Just a year ago, wearables were white-hot. Everyone was talking about them, everyone was writing about them, and they were at the tippy-top of the Gartner Hype Curve. Everyone thought they'll change the world. They will. But not yesterday. It was impossible for the hype to measure up with reality. The hype probably funded a bunch of start-up -- most of which were better … [Read more...]
Wearables in 2014: The Year It Didn’t Ship
Back in February, at a Mobile World Congress session about wearables, one of the panelists made the key observation of the year: "Hardware is hard." Is it ever. Anyone can pull together a Photoshop drawing, build a 3D printed gadget and make a YouTube video. Anyone can get on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, and anyone can hire a PR company. Building it and shipping something? … [Read more...]
2014 In Review: Top Stories by Traffic
Readers of Wearable Tech Insider like interesting gadgets (especially when they have to do with breasts) and inside baseball. Here are our top stories of the year, by traffic. 1. DrumPants. Our first story in January about sensor pads that fit inside your clothes and trigger drum sounds was a big hit. Another story about DrumPants -- their failure to get funding on the TV … [Read more...]
New Bluetooth Version 4.2 Published; Allows Faster Speeds, Direct Connections to Internet
The Bluetooth SIG has published the specs for version 4.2 of the widely used Bluetooth standard, and the news is actually more exciting than it sounds. The latest spec promises data speeds about 2.5 times faster than the current version, and will allow devices to connect directly to IPv6 networks, instead of using phones or other devices as an intermediary. This means, for … [Read more...]
Amanda Parkes on the Importance of Fabrics and Fashion
Amanda Parkes is one of the smarter people standing at the intersection of technology and fashion. An MIT-trained designer, she's the chief of technology and research at Manufacture NY, a fashion think tank in Brooklyn, NY. Parkes gave an excellent and enlightening interview to the site Business of Fashion, in which she talks about how wearable tech is less about the gadget and … [Read more...]
Next-Gen Glass Will Use Intel Chips, says WSJ
The WSJ reports that the next version of Google Glass -- you mean there's going to be a next version? -- will use Intel processors instead of TI's. The article then goes into great detail on a point that no reader here will be surprised about: that the visor business will find success not with consumers but in enterprise applications. At least the reporters name-check two great … [Read more...]
That Sony E-Ink Watch Was A Crowdfunded Project
Remember that experiment wearable from Sony that we wrote about a few days ago? Techcrunch has found that the watch was available a few months ago on a Japanese crowdfunding site from a group of Sony employees calling themselves Fashion Entertainments. The underlying story, you'll recall (if you clicked through on the original story) was that Sony is trying to encourage its … [Read more...]
Bloomberg Says Sony Has a Design-Forward Wearable Coming. Maybe. Someday.
There's an interesting article on Bloomberg's site that leads with news about a possibly forthcoming wristband from Sony that uses an e-paper to turn the entire device's surface into a display. The article doesn't go into much depth about the device, but turns out instead to be a fascinating analysis of how Sony is trying to throw off its bureaucracy and become a company … [Read more...]
Juniper Sees Fitness Trackers Staying Dominant, But Segmenting
Fitness trackers will lead the wearables industry until 2018, says a new report from Juniper Research, but will segment out into basic trackers and more deluxe products that compete with smart watches. Through 2018, according to the report "Smart Health & Fitness Wearables: Device Strategies, Trends & Forecasts" the number of fitness trackers being uses will triple … [Read more...]
Interest Rising in Wrist Devices, But Not Visors or Heart Monitors
The research house Futuresource has a consumer panel that it asks periodically about its interest in wearable technology (and, presumably, other things). Between May and October, they say, there have been some interesting changes in the tech that the panelists are interested in. Interest in smartwatches more than doubled, though still only at 9 percent. (We wonder if this is … [Read more...]