We caught up Sunday with Laurent LePen, the CEO of Omate, at Mobile World Congress. He was showing off the first production models of the million-dollar Kickstarter project TrueSmart watch. Omate raised a million dollars for the TrueSmart on KickStarter, and the plan is to ship within a couple of months. The watch looks pretty chunky, about the size of one of those old … [Read more...]
Flexible All-Plastic AMOLED Displays Produced
While we're thinking about displays and flexible electronics, it's worth noting an important first that was mentioned at Flextech: all-plastic flexible AMOLED displays from Plastic Logic and Novaled. If you've got an Android smartphone, you're probably familiar with AMOLED displays. They're clear, bright, fast, and used in most Samsung phones and lots of others, besides. But … [Read more...]
Tech-Enabled Outdoor Clothes Are At Least 5 Years Away
We spent most of last week on the road, a bunch of it at the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. We wanted to scope out what the activewear industry was doing or thinking about wearable tech. The answer turned out to be: not much. In fact, we'd be surprised if there will much activity of scale with wearables in that segment for 3 to 5 years. You probably don't … [Read more...]
CES: Garmin Announces Vivofit Fitness Band
You probably think of Garmin as a GPS company with some high-end wristware. They're making a move down-market with the Vivofit fitness band. It looks a lot like a Fitbit Force, but the Vivifit has a larger display (not unlike a Fuelband). Unique in the category, the Vivofit claims to learn your activity patterns and set goals based on that, upping them as your fitness … [Read more...]
Advisory: CES Coverage Delays (Revised: CANCELLED)
Updated: Weather and buttheadedness on the part of airlines are keeping up grounded in New York. No CES for us. Which doesn't mean there won't be coverage. There'll be lots of news that we'll be able to pick up from 2,000 miles away. But all those meet-ups? They'll have to wait for another day. "Bummed" is a vast understatement. Those of you on the East Coast of the US … [Read more...]
CES Preview for Wearables
It's no exaggeration to say that we at WTI have been preparing for months for next week's International CES. CES, for those few who don't know, is an immense, 2-million-square-foot trade show and expo for the consumer electronics industry that wakes people out of their New Year's stupor every January. (The Consumer Electronics Association, which puts the show on, gets cranky … [Read more...]
Glass: Product of the Year — Part 3
It's not actually shipping, except to some selected blessed few. It costs about as much as an annual gym membership. It makes you look like a dork, and it doesn't actually do very much. So how can Google Glass be called a Product of the Year? Because in many ways to many people, fairly or unfairly, Glass defines wearable technology in 2013. From most companies, something … [Read more...]
Pebble Watch: Product of the Year — Part 2
The Pebble watch may have been the first big hit of the consumer wearables space and the first big hit of Kickstarter. When Pebble's campaign hit in 2012, it was hugely oversubscribed -- a big vote for a technology and product that was, well, kind of uncertain. People put down their money anyway. The watch shipped in early 2013, and it was ... OK. A geek totem, certainly. … [Read more...]
Day Off
We're taking Christmas Day off, and we hope you are too. Our best wishes for a peaceful holiday. See you tomorrow with some more year-enders. On the other hand, if you're hiding from festivities, thanks for spending time with us.... … [Read more...]
“Reality Mediator”: Worst Idea of the Year
We saw a lot of indifferent ideas in 2013. That's not too surprising in any tech field, but it's entirely predictable in something as new and fluid as wearables. But we were kind of shocked (if you'll forgive the unfortunate pun) to see one idea that genuinely carried the potential for evil. The "reality mediator" prototype -- a chilling euphemism right there -- built by … [Read more...]