You’d have to be living in a fallout shelter not to have heard of Pokémon GO, Nintendo's augmented reality game, over the last few days. But lost in all the hype is Pokémon GO Plus -- the Poké Ball-shaped device that vibrates and flashes to alert the wearer to any Pokémon in the immediate vicinity. Press a button, and the Pokémon is yours. Pokémon GO Plus sells for $34.99 … [Read more...]
A Blast from the Future of Baseball
Some foolish people have been known to say that 21st century baseball is slow and boring. We’re willing to bet, however, that even those guys get a thrill when the ball hits a bat’s sweet spot and is outta here. We can all agree that anything that makes that happen more often is what's technically referred to as a "good thing." Major League Baseball recently made multi-year … [Read more...]
SmartTrack: A Touchpad Within Arm’s Reach
Smartwatches put a powerful computer on your wrist, but at the cost of a little bitty screen and keyboard. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute’s Future Interfaces Group are working on that, turning your arm into an interactive surface. SmartTrack turns your forearm into a swiping, touching input device from wrist to elbow. Unlike … [Read more...]
Canalys Predicts 7.5M Cellular Smartwatches This Year; 54M by 2020
The market research house Canalys is projecting that 53.6 million cellular smartwatches -- ones that don't need to be tethered to phones -- will be sold in the the year 2020. At first blush, that looks like a pretty enthusiastic prediction, particularly in light of the company's wildly optimistic count of 7.5 million being sold this year. The underlying logic, though, … [Read more...]
Intel Says to Stop Wearing the Basis Peak Watch
A posting on the website of Intel's Basis fitness tracker is advising customers to stop wearing the watch while an overheating problem is getting fixed. On June 13, Basis posted that a "small number" of users were experiencing overheating problems with the Peak and B1 trackers, to the extent that the device "in some cases caused discomfort, blistering or burns on … [Read more...]
Wireless Gas Detector: Technology Replaces Canaries
The detection of poison gas is critical in industry. Gas chromatographs are big and expensive, so sensor developers have been looking for years to find ways to detect both odors and harmful gases in a small, fast-acting, low-power, and lightweight device. Scientists may have found a way to end-run the problem. A team at MIT has developed a low-cost way to detect lethal gas … [Read more...]
I Spy with My Little Wearable Monitoring Device
Do you think the government uses our wireless devices to keep tabs on us? Well, we’ve found proof that you’re right—if you work for the U.S. government. ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) is developing MOSAIC (Multimodal Objective Sensing to Assess Individuals with Context): a project to help “U.S. intelligence firms” pick people who are spy material. The … [Read more...]
Google Reportedly Readies Android Wear Watches of its Own
The website Android Police is reporting that Google is getting ready to ship a pair of Android Wear smartwatches under its own brand. This bodes ill for the health of Android Wear. The whole point of Android Wear was to create a software platform that OEMs could basically plug into hardware, but only about a half-dozen companies -- all of them pretty big, but at least one of … [Read more...]
Converse ‘All-Wah’: Soft Shoe Goes Hard Rock
Converse, the shoe company that brought color to high-top sneakers and basketball shoes, is now bringing high tech and sound to same. The company’s Chuck Taylor All-Wah (you see what they did there, right?) doesn’t look much different from your regular or garden variety Chuck Taylors. That is, until you notice the connector in the side of the sole and right above that two holes … [Read more...]
Samsung to Put $1.5B To IoT Research by 2020
Samsung announced today that it's going to invest $1.5B into IoT research and ventures over the next four years. Half of the money will go toward internal efforts in Silicon Valley, but the other $750 million is being earmarked for acquisitions and startups. The Wall Street Journal points out that the investment -- a small part of Samsung's annual R&D budget of $14.1B -- … [Read more...]