Welcome to our weekly round up of the wearable tech news you may have missed – and what a week it’s been. With all eyes fixed on Las Vegas for CES 2019, it’s been a busy week finding out about the new wearables that will be launching over the next 12 months.
But away from the big announcements on new smartwatches and AR glasses, there’s been plenty of smaller nuggets that offer an insight into how the wearable world is progressing. Let’s take a look at the week that was.
Amazfit Cor 2 fitness tracker launches in China
Huami has been at it again, sneaking out the Amazfit Cor 2 fitness tracker in China, while the eyes of the Western tech world have been on Las Vegas. And it’s another hugely impressive line-up of specs for the wearable, with a 1.25-inch touchscreen, heart rate tracking, 5ATM water resistance, NFC and 20 days of battery life courtesy of a 160mAh battery.
While Huami isn’t a household name quite yet, it’s been making waves with budget devices, which are getting close to the likes of Fitbit and Garmin in terms of features. As usual there’s no word on the Cor 2 making it out of China, but we’re sure it won’t be long.
Check up our round-up of the best fitness trackers – as well as our review of the Amazfit Stratos, the company’s GPS sports watch.
Atomic Hawx Ultra Connected Ski Boot is pretty gnarly
Ski season is upon us, and a new Atomic Hawx connected ski boot can give winter sports fans a bunch of data about their sessions. Featuring Suunto's Movesense and embedded sensors inside the liner offer GPs tracking as well as feedback on balance, pressure control, edging, slope angle, turn count, run count, average speed, top speed, total distance and descent.
Check out our round up of skiing wearables and GPS watches if you’re hitting the slopes this winter.
Ticwatches set to get fall detection and new fitness features
Mobvoi confirmed at CES that it's planning to roll out new features to all of its smartwatches that are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. The first is a new fall detection mode following in the footsteps of Apple and now Garmin in adding the personal safety feature. Android Authority also reports that Ticwatches will also be getting on—device guided workouts too.
Check out our first impressions on the new Ticwatch E2 and S2, as well as our best smartwatches of 2019 guide.
Healbe Gobe 3 can do calorie tracking...allegedly
One to be filed under “we’ll believe it when we see it” Healbe announced the Gobe 3 fitness tracker at CES. The company claims that its sensors can monitor hydration and calories to 87% accuracy via a skin sensor – and cites a study by the University of Davis Foods for Health Institute. It’s not been peer reviewed and had a pretty small sample size, so there’s really not a lot to back this up so far.
Healbe claims it uses a piezoelectric impedance sensor, which sends a mixture of frequencies through the wrist to monitor how cells absorb glucose. From this data the company claims its algorithms can estimate calorie consumption.
Given that Healbe hasn’t managed to make a success out of any of its previous trackers it seems unlikely that the Gobe 3 can deliver this bleeding edge technology – but our interest has been piqued enough to watch this extremely closely.
Garmin and Mercedes teams up to track stressful drives
Garmin has partnered up with Mercedes to deliver some smart functionality via a special edition of the Vivoactive 3. The collaborative watch will monitor stress levels via heart rate data from behind the wheel. This data is sent directly from the Vívoactive 3 to the Mercedes me-App.
There’s a tonne of possible outcomes here, from the infotainment system selecting soothing music when you’re stressed to selecting routes that are less likely to get those veins in your head pulsating. It’s a really interesting collaboration, and one we hope turns into more than just a gimmick between two leading brands.
Wareable's CES Top Picks revealed
As CES 2019 comes to a close, we’ve been busy handing out some awards for the best wearable tech of the show. It’s been another busy Consumer Electronics Show with plenty of innovation on display – and not just from the usual big brands.
Wareable’s CES 2019 Top Picks is a recognition of innovation at the show – from the opinions of our editors on the ground and our team back at the office. And of course we’ll be following up with full reviews in the coming weeks and months.
The biggest stories of the week...
Of course this week has been about CES – and there’s been a slew of wearable tech news. If you’ve been living under a rock, here’s the quick headlines.
Withings unveils hybrid with ECG
New Kate Spade Scallop smartwatch 2 is a real looker, with serious smarts
HTC Vive Cosmos unveiled as Oculus Quest rival
Garmin launches 4G Vivoactive 3 with Verizon
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.