Wearable Computing & Fashion News - Page 6

A watch manufacturer has revealed RM UP-01 FERRARI, the world's thinnest mechanical watch, valued at nearly $2 million.

Luxury watch manufacturer Richard Mille has unveiled its newest watch, the RM UP-01 FERRARI, and according to Richard Mille, it's now the world's thinnest mechanical watch at just 1.75 mm thick - a US quarter is 1.75 mm thick. For reference, an Apple Watch Series 7 is 10.7mm thick. According to the website listing for the RM UP-01 FERRARI, the watch is comprised of 90% grade 5 titanium, 6% aluminum, and 4% vanadium.

Notably, the watch was birthed out of more than 6,000 hours of collaborative laboratory testing between Richard Mille and Ferrari. The design has been tested to meet "rigorous optimal strength requirements", with the watch reportedly able to withstand 5,000 g's and is also water resistant to 32 feet. The RM UP-01 FERRARI has now taken first place as the world's thinnest watch, knocking off Bulgari's Octo Finissimo Ultra, which was 1.88 mm thick.

An "industry leaker" has claimed that Apple is planning on redesigning its Apple Watch to feature flat edge glass panels.

The leaker "ShrimpApplePro" took to Twitter to write that they spoke to a source that said Apple is switching its rounded edge display for the Apple Watch and upgrading to a flat glass display, with the leaker saying, "High chance that this is the front glass for the Apple Watch Series 8". Notably, the leaker said that Apple could also be holding onto the glass for a future unannounced product.

Furthermore, the leaker said that the glass would be going into production around the same time as the glass for the iPhone 14 will be going into production. For those that don't know, rumors circulated last year that Apple would be giving its newest (at the time) Apple Watch Series 7 flat edges. These rumors didn't come true and have now turned into rumors about the Series 8. As with all rumors, take them with a grain of salt as some turn out to be true, and some turn out to be completely false.

Android Central posted an article on Saturday that revealed a prototype Google Pixel Watch has been found, confirming and disproving many of the rumors that have been circulating about the wearable device.

Much like the famous 2010 incident when Apple software engineer Gray Powell left a prototype iPhone 4 at a bar, which was later given to Gizmodo for a full tear down revealing what Apple's upcoming flagship had to offer, Google's seemingly upcoming Pixel Watch has been found at a restaurant. According to Android Central, the source that relayed the images to the publication asked to remain anonymous, but said that the device appears to be a "testing model for the Internal Pixel Team".

Notably, Android Central points out that if the images of the device are authentic, then this marks the first time the rumored watch that featured the codename dubbed "Rohan" has been seen by the public. Previous rumors suggested that the Pixel Watch would have a minimalist design, come in black, and have a rotating crown and two buttons. The source reported that the bottom "looks metallic but feels like it's coated with glass."

I'm sure executives are sitting around laughing at seeing their Apple Watch wearable playing Prince of Persia from 1989, as it was recently ported to Javascript and hacked to work on the Apple Watch.

You can play Prince of Persia on any web browser by checking out princejs, where you can play the 1989 classic on virtually anything: a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or PC. You can't do this easily on the Apple Watch, so software developer Oliver Klemenz's Javascript port runs smoothly in browsers, and even the Apple Watch.

It's not easy to play as you don't have any controls on the Apple Watch to play Prince of Persia, but it is doable. The new flagship Apple Watch Series 7 has a display with a resolution of 396 x 484, while Prince of Persia runs at 280 x 192 -- impressive considering it was originally released for the Apple II back in the day.

Apple actually made a wearable accessory for the Mac back in the 80s called the "WristMac" and it was made by Ex Machina Inc and Seiko, and now one of them is up for auction and could fetch up to $100,000.

The WristMac would've stored phone numbers, and executing or recurring one-time alarms, taking notes, exporting those notes to a text file, and then onto a disk. Users could've programmed their WristMac, and it would've worked -- and been tweaked on your -- Apple Macintosh computer.

NASA actually used the WristMac back in 1991, using them to communicate with a Macintosh Portable and Apple Link software on the Atlantis space shuttle. One of the super-rare WristMac wearables is now up for auction on ComicConnect, where it will be sold for somewhere between $1000 and $100,000 but given how rare the WristMac is, I don't think it will sell for a handful of Benjamins but rather some bundles of Benjamins.

Amazon has officially been granted permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use radar technology that is designed to monitor you while you sleep.

Amazon filed a request to the FCC on June 22 for a waiver to be granted for section 15.255(c)(3) of the FCC's rules that would allow the company to implement "field disturbance radar sensors", or "Radar Sensors" into products. Amazon goes on to say that the radar sensors would be used for "sleep tracking" and would provide "awareness and management of sleep hygiene".

Amazon also states that the radar sensors would be able to assist "persons with disabilities" such as "mobility, speech, or tactile impairments." On July 8, the FCC has granted approval for the technology to be implemented into products, stating that Amazon intends to "use the radar's capability of capturing motion in a three-dimensional space to enable contactless sleep tracing functionalities."

Samsung will be unveiling its new Galaxy Note 20 family of smartphones, the re-branded Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable smartphone, and the Galaxy Watch 3 at its Unpacked 2020 event on August 5.

Ahead of that though, it seems Best Buy has received their shipments of Samsung's unannounced Galaxy Watch 3 wearable. Android Authority received some photos from one of their tipsters, with some retail package photos of the Galaxy Watch 3 on the sales floors of a Best Buy.

Android Authority reports that the tipster "did try to buy one" but "Best Buy staff refused and moved the locked rack off the sales floor".

A key feature of the current generation Apple Watch wearable is its ECG function that has discovered heart conditions in people all around the world who had no idea they had the condition. Recently, an 80-year-old woman in Germany was warned of a heart condition by her Apple Watch that the hospital had missed in an ECG that was performed previously. The woman had visited the hospital at the University Medical Center Mainz of Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany with what the medical team called "typical angina symptoms."

The woman had experienced situations where she almost lost consciousness due to the reduced flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. The woman had previously been diagnosed with arterial hypertension, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, and she previously had a pulmonary embolism. Doctors at the hospital ordered a 12-Channel ECG, which didn't see any evidence of ischemia, which is a restriction in blood vessels that can restrict the blood supply.

The medical staff was reportedly convinced that the woman had some sort of issue due to previous ectopic heartbeat episodes that were recorded using the ECG function of her Apple Watch. The physicians opted to treat the woman based on the recordings that the Apple Watch made. In a nutshell, the Apple Watch was able to diagnose an issue that the hospital's equipment didn't find.

Some new details have leaked that are for a next-generation Samsung Galaxy smartwatch, but exactly which model remains a mystery. What we know is that Chinese regulators are testing a Samsung smartwatch with two versions codenamed SM-R840 and SM-R850 listed. The mystery is that no one is sure if these are different sizes of the Galaxy Watch 2 or if they are the Galaxy Watch Active 3.

The assumption with two codenames is that we're looking at both a 42 mm and a 46 mm version. Other leaks have mentioned two different codenames, including R845 and R855, that are believed to be the LTE versions. The wearable is tipped to come in black, silver, and gold colors.

Rumors also suggest that the devices will have 8 GB of internal storage. That is a healthy gain from past Samsung Galaxy smartwatches and will be useful for people who like to store music on the watch for listening off-line. The battery reportedly increased in size to 330mAh, which is a significant gain from the 247mAh battery used on the Active 2.

Samsung Electronics announced today that the Samsung Health Monitor app was cleared by the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as "Software as a Medical Device." That designation makes the Samsung Health Monitor app government-cleared as an over-the-counter, cuffless blood pressure monitoring application. The app has to be paired with the Galaxy Watch Active2 to allow users to measure and track blood pressure on the go.

Samsung says that the app will give users the ability to measure and track blood pressure using the app to provide further insight into health and to allow them to make more informed decisions. Samsung notes that the Galaxy Watch Active2 does have to be calibrated using a traditional blood pressure cuff to begin with. The user can measure their blood pressure anytime, anywhere, using the watch after the calibration.

Samsung says that the Active2 wearable can measure blood pressure using pulse wave analysis, which is tracked with the heart rate monitoring sensors inside the wearable. The app analyzes the relationship between the calibration value and the blood pressure change to determine blood pressure readings.