wearables News - Page 18 of 25 - CNX Software

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Makibes F69 IP68 Smartwatch & Fitness Tracker is Designed for Swimming

The market is flooded with wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers that all track activities (walking/running) with more or less accuracy, and while some offer good IP67 or IP68 ingress protection rating, or even better 5ATM rating, allowing them to be used in water, I have not found many that can actually track swimming patterns, especially among the cheaper ones. But that’s exactly what Makibes F69 sports smartwatch promises. Makibes F69 specifications: MCU/Memory/Storage – TBD Display – 1″ round capacity touchscreen display, 128×128 resolution, always on Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE Sensors – 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, heart rate monitor Battery – 180 mAh charged via magnetic dock good for 6 days in power saving mode, 4 days in “healthy” hear rate mode, and 30 hours using the HRM in sports mode. Dimensions – 38 x38 x 10 mm (stainless steel case, silicon band) Weight – 34 grams IP […]

February 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon Wear 2100 for Smartwatches, 3 New Cortex A53 Mobile SoCs

Qualcomm has unveiled four new Snapdragon processors with three quad and octa core Cortex A53 processors for smartphones with 4G LTE connectivity, and a new wearables SoC with lower power and, area compared to Snapdragon 400 series processor often used in smartwatches. Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC is the first processor part of Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear, of new platform targeting wearable devices, with the company listing the following highlights: Quad core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 800 MHz or 1.2 GHz Adreno 304 GPU 30% smaller than Snapdragon 400 25% percent lower power than Snapdragon 400 Integrated, ultra-low power sensor hub Available in both tethered (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) and connected (4G/LTE and 3G via X5 LTE modem) pin-to-pin compatible versions The SoC supports Android Wear, and Android, and should be found in smart watches, smart bands, smart eyewear and smart headsets. Snapdragon Wear 2100 and other Snapdragon Wear products are […]

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Bluboo Xwatch Android Wear Smart Watch is Now Pre-selling for $99

Bluboo Xwatch is a smartwatch based on Mediatek MT2601 SoC that runs Android Wear. So far, we only knew the factory price would be around $80, but the watch has now showed up on several website such as GearBest and GeekBuying and is pre-selling for as low as $99.99 according to Bluboo, which would likely make it the cheapest Android Wear watch on the market today. The specifications have not changed much since the first announcement, but there are lots of differing specs across the sites: SoC – Mediatek MT2601 dual core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.2GHz with ARM Mali-400 MP GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB flash Display – 1.3″ round muti-touch display with 360×360 resolution Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0, GPS Sensors – Gyroscope, barometer, heart rate monitor, altimeter, compass Battery – 400 to 480mAh polymer battery (80 hours standby time) Dimensions – 5.4 x 4.5 x […]

January 13, 2016June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

FOSDEM 2016 Schedule – Open Source Hardware and Software Event in Europe

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a 2-day event that usually takes place on the first week-end of February in Brussels, but this year it will be on January 30-31. The event brings thousands of developers, hackers, and other person interested in open source technology who present their projects and share ideas. FOSDEM 2016 schedule is now available, and There will be 557 speakers, 612 events, and 50 tracks this year including 7 main tracks: Distros, Enterprise, Hardware, Communications, Miscellaneous, Office, Systems Administration, and Virtualization. So I’ve had a look at some of the talks, especially out of “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “IoT” devrooms, and prepared my own virtual schedule although I won’t be able to attend. Saturday 10:30 – 10:55 – MIPS, the other side of the embedded by Alexjan Carraturo For many years MIPS processors have been involved in the embedded market, particularly […]

January 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Misfit Specter is a Bluetooth Headset with Fitness Tracking Functions

Smart wearables are quite a new type of devices, and I inf interesting companies are trying various solutions from the now ubiquitous smart watches and fitness tracker, to smart clothings such as connected T-Shirts. Misfit, a company specialized in wearables and fitness trackers, have decided it could be a good idea to have Bluetooth earphones that can track your activity and sleep, beside allowing you to listen to music, or answering calls.The company did not release the technical specifications, but Misfit Specter headset features the following functions: Connectivity – Bluetooth Smartpause magnetic ear buds Dedicated voice call microphone Stereo microphones for ambient noise Track activity and sleep – Monitor steps, distance, calories, and sleep duration and quality Battery – Good for 10 hours of music Since you are probably not going to wear earbuds 24/7, these are mostly useful while you exercise and listen to music, and while sleep tracking […]

January 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Hexoskin Smart T-Shirt Keep Tracks of Your Activity with 42,000 Data Points per Minute (Crowdfunding)

There are now many smartwatches with electro-optic hear rate monitors, but based on my short experience so far, if you want something accurate and reliable, you’d still better use a chest trap. Another potentially more comfortable option would be to use Hexoskin Smart T-shirt, and on top of the usual fitness data (step count, calorie burn, distance and heart rate), also measure your breathing rate and volume. The T-shirt also supports Bluetooth Smart to send back all the data to your smartphone or other devices such as bike computers or smart watches. The company already has Bluetooth Classic T-Shirt, but there latest versions will offer longer battery life and Bluetooth 4.2 LE connectivity. Hexoskin T-shirt 2016 specifications: Bluetooth Smart 4.1 connectivity via Cypress EZ-BLE PRoC module Heart rate, RR intervals, fatigue and stress indicator (Heart Rate Variability). Breathing rate and breathing volume. Activity intensity, peak acceleration, steps and cadence. Analog 256Hz […]

January 5, 2016May 10, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mediatek Unveils MT2523 SiP for GPS Enabled, Bluetooth LE Wearables

Silicon manufacturers are starting to launch ever more integrated solutions specifically designed for wearables, and after Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor unveiled a few days ago, MediaTek has launched MT2623 ARM Cortex M4 System-in-Package (SiP) with GPS, Bluetooth LE, and a MIPI DSI interface. Other details are sparse but here’s what the company disclosed for MT2523: MCU core – ARM Cortex M4 GPU – 2D accelerator supporting true colors, per-pixel alpha channel, anti-aliasing fonts, and 1-bit index color to save memory. Connectivity – Dual-mode Bluetooth Low Energy and GPS Display – MIPI DSI and serial interfaces Integrated PMU Battery Life – More than a week (typical) The SiP’s printed circuit board area is said to be 41% percent smaller than competitors’ solutions. MT2523 will be available to manufacturers in H1 2016, and found in active and fitness smartwatches a little later. Thanks to Nanik for the tip. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software […]

December 30, 2015June 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Samsung S3FBP5A Bio-Processor Targets Fitness Tracking Wearables

We now have many wearables capable of monitoring your activities, be it smartwatches or fitness tracker, and usually they are comprised of several small sensor chips, a low power micro-controller, a Bluetooth radio, and possibly some other ICs . Samsung has been designing and just launched a bio-processor to regroup most of those features into a single chip which should only require a fourth of the area required by current multi-chip solutions. While the press release did not mention the part number, the included picture – shown above – sort of gave a clue, and Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor has the following specifications: MCU – ARM Cortex-M4 Memory – 256 KB RAM Storage – 512 KB flash DSP Sensors – 5 Analog frontends (AFEs) measuring: PPG (photoplethysmography) ECG (electrocardiography) Skin temperature BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis) Galvanic skin response (GSR) I/Os – SPI, I2C PMIC Security units The sensors will enable measurements […]