Software is easy, hardware is hard, and batteries are damned near impossible. There's no Moore's Law for batteries. That's why whispers of improvements in battery tech are so interesting and important. We bet you've never heard the name John Bannister Goodenough, although your life without his work would be a whole lot different without him. Goodenough invented the LiIon … [Read more...]
IoS: The Internet of Sheep
The kind of connectivity that makes wearable tech happy is easy to get in urban centers. It's harder in rural areas, although agriculture is certainly an industry that could (and does) benefit from being connected. In that vein, we saw an article the other day proposing that sheep not only be tagged, but be equipped as actual wireless hotspots. There's a lot of good … [Read more...]
Swatch to Sell Smartwatch Within Three Months, Says Bloomberg
Remember when Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek said smartwatches would never catch on? He's changed his tune, and now tells Bloomberg that he'll be selling a smartwatch, complete with an NFC chip for payments, within the next three months. Why the turnaround? Because Hayek did not get to be the boss of the world's biggest watch company by being stupid. It's clear that people want … [Read more...]
NYTimes on Google Glass: “It Wasn’t Supposed To Be That Way”
New York Times reporter Nick Bilton broke the story that became Google Glass. Today, he tells what went wrong, and it's really pretty simple: the marketers saw what the engineers were working on and put it out to the world far before it was ready. In other words, what happened was exactly what anyone with any sense knew what was going on. What happens next? Glass is now in … [Read more...]
On the Other Hand, Gizmodo Likes the New Fitbits
We wrote the other day about the less-than-stellar review that Re/code gave the new fitness trackers from Fitbit. In the interest of fairness and completeness, we also note that Gizmodo has a set of reviews, and they like the Surge and the Charge HR much more than Re/code did, finding them respectably accurate. Gizmodo dinged the entry level Charge for a dreadful clasp, and … [Read more...]
Wirecard Wearable Wallet Reportedly Targets Summer Launch
There's a German company called Wirecard that's active in the payment business, similar to PayPal. It has its own payment network, issues cards, and is active in mobile payments. GigaOM is reporting that Wirecard is planning this summer to release its own smart band to act as a credit card replacement. It's a segment that's starting to get crowded. Apple Pay has made the … [Read more...]
“Digital Clothing” Hits Brooklyn
The New York Times has a story about an exhibition of "digital clothing" at the Pratt Institute, a prestigious design college not at all far from WTI's world headquarters in Brooklyn. Billie Whitehouse is (perhaps inevitably) represented by a blazer with haptic feedback and some oddities including a bra with LEDs that indicate -- well, it's not really clear what. As with … [Read more...]
UnderArmour Buys MyFitnessPal and Endomondo, Adding to Digital Health Portfolio
UnderArmour, the Baltimore-based company best known for athletic wear, is sweeping up the athletic community. It announced today that it's bought MyFitnessPal and Endomondo, adding about 100 million registered users to its existing base of MapMyFitness and UA Record users. The company says it now has 120 million registered users of fitness apps. Endomondo, which has most of … [Read more...]
Re/code is Less Than Impressed By New Fitbit Trackers
Re/code's Lauren Goode has been checking out the latest fitness trackers from Fitbit, the leader in the smart wristband market -- the Charge, Charge HR, and Surge -- and she was not particularly impressed. The Charge is OK -- a slight upgrade for the recalled Force -- but the clasp continues to be annoying. The Charge HR and Surge, both of which monitor heart rate, suffer … [Read more...]
Pebble Teases a Pivot
Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky gave an exclusive interview to The Verge, in which he said that his company has sold 1,000,000 watches, and that 2015 will bring new products and a new software platform. Pebble's in a pretty difficult spot. It more or less pioneered the notification device use case for wearables, and but saw Google wield its sharp elbows in the market with Android … [Read more...]