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The Wearable Technology Show is Europe’s biggest event for wearables, AR/VR, and the Internet of Things. According to the organisers around 6,000 people attended the fourth incarnation of this esteemed event. Leading names across almost every aspect of connected technology were present to show their wares and share their insights. The Wearable Technology Show was co-located with the "AR, VR & MXR Show", and "IOT Connect".
Posted By Simon Montford on March 15, 2016 Today I attended day one of the Wearable Technology Show at ExCel, London. This is the third consecutive year I have been to the event, so it was interesting to see how the show has grown in stature over the past few years. Back in 2014, the show's debut took place at London Olympia, and was a far more modest affair. It was, however an exciting time, as back then the major players were conspicuously absent; it was almost exclusively attended by a passionate bunch of wearable tech pioneers, and a few plucky little startups. Since the arrival of major players such as Sony, Samsung et al the whole shebang has become a larger, more polished production.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 4, 2015 Chronos turns a watch into a smartwatch. It lights up and vibrates when messages, calls, or notifications are received. The device will cost around $100 (£65) when it goes on sale next year, meaning that conventional watch owners will get all the benefits of owning a smartwatch without having to buy one. Obviously, the Chronos is more of a substitute for pseudo smartwatches like the Activite Pop, as it lacks many of the features offered by more sophisticated ones that run apps, and feature touchscreens.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 1, 2015 Omate announced today that they will be holding a flash sale of their new 3G enabled smartwatch, the Omate Rise, exclusively on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. The company will be accepting pre-orders from 3pm GMT / 10am EST on Monday December 7th, for a 48hr period. Backers will be the first in the World to wear the Rise when it becomes available to them in March 2016, instead of June.
Posted By Simon Montford on May 19, 2015 The term "smartwatch" is becoming increasingly confusing. A powerful touchscreen device that's capable of running apps, making and receiving calls, as well as texts is a very different beast to a Fitness Band that tracks activity, and tells the time. Both devices, however, are referred to as "Smartwatches", as are the three illustrated above, but they possess very different features, and capabilities.
Posted By Simon Montford on March 31, 2015 The sleek looking Olio is the work of a former HP and Apple product designer Steven Jacobs. Like a growing number of newly released smartwatches, it apes the appearance of a conventional timepiece. This is because the team at Olio Devices chose to utilise high quality materials, instead of the usual plastic or rubber that's so frequently used by other wearable OEMs.
Posted By Simon Montford on March 6, 2015 I feel kinda bad for saying this but, FlyShark have produced one of the most bizarre Kickstarter videos I've seen in a while. I mean who goes for a 1.3 mile run wearing a suit? That's weird, but hold on the weirdness continues. The dude then prepares a "romantic" dinner for some poor unsuspecting girl, that consists of KFC, followed by what must surely be her most favorite thing in the world, ever - chocolate cake. This is because upon seeing the cake her pulse rockets to 180bpm!
Posted By Simon Montford on March 6, 2015 How many times has your umbrella been lost or stolen? In my case, I've lost count! The Davek Alert Umbrella alerts you when you step out of range, because inside the handle is a Bluetooth LE beacon, which can be synced to any iOS or Android smartphone. The app provides weather info, and is even smart enough to recommend when you may need to bring your smart umbrella with you. Tracking devices are becoming increasingly popular among the absent-minded, and safety conscious.
Posted By Simon Montford on March 3, 2015 LG's new "Watch Urbane" and "Watch Urbane LTE" smartwatches are certainly a step forward compared to the previous model, the LG G Watch R. Although bulkier, the Urbane LTE comes with 4G and a new operating system, which means it can allow the wearer to make and answer calls, and send texts without a smartphone. There is no question that this is the future.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 24, 2015 Watching Pebble's live Kickstarter campaigns is becoming a bit like a spectator sport! I've been glued to the screen watching the pledges counter. As I write, Pebble's campaign total of $500,000 has been totally obliterated, and the total has now reached $6,576,994 (£4,256,485). With 31 days still remaining, how high can it go, and more importantly, can Pebble beat Exploding Kittens target of $8,782,571, which was set only a few days ago? Check out my Youtube video at the bottom of the page.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 21, 2015 A startup called Neptune has taken an entirely new approach to smartwatch design. It's founder, Simon Tian believes your smartwatch will take centre stage and your smartphone will become its trusty, but far less intelligent sidekick. The company recently announced the Neptune Duo, that'll not only be able to run Android Lollipop, but the device will also come with wi-fi, 4G, NFC, and GPS. In other words it will be capable of replacing your smartphone.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 19, 2015 I love the concept of augmented reality, but like so many people, I find the appearance of augmented reality wearables unpalatable. No OEM thus far has been able to figure out how to shoehorn the required tech into such a small formfactor. Wearables need to be lightweight, and most importantly, stylish. Turns out Sony can't make wearable look good either.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 16, 2015 E-ink provides a really crisp display and uses very little power, making it an ideal technology for small screen connected devices like Displio, as well as smartwatches such as the Geak Watch 2, and wearables such as the Tago arc by Boston's Liberate Technologies Inc. One major drawback of using e-ink instead of LCD or OLED, however, is that it can only display monochrome images.
Posted By Simon Montford on Feb 10, 2015 Last year in a post titled "Who's Data Is It Anyway?" we shared our concerns that wearable owners were not being given access to their own personal data by OEMs. One example was the Basis Peak (acquired by Intel). Well it looks like the recent firmware upgrade has addressed this issue! The company's blog states "Our new data export feature lets you populate your own charts and graphs with your activity and fitness metrics, do customized analyses, in-depth comparisons and more". To learn more about their data export policy, you can visit their support section here.
Posted By Simon Montford on Jan 21, 2015 An increasingly popular way to operate wearable devices like the Moto 360, Sony SmartWatch 3, Martian, Omate, and the Apple Watch is via voice control. Devices powered by Android Wear are activated when the user says "Okay Google", and those that use their iPhone usually tap a “command” button which activates the familiar Siri chime. Both Google Now and Siri enable users to read and reply to emails directly on the wearable device as well as read and compose text messages, make calls, enter calendar appointments, and set reminders.
Posted By Simon Montford on Jan 20, 2015 Moodmetric claims to be the smallest wearable technology in the world for measuring emotions. "The Moodmetric ring measures the autonomous nervous system signals that can be used to understand emotional reactions and improve quality of life". We all lead busy lives and often miss the signs of stress which can, if ignored, lead to chronic illness or even premature death. Products such as Moodmetric and Olive could, therefore, potentially have a hugely beneficial impact on society.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 22, 2014 The team at Zikto have developed a fitness tracker called Arki that is able to monitor your walking pattern to prevent poor posture. It measures all aspects of gait such as swing speed, stride length, limb rotation, and angle, and combines it with other data, to improve walking habit. If it detects that the wearer is slouching or doing something that leads to poor posture such as walking while viewing a phone, the device will vibrate.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 22, 2014 Embrace is a wearable fitness tracker, a great looking smart watch, and a sophisticated medical device that monitors sleep, heart rate, and stress levels. Although anyone can benefit from the device, it has been especially designed to help epilepsy suffers of which there are 3 million in America and 65 million world-wide.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 13, 2014 There's an overwhelming number of smartwatches and fitness bands available to purchase. Startups that fail to offer something unique and really useful will almost certainly fail. As far as consumers are concerned "Me too" products, no matter how good they look, just won't cut it. The Uno, not only looks good, but also offers some really useful time-saving features so it's hardly surprising that it's generated a significant amount of interest on Indiegogo.
Posted By Simon Montford on Dec 5 2014 Apparently Sony is behind this concept smart watch, called the "FES". It was posted on a Japanese crowdfunding website but was intentionally unbranded to gauge genuine consumer opinion without the influence of a big name. We think this trend will continue, whereby OEMs turn to crowdfunding platforms for market research objectives, as opposed to fund raising.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 27, 2014 There are well over a hundred fitness trackers on the market that monitor activity based on movement, and in some cases heartbeat. The problem is that keeping track of exercise, and its effect on the body, is a very complex process. As a gimmick, fitness trackers work just fine, but to be genuinely valuable, particularly to medical professionals, accuracy needs to be improved. Perhaps this is why over 50% of consumers in the States have ditched their trackers, myself included.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 27, 2014 It appears that adding an e-acute to the name of a smartwatch and designing it to look like a conventional watch is becoming all the rage. If you are in the market for a new smartwatch that has a little je ne sais quoi we recommend, in addition to checking out the Withings Activité, you also take a peek at the Névo.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 24, 2014 Kovert has integrated cutting edge micro-electronics into designer jewellery in order to enable fashion-conscious wearers to receive subtle vibration alerts from their smartphones. To avoid constant interruptions, it is possible to predefine vibration alerts so that only relevant texts, emails, calls or whatsapp notifications trigger the smart jewellery.
Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 21, 2014 If you're a serious watch collector or aficionado of quality timepieces, chances are you would have been turned off by the design of the first batch of smart watches. This is because most look rather geeky and many are constructed with low-cost materials. Posted By Simon Montford on Nov 7, 2014 According to Phandroid a champagne gold version of Motorola will be made available in 18mm and 23mm watchband sizes. The metal strap will cost around $300 and a leather band version, called "cognac", will cost around $50 less.
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AuthorsSOCIAL MEDIA© Simon Montford (WEB3IOT), 2014-2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Simon Montford and WEB3IOT with appropriate and specific direction to the original content at web3iot.com.
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