One of our favorite bits of wearables is the Airwave goggle from Oakley -- basically an already high-end ski goggle with a heads-up display from Recon inserted in the right lens. Oakley tells us today that there's an upgrade for this year: the ability to control a Garmin VIRB Elite action camera through the Airwave's glove interface. You also can apparently monitor the … [Read more...]
Why the Puls Is Impressive: An Analysis
In the normal course of business, most product launches are one-day stories. Two days, tops, if they're really big and they're not from Apple or (sometimes) Google. In truth, that's fine; it's the rare product that deserves more. Will.i.am's Puls wristware deserves more, because the thinking behind it is so uncommon. First of all, the Puls cuff is unapologetically … [Read more...]
Wearables Hit the Zeitgeist with Morris the Cat
Readers of a certain age will remember Morris the Cat, the world's most finicky cat who would only eat 9Lives cat food. Well, Morris (or rather, some other orange tabby who kind of looks like the original long-departed Morris) is back, and the agency EVB has strapped a visor on him in a new line of commercials. https://youtu.be/Df1qxtJuUmw Wearables selling cat food. … [Read more...]
Fitbit Preps Charge and Charge HR Wristware
Fitbit, by most measures the leader in the fitness band category, is getting ready to ship two new bands: the Charge and the Charge HR. Gizmodo has a lot of the details; the short version is that bands fill the gap at the top of the product line left when the company had to recall the Force because it was giving people rashes. The product specs look very much like the Force. … [Read more...]
Bionym Nymi Ships to Developers
Shipping a hardware product is much harder than making promises, and a lot of wearables companies have trouble clearing that hurdle. That makes it impressive that Bionym has started to ship its Nymi identity bands to developers. As we're written about before, the Nymi is a wristband that uses your unique heart rhythms to confirm your identity. Bionym execs say they's presold … [Read more...]
A Shocking Wristband for When You’re Slow to Get the Point
There are lots of bands that will flash or vibrate when they want you to move. But if that's not enough, there's always the Pavlok. Pavlok, a Kickstarter project that outraised its 30-day goal in about two days, will administer an electric shock "to replace bad habits with the habits of excellence," said founder Maneesh Sethi in the promotional video. They plan to … [Read more...]
Intel, Opening Ceremony, Barney’s Show MICA Fashion Wristband
Back in January, we reported that Intel, designer Opening Ceremony, and the New York fashion store Barney's were collaborating on a bracelet. They introduced it yesterday: the MICA. MICA -- My Intelligent Communication Accessory -- will come in two versions: "One style will feature black watersnake skin, pearls from China, and lapis stones from Madagascar, while the other … [Read more...]
Swatch Changes Its Mind About Wearables
A few months ago, the CEO of the Swatch Group, the biggest watchmaker in the world, said that he was not interested in the wearables market. Today, the Wall Street Journal thinks he may be having second thoughts (the WSJ is behind a paywall, but this link may work). This was CEO Nick Hayek in January: "We have all the know-how but we do not want to build up stock of … [Read more...]
Moto360 Price Leaks from Best Buy
By this time, we know pretty much all we need to know about the Moto360 smartwatch: what it does, what OS it runs, and what it looks like, when it'll be announced (September 4) . The only thing missing was the price, and someone at Best Buy has given up that last detail, too. Someone at Gizmodo who didn't have anything better do with his weekend spotted a Moto360 page on … [Read more...]
Intel to Use Wearables and Big Data to Fight Parkinson’s
If you're not reading our sister site, Health Tech Insider, you ought to start. The editor, Alfred Poor, has a nice writeup of Intel's new effort to bring data gathered by wearable devices into the fight against Parkinson's Disease. It turns out that Parkinson's is tough to diagnose because there's really no test for it; all doctors have to go on is a collection of symptoms … [Read more...]