Topic: Wearable Technology
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2025: The Year Wearables Embraced AI
2025 marks a pivotal shift where wearables are becoming the primary physical vessel for AI, moving beyond their traditional focus on health and fitness tracking. A key trend is the rebranding of smart glasses as "AI glasses," with companies like Meta and Google promoting them as the ideal form fo...
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The Inevitable Rise of Wearable Tech
Major tech companies are aggressively expanding wearable ecosystems, pushing consumers to adopt multiple devices like smart glasses, rings, and watches simultaneously. The proliferation of wearables creates compatibility issues and physical limitations, as devices compete for space on the body an...
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Top AI Wearables and Gadgets to Buy Now
A new wave of AI-powered wearables, such as Bee and Friend, integrates intelligent assistance into daily life by capturing audio to provide personalized reminders, emotional support, and conversational interactions through companion apps. Devices like Limitless and Plaud’s NotePin focus on produc...
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China's 'Zap Awake' Wristband Goes Viral, But Consumers Aren't Buying It
The eCoffee Energyband is a wearable wrist device from China that uses mild electrical pulses to stimulate nerves and promote alertness, offering a caffeine-free alternative to staying awake and focused. After gaining viral attention at a trade show, the device sold out on major Chinese e-commerc...
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Apple Watch Series 11 Hits Record Low Price
The Apple Watch Series 11 is now available at a record low price of $349.99, making it more affordable for iPhone users seeking advanced health monitoring features. It includes exclusive health sensors for EKG readings, blood oxygen tracking, and FDA-cleared hypertension alerts, along with a 24-h...
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Brain-Computer Interface Coming to Apple Vision Pro
Cognixion is testing a noninvasive brain-computer interface system paired with the Apple Vision Pro to help individuals with paralysis-induced speech disorders communicate by translating brain signals into commands. The company differentiates itself by avoiding surgical implants, using a speciali...
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Withings ScanWatch 2 Now Features Predictive AI Health Insights
The Withings ScanWatch 2 introduces HealthSense 4, an enhanced operating system that provides predictive AI health insights and alerts for 35 health metrics. It features improved activity tracking, sleep analysis, and a new Vitality Indicator for subscribers, alongside extended battery life and n...
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Meta's Ray-Ban Smart Glasses: The Future Is Already on Your Face
Meta and Ray-Ban have collaborated to create smart glasses that look like ordinary eyewear but include features such as a built-in camera and speaker. These glasses integrate with Meta's ecosystem for tasks like reading messages aloud and live streaming, though some AI features are regionally lim...
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ŌURA Secures $900M to Fuel Global Growth and Health Innovation
ŌURA secured a $900 million investment, led by Fidelity and others, valuing the company at around $11 billion and fueling global expansion and health innovation. The funding will accelerate AI and product development, support new health capabilities, and build on strong sales of over 5.5 million ...
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Meta Connect 2025: Top 6 Reveals You Can't Miss
Meta launched new smart glasses, including the Ray-Ban Display with a full-color screen and camera, and the upgraded second-generation Ray-Ban glasses with extended battery life and enhanced features. The company introduced the Oakley Meta Vanguard, a sports-focused smart glasses model with durab...
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Google's AI Glasses Launching in 2026
Google's 2024 AI glasses, developed with fashion brands, aim to make advanced technology functional and stylish by blending into daily life. The glasses offer two models: one for hands-free AI assistance and discreet photos, and another with an in-lens display for private information like navigat...
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Pebble's Index 01: A Smart Ring Under $100
The Pebble Index 01 is a new, affordable wearable ring priced under $100 that focuses solely on recording voice notes, eliminating common features like health sensors and a screen. Its minimalist design includes a single button for one-handed operation and a long-life battery that lasts for years...
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Pebble Founder Unveils $75 AI Smart Ring for Voice Notes
Eric Migicovsky's new company, Core Devices, has launched the Index 01, a $75 AI smart ring designed solely for capturing voice notes with a button press, processing audio locally on a smartphone for privacy. The ring only records when its button is actively held, emphasizing user control, and it...
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Pebble's Next Gadget: The Index 01 Smart Ring
The Pebble Index 01 is a $75 minimalist smart ring designed for one-handed audio capture and transcription, storing about five minutes of data locally and functioning without a phone. It prioritizes reliability as a personal tool for voice notes and reminders, featuring a long-lasting battery and...
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Apple Watch Series 11 Hits New Low Price, Beats Black Friday Deal
Cyber Monday offers a significant $70 discount on the Apple Watch Series 11, making it cheaper than its Black Friday price at major retailers. The 2025 model is Apple's thinnest smartwatch, featuring a more durable screen and up to 24 hours of battery life. It retains core features like a vibrant...
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Score Early Black Friday Deals on Apple, Fitbit & Garmin Watches
Early Black Friday promotions offer significant discounts on smartwatches from top brands like Apple, Garmin, Fitbit, and Samsung, making it an ideal time to purchase. Key models include the budget-friendly Apple Watch SE with an always-on display and two-day battery, the premium Apple Watch Seri...
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Even Realities' Smart Glasses: Camera-Free, Speaker-Free
Even Realities' new G2 Display Smart Glasses omit outward-facing cameras and speakers to address privacy concerns and reduce social friction, focusing on a personal rather than intrusive experience. The glasses feature a 3D floating spatial display using micro-LED projectors and waveguides to ove...
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The End of Screens: How AI Is Changing Our Devices
AI is poised to liberate us from screen-dominated lives by enabling interactions through voice, gestures, and integrated wearables, shifting technology from visual interfaces to ambient, seamless experiences. The transition to this new paradigm is already underway, with voice-first AI assistants ...
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Nike's First 'Powered Footwear' Is an E-Bike for Your Feet
Nike has launched Project Amplify, the world's first powered footwear system that uses a lightweight robotic framework to enhance walking and running speed for everyday users. Developed with robotics firm Dephy, the system acts like extra calf muscles to help people move farther with less effort,...
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Top 7 Smartwatches of 2025: Unexpected Picks Revealed
The Apple Watch SE 3 is the most practical choice for most users, offering essential features like an always-on display and the S10 chip at a lower cost, though it lacks blood oxygen monitoring. For Android users, the Google Pixel Watch 4 stands out with its sleek design, comfortable wear, and ad...
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The Smart Glasses Race Is Officially Heating Up
A new wave of smart glasses is emerging, blending fashion with digital capabilities to deliver notifications, media, and navigation directly into the user's field of view, creating a seamless physical-digital bridge. Apple is accelerating its smart glasses initiatives, potentially offering both d...
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AI Startup Friend's $1M Subway Ad Blitz
Friend, a new wearable AI device, is being heavily promoted in the New York City subway system with a marketing campaign costing over one million dollars and featuring thousands of ads. The campaign is described as a major gamble for the startup, aiming to generate buzz despite the CEO acknowledg...
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This Smartwatch Ditches Notifications for Tetris
The Tetris: My Play Watch is a $79.99 wearable gaming console that features the classic Tetris game on a 1.91-inch screen and tells time, operating independently without smartphone pairing. It includes basic fitness tracking like a step counter and heart rate monitor, but all health data is store...
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Meta's Smart Glasses Need a Display
Smart glasses, particularly Meta's collaboration with Ray-Ban, are transitioning from novelty to mainstream adoption due to their stylish design and accessible pricing. Key factors driving their success include improved audio and camera quality, useful AI features, and a cultural shift towards fi...
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The Ultimate Apple Watch Upgrade: What It Really Needs
Apple Watch shipments have declined for five consecutive quarters due to decreased consumer demand and a lack of substantial new features, challenging Apple to reinvigorate the product line. Potential upgrades include hardware improvements like satellite communication and blood pressure monitorin...
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Google Makes Android XR Official: Betting on Openness with Samsung & Qualcomm
Google is actively testing new augmented reality glasses in public spaces, signaling a renewed effort in the wearable technology sector.
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Amazfit's Budget Tracker Hits Near-Record Low Price
The Amazfit Active 2 is a feature-rich fitness tracker offering strong value, currently discounted to $84.99, and provides impressive performance for its cost compared to pricier brands. It features a bright OLED display and stylish design, supports 160 sport modes, and includes comprehensive hea...
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Ex-Meta Team Launches Sandbar: A Smart Ring for Voice Notes & Music
Sandbar's Stream smart ring enables discreet voice interaction for note-taking, AI communication, and media control, designed to capture ideas instantly without disrupting creative flow. The device features built-in microphones, a touch-sensitive surface, and a companion app with AI chatbot suppo...
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Ex-Meta Staff Debut AI Ring for Voice Notes & Music
A new wave of voice-activated gadgets, including sleek cards, pendants, wristbands, and Sandbar's Stream ring, is transforming technology interaction by enabling personal companionship and productivity enhancements. Sandbar's Stream ring, designed for discreet use, allows users to capture whisper...
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I Tested Meta's Ray-Ban Smart Glasses (Including Secret Feature)
The Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses integrate a discreet color display and a neural wristband, enabling hands-free smartphone tasks like messaging, calls, and media control through intuitive gestures. They feature enhanced multimodal AI that provides contextual assistance, such as visual recipes, obje...
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Oura CEO Responds to Backlash, Envisions 'Cloud of Wearables'
Oura CEO Tom Hale denies any data-sharing with the Department of Defense or Palantir, asserting that user health data remains private and is not shared without explicit consent. The company's involvement with the DoD is limited to a secure enterprise solution, and its terms of service strictly pr...
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The Phone Is Dead. What Comes Next?
Jon Callaghan of True Ventures predicts the smartphone's dominance will end within a decade, replaced by more natural and integrated interfaces, a core investment thesis for his firm. True Ventures focuses on backing new user behaviors over gadgets, exemplified by early investments like Fitbit an...
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The Mysterious Objects No One Can Name
The tech industry is struggling to define a new generation of wearable devices, moving away from the outdated term "smart glasses" toward labels like "AI glasses," which reflects a strategic shift in marketing focus. Companies are using terminology inconsistently for branding purposes, with Meta ...
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Google Glass: The Hits and Misses
Google Glass sparked excitement for hands-free computing but provoked a major privacy backlash due to its wearable camera, creating a defining tension between innovation and social anxiety. The device was initially a consumer tech spectacle but faced severe cultural rejection, leading Google to p...
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Your Smart Watch Now Pinpoints Your Location to the Centimeter
Researchers have developed algorithms enabling smartwatches to achieve centimeter-level location precision by merging data from multiple satellite systems using the Google GnssLogger app. This breakthrough utilizes carrier-phase signals, previously limited by costly hardware, allowing everyday de...
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Apple Pauses Vision Pro Lite for Smart Glasses Focus
Apple is accelerating development of smart glasses and has paused work on a more affordable Vision Pro headset, reallocating resources to compete in the smart glasses market. The company plans at least two smart glasses models, including a display-less version for 2027 and an advanced display-equ...
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The Problem with Fitness Tracker 'Credit'
Fitness trackers, while designed to improve health, can create anxiety by fostering an obsession with getting digital "credit" for every activity, making users feel their efforts are invalidated if not logged. The design of these devices, with scores and metrics, can backfire psychologically, tur...
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Anker's Soundcore Work AI: A Coin-Sized Voice Recorder
Anker's Soundcore Work AI is a compact, coin-sized voice recorder that uses AI to transcribe, summarize, and highlight key moments in conversations, competing with similar devices while emphasizing portability. Priced at $99.99 with a $15.99 monthly subscription for premium features, it offers up...
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L'Oréal's New LED Face Mask Solves Common Skincare Problems
L'Oréal's upcoming LED face mask prioritizes a lightweight, flexible design for comfort and better light penetration, with brief 5-10 minute sessions for easier integration into routines. The mask's credibility is bolstered by a partnership with iSmart to deliver two clinically researched wavelen...
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Android XR Glasses: The 2026 Showdown
Android XR glasses are emerging as a pivotal new wearable form factor, with Google leading a major industry push anticipated for 2026 to shift them from niche accessories to primary, all-day computing devices. The strategy focuses on creating glasses worn constantly, leveraging Samsung's distribu...
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OpenAI's Audio Push: Silicon Valley's Screen-Free Future
OpenAI is consolidating teams to develop advanced audio AI models, supporting a new screen-free personal device launch within a year as part of an industry shift toward voice interfaces. Major tech companies like Meta and Google are enhancing audio capabilities in products, while startups are exp...
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Meta's AI Glasses Update Adds Conversation Boost Feature
Meta's new **Conversation Focus** feature for its smart glasses uses directional microphones to amplify a speaker's voice, improving clarity in noisy environments. The update also introduces a Spotify integration where the Meta AI assistant can generate context-aware playlists based on a user's v...
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2026 SEO Priorities: 14 Must-Do's for Executives & Marketers
The competitive landscape is shifting from traditional search to AI-driven conversational platforms, requiring brands to treat these AI systems as primary distribution channels for visibility. Content must be structured and formatted for machine retrieval, as AI models prioritize clear, predictab...
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Best Products of 2025: Top Picks for Phones, TVs & AI
ZDNET's Best of 2025 awards highlight innovative technology, from smartphones to home devices, rigorously tested for real-world problem-solving and performance. Smartphone advancements include the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for portability and photography, the iPhone 17 for premium features in a bas...
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Smartwatch Addiction: Are Apple and Galaxy Watches to Blame?
Smartwatches provide unprecedented personal health insights but can create data anxiety and a complex, sometimes stressful, relationship for users, blending motivation with digital pressure. While not medical-grade, these devices are valuable for establishing personal baselines and tracking healt...
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Play Classic Nintendo Games on SNES-Inspired Nike Sneakers
The AIR SNES are custom Nike Air Max 90 sneakers that function as a fully operational Super Nintendo console, created by designer Gustavo Bonzanini to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Super Famicom. Instead of using original hardware, the sneakers incorporate a Raspberry Pi Zero W with Retro...
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Master Apple Shortcuts: A Complete Guide
Apple Shortcuts is a powerful iOS automation tool with the potential to anticipate user needs, but it faces criticism for its steep learning curve and unintuitive design. The Vergecast discussion highlighted a divide between users who find Shortcuts complex and experts who demonstrate its capabil...
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Whoop Opens Blood Testing to 350,000-Person Waitlist
Whoop Advanced Labs has launched its blood testing service for a waitlist of 350,000, offering comprehensive analysis through Quest Diagnostics to monitor various health indicators. The service integrates blood test results with data from the Whoop band on activity, sleep, and vital signs to prov...
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Control Your iPhone Game With AirPods Using RidePods
RidePods is a new iPhone game that uses head movements with Apple AirPods to control a motorcycle, eliminating the need for tapping or tilting the device. The game leverages Spatial Audio technology in specific AirPods models, utilizing built-in sensors for motion tracking, though it currently fe...
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Apple Watch Ultra 3 & Series 11 Add Hypertension & Sleep Tracking
Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Series 11 introduce hypertension detection and advanced sleep tracking, offering users deeper health insights through non-invasive, data-driven analysis. The hypertension feature uses optical sensors and machine learning to identify chronic patterns, with FDA clearance exp...
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