We got a buzz a little while ago about some very interesting bicycling glasses coming out of the Israeli defense industry. The other shoe has now dropped: Everysight has announced the Raptor glasses, a wearable heads-up augmented reality display. Everysight is spun out of the publicly owned Elbit Systems, Israel's largest defense technology company and a well-known maker of … [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...]
What the Misfit Purchase Means for Wearables Startups
Misfit, which began life as a Kickstarter and became one of the best known wearables companies, was bought yesterday by a big public watch company for $230 million. That was probably its best possible end as an independent company. Misfit, over its four years of life, had raised $63 million in three rounds of funding. The products are beautiful and have a loyal following. … [Read more...]
Bluetooth Range to Increase Four-fold, Boost Speed, Embrace Mesh Networking
The Bluetooth SIG, the organization that controls and maintains the Bluetooth standard, has some big plans for 2016. The group said today that it will be increasing the range of Bluetooth Smart (which used to be called Bluetooth LE, or "low energy") by a factor of four, beyond its current top range of 330 feet. Moreover, it was planning a doubling of bandwidth without … [Read more...]
Virtual Arms Race
There are all kinds of useful wearable tech that replace or supplement stay-at-home gear. Now NEC has ARmKeyboard, a device that isn’t even corporeal; it’s a virtual keyboard that runs up your arm. The keyboard/software coordinates glasses with a camera display and smart watches. Wearing the glasses and looking at the watch gives the software the coordinates of the devices; … [Read more...]
Intel Introduces “Wearable Smart Gateway” for First Responders
It seems like an obvious market opportunity: body-worn technology and first responders. Turns out, though, that the first-response industry is extremely demanding and conservative. It spends limited taxpayer money, procurement cycles are long and competitive (and not-infrequently clubby), interconnectivity is a must, and system failures can literally cost lives. Civilians … [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...]
Two of the Three Wireless Power Standards Merge
The wireless charging standard groups A4WP and PMA have consummated their merger into the far friendlier-sounding AirFuel Alliance. It competes with the Wireless Power Consortium, which promotes the popular Qi standard, used by (among others) the current Samsung Galaxy and Note product lines, as well as IKEA's charging pad. AirFuel and WPC are not compatible, even though … [Read more...]
Why Wearables Makers Should Get Into The Content Business Today
You may not see the intersection of ESPN and fitness trackers, but it's there -- and if you make trackers, there's an opportunity to be had RIGHT NOW. There's a guy named Joe Pulizzi who runs something called the Content Marketing Institute. If you want to tell your brand story with content -- and not only should you, you have to -- Joe's pretty much the world's living … [Read more...]
MasterCard Wants to Turn Wearables Into Payment Devices
It's hardly a secret that MasterCard is hot on wearables; the company's been talking about it for years and has even published an API to let programmers access its tokenization and payment systems. But earlier this week, MasterCard started to get very specific, showing wireless payment systems in Nymi authentication wristbands, Ringly jewelry, TrackR device locators, and GM car … [Read more...]