Hasta La Gadget!

Intel might not be jumping into the wearable technology market any time soon, but it is putting its weight, and chequebook, behind an established contender. The company announced today that Intel Investments, the Santa Clara based chip maker’s investment arm, has made a “significant” investment in Recon Instruments. It recently launched Recon Jet glasses, which were originally unveiled back at Google I/O 2013. While Recon Jet glasses might look a lot like Google Glass, they’re actually quite different.

With a dualcore processor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, movement sensors, GPS, HD camera and components from Android OS, Recon Jet allows users to film and track their movements as well as upload the data online. Its actually called the world’s first consumer Heads-up Display for sports. The company claims that up till now it has sold more than 50,000 HUD units around the world. Intel’s investment in Recon will help fund its product development, global sales expansion and marketing. Recon will also benefit from Intel Capital’s “expertise” in manufacturing, operations and technology. Both Recon and Intel Capital are tight-lipped on the amount of this investment, no estimate has been rumored. Intel has already made a similar investment in Thalmic Labs, a company that’s working on wearable technology as well.

Intel Makes ‘Significant’ Investment In Google Glass Rival original content from Ubergizmo.

Apple is rumored to be working on a smartwatch. Such rumors have been going around for well over a year now, but there has been no indication from the company that it actually does intend to release a smartwatch somewhere down the line. This product is currently widely known as the iWatch. According to a new report by the infamous trade publication Digitimes, the company is facing manufacturing issues with iWatch. The report claims that the problems are so big that upstream suppliers might only be able to fill 30 to 40 percent of Apple’s total order volume.

Apparently the iWatch is built using powder metallurgy technology, it is then processed by CNC equipment. Apple reportedly wants it to be thin and light and still have an “elegant design,” this is said to pose a challenge for chassis and component suppliers. As per rumors, Apple might announce the iWatch in the second half of 2014, the smartwatch is expected to be priced between $149-229. Apple will reportedly tap Inventec and Quanta Computer to manufacture the smartwatch. Even though there have been a lot of rumors about the iWatch, there’s still no confirmation that such a product is on the cards for next year. Analysts believe that Apple might announce it as a response to Samsung, which recently released its own Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

Apple Reportedly Facing Manufacturing Issues With iWatch original content from Ubergizmo.

Single-function wearable devices are old-school and a massive waste of potential, according to a new Toronto-based startup called Kiwi Wearable Tech that’s building a hardware device as well as a cloud-based platform for leveraging data gathered from their wearables to build a wide variety of different experiences. The Kiwi team was at the Disrupt Hackathon this year, and built a demo app to show the power of its platform, which translates motion captured by its device into music using cloud-stored MIDI files.

Kiwi co-founders Zaki Hasnain Patel and Ashley Beattie say that the hack can use any kind of instrument that can be made into a MIDI-based output, and that since it works via the cloud, it’s possible for a number of “players” to use Kiwi-based instruments simultaneously for collaborative music creation.

The purpose of Kiwi is to turn its Move platform into something that developers can use to build a wide range of apps – you could have a fitness-tracking app like RunKeeper use it to track your activity, for instance, then use it for monitoring motions during a baseball swing in order to try to derive the optimal body movement for big hits, and then have the same device turn on your connected home lighting system and activate your home theatre when you get home using a series of gestures (in addition to measuring movement, the Kiwi Move can detect things like double taps on this surface and sides, too).

That’s only the beginning, however. Patel and Beattie say that they’re working on ways in which the Kiwi could help with early alerts for health problems – detecting heart attacks in advance, for instance, by keying into early warning sings. Beattie says that current methods make it possible to detect a heart attack up to 13 hours in advance, and that working with developers in the medical community, Kiwi could be able to provide a warning at least roughly 3 hours ahead of time, based on their current research. It’s another example where they’d be relying on the community to take advantage of their platform to advance the possibilities, but it’s an interesting example of what could be accomplished by not limiting wearable tracking to just a single purpose.

Kiwi has yet to ship any hardware, but it has a working prototype, is currently taking pre-orders via its website and plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on September 24. Kickstarter is their target crowdfunding platform, since its launch in Canada and high-profile makes it a good option for a Toronto-based startup, but says it could consider other options, as well.

If you’ve been following tech news since last week, you’ll be aware of the fact that Samsung was going to unveil its new smartwatch today. It did unveil the new product, Samsung Galaxy Gear has officially been announced. Though its not the only new smartwatch we get to see today. Qualcomm, known widely for its processors, has unveiled Toq, its very own smartwatch that comes with a color screen.

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Qualcomm Launches Toq, Its Very Own Smartwatch original content from Ubergizmo.

Samsung is going to unveil its new smartwatch tomorrow, the company has already confirmed that. It will be called Galaxy Gear. Over the weekend we saw alleged images of the device surface online, though yesterday it was reported that the unit we saw wasn’t actually the final version. Samsung is reportedly going to show a much more polished and refined smartwatch at its event tomorrow. There is no official information available as yet regarding the Galaxy Gear’s price. According to Russian analyst Eldar Murtazin, it might be too expensive.

Murtazin hasn’t exactly revealed the price, but he tweeted that customers won’t buy the smartwatch “for that price.” Other analysts suggest that Galaxy Gear might be priced around $300, it is expected to go on sale before Christmas. Murtazin’s predictions can be hit or miss, he predicted almost a year and a half ago that Microsoft will buy Nokia’s core phone business, the sale was officially announced today. He also recently predicted that Samsung’s Tizen OS was almost dead, however the company has issued statements on the contrary. It has started a new Tizen app development challenge, the new Tizen device is expected to be released next month and the OS is also said to be the main focus of Samsung’s first ever developers conference.

Galaxy Gear Smartwatch Might Be Too Expensive [Analyst] original content from Ubergizmo.