No matter whose name is on the label, Flextronics actually builds most of the electronic stuff in your life -- most famously for Apple, but also for Lenovo, HP, Cisco, and on and on. One of its execs spoke at the Wearable World Congress this week and told product designers in the crowd that they should be conservative about what they try to build. Jeannine Sargent runs … [Read more...]
“Ma’am, I Think Your Bra Is Talking To You…”
The Japanese may not have a monopoly on quirky wearables, but they sure seem to have a handle on high concept. We're hearing today about the Wearable Womanliness-Boosting Bra from manufacturer Triumph International Japan. The idea -- and this is not ever going to be a real product -- is that the bra will respond to a woman's voice with confidence-inspiring compliments. Kind of … [Read more...]
Wearable Patch Market to Reach 12.3 Million Units by 2020: Tractica
The market research Tractica has a new report out, projecting that sales of connected patches for medical applications will grow from 67.000 last year to 12.3 million in 2020. It puts the size of the market at $3.3 billion. The company includes in its count skin-worn devices with wireless connectivity -- patches, tattoos and the like -- and not implantable items such as … [Read more...]
Researchers Say They Can Embed Graphene Electrodes in Fabric
A team of researchers say they have developed a technique to weave conductive graphene threads into fabric, using those threads as flexible electrodes. Fully flexible wiring embedded into fabrics, of course, would be an immense breakthrough. Graphene is material that consists of a single-atom thickness of carbon. It has many interesting characteristics, among them … [Read more...]
Why Apple Watch Software Will Get Better
It seems to be a growing consensus that the first generation of apps for the Apple Watch left quite a bit to be desired. Disappointing as that may be, it's not all that surprising. Programmers had only simulators to code to and the hardware itself uses new types of interactions that could not have been well understood without having the hardware in hand. Many of the apps turned … [Read more...]
APX Labs Publishes “Periodic Table of Wearables”
APX Labs, which sells Skylight -- software that connects wearable tech to enterprises -- is out with a smart "periodic table" of the enterprise wearable ecosystem. It's worth looking at because it gets so much right. The chart's focus is not on hardware or software, although those layers are certainly represented. Instead, it breaks down enterprise needs by function. … [Read more...]
TAG Heuer Smart Watch To Cost $1400, Ship in November
So you know how "everybody" is saying that the Apple Watch is too expensive at $349 to $1100? (Yes, we're ignoring the $10,000 gold model.) TAG Heuer execs says its smart watch, which will run Android Wear, will go on sale in November for $1400. The chief differentiator, other than the operating system, is that the TAG Heuer watch promises a 40-hour battery life, rather than … [Read more...]
Researcher Proposes a Body-Wide Wireless Network for Wearables
We've written before about how handy mesh networks would be for wearable technology, and how close ANT+ comes to that goal. Now comes a researcher who suggests that a whole new wireless networking standard at frequencies of around 10 to 20 GHz (WiFi runs at 2.4 and 5 GHz), specifically for on-body networks. To connect devices in such close quarters, you don't need much in … [Read more...]
22 Percent of Pre-Ordered Apple Watches Have Shipped: Slice
Slice Intelligence, which used its panel of online shoppers to estimate first-day orders for the Apple Watch, now says that Apple shipped about 375,000 of the 1.7 million preorders in the first weekend. Whether that's a big number of not depends on your expectation; many buyers who were initially given extended shipping dates wound up getting their watches on Friday, the first … [Read more...]
Gaming is Hard on the Apple Watch, and For Good Reason
Ars Technica has an interesting piece about how gaming companies are trying to figure out how to use the Apple Watch as a platform. There are lots of impediments, not the least of which is that Apple's developers' kit is pretty hostile to the idea. To us, gaming on the watch seems like a Bad Idea; there's limited interaction space, battery life is severely constrained, and … [Read more...]