ASUS Republic of Gamers has announced its newest gaming unit, the ASUS ROG GT51CA, and it is reputed to be a king-of-the-jungle beast. It’s faster—well, that goes without saying in the gaming world—with 6th generation Intel Core i7 processor you can overclock to 4.6gHz (no rebooting), can take up two 2 Titan X graphics cards, so great resolution, has a cooling system for the … [Read more...]
Teaching Future Service Dogs New Tricks
Service animals—almost always dogs—literally open doors for their disabled owners, as well as turning out the lights as they leave. Service dogs’ training varies with the kind of disability they will be helping with, and they can physically help their person with stairs and balance, bring medicine and water, provide assistance in emergencies and when the person is unresponsive, … [Read more...]
Fitbit Data Helps Save a Life
The Annals of Emergency Medicine isn't a journal we crack all the time around here, but it carries an article that describes how data collected by a patient's Fitbit Charge HR helped diagnose a life-threatening condition. The article's a bit technical, but the deal is that the patient showed up with cardiac arrhythmia. If the arrhythmia was chronic, one treatment was … [Read more...]
NBA Whips Out a Can of Whoop on Whoop
Fitness and biometric wearables are a perfect fit for professional sports, even though the sports’ governing bodies do not always agree. International soccer talks about it, the NFL and MLB seem to be going for it in some form, and now it’s becoming an issue for the NBA. And the NBA says “no.” Why? Because, and here’s the sticking point, none of the professional leagues … [Read more...]
Wearable Tech Comes to Major League Baseball, But It’s a Secret
We confess to being lifelong Mets fans here (with an apostate Phillies backer on staff, but we don't talk to him), so we were happy to see that Major League Baseball is starting to embrace in-game wearable tech. The Associated Press has learned that MLB has approved the use during games of the Motus Baseball Sleeve and the Zephyr Bioharness. The former measures stress on a … [Read more...]
Pebble Lays Off 25 Pct of Staff, Blames Slow Fundraising
Pebble, the pioneering smartwatch maker, has laid off 40 people -- a quarter of its staff -- as CEO Eric Migocovsky blames a tough funding environment. Migicovsky told Tech Insider that his company would focus on the health and fitness features of his company's watches, as those are the features most in demand. Pebble's watches have had fitness-tracking features only … [Read more...]
Intel vs Qualcomm Smartwatch Platform Battle Emerges
Intel and Google have been building a platform that enables smartwatch makers to build products with far less effort than they would need were they doing it from scratch. (The Fossil Group's smartwatch efforts owe a lot to the Intel/Google platform.) But Intel rival Qualcomm is now getting into the platform game, too. At this week's Baselworld watch show, Qualcomm, a leader … [Read more...]
Snapchat May Be Deciding That Glass Is Half-Full
Let’s be up front about this: everything in this item is based entirely on rumor, although it's sourced on someone cruising industry want ads and noticing an anomaly. What popped for the perspicacious browser was that Snapchat, the wildly popular photo sharing app, is looking for hardware experts to develop Snapglass. This after the company's 2014 purchase of Vergence Labs, … [Read more...]
Empatica Embrace: Wearable That Can Save Lives
Seizures are frightening, sneaky, and can be life-threatening. While epileptic seizures are the most common—1 out of 26 people will develop the disease in their lifetimes—seizures also can result from Alzheimer’s, stroke, genetic factors, brain tumors and infections with high fevers. Just knowing a seizure is imminent can mean being able to avoid a medical emergency. The … [Read more...]
Toyota Wearable Will Bring a World of Detail to the Blind
Toyota’s first wearable has nothing to do with cars but a lot to do with mobility. Project Blaid is designed to help people who are blind or visually impaired to make their way through the world more easily. The device is a light, U-shaped yoke that fits around the user’s neck and over the shoulders. It can recognize common shapes and signs, and fills in information by voice … [Read more...]