wearable

Will Snap’s New Video Recording Spectacles Create Hot Privacy Concerns?

We’re about to meet Spectacles, the newest form of wearable tech from the freshly reinvented Snap, Inc. (i.e. Snapchat) coming out this fall.

Branded as “Sunglasses that Snap,” they will be available in 3 popular colors – black, teal, and coral. Spectacles sport fashionably round lenses that move wearables past the tech-geek look we had with the now-hibernating Google Glass.


This is no surprise. Vergence, the company Snap quietly acquired in 2014, produced Epiphany Eyewear. Their $399 rival to Google Glass had an almost Blues-Brothers-Ray-Ban vibe going. As with the Epiphany version, recording on Spectacles starts with the press of a button. And thick frames conceal all the fancy hardware.

The official promo video introduces the new shades with a skateboard action video.  The 115-degree angle lenses give a life-like view that plays on a theme of reliving good memories.  At the same time, first-person stunt views suggest durable and sports-ready frames.

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Waterproof dustproof sports MP3 earbuds, great for swimming and running

The Sony NW WS410 series headphones are great for exercising! They are waterproof and dustproof IP67/68 earbuds. The WS413 is a 4GB MP3 player and they have the WS414 with an 8GB flavor for more tunes. There is no Bluetooth support or mic, and they are relatively expensive. However these do fit a niche requirement with their fantastic fit and weight, the water/dust-proofing, and you can get an hour of usage out of a quick 3-minute charge! The battery is amazing for such a lightweight headset. They support an ambient sound mode. The waterproofing includes resilience in salt water up to 6 feet deep for 30 minutes.

The battery life and charging is a big deal along with how comfortable they are. They look bulkier than typical earbuds, but they don’t feel it. Quick and simple to wear while running or swimming, they come with a variety of different sizes of earbuds for a more snug fit.

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Smartwatch that floats!

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Smartwatches have been around a while. Don’t you remember the calculator watches back in the 70s? I had one, it was pretty cool at the time. Then they came out with memo capabilities in the 90s with appointment reminders and 30 character screens. Some watches even had built-in pagers. What’s that you ask? Imagine one-way text messaging but with extremely limited number of characters. We were thinking there would be a whole bunch of new smartwatches out in 2016 but the pickings are few.

A super cool Smartwatch to check out is Nixon The Mission, an Androidwear watch for outdoor and sport enthusiasts. And yes as you can see by the photos, it floats.

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This large watch is rugged and waterproof to 100m. It has a very nice 400×400 touchscreen that you can use even when wet. Being a smartwatch, it is equipped with compass, gyrometer, altimeter, GPS, thermometer, accelerometer and humidity sensors. Other specs are 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage for apps and music. It will be available later this year for roughly $400.

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How to watch and make 360 degree YouTube videos

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Google Cardboard lets you experience virtual reality (VR) in a very inexpensive manner. If you use the YouTube Android app along with Cardboard, you can even watch 360 degree videos which are really taking off and providing quite the immersive experience. For those of you on iPhones, YouTube will be supporting it “soon” however there is a third party app called in360Tube which provides that functionality right now.

 

WATCHING 360 DEGREE VIDEOS (NO HEADSET REQUIRED)

You don’t need Cardboard or any other VR headset to watch 360 degree videos. Try opening up https://www.youtube.com/360 in your Google Chrome web browser. Select one of the 360 degree videos. When you press play, you will notice arrows appear in the top left corner or you can click and drag the video screen using your mouse. It is fascinating to be in control of where you are watching during a video. I highly recommend you all try it out.


WATCHING 360 DEGREE VIDEOS USING CARDBOARD

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Wearable tech 2016

There are plenty of interesting wearable devices scheduled to be released this year, and quite a few are sure to make the headlines.

Let’s take a look at some:

Blocks

This very interesting smartwatch was the 10th most-funded Kickstarter project last year. It’s compatible with both iOS and Android, and comes with a few useful apps like a heart rate monitor and fingerprint ID. The most impressive part is, there’s going to be a range of modules in the form of watch strap links, which allow you to upgrade the device.

Under Armour wearables

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