Screen Shot 2013 07 09 at 12 15 52 PM. How Apple Watch is killing wearable tech as a gift this Christmas. With two words, Apple may have chilled the holiday market for wearables. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) This time last year, we all thought that 2014 would be the year of the wearable. Wearable devices seemed to be picking up steam everywhere you looked: Google Glass was picking up momentum, lots of fitness bands were flying off shelves, and everyone was waiting for Apple to jump in with its take on the smartwatch. But for the most part, the wearable trend still seems to be on the runway.
The truth is that anyone who buys a wearable device this Christmas will be jumping onto the bandwagon before the most highly anticipated wearable of all hits the market. Love or hate the tech giant, it's hard to deny that it makes a splash when it steps into a market. The report also notes how important the Apple Watch is to the wider market, calling it a "sleek device that rivals project will help mainstream the entire wearable category. " That means wearables aren't the hot tech gift this year. 1P-13-0714-Wearable-Technology-Part-1-Blue-Paper2.pdf. Microsoft Launches New Wrist-Worn Band (And Health Service) The path toward the unveiling of Microsoft’s new $199 fitness tracker the Microsoft Band, details of which the company formally announced today, actually began back in 2010, with a few Microsoft executives who’d become intensely motivated to take control of their fitness – and to change their lifestyles.
The result of that desire: the development of the Microsoft Band, a black, rubber band worn on the wrist that comes packed with features like sensors that continuously track heart rate plus a display that can show text messages and Facebook alerts. A Starbucks app also displays a bar code on the band that could be scanned to pay for drinks.
Microsoft is selling the Microsoft Band through its stores (this link takes you straight to it) and website now. It will work with a companion service called Microsoft Health which the company also unveiled at the same time, although that service’s ambitions are bigger than those for the band. This is only the beginning, Alam says in the blog post. The History of Wearable Tech, From the Casino to the Consumer. Wearable technology is perhaps the most prolific trend in the tech industry today. From activity-tracking fitness bands to Google Glass and Oculus Rift, big names are getting involved in the once-niche technology — and they're getting involved in big ways.
You probably wouldn't have guessed that the tech behind wearable computing devices finds much of its history in attempting to cheat casinos. Inventors built some of the first wearables in the 1960s and '70s to count cards and improve a gambler's odds at the roulette table. From there, working with wearables remained a small-scale field. Aside from the explosion of calculator wristwatches in the '80s, wearable tech saw little change in terms of consumer devices. The technology was admirable, perhaps, but not practical for the consumer and certainly not user friendly.
Below, we've compiled a timeline of wearable technology's history, from the casino to the consumer. Have something to add to this story? Wearabletech. Iwatchad. WT Fashioning the Future - FINAL_AE.PDF. ELI7102.pdf. Wearable Technology. Future of Glasses, Wearable Technology 2015 - (Future Are Here) Top 5 Wearable Tech! (Early 2014)