Articles about Wearable

The Wearable Technology Show is nearly upon us. The event -- the largest such show in the world -- takes place on 10-11 March 2015 at ExCeL in London and will be a must-attend for anyone in the UK with an interest in wearables.

The show will feature over a hundred technology innovators from all over the world, with many launching new products, or introducing existing ones to new markets. Firms with new sports and fitness devices at the show include:

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The Apple Watch "official" launch event (as opposed to last autumn’s mere unveiling) is almost upon us -- in fact it’s a week from today -- and CEO Tim Cook has been busy stoking the hype fires one last time.

Cook talked to the Telegraph about the sort of innovations Apple is planning to bring forth with its smartwatch, one of which is that the device will be usable as your car keys -- replacing the chunky fobs that vehicles use these days.

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At MWC 2015, Chinese manufacturer Huawei announced its first foray into Android Wear. The company unveiled the rather predictably-named Huawei Watch today, and it's already got tongues wagging around the world. The screen is a 1.4 inch, 400 x 400 pixel AMOLED affair which is, importantly, completely round.

Packing 286 pixels per inch, the Sapphire crystal screen has a higher resolution than the Watch Urbane launched by LG today. The stainless steel case gives the watch a quality look and feel, and the device boasts a bevy of on-board sensors for tracking different activities. What is likely to prove the Huawei Watch's key to success, however, is the fact that it so closely resembles the look of a regular watch.

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The average smartwatch relies on a smartphone to show relevant information. Those notifications, emails, messages, directions and the like are not pulled from thin air, after all. Making such devices pretty much useless when, for instance, the smartphone runs out of juice or is not within pairing distance. This is where having a cellular radio inside can make a huge difference.

LG is among the few vendors that sees just how useful cellular radios can be for smartwatches, as today it announces a 4G LTE version of its recently-unveiled Watch Urbane Android Wear smartwatch. Unlike the original, the new Watch Urbane LTE -- which rivals Samsung's Gear S -- runs LG's own Wearable Platform. The South Korean company is touting it as "the world’s first LTE-enabled smartwatch".

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Microsoft Band, the wearable fitness tracker, and its accompanying Health app have received their first major update, some four months after the initial release.

With the latest update, the band is getting some new features -- enabling it to monitor biking (yes, even stationary biking), a quick read feature for notifications and -- (you’re not going to believe this) -- an on-screen keyboard.

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Over a third of the people in the UK would feel embarrassed or self-conscious if they wore wearable tech as it currently appears, new research has found. As a result, businesses and app developers are being urged to do more if they want to improve uptake

The study was conducted by the UK mobile app developer Apadmi to form part of its new report looking into the public’s view of wearable technology, such as smart glasses, watches and fitness trackers.

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Fitness trackers have become all the range and over 3 million were sold in the second half of 2014, making up over three quarters of the total wearable sales, but it looks like the benefits of a fitness tracker might be minimal.

That is according to a new study by the University of Pennsylvania, which measured the amount of steps on a treadmill with two smartphones and three wearables.

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Smartglasses are tricky. You have people who don't like to wear glasses. Those who do may not like their design. They can also be tiring to wear for extended periods of time, as Google Glass Explorers have confessed. Not to mention that smartglasses are also very expensive. And, at least for the time being, consumers are not taking the plunge, as they appear to be perfectly happy with using just their smartphones.

The lack of consumer interest, and Google recently killing its beloved Glass project, hasn't stopped Japanese maker Sony from coming out with its own pair of smartglasses. They're called SmartEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1, and they're available for pre-order starting today.

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Over the holiday weekend, I started using the Moto 360, which user experience is way better than anticipated. For all the nutcases calling Apple Watch innovative and revolutionary—without there even being a device for them to test—Android Wear is, ah, timely. Google gives great utility that will be difficult for the fruit-logo company to match. Reasons are simple: Context, search, sync, UI design, and Google Now.

I resisted the smartwatch concept for having been there before. Few of the gadget geeks gushing about wearables are old enough to remember Microsoft SPOT. Mid-last decade, the company partnered with real watchmakers (Fossil, Suunto, and Swatch); the devices were as much jewelry as functional timepieces; FM radio delivered appointments, news, weather, and other alerts independent of cell phones; and battery life lasted three days or more (which wasn't enough). By these measures, SPOT watches were so much more and still failed. Hence, these are reasons why in past analyses I called the decade-later attempt dumb. But I was wrong.

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We’re hearing a lot about how wearables are set to explode before this decade is out -- not literally explode (well hopefully not -- though there’s bound to be some sort of incident like that at some point, if smartphones are anything to go by), but rather to explode in terms of their numbers.

And Cisco has released another report which points to big numbers of wearables before 2020 arrives.

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If CES is any indication, wearable technology is going to be huge this year, so it’s no surprise that the Wearable Technology Show has doubled in size for its second outing.

Boasting twice as many exhibitors and product launches as last year, the UK show moves to a new home at ExCeL in London, and will be co-located with the Augmented Reality Show, an event dedicated to AR, VR and smart glasses.

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In the future, smart glasses (or AR, Augmented Reality glasses) will become more popular than smartphones -- although we are talking about the pretty distant future.

This unlikely sounding conclusion -- particularly given the recent demise of Google’s Glass Explorer project -- was reached by a report from Augmentedreality.org, although it is potentially somewhat biased in that it’s an organization "committed to advancing Augmented Reality".

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Lumoid wants to make the wearable buying experience a little less painful by launching a 'try-before-you-buy' service, allowing users to test five wearables for a limited time and find out which one suits them the best.

Users will be able to choose up to five wearables for $20 and have seven days to test them out, after which users send back all the wearables and can keep any they want to buy.

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This was supposed to be time for my technology predictions for 2015, which I’ll get to yet, I promise, but first I want to explain the major trend I see, that 2015 will become known as The Year When Nothing Happened. Of course things will happen in 2015, but I think the year of truly revolutionary change will be 2016, not 2015. It takes time for trends to develop and revolutionary products to hit the market. I’d say the trends are clear, it’s the products and their manufacturers who aren’t yet identifiable.

So here are three areas where I’ll disagree with most of my peers and say I don’t expect to see much visible progress in 2015.

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2015 is quite likely to be the year when wearable technology finally reaches the mainstream, thanks in no small part to the arrival of Apple Watch. CES is, of course, awash with wearables, but few of them really appeal to me and I can’t see those devices finding much of an audience either. Part of the problem is a lot of wearables are designed to duplicate functionality already found in existing devices. People are used to glancing at their phones to see the time, and get notifications, and that makes a smartwatch -- which offers the same, albeit slightly reduced functionality, on a much, much smaller screen -- seem unnecessary. And there are other problems.

The current generation of wearables, from smartwatches to smartglasses, are also designed to replace watches, spectacles, and so on, that you might already own. While most people I know don’t wear watches, I do. My timepiece of choice is the Omega Seamaster, and I love it. It’s the perfect blend of style and functionality for me. The idea of swapping my watch for something that looks cheap and ugly as some (not all) smartwatches do really doesn’t appeal in the slightest. I currently have an UP24 fitness band nestled up against the Omega (because Jawbone recommends you wear it on the non-dominant arm for improved accuracy) and the black rubber band looks horrible next to the Omega’s polished stainless steel strap.

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