Go tell your friends: the latest edition of Week in Wearable has hit the world wide web, and this one's a doozy. This week, Husain confronted his greatest fears in VR while Conor spoke to a startup with an interesting new golf wearable. Meanwhile editor Mike talked through the ups and downs of using Fitbit's smartwatches.
In the world of VR, we looked at how virtual reality could take on the opioid crisis while also delving into the numbers on VR porn to see just how popular it really is - and who's watching what.
As for the news, we've pulled together the biggest stories below, along with some of the best reads from the site this week.
Snap Specs 2.0 look more likely than ever
Snap's expectations of its Spectacles may have overshot reality by quite some distance, but it appears to be undeterred as it takes another swing at smartglasses. This week the FCC published a filing for a "wearable video camera" made by Snap Inc. While there's not a lot to gleam from this beyond the likely existence of the wearable itself, we can see the new Spectacles will feature 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2, so expect faster file transfers to Snapchat.
Previous reports have pointed to the glasses having dual cameras and even GPS, but all we'll comfortably bet on right now is that Snap Specs 2 are indeed incoming. Earlier this year Cheddar reported that the new Snap Specs will drop in the fall with water resistance and new colors, while another edition in 2019 will come with two cameras.
Apple faces lawsuit over heart rate monitor
Health tech startup Omni MedSci has accused Apple of infringing on four of its patents referencing light-based heart rate technology, which it believes was used in the Apple Watch. Omni MedSci founder Dr. Mohammed N. Islam described meeting with Apple between 2014 and 2016 to discuss the filings, after which Apple cut ties with the company.
It's worth pointing out that by the first meeting in 2014, Apple had finalized the technology in the Watch's HR sensor. What's more, Apple Insider points out that Islam modified the company's IP after Apple unveiled the smartwatch. Perhaps more interesting than all of this is the fact that one of Islam's patents covers non-invasive glucose monitoring in a patient's blood, which Apple is rumored to be working on, despite some naysayers believing it's never going to be possible.
Leap Motion's idea to make AR affordable
VR hand-tracking company Leap Motion revealed this week that it's branching out into AR, announcing a new reference headset and AR platform it calls Project North Star. With two ultra-bright 1,600 x 1,440 displays pushing 120 frames per second and a 100-degree field of view, the headset will cost $100 to produce, says Leap.
The idea is to make AR more affordable, and Leap Motion has open sourced the hardware and related software in the hope that other developers will do great things with it. This is actually the same AR platform we've been seeing the company teasing as of late - remember this?
With Magic Leap's headset set to be very expensive, something like this from Leap Motion could bring AR to those who can't afford the high-end systems. AR will need to be available at different price points if it is to succeed fast, and Leap Motion's offering a way to make this exciting new medium more accessible.
How we test
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.