Wearable

Yesterday my colleague Victoria Song asked what we’re actually meant to call the new generation of smart / XR / AR glasses. Apparently “AI glasses” is an industry frontrunner, but doesn’t that already feel like a truism?

Pebble’s new smart-ish Index 01 ring looks pretty neat. Less neat? The fact that the battery is neither replaceable nor rechargeable, giving this a finite lifespan.

The company formerly known as Facebook has had some trouble making its namesake metaverse become a thing. And rumors are that division of the company is facing massive budget cuts. But things aren’t going so smoothly elsewhere, either. Now word is that the company’s next-gen Phoenix mixed reality glasses are being delayed until 2027, according to Business Insider.

Reuters reports that Meta just bought Limitless, an AI pendant that listens to and summarizes your conversations. It’s a burgeoning category of wearables (see: Bee AI which was bought by Amazon) and hints that like Google, Meta’s interested in perhaps building its own ecosystem of AI-powered gadgets.

Initially, developers can only use the Wearable Device Access Toolkit to make apps for the Ray-Ban Meta and the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, but Meta’s Tyler Yee says the toolkit will be available for the Meta Ray-Ban Display and Oakley Meta Vanguard “soon.”

$700 is a stupid amount of money to pay for a headphone and bag collaboration. Then I saw pics of the OnTrac headphones and color-matched shoulder bag from the Japanese brand. Tempting if you roll this deep, but only 380 units are available globally at Dyson and Porter retailers.

If you skipped Casio’s original ring watch because it relied on spacers to improve its fit, the new DWN-5600 can be resized from 48mm to 82mm using an adjustable strap like a full size G-Shock. It launched in Japan last month, but will be available in the US starting on December 3rd for $110.00.

Rebble, which has kept the Pebble platform going, is at odds with Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, just as Pebble is making its comeback.

A federal jury in California sided with medical tech company Masimo in its suit alleging that the Apple Watch infringed on its patent covering low-power pulse oximeter features. The victory hinged on the definition of the term “patient monitor,” which Apple argued only applied to devices that provided continuous monitoring, while the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen features only kick in after 10 minutes of inactivity. This case is separate from the one working its way through the ITC.

The wearable company offers paid blood tests to US users through its Advanced Labs feature, which launched in September. But now users worldwide can upload their blood results into the app for free, and see biomarkers alongside their daily data. Whoop-organized tests will roll out internationally “in the coming months.”

The new integration means you can access iFit’s workouts from the “fitness” tab on Samsung’s Health app, with videos spanning high-intensity interval training, Pilates, yoga, strength, recovery, and more. Samsung Health users can access one video per month for free, or pay $9.99 per month for a larger catalog of workout videos.