You know what time it is, kids: time for another And finally, where we round up the smaller stories and rumors from the week.
It was the week of MWC, and Team Wareable was on the ground rooting out the best wearable tech for your reading pleasure. We got to play with the HTC Vive Focus, try on the Sony Xperia Ear Duo, beamed messages on our hands with a projector smartwatch, and played VR football.
Read this: Why Waverly Labs isn't scared of Google
But that's not all. A few other things went down in the wearable world this week - so let's get stuck in.
Apple's new idea for charging the Watch
Often when we stumble across interesting patents, it's not the first time they've surfaced. But this week Apple was granted a patent for an idea we haven't seen before: a wireless Apple Watch charging case. Alright, alright, alright, it's just a case, but this could be pretty useful. Charging an Apple Watch when you have access to a plug socket is no problem, but a charging case would let you power up Watch on those occasions you're caught short with no outlet in sight. The AirPods do the same, letting you slip them back in the case to power them while on the go.
But the patent is even more interesting when you look into the specifics, which describe how the case could be used to charge smart bands - yet another reference to the mythical smart straps we're yet to see. Whether these straps have smart fabric or additional health sensors remains to be seen, but as with the charging case itself, don't bank on any of this necessarily coming to fruition. Go read more at Patently Apple, which spotted the patent this week.
Nokia's smart jacket for first responders
Smart clothing is set to boom by 2022, but it's one of the slower-burning categories of wearable tech. At MWC, Nokia showed off a smart high-visibility jacket, which it co-created with South Korean fashion brand Kolon. The CHASE LifeTech FR jacket is designed for first responders and can perform various "smart" tasks such as relaying heart rate information and GPS data.
But it also has swappable modules on the sleeve and chest to suit different needs. As Engadget suggested after trying it out, a member of the police force could have a camera, while a firefighter might find a temperature sensor more useful. While this is just a proof of concept for now, apparently Nokia and Kolon plan to produce a consumer version of the jacket in the next 12-18 months.
Coolpad and Qualcomm team up for wearables
Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad has announced it'll be going into partnership with Qualcomm as it enters the world of wearable tech. The company is looking into some more specific areas like kids smartwatches, smart trackers for pets, and wearables for the elderly. We also know that Coolpad will be running off Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 2100 and Snapdragon Wear 1100 platforms.
Why should you care? Well first because China is a huge market for wearables, something Xiaomi is taking advantage of right now. But Coolpad also sells its smartphones around the world, so we suspect it'll do the same for any wearables it makes too.
Via Gadgets 360
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By Hugh Langley
Now at Business Insider, Hugh originally joined Wareable from TechRadar where he’d been writing news, features, reviews and just about everything else you can think of for three years.
Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider.
Prior to Wareable, Hugh freelanced while studying, writing about bad indie bands and slightly better movies. He found his way into tech journalism at the beginning of the wearables boom, when everyone was talking about Google Glass and the Oculus Rift was merely a Kickstarter campaign - and has been fascinated ever since.
He’s particularly interested in VR and any fitness tech that will help him (eventually) get back into shape. Hugh has also written for T3, Wired, Total Film, Little White Lies and China Daily.