Everything is getting smarter: running gear, watches, jewelry, fashion, you name it. Now from Japan, there's a smart device that reminds you to do what bears do in the woods. Dfree is a device from the Japanese company Triple W that fits (or sticks) on your underwear and warns you when you are going to need to get to a bathroom. "This device predicts faecal excretion. The … [Read more...]
Garmin Debuts New Top-End Forerunner Running Watch
Garmin is best known for its excellent GPS fitness trackers. Now, the company is getting set for the holiday season with a new top-line runners' watch and another unit adds a built-in heart-rate monitor for the first time. The Forerunner 630 is billed as having the company's "most advanced running watch technology." Among the new measurements the 630 can track are stride … [Read more...]
Fossil Announces Long-Awaited Trackers and Android Wear Watch
As long expected, Fossil announced an Android Wear smartwatch today, as well as three fitness trackers. The Fossil Q line comprises four models: the Reveler, the Dreamer, the Grant, and the Founder: The Reveler and Dreamer are display-less fitness trackers and notification devices, which vibrate and show LED lights when triggered. The Dreamer has swappable bands. Both … [Read more...]
Lumo Runs the Numbers
All runners, amateur or pro, want to get better every time they run and avoid injury. That’s one of the reasons coaches keep stats and why fitness tracking devices are so popular. Lumo now makes it even easier—and quite possibly more accurate—by putting all the electronics in your running shorts. Lumo Run running shorts are the result of Lumo teaming up with sports … [Read more...]
Polar Intros Consumer-Level Heart Rate Monitor
Polar, best known by runners and endurance athletes for its chest strap heart monitors, has announced a wrist-based tracker aimed at consumers. The A360's swappable silicon wristbands will come in five colors and three sizes. The product is waterproof, and acts as a notification device paired with a smartphone as well as tracking the usual complement of heart rate, steps, … [Read more...]
Misfit Puts New Polish on Shine Wearables
Misfit, maker of the unobtrusive Shine fitness tracker, is freshening its flagship product with the Shine 2 -- smaller, with color LEDs and haptic feedback, and incorporating the control functions that the company's been rolling out with other products. The Shine 2 is 8mm thick at the center and about 3mm thick at the edge; the bad news is that it won't fit any accessories … [Read more...]
FIFA to Set Standards for Wearables
FIFA, the international governing body of the football Americans call soccer, is looking to set a standard in wearable technologies for its 209 member associations. They are joined by IFAB, the International Football Association Board. Earlier this year, IFAB decided to allow players to use wearable electronic performance and tracking systems (EPTS) under two conditions: … [Read more...]
Pebble Time Apps to Get Dictation
Pebble's own apps on the Time series of watches have had the ability to respond to voice commands in a limited way. Now, the company is opening that capability up to third-party developers through a new Dictation API. Pebble underlines, by the way, that the dictation is powered by the very popular voice recognition company Nuance. … [Read more...]
Itsy-Bitsy Solar Panel to Power New Google Lens
First smart glasses, now smart contact lenses? How are they going to get all that info on something the size of your thumbnail? Not to mention using solar power? Google thinks it can be done. The company has been granted a design patent for a wearable communication device shaped like a contact lens, including sensors, memory and a microprocessor. Power would be provided by … [Read more...]
Women and Wearables: Not Always a Good Match
Wired designated 2015 as “the year wearables will stop being so ugly,” which might be a sign that the industry is taking the distaff side of the marketplace more seriously. For a lot of women, the issue isn’t ugly but too big, too clunky on smaller wrists and frame, which is, well, ugly and awkward. And some health and fitness devices don’t take women’s unique health issues … [Read more...]