wearable

Fitbit debuts Flex, first Bluetooth 4.0 tracker

LAS VEGAS--Personal fitness company Fitbit has just jumped further into the wearable tech market. The company unveiled its $99.95 Fitbit Flex device, an activity tracker designed to be worn all day and monitor movement, sleep, and calories burned.

Design The Flex is similar to other competing products in the growing personal fitness category such as the Nike FuelBand, and Jawbone Up. Built to be worn all day long, the appropriately named Flex is a soft bracelet encased in a rubbery skin. The idea is that it's malleable enough to stay firmly wrapped around your wrist but be comfortable … Read more

Wearing the future: Hands on with Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses

LAS VEGAS--Cyborgs, meet your gear. The Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses, a wearable Bluetooth/Wi-Fi headpiece with a built-in HD camera and WQVGA floating eyepiece display, are on hand to try out at CES 2013. Previously seen in nonworking prototype form at the end of last year, the M100 Smart Glasses will run on Android and eventually iOS and be available by summer 2013 (fall for iOS, pending app approval).

"It would feel like you're looking at a screen the size of your phone, but the image floats out in space," Vuzix President and Chief Executive Paul Travers … Read more

This small, slick fitness tracker senses your ticker

LAS VEGAS--It seems that many companies want in on the wearable fitness tracker craze, and Withings is no exception. Its new Smart Activity Tracker is a small, light, 8-gram device that records user activity, sleep, and even measures heart rate in real time.

About the size of a USB stick, the Smart Activity Tracker can handle all the typical pedometer duties such as logging the steps you take, stairs climbed, and calories burned. What sets this gadget apart, though, is its heart rate sensor located on back. Just place your finger tip in the right spot and the Tracker will … Read more

Fitbug Orb, Luv, and Wow Bluetooth health gear on its way

LAS VEGAS--Fitness gear and wearable tech are one of the burgeoning trends of this year's CES, and Fitbug was at the CES Unveiled press event previewing scale, heart rate, and blood-pressure monitoring gadgets.

The Fitbug Orb is a $49 wearable device with both clip-on and watchband attachments, competing in an increasingly crowded space. It uses the same technology and infrastructure as Fitbug's other wearable tech including the Fitbug Air, and works with the iPhone 5, 4S, fifth-gen iPod Touch, third-gen iPads and higher, and the Samsung Galaxy S3. Bonus: it has an "underwear clip" for discrete … Read more

Google Glass development charges ahead

It's been six months since Google unveiled its Google Glass project, and it appears the tech giant is still hard at work ironing out the kinks to get the product ready for consumption.

In an interview with IEEE Spectrum published today, the head of the Google Glass project, Babak Parviz, said his team is continuing to try out new ideas and that both the software and hardware development is coming along.

"We constantly try out new ideas of how this platform can be used," Parviz told IEEE Spectrum. "We're also trying to make the platform … Read more

Apple rumor watch: iOS timepiece on drawing board?

After creating the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, is Apple now working on an iWatch?

A report cited by Business Insider claims that Apple has partnered with Intel to develop an iOS watch. Supply chain sources reportedly told Chinese blog site Tech163.com that the watch would be Bluetooth-enabled and sport a 1.5-inch OLED screen.

The so-called smart watch would debut sometime in the first half of next year.

Other sources have chimed in on the general concept, with Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, for one, saying he thinks wearable computing is a line that Apple might eventually get into. … Read more

Crave Ep. 103: Dropping burrito bombs on America

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On this episode of Crave, we check out the Burrito Bomber engineered by Darwin Aerospace that literally bombs burritos into geo-tagged locations. We also get some NASA reassurance that the world may not end this month, which means we may actually get the chance to wear Lacoste's awesome polo shirts of the future. Also, dogs that drive? Yep. … Read more

'Woven' turns you into a Kinect

Who needs an Xbox when you can just put on a sweatshirt and thrash your arms about? That's the idea behind Woven, a wearable gaming platform by two Dutch designers.

Christiaan Ribbens and Patrick Kersten, recent graduates of the Utrecht School of the Arts, embedded a sweater and pair of jeans with a small Bluetooth module, speakers, motion sensors, shake motors, a three-color LED screen, and other gizmos to create their concept gaming platform. A trio of LilyPad Arduino microcontrollers process the data and operate the LEDs (and are, incidentally, washable). … Read more

Wearable technology

At the Technosensual exhibition in Vienna earlier this year, models sashayed down the runway in clothing rigged with sensors, speakers, and LEDs. Fashion of the future? Maybe, but hitting the street decked out in wearable tech has never been more today.

Some of the technology -- like the fleece with embedded video player that just went on sale at Macy's -- aims for fashion, while much of it aims for function.

Been noticing more jogging stats and maps running through your Facebook and Twitter feeds? Pedometer-style devices like the Fitbit Zip and Nike FuelBand kicked up the social this … Read more

Macy's fleece with video display turns you into a player

If you decide to wear this new Macy's fleece in public, fellas, don't be surprised when everyone stares at your left bicep. It's to be expected when you're displaying video on your sleeve (which is not to say your biceps don't warrant widespread public attention in their own right.)

Macy's teamed with designer Sean John (also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, and so on) and Recom Group, maker of the Video Name Tag, to create the media-enabled sweater. … Read more