Wearable Computing & Fashion - Page 21

Sony's third-generation personal 3D viewing headset, the HMZ-T3W, is now available for pre-order. If you want to grab the Sony HMZ-T3W, you'll need to pre-order it directly from Sony's website, or in retail Sony stores.

The HMZ-T3W features wireless connectivity this time around, instead of wrapping yourself in cords, and some nifty dual OLED monitors that Sony state simulate the feeling of sitting 65 feet away from a gigantic 750-inch display. The HMZ-T3W is capable of streaming content from up to 7 meters away from the source.

The third-generation model no longer requires an AC power socket, as you can take a portable battery pack around with you which will share power with connected smartphones and tablets. The portable battery should be good for around three hours of wireless use, or up to 7 hours if you use it over HDMI. If you are looking at picking one of these up, you'll be hit up for $999.

Apple seems far behind the wearable devices game, with a bunch of its competitors unveiling wearable devices, mainly Samsung's Galaxy Gear and heck, even the Galaxy Gear 2 is being teased already. This isn't even considering the awesome Omate TrueSmart, either and all before Apple has its first-gen device on our wrists.

Now we have a report that states Apple has scooped up one of Nike's top design directors, who will work on wearable devices for the company. Ben Shaffer was Nike's Studio Director of Innovation Kitchen, which might sound weird, but it's actually Nike's R&D arm that is responsible for products like the Nike FuelBand, which is a favorite of Apple's executives.

Shaffer will most likely begin working on the rumored iWatch, but the latest rumors peg it to be released late next year after some engineering problems.

Today, Garmin announced the launch of two new items to its Forerunner line of GPS smartwatches. The new Forerunner GPS 220 and GPS 610 running watches take Garmin's involvement in wearable technology to an entirely new level.

Both of these wearable GPS's act as a personal coach by alerting you of your distance traveled, lap times, and even recovery times needed before attempting another strenuous run. Both models feature color screens, with the 620 being touch-enabled. The 620 also predicts your race time and gives you personalized oxygen consumption estimates. When combined with Garmin's HRM-Run technology, the 620 is able to measure how long your foot is on the ground rather than in-flight, which lets you compare your time per step to previous events.

"Whether running indoors or out, Forerunner 620 and 220 will change the way runners look at training," said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. "Advanced features in the 620 such as recovery advisor, VO2 max estimate, race predictor and stats on running economy, combined with connected features and training plan options found in both the 620 and 220, make these watches must haves for runners of all levels. To keep runners motivated the watches also notice if runners hit any personal records on that run, like their fastest mile, 5k, 10k, half or full marathon or their longest run to date."

Omate seems to be doing quite well on Kickstarter for its TrueSmart smartwatch, requiring $100,000 of funding. But, Omate has hit a home run with its 'Smartwatch 2.0' pulling in (at the time of writing) $744,499 of funding with 7 days left to go.

We thought we'd get in contact with them and ask them a few questions about its upcoming 3G-capable TrueSmart device.

Q: Who is Omate?

Qualcomm has just stepped into the smartwatch game, announcing its Toq smartwatch at its Qualcomm Uplinq 2013 conference. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs announced the smarwatch, which featured a Mirasol color screen that can be viewed outdoors in bright sunlight.

Toq features wireless charging capabilities through WiPower LE, which is a nice touch. Qualcomm's Toq will display notifications, and it should feature applications of its own. The Toq can also control music playback and play locally to wireless headsets, but it's also capable of screening calls and showing a bunch of different watchfaces.

Qualcomm does it a bit different with Toq and its Mirasol display, which never turns off. Even with it never turning off, Toq can last multiple days between charge. Qualcomm will release a limited amount of Toq smartwatches in the next couple of weeks, with stock building up in the coming weeks.

We're just days away from Samsung unleashing its Galaxy Gear smartwatch to the world at IFA, but Venture Beat has had a quick look at the upcoming Galaxy Gear smartwatch ahead of the ev ent.

One of VB's sources showed them a prototype of the Galaxy Gear, a prototype which was sent to developers and a few close partners of Samsung. Keep in mind that because this is a prototype, and Samsung of course has high levels of security around its smartwatch, that this won't be the final design of the Galaxy Gear, but it'll be awfully close.

Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch is part smart device, part fashion accessory, part camera and a health monitor. It features Bluetooth that will connect with all of Samsung's Galaxy S family of devices, but we might see it capable of connecting with all Android-based devices too. The Galaxy Gear also features Wi-Fi, allowing it to connect to the Internet and check your e-mail.

An Ohio-based surgeon has used Google Glass to live stream a knee surgery to his colleagues, a great demonstration on how the wearable device would change the medical world as we know it.

Dr. Christopher Kaeding, a surgeon at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, was performing knee surgery on a 47-year-old patient's injured knee ligament using Glass. Kaeding wore Google Glass during his procedure in order to show his live point-of-view to people at a remote location. His colleagues and several medical students watched the surgery, live, and from Kaeding's point-of-view from different locations within Columbus, Ohio.

Kaeding said in a news release: "To be honest, once we got into the surgery, I often forgot the device was there. It just seemed very intuitive and fit seamlessly." Glass' potential for the medical world goes far beyond the operating theater, as it can be used for remote observation and collaboration with colleagues anywhere in the world.

Earlier this morning I covered a new leak that showed off the Android app that is said to control Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Gear smartwatch. Now, additional details of leaked surrounding the device's hardware, and what kind of battery life users can expect to see. This morning GigaOm is reporting that the galaxy gear will have up to 10 hours of battery life.

Additionally the smartwatch is said to feature a 320 x 320 pixel, 2.5-inch OLED display alongside 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. Rumors are also circling that the Galaxy Gear will feature a 4-megapixel camera that is capable of shooting 720p video. Finally the Gear will run a version of Android 4.2 and as we saw earlier will pair with other Galaxy devices using near field communication (NFC). The gear will launch next week on September 4th at the IFA trade show in Berlin Germany.

Omate has just popped up onto the tech industry radar with TrueSmart, which is a "truly standalone water-resistant smartwatch." Omate has taken to Kickstarter to fund the wearable device, which is capable of working independently from your smartphone, as it features 3G capabilities, as well as voice and gesture controls.

The biggest ticket is that the TrueSmart smartwatch is water-resistant, which is perfect for those who would be in the rain, or would wear the watch in the shower for example. It has more functions than most smartwatches, such as a watch, phone, camera, GPS, notifications, Android apps, LBS tracker, SOS device, monitoring and much more.

The Omate SmartWatch will cost around $179 by the looks of its Kickstarter page, and required a goal of $100,000 worth of funding. They've smashed through this with 1,123 backers at the time of writing, and $218,477 in funding so far with a huge 28 days to go.

In a little over two weeks from now, Samsung will unveil its Galaxy Gear smartwatch at its Unpacked event being held at the IFA 2013 conference in Berlin, Germany. Today, thanks to website GigaOm, we now have an idea of what hardware the Galaxy Gear will feature.

The report states that Samsung has managed to cram a 2.5-inch flexible OLED screen, a dual-core processor, and an unknown amount of RAM into the small wrist package. The report says that "decent" battery life can be expected from a lithium-based battery and that a camera alongside speakers will be embedded into the device's wrist strap. Other sensors rumored to be on board include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, Bluetooth 4.0, and some form of gesture support.

The report went on to say that Samsung will offer incentives to developers to offer apps for the smartwatch through its proprietary app store rather than posting them on Google Play. Over the last few weeks, I've done a lot of thinking about smart watches, and while I feel that there definitely cool, I honestly see them as a passing fad. By this time next year or the year after, I suspect we will look back and wonder why we all spent so much money on smart watches.

Today, website VR-Zone is confirming the existence of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Gear smartwatch. A newly released report says that Samsung will launch the Galaxy Gear on September 4 at the 2013 IFA show in Germany.

VR-Zone says that the Galaxy Gear, model number SM-V700, will function as an accessory to Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets and will feature a flexible display. A recently filed patent says that the device will feature a power button, menu buttons, a USB port for data transfer and charging, and a capacitive back which will sense heart rate and other biometric data.

The patent went on to describe the Galaxy Gear as a "wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band, or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls , electronic mails, and messages." While no official confirmation has been released, VR-Zone is usually spot on with their predictions and as such, I to fully expect to see the Galaxy Gear unveiled at IFA 2013.

Google Glass users receive monthly updates to their wearable device, with the latest "XE8" update including new Google Now cards, new voice commands, and a better video player application.

The new voice actions on Glass include "post an update" and "take a note" which work well with applications like Path and Evernote, letting Glass users use these services much easier, and more on-the-go thanks to wearing the device, and using your voice to add notes. The new Google Now cards include Reservations and Events, Movies and Public Alerts, as well as more commonly-used Now cards like Weather, Sports and Traffic.

These cards will now be shown to the left of your timeline, and will become available as needed after the update has pushed to your Glass unit. There's a new Volume card in the settings, hashtag in captions and a new "send a birthday message" card available in the XE8 update.

One thing that stays common between early adopters of Google Glass is its not-so-great battery life, but designer and inventor, Kevin Alan Tussy, has an idea that could triple the battery life of Google's wearable device.

His idea is called PWRGlass, which is an external battery pack that would be sold as an optional accessory to Glass. PWRGlass isn't anywhere near ready, with the only form it exists in right now is in a computer, as a 3D render. But, as it stands, it features a 2000mAh lithium-ion battery that is built into the sunglass band-like design.

There would be a microUSB connector on PWRGlass, that would allow a user to recharge both the PWRGlass, and Google Glass, at the same time. The designer is also working on a second device that would give Glass an injection of storage from its on-board 12GB.

A new report this morning is suggesting that Samsung is ready to beat Apple to the punch on releasing a smartwatch. Patently Apple is claiming that Samsung will show off its very own smartwatch in September ahead of the annual IFA trade show which is held in Berlin, Germany.

Dubbed the "Samsung Gear," the smartwatch will be shown off during a press conference in which we will also see the Galaxy Note III unveiled. Although the report cites no sources, we do know that Samsung is developing a smartwatch, and we've even seen leaks of the device's supposed interface. If Samsung does debut the Gear a little over a month from now, it will beat Apple in the smartwatch race by more than a year, which puts it in a very good position for market dominance.

Originally thought to be slated for a July 15 launch, Sony has now confirmed that we will see its SmartWatch 2 released to the public on September 9, 2013. This launch date actually aligns closer with Sony's original plans for a September / October launch. This means that Sony will have beaten all the major manufacturers to the punch in releasing a next-generation SmartWatch.

Sony says that the SmartWatch 2 has been completely redesigned from the ground up and is far more feature-rich than its predecessor. The new watch features a 1.6-inch LCD, Bluetooth 3.0, micro-USB charging port, and near field communication connectivity. This will allow the SmartWatch to quickly pair with other devices through just a single touch. If that weren't enough, the SmartWatch 2 is both dust and water resistant and carries an IP57 certification.

With Samsung's upcoming smartwatch rumored to still be months away from release, and recent developments that have put Apple back to seeing their iWatch released in late 2014, Sony could have a winner on their hands. At a pricing point of $150, which is far less than any high-end analog watch you will find on store shelves today, I think that this new offering from Sony will fly off the shelves.

It appears that the rumors of an Apple iWatch arriving this year are holding less credence than we originally assumed. Recent reports suggest that Apple is still in the hiring phase for design engineers as well as electrical engineers to take on the project. Apparently the delays and additional hires are because there are some pretty tough engineering problems that need to be solved before the project can move forward.

In a recent report from the Financial Times, we have learned that Apple has been in an "aggressive hiring phase" for the last few weeks and that this is an indication that Apple has stepped up the development on the iWatch platform. Sources close to the matter also state that Apple has been experiencing some "hard engineering problems that they've not been able to solve" leading the bosses to believe that its in-house engineers are just not up to the task of designing wearable technology.

All of this leads up to the fact that we most likely will not see a smartwatch from the Cupertino-based company anytime this year. While 2014 is still an option, these recent developments lead me to believe that it will be 2015 or 2016 before Apple creates a design that they deem acceptable to launch to the public. With so many companies readying launches for this year such as Samsung and Sony, and with the Pebble already on the market, I think that Apple may be a little late to the party this time.

According to Dell's Global Vice President of Personal Computing, Sam Burd, the company could be looking at wearable computing. Burd says that Dell are "exploring areas in that space."

Burd was talking with The Guardian about how the company could be part of the new market for wearable computing where we already have Google, Sony, Pebble, Samsung and Apple. All of those companies have either teased their devices, shown them off (Google Glass) or are rumored to release a wearable device later this year. He adds:

What does this mean for the desktop space? Could Dell be leaving the desktop space? Of course not, Burd says that there will "still be a need for 'static computing on desktops'. There's a lot of discussion about how that fits into wearable devices like we've seen with Google Glass and watches. We're looking at a world of lots of connected devices."

The next couple of years are going to be filled with many different wearable technology devices being released, but most thought that Apple would be the first to the market with the most popular smartwatch - it seems we were wrong, as Foxconn have beaten Apple to the finish line, kinda.

Foxconn showed off their new smartwatch during a recent shareholders meeting, with the smartwatch capable of connecting to an iPhone wirelessly and displaying incoming call information as well as Facebook posts. The Foxconn-built smartwatch also had the ability of monitoring the wearer's heartbeat, respiration and other vital statistics.

If the device reports that your heartbeat is beating too fast, it can offer you steps on how to get it down. This news is important as Foxconn are one of Apple's closest partners, and if they've got a smartwatch out now, which seems pretty capable, what are Apple going to be saying behind closed doors right now?

Google Glass is slowly making its way into the mainstream, but this week during Wimbledon, pro tennis player Bethanie Mattek-Sands will don the wearable computing from Google. Mattek-Sands ranks as position 58 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

She will be wearing Google Glass at Wimbledon this week in London, something Google announced a few days ago now. Mattek-Sands is in the Glass Explorer program, which saw a handful of people around the world receiving the wearable product. Google have said that Glass is both comfortable and unobtrusive, weighing no more than a pair of standard sunglasses. Considering pro tennis players are moving from left to right so fast, even a couple of hundred grams would make a big difference - even more so with the money at stake here - so this is a big, and most of all, positive move for Glass.

Google has said that Mattek-Sands is already benefitting from Glass, elaborating:

Who would spend $1500 on Google Glass only to tear it apart to see what makes it tick? SparkFun Electronics, that's who! During last weekend's Autonomous Vehicle Competition hosted by SparkFun, company founder Nate Seidel learned that two of his friends would be picking up their pair of Google's Glass after the competition. Being the good friend he is, Nate offered to pay for the glasses if he could reduce them to the individual components it is made from.

Luckily for us, friends Scott Torborg and Star Simpson agreed to the tear down, something I am sure any hacker worth their soldering iron would do! Good guy SparkFun posted the initial images from the teardown but opted to leave the meat and bones of the post to Scott to feature on his personal website. (source #2)

I won't cover the entire teardown here, but the hackers did note that while the tear down did require some specialized tools, and a high level of skill, if one is very careful and patient, they could easily teardown and rebuild Glass with no noticeable side effects. It appears that Glass is comprised of just 12 hardware sets, with the motherboard and camera / display mechanical assembly being the largest.