This is the year that wearables are breaking out into the mainstream. Whether it’s connected wrists, eyes, feet or ears, we take a look at the devices that are sitting on your body, and collecting and crunching data. Read more »
Not to be outdone by Nike, UnderArmour has a new wearable exercise tracking strap. The Armour39 measures calories and heart rate, combining those with additional data to create your, ahem, WILLPower score. Read more »
When it comes to building connected products and services, developers must abandon their screen-centric focus and figure out how people live their lives and how a new product can fit into those lives. Read more »
The emergence of wearables — connected devices you wear on your body — is sweeping big tech companies like Google and Apple, as well as startups like Misfit Wearables. But if the devices are just plain dorky-looking they’re going to struggle to break into the mainstream. Read more »
Google Glass didn’t emerge as a sleek (but nerdy) pair of digital glasses. Google’s first prototype was a clunky Borg-looking device that required a backpack full of batteries. Read more »
A young battery startup called Imprint Energy has designed a new type of battery that uses zinc and can be screen printed. It’s innovation could enable entirely new types of wearable electronics. Read more »
Project Glass, Google’s augmented reality smart glasses, is the ultimate expression of the wearable tech trend. Paul Armstrong of @TheMediaIsDying says that whether you like it or not, the technology is coming–and the changes are going to be profound for the media business. Read more »
Jawbone is coming back to the market with a brand new (and much improved) version of its much maligned UP wearable device that tracks your personal data including time spent walking. This time, it faces considerable challenge from Nike’s increasingly popular, Fuelband. Read more »
GigaOM’s RoadMap conference is exactly two weeks from today and will feature speakers like Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen, Tumblr CEO David Karp, fuseproject CEO Yves Behar, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, The Obvious Corporation CEO Evan Williams, MINIMAL Founder Scott Wilson and many more. Read more »
As more people pick up connected pedometers, specialized exercise trackers and personal calorie-counting devices that connect back to the web, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is trying to capitalize on the trend with new certifications for running and cycling. This is a win for consumers. Read more »
With the growth of sensors and microelectronics, the potential uses of wearable-computing technologies now reach to health and fitness, gaming, fashion, disabilities and augmented reality. Most importantly, the widespread adoption of wearables will drive the form function and market for mobiles in vital ways. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The quantified-self movement is a community of individuals deploying mobile health applications, fitness trackers and social media platforms to share information on their health behaviors. It’s an important movement to watch, as its growth has huge potential implications for the health care sector’s future evolution. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Brands like Nike, Vevo and Fandango now have a new way to integrate into Facebook Timeline. At an event hosted by Facebook in Austin at the South by Southwest festival on Monday, big and small brands mingled and demoed the new wave of Timeline apps. Read more »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Consumers are increasingly using their tablets as shopping tools at home and on the go. So retailers and other advertisers who want to reach that lucrative market must address a few key ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple is joining the board of the Bluetooth standards organization as the group focuses the latest iteration of Bluetooth on the market for fitness and health sensor data from mobile devices. But can Bluetooth beat out a variety of other standards hoping win in bioinformatics? Read more »
Thursday, Apple filed a patent application for “personalized fitness services” on a handheld device, focusing on exercise in a gym setting. Features would include how-to videos for equipment, as well as the ability to check on classes and possibly schedule training sessions. Read more »
Today, it is increasingly pervasive in our society to have an obsession with metrics and numbers without context. And as modern technology has started to get more complex, these metrics and other numbers have become a crutch for marketing and spin. Read more »
Though still a somewhat loosely defined term, mobile health (mHealth) examines the structural and behavioral changes that occur as new technologies advance our health care system worldwide. We are in the early stages of a disruptive period in the health care industry, and mHealth is playing a significant role in that transition. This report examines the growth of mHealth specifically in the context of mobile health apps, from the medical arena’s use of the iPad to smartphone apps that combat chronic diseases and aging. And with research on the role of social networks in health outcomes growing by the day, the next generation of mHealth apps promises to bring further insights into the effects of social media on health outcomes. A number of challenges — sustaining viable business models, the specter of FDA regulation, and cost issues — exist in the space, but partnerships between employers, retailers and technology developers will continue to combat them and provide new innovation architecture in health care. With the help of this new generation of apps, health care, and indeed, our perception of wellness overall, will change dramatically. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, mPedigree, Orange, Vodafone, Voxiva, Skyscape, Research in Motion, Google, Intel, Nike, Adidas, Philips, Twitter, Hope Labs, Virgin, Discovery Health, Telefonica I+D, Layar and Kendall & Son Solutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The iTunes App Store has more than 250,000 active apps for sale. How will you get yours get noticed? After you’ve spent significant time and resources on developing and releasing it, you can’t simply wait for it to be “discovered.” In today’s crowded marketplace, you need a strategic and savvy marketing approach to sell your app — or you risk it getting lost in an ever-expanding deluge of sub-par offerings. Navigating the nuances of app marketing involves many steps, from knowing the finer points of search engine optimization to understanding Apple’s ranking policies and how to use social networks to your advantage. This guide offers strategies for all of those topics and countless others, including app design; choosing a release date; Facebook, Twitter and YouTube marketing ideas; what makes or breaks a press release; and tips on how to win the approval of the ever-influential app blogger. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Since launching a month ago, YouTube’s unlisted videos feature has experienced exponential growth since launching in May. But just because a video is unlisted doesn’t mean it can’t rack up views — Nike’s World Cup viral ad being the prime example. Read more »
Nike’s new Tiger Woods commercial is going viral in a massive way, according to new stats from Visible Measures. The clip, which features Tiger looking into the camera while his father’s voice states the wish to “find out what (his) thinking was,” received more than 2.7 […] Read more »
As the year winds to a close, GigaOM Pro’s crack team of contributors takes a look back at what went right, what went wrong, and for whom in the world of Green IT. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
What do Apple, Nike and Nintendo all have in common? In addition to leading their respective markets, they’re all turning to the fitness industry to grow revenues, some more than others. Talk about a “new vertical.” Nintendo, the most ambitious of the bunch, actually got its […] Read more »
