In an interview published on The Penny-Arcade Report today, Valve’s co-founder, Gabe Newell talks about a possible direction for Valve in wearable tech. Valve has been testing the waters in their hardware labs with “wearable tech,” a term Gabe is hesitant to use, and Gabe sounds like he likes what he hears.
Graphene is a a flexible, transparent, and conductive ‘wonder material’ that could replace silicone in the next few years. This wonder material could impact everything from computers, smart phones, tablets, smart clothing, and even has applications in medicine! Originally developed in the 40’s, there have been a few significant hurdles to overcome that have prevented this material from being applicable in everyday devices. However that may be about to change!
Kickstarter is the place to be right now, it seems all the cool indie companies are doing it these days. If you are inclined to throw rocks, you couldn’t chuck one at an expo without hitting at least 2 companies that came to life thanks to this hip crowdfunding platform. One of the cooler gadgets currently being kickstarted is the iPhone POV camera mount called Miveu-X. With tons of cool features it looks like a great way to capture all your most adrenaline pumping moments for a fraction of the price of buying another mountable camera.
Wearable technology doesn’t have to be all high tech circuitry and and electrical gadgets. Just ask Sara Reinersten who is the worlds first female leg amputee to finish all 140.6 miles of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii. Nike is using her as the spokesperson for their latest product. After all the buzz last year of Harry Borden, an olympic athlete who funs on two prosthetic carbon-fiber blades, Nike is taking notice and pitching in with their new Nike Sole running shoe that fits on these cool looking carbon-fiber Flex-Run blades (made by Ossur) and offers increased stability and predictability on the track.
With wearable tech poised to be the next big thing in technology wouldn’t it be grand to get in on the ground floor and create something revolutionary? Even if you don’t have plans to conquer the world wouldn’t it be cool to be able to build anything you’d like, wear it around, and show it off to people? With the Arduino Lilypad it’s entirely possible to do so, and heck, you might even learn some valuable real-world skills as you do it.
The FitBit Ultra is one of the most popular fitness trackers around. Though it may have some major competition coming soon from the Nike+ FuelBand and the Striiv, it still manages to maintain a large market share. Loaded with interesting features, the new FitBit Ultra helps track your sleep, steps, stairs, food, and more. Since data driven fitness is becoming so popular now, you will find that you are competing with yourself and setting new goals all the time as you wear this little piece of tech. It’s easy to use, but do it’s features justify the price?
Nike has been a fan of wearable technology for years. Their Nike+ community is a thriving online community of fitness enthusiasts that share goals and triumphs and encourage each other to be more active. The Nike+ Fuel Band looks like an exciting new way to track your fitness on the Nike+ network and it offers a few interesting features as well. Since the absolute failure of the Jawbone Up, it looks like the market is wide open for a fitness tracker bracelet like the Nike+ FuelBand. Check out some of it’s promised features inside…
Wearable fitness trackers are a dime a dozen these days. They are fun for about a week but then the novelty wears off. Striiv attempts to do something different and take the likes of wearable fitness tech to the next level. Combining the addictive qualities of games like Farmville with the motivating power of a personal trainer and topping it off with a Walkathon cherry by automatically donating to one of three charities depending on how active you are, we think the Striiv is a winning combination that makes all other fitness trackers look like jerks!
Debuting earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show are a pair of futuristic remote-controlled skates called spnKiX (‘Spinkicks’). Brought to life by Peter Treadway and a startlingly successful kickstarter that very quickly hit its goal and finished at nearly five times the target. Hit the jump for all the juicy details and a video of the spnKiX in action.
The internet has been abuzz with the latest rumors to spill forth from Cuptertino. In a New York Times article on wearable tech it was reported that Apple is currently internally testing a curved glass iPod with integrated Siri voice-activated controls. This would allow the device to be worn on the wrist and communicate with either an iPhone or iPad located somewhere else on the user.
February 20th, 2012 
DaveO 
