Interested in getting into wearable tech but afraid that your chi-chi fashionista friends will pivot in their Louboutins and leave you hanging? Vogue to the rescue -- or at least, Vogue online, which is the next best thing. The fashion arbiter just published a slide show featuring the eight best-looking wrist wearables. The Apple Watch appears, of course, although in the … [Read more...]
Two of the Three Wireless Power Standards Merge
The wireless charging standard groups A4WP and PMA have consummated their merger into the far friendlier-sounding AirFuel Alliance. It competes with the Wireless Power Consortium, which promotes the popular Qi standard, used by (among others) the current Samsung Galaxy and Note product lines, as well as IKEA's charging pad. AirFuel and WPC are not compatible, even though … [Read more...]
Thalmic Labs Opens App Store for Myo Armband
Even the best hardware is useless without apps. Thalmic Labs, maker of the Myo gesture-control armband, has publicly opened an app store with more than 100 applications. Among the apps is one that will let a user control Parrot drones by gesture; others control Spotify or Netflix. It may be the ultimate couch potato experience to wave your arm to pause or fast-forward a … [Read more...]
Fitbit’s 3Q Beats Estimates; Company to Float More Stock
Fitbit, the top pure-play maker of fitness trackers, said today it sold $409 million in trackers in the quarter ending September, up 168 percent over the year previous, earning a profit of 24 cents per share. Pre-report consensus had expected earnings of 10 cents per share. For the current quarter, the company said it expected to earn 20 to 25 cents per share on sales of $620 … [Read more...]
Why Wearables Makers Should Get Into The Content Business Today
You may not see the intersection of ESPN and fitness trackers, but it's there -- and if you make trackers, there's an opportunity to be had RIGHT NOW. There's a guy named Joe Pulizzi who runs something called the Content Marketing Institute. If you want to tell your brand story with content -- and not only should you, you have to -- Joe's pretty much the world's living … [Read more...]
Ars Reviews Microsoft Band 2: Better Design, Slow GPS, Annoying Clasp
Ars Technica does one of its signature deep-dive reviews on Microsoft's updated fitness tracker, the Band 2. The site is generally very enthusiastic, in particular liking the physical design and the built-in guided training. In fact, the reviewer was especially impressed with the Microsoft Health ecosystem in general. On the downside, the clasp came in for particular … [Read more...]
MasterCard Wants to Turn Wearables Into Payment Devices
It's hardly a secret that MasterCard is hot on wearables; the company's been talking about it for years and has even published an API to let programmers access its tokenization and payment systems. But earlier this week, MasterCard started to get very specific, showing wireless payment systems in Nymi authentication wristbands, Ringly jewelry, TrackR device locators, and GM car … [Read more...]
Garmin Rounds Out Holiday Line with New Scale and Tracker
Garmin last week rolled out three new GPS watches; this week, it finish its introductions with a new vivosmart tracker and a connected scale. The vivosmart HR (the missing capital letter is how they want it spelled) is an update to its current touchscreen fitness tracker. The major change is the incorporation of an internally developed always-on heart rate monitor -- the … [Read more...]
Bionic Eyes Are Smiling
What would you say to better than 20/20 vision, without having to worry about glasses or contacts—ever? Now what would you say to having a lens implanted in your eye? Dr. Garth Webb, a Canadian optometrist, and founder and CEO of Ocumetics Technology Corp., thinks he can do away not only with corrective lens, but also with cataracts. He and his team have developed the … [Read more...]
Blocks: DIY Modular Smartwatch
Wish your smartwatch came with more or different functions? Is there just that one thing missing that would make it exactly what you want? Blocks might have be able to make your day fairly soon. The Blocks modular watch has taken some two years of development just to get to Kickstarter. Their original goal was to raise $250,000; to date, they have raised more than $1 … [Read more...]