Welcome to The Wearable Weekly, your trusted guide to all things wearable tech. If you only have time to read one thing about wearables this week, this is it.
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!
Statistics & Forecasts
Soreon Research estimates the smart wearable healthcare market will grow from $2 billion in 2014 to more than $41 billion in 2020 (Fortune)
According to NPD data, wearable technology now comprises only 1% of the entire fashion market, but it’s growing quickly (Mashable)
Device Announcements
Maker project shows how sensors can be embedded in socks to pause Netflix (Huffington Post)
Breitling offering a $8,900 Exospace B55 smartwatch (TNW)
Xiaomi marketing its second generation Mi Ban in Taiwan (Chinese Business News)
Japanese researchers have developed holograms that you can actually touch (BGR)
Hexoskin wins a contract with the Canadian Space Agency to develop the On Astronaut Wireless Sensor (Wareable)
Palmer Luckey confirms Oculus Rift consumer release still on track for Q1 (USA Today)
Funding, Crowdfunding & M&A
PRIME battery strap for Apple Watch kicks off crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter (Kickstarter)
Pinball Labs is crowdfunding its Pinball simulator, editor, and API for virtual reality on Kickstarter (Kickstarter)
Major Milestones
Snowy app brings voice controls to Pebble smartwatch (Wareable)
Bjork launches a virtual reality app for her Stonemilker video (Thump)
NASA partners with Sony to control robots in space using VR (RoadtoVR)
Microsoft opens HoloLens Experience Showcase for developers in New York City (The Verge)
Google teams up with the White House to create a VR tour for Christmas (Mashable)
Jets working on virtual reality experience for fans (FOX)
VERT wearable device first to be used in an NCAA Volleyball Championship (SportTechie)
Fitbit hit top free app in Apple’s App Store over the holidays (Tech Insider)
LeBron James Just Released His First Virtual Reality Film With Oculus (Re/Code)
Rumours
Oculus research project hints at how future virtual reality controllers may use electromagnets and sensors to track hand movements (MIT Tech Review)
HTC Vive on its way, passes through FCC (Ubergizmo)
Apple Watch 2 rumored to be announced in March of 2016 with hopes of better battery life (CNET)
ASUS and Gigabyte reportedly working on virtual reality (Digital Trends)
Samsung may be working on a smart ring (Patently Apple)
Subscribe to The Wearable Weekly
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!
