The week's wearable tech news blips and murmurs all in one place
And finally is where we mop up the wearable tech stories that were not covered in our dedicated news hub.
It’s a one-stop-shop for catching up with the smaller stories of the week you might have missed, and it keeps you up to speed with the rumours and murmurs of the wearable world.
Let’s get this show on the road…
Oculus Rift special delivery
The Oculus Rift has begun shipping and, for one ‘lucky’ early-adopter, his order was delivered with a Willy Wonka-esque twist.
Ross Martin, the first person to stick his pre-order in, had his Rift headset personally delivered to him by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who also live streamed the whole thing on Facebook. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – Luckey has got some absolute rascal shirts in his wardrobe.
2016 is definitely the year of VR with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive the first big-name systems to launch. HTC’s headset will start hitting homes next month.
Microsoft’s vision of the (near) future
Moving from VR to AR and Microsoft revealed some more juicy HoloLens details this week. This demo, from Microsoft Research uses 3D motion capture and HoloLens’ mixed reality hardware to port people from one physical place to another.
They are calling it “Holoportation”, which sounds ridiculously futuristic.
Exciting stuff indeed. In the meantime check out our hands-on review of Microsoft HoloLens and read our guide to the best AR and VR headsets.
Fossil sneaks out new smartwatch models
Fossil detailed two new Android Wear smartwatches recently at Baselworld but that doesn’t mean it has given up on its debut device: the Fossil Q Founder.
The American watch giant has slipped a couple of new Founder designs into the Google Store. The new listings detail a black with rose gold model, which costs $295; and a two-tone variant with black shades and a metal band, costing $315.
Make sure you check out our Android Wear super guide to get up to speed woth Google’s smartwatch OS.
Apple Watch design just got easier
As expected, there was no Apple Watch 2 announced at this week’s Cupertino event but Apple did reveal several new Watch bands that you can choose from.
Following the event, the new designs went on sale and Apple also launched a new Watch designer gallery, where you can mix and match straps, cases and faces.
Our editor Mike doesn’t think it’s a bad thing that Apple is taking its time revealing the Watch sequel. What do you think? Let us know using the comments below.
