The week's wearable tech news blips and murmurs in one place
And finally is the place for the stories you might have missed from the last seven days. It’s those wearable tech NIBs, murmurs and blips that lost the fight to make it onto our homepage thanks to headline-grabbing stories like Google working on two new VR headsets or that next gen Android Wear watches getting a battery boost.
This week, there’s news on Sony joining the hearable party, Samsung using veins to make payments and another PlayStation VR release date leak.
Sony to launch a hearable
Sony has been quiet on the wearable front of late, but it sounds like it’s ready to jump back in the game with an in-ear wearable in the mould of the Moto Hint.
That’s according to Android Headlines, who spotted serial leakster @evleaks tweeting that Sony was planning a “tiny, smart Bluetooth headset” and that it would launch at MWC. The mobile-focused tech show in Barcelona is just over a week away, so we won’t have to wait long to find out if this tip is on the money.
Read this: Everyone is making a hearable
Moto 360 2 to get Marshmallow features
Motorola’s second generation smartwatch could be set to inherit more useful features from Google’s mobile-centric Android Marshmallow software update.
A chart that appeared on the Motorola support website before being swiftly taken down, revealed that Google’s power-saving Doze mode is incoming and should help preserve the smartwatch’s battery life. Other new additions include app permissions and a new Moto Body Running app.
Smartwatch showdown: Samsung Gear S2 vs Moto 360 2
Samsung working on vein authentication
Samsung is apparently working on technology for wearables that will be able to scan veins to and can be used authenticate for things like mobile payments.
A patent filed by the Korean company outlines how a digital image is taken of the user’s vein structure and then used against stored photos to provide the authentication. There’s also details of using heart rate as an alternative way to ditch passwords and PIN codes.
Essential reading: The wearables set to kill the password
PlayStation VR launch date revealed
Another week, another release date tipped for the arrival of PlayStation’s virtual reality headset.
This time it though it comes from a reliable source. The folks at Play Mag noticed that high profile VR company Vrse has an April 2016 PlayStation VR release date down on its website in a list of supported platforms for its software.
Sony remains tight-lipped on when we can expect to see it, but if this is accurate, it’ll land in roughly the same launch window as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Check out: What VR can learn from theme parks
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Check out the bigger stories of the week on our dedicated news page.
