There were a couple of interesting articles over the weekend about the LG Watch Urbane, the first watch to run the newest version of Android Wear. The Verge liked the software, but as for the watch itself: The consensus is that this is a cheap-looking watch trying to pretend that it’s an expensive watch. It’s not fake-Rolex levels of low-brow ostentation, but it’s in the … [Read more...]
Introducing the Wearable Tech Insider Podcast
We're very pleased to announce the debut of a new product at Center Ring Media: the Wearable Tech Insider podcast. The name, actually, is something of a misnomer, as it includes material and stories not only from WTI but from our sister site, Heath Tech Insider. You'll hear regularly from the editor of this site, Dan Rosenbaum, as well as Health Tech's editor, Alfred Poor. … [Read more...]
Will Google Debut a Wearable at I/O?
Google I/O, Google's big developer fest, is coming at the end of May, and there's starting to be talk that the search giant will be showing off a new wearable. Mashable notices that Google's ATAP hardware team -- a hardware skunkworks geared toward rapid success or rapid failure -- is doing a session on May 29th at noon Eastern with a loopy but intriguing session description … [Read more...]
Fitbit Files for an IPO, Seeking $100 Million
Well, the balance sheet is certainly in good shape. Fitbit, the movement tracker and software company, has filed an S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating its intent to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FIT. The company hopes to raise $100 million. As part of the filing, Fitbit revealed that $132 million in profit … [Read more...]
APX Labs Publishes “Periodic Table of Wearables”
APX Labs, which sells Skylight -- software that connects wearable tech to enterprises -- is out with a smart "periodic table" of the enterprise wearable ecosystem. It's worth looking at because it gets so much right. The chart's focus is not on hardware or software, although those layers are certainly represented. Instead, it breaks down enterprise needs by function. … [Read more...]
“Not Quite Necessary”: Ars Technica on the Apple Watch
How could you not love a review that starts out talking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Ars Technica remains one of the few must-read tech sites, and they've done one of their patented deeper-than-deep reviews of the Apple Watch. If you want to know about speeds and feeds and components, there are better things to read. But Andrew Cunningham takes every single operational … [Read more...]
Apple Starts Third-Party Watchband Dev Program
Just as any new Apple product begets an accessories market, the Apple Watch is birthing a market in watchbands. Apple has announced a "Made for Apple Watch" program for third-party bands, and promises that the lugs -- the tiny hardware pieces that snap into the watches' band grooves -- will be available soon. What the guidelines did not say was anything about the mystery … [Read more...]
Accessory Maker to Tap Into Undocumented Apple Watch Port
What could possibly go wrong? Adding battery life to the Apple Watch is probably a great business opportunity, and the Reserve Strap accessory was building a wrist strap with an included battery that would attach to the watch's charger. Bulky, but if you've gotta have a battery, you've gotta have a battery. But it turns out that there's this little hidden port on the … [Read more...]
Million-Dollar Omate Joins Top Incubator, Moves to US
It's been a while since we've checked in with Omate, a very early French maker of smart watches. Two things made Omate interesting: it had raised more than $1 million in crowdfunding, and it was the first company to build a watch that included its own SIM card, and therefore didn't require a phone as a communications hub. The last we wrote about Omate, it was announcing the … [Read more...]
TAG Heuer Smart Watch To Cost $1400, Ship in November
So you know how "everybody" is saying that the Apple Watch is too expensive at $349 to $1100? (Yes, we're ignoring the $10,000 gold model.) TAG Heuer execs says its smart watch, which will run Android Wear, will go on sale in November for $1400. The chief differentiator, other than the operating system, is that the TAG Heuer watch promises a 40-hour battery life, rather than … [Read more...]