.S. public for one day and one day only on April 15. The gates open at 9am Eastern Time and they'll sell until they run out. Pricing remains insane: $1500, but at least it comes with a shade or a frame that can accommodate prescription lenses. The Verge says it's got a slide from Google indicating that for just … [Read more...]
Galaxy Gear 2 Teardown from iFixit
One of our favorite sites, iFixit, takes apart new gadgets so you don't have to (unless you absolutely need/want to). Here's their teardown of the Galaxy Gear 2, which was surprisingly easy to get into. Just FYI... … [Read more...]
Afterguard Uses Recon Display for Yacht Racing
Not being besties with Larry Ellison, we at Wearable Tech Insider don't claim to be the world's living experts on big-dollar yachting. But it's worth noting that Afterguard has a new yachting HUD based on Recon Instruments technology. Where ski goggles that use Recon displays put the display inside the glass, Afterguard's puts it outside. It's not unlike Google Glass, … [Read more...]
WSJ on Samsung Gear: Not Awful, But Not Great
Reviews of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone and Gear Fit wristwear unveiled at Mobile World Congress are starting to hit. The Wall Street Journal's got a pretty good write-up of the Fit, which is admiring but mixed. Its major points: Battery life is disappointing: two days with notifications on, four with them off. Interface is good Device is pretty and … [Read more...]
Israeli Startup Has a Device That Sees Something, Says Something; Intel Invests
GigaOm and Ha'aretz report on a $15 million investment from Intel into an Israeli startup OrCam, which makes a wearable camera that tries to interpret the world around its wearer and describe it via bone conduction. Sounds cool -- and very useful to the blind or low-vision sufferers. The camera clips onto your glasses. You gesture to tell the OrCam what you want to … [Read more...]