Worldwide shipments of wearable devices is on track to grow 15.1% in 2018, totaling 132.9 million units over the course of the year. The overall market is also expected to deliver a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.4% over the next five years, culminating in 219.4 million units shipped in 2022, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. With cellular connectivity on the rise and shifting consumer preferences, IDC believes smartwatches will account for almost two out of every five wearable devices shipped in 2022.
“Consumers are finally starting to understand and demand the utility of a smartwatch,” said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “At present, fitness uses lead by a mile but mobile payments and messaging are starting to catch on. The addition of cellular connectivity is also starting to resonate with early adopters and looking ahead the emergence of new use cases like music streaming or additional health sensors will make cellular connectivity pivotal to the success of the smartwatch.”
The feature-loaded, do-it-all smartwatches that give elites a competitive edge
A watch is no longer just a timepiece. It’s a training tool, a workout partner, and a coach. Try one of these six expert-tested options to see big gains in your workouts.
… Llamas said that while some vendors have abandoned the market, it has created unique opportunities for other vendors. “The remaining vendors – including multiple start-ups – have not only replaced them, but with devices, features, and services that have helped make wearables more integral in people’s lives. Going forward, the next generation of wearables will make the ones we saw recently as 2016 look quaint.”
Thanks to the Apple Watch shifting 8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2017, Apple has found itself at the top of the wearables market for the first time, after spending several quarters hot on the heels of Fitbit and Xiaomi. Apple is seizing the market at the right time, with many users of basic wearables moving onto smartwatches and cellular connectivity, introduced on the third generation Apple Watch in 2017. The Apple Watch Series 3 is earning a warm reception among users, if only for the convenience of leaving their smartphone behind.
… MOOV has made a name for itself with its products’ incredible versatility and distinctive Swiss cheese product design. MOOV’s flagship products, the MOOV Now and MOOV HR fitness trackers are both designed to be small, light, and durable in dry conditions, in the rain, or even in the pool. Their light and sturdy design means they’re suitable for every level of activity; strapped to a wrist, they’ll easily track your punches during boxing (real or shadow), and their tiny form factor won’t slow down even the quickest of jabs.
When power meters became part of main stream cycling more than a decade ago, many athletes tossed their heart rate monitors to the side in favor of new technology. Cycling power meters were dubbed by many as being more accurate, better for pacing, and easier to use for tracking fitness gains.
While it’s true that heart rate data can be affected by variables such as core temperature, fatigue, hydration, and stress, has this “old school” training tool really become useless in today’s modern peloton?
I sat down with Polar Cycling Product Specialist and power meter expert Jason Crowe to discuss the differences between power meters and heart rate monitors and how they can and should be used together in cycling.
Wearable devices are increasingly being used to help understand and monitor the health of people with chronic conditions. One of the more innovative of these has recently been developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow. A recently published paper describes a new flexible, wearable sensor that’s designed to help diabetes patients avoid the discomfort of pin-prick blood tests by monitoring glucose levels from their sweat instead.
The device monitors the sweat of users to hunt out various chemicals, including glucose and urea. The researchers believe that by monitoring for these, they can accurately diagnose and monitor numerous chronic conditions, including diabetes and kidney disease without requiring any blood to be drawn from patients.
… The appeal of GymKit is that it makes it ultra-easy for Apple Watch users to sync their workout data between their watch and gym equipment. By simply tapping their Apple Watch on GymKit equipment, Apple Watch users can sync their workout data between both devices.
GymKit has been slowly rolling out to various gyms around the world. Life Fitness was touted as an early partner for GymKit adoption, so it’s nice to see the company rolling out connected equipment to its partner gyms. The company had previously touted Q1 2018 as its target for rolling out the connected equipment.
The new Hero is a good little camera for the price, and it’s intended for those who are interested in buying a GoPro but aren’t ready to drop $300 or more
… When I worked onsite at New Balance creating their wear test program, the shoe engineers (yup it’s a massive job) told me that cushioned shoes can need up to 24 hours to fully bounce back and thus stay in the proper form to support your foot.
Thus giving them time to return to their full cushion makes them feel better, prevents injury and prolongs use. Bonus points because it’s wonderful when your shoe just feels softer too!
… The way this works is that we take advantage of the multi-purpose nature of the pins of an Arduino. The zPatch connects to two Analog Inputs of the Arduino, lets say A0 and A1. In this case we first configure A0 as input, connected to an internal pullup resistor. We then configure A1 as output and set it LOW. Then we measure the zPatches resistance using analogRead(). Subsequently we reconfigure the pins, to measure their capacitance (we learned how to do this by digging in Martin2250’s ADCTouch Library: https://playground.arduino.cc/Code/ADCTouch).
A new approach to analyzing and designing new ion conductors — a key component of rechargeable batteries — could accelerate the development of high-energy lithium batteries, and possibly other energy storage and delivery devices such as fuel cells, researchers say.
The new approach relies on understanding the way vibrations move through the crystal lattice of lithium ion conductors and correlating that with the way they inhibit ion migration. This provides a way to discover new materials with enhanced ion mobility, allowing rapid charging and discharging. At the same time, the method can be used to reduce the material’s reactivity with the battery’s electrodes, which can shorten its useful life. These two characteristics — better ion mobility and low reactivity — have tended to be mutually exclusive.
The new concept was developed by a team led by W.M. Keck Professor of Energy Yang Shao-Horn, graduate student Sokseiha Muy, recent graduate John Bachman PhD ’17, and Research Scientist Livia Giordano, along with nine others at MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and institutions in Tokyo and Munich. Their findings were reported in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.
Safety+Health Magazine, GAME Sportswear, Enzo Cancellieri from
The human body typically does a great job of naturally regulating its temperature – unless poor garment design interferes. This becomes even more of an issue – possibly life-threatening – when you’re active in the heat. Our optimal internal temperature range is narrow, and anything outside that range can vary from being an annoyance to causing serious health complications. Perspiration and its rapid evaporation upon contact with air are critical to the cooling process, but you must be wearing the right apparel. Fortunately, high-tech options are available.
Breathability and moisture control are perhaps the most important breakthroughs in high-visibility safety wear in the past 10 years. It was a longstanding complaint of people required to wear ANSI-compliant hi-vis garments that they were having a hard time staying cool and dry, with no other options available.
Cotton can become saturated with sweat, become heavy, stick to your body, and make you feel wet and uncomfortable all day – not allowing for proper evaporation. Plain polyester traps moisture, allowing for almost no ventilation or evaporation. Workers were expected to “tough it out” and keep working. However, this lack of comfort contributed to extreme fatigue, skin irritation and general worker dissatisfaction. The good news is all of that has changed.
Jeff Rosenthal is standing near the top of his snow-covered mountain wearing a fluffy jacket, fingerless gloves and ripped jeans. “It’s surreal, man!” he says, shivering as he surveys the landscape of newly laid roads and half-built homes. “That’s Ken Howery’s house, the co-founder of PayPal. Awesome house!”
He lists the other investors who are turning this remote Utah community into a crucible of “generational ideology, innovation and entrepreneurship”. Richard Branson will have a house here, and so will the world’s most powerful marketing executive, Martin Sorrell. The Hollywood producer Stacey Sher and the actor Sophia Bush will be their neighbours, as will Miguel McKelvey, a co-founder of WeWork, and the renowned technology investor and author of The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss.
The audacious real estate project – branded Powder Mountain – is becoming a mecca for altruistically minded members of the global elite. “The goal will always remain the same,” says Elliott Bisnow, Rosenthal’s business partner: “To be a beacon of inspiration and a light in the world.”
Bisnow, Rosenthal and three friends, all entrepreneurs in their 30s, dreamed up the scheme after spending years running Summit, an exclusive gathering described by insiders as a “Davos for millennials”.
The New York Times; Nick Wingfield, Paul Mozur and Michael Corkery from
… A global race to automate stores is underway among several of the world’s top retailers and small tech start-ups, which are motivated to shave labor costs and minimize shoppers’ frustrations, like waiting for cashiers. They are also trying to prevent Amazon from dominating the physical retail world as it does online shopping.
Companies are testing robots that help keep shelves stocked, as well as apps that let shoppers ring up items with a smartphone. High-tech systems like the one used by Amazon Go completely automate the checkout process. China, which has its own ambitious e-commerce companies, is emerging as an especially fertile place for these retail experiments.
If they succeed, these new technologies could add further uncertainty to the retail work force, which is already in flux because of the growth of online shopping.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has appointed 15 representatives of the outdoor recreation industry to advise him on how to operate public lands, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, including three people whom department officials flagged as potentially having a conflict of interest on the matter.
The membership of the “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee, which Zinke launched in November, marks the third time the secretary has assembled panels dominated by industry players to help chart policies affecting their businesses.
Many of the members of the Royalty Policy Committee hail from the oil, gas and mining industries; the new International Wildlife Conservation Council is largely composed of people with ties to trophy hunting.