As Friday’s global launch date edges ever closer, it seems the excitement surrounding the new Apple Watch has already affected smartwatch sales. A new survey shows that more than half (57%) of prospective smartwatch or fitness bands purchasers have delayed their purchases ahead of this week’s launch.

Gaining mass appeal for the smartwatch may be Apple’s greatest challenge.

Sales tracking figures from GfK show that in the first quarter of this year sales volumes of smartwatches fell 21%...

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Here’s an interesting example of wearable technology: Researchers from the Human-Computer Interaction Group at the University of Rochester have developed a user interface for Google Glass which gives real-time feedback to public speakers on volume modulation and speaking rate.

The premise is straightforward. Given public speaking is often cited as a primary fear of many people – respondents in a 2013 poll said they feared public speaking more than they feared being buried...

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Kaspersky lab security researcher Roman Unuchek has written on how the authentication method in popular smart wristbands allows a third party to connect to the device, execute commands and even extract data.

The worrying findings came after a multiple month investigation, after Unuchek had initially attempted to connect his personal wristband – which remains nameless – and found he could easily connect to his colleague’s Nike+ FuelBand SE.

Using some code already...

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The analysts at Juniper Research have gotten the tea leaves and crystal ball out again, and predicted annual revenues from connected healthcare and fitness services will approach $2bn by 2019, almost six times the value estimated for this year.

The findings, which appear in the report “Smart Wireless Devices: CE, Enterprise, Fitness, Healthcare, Payments 2015-2019”, examine the prevalence and market value of ‘smart wearable devices’, which Juniper defines as...

Wearable technology providers still have a lot to do to convince the general public they need one of their products, according to new research.

A whopping 75% of the 2000 UK adults polled by Hive by British Gas said they couldn’t see how wearable tech would make their lives easier. Almost one in 10 (9%) polled said they thought wearables would make their lives more difficult.

This isn’t the first time Brits have been less than convinced by the pull of smartwatches and eyewear, although back in 2014 it...

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Long-term readers of my articles will know I'm a fierce critic of Apple, but something happened during their last event and recent discussions at SXSW seem to confirm they’ve changed an industry in a way I don't think the Cupertino-based giant has since the debut of the original iPhone…

When ResearchKit was announced, I was...

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Tests conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Wokingham have shown that reading a smartwatch whilst driving is more distracting than reading a smartphone and results in longer reaction time to perform an emergency manoeuvre.

A driver reading a message on a smartwatch took 2.52 seconds to react in an emergency, whilst using a handheld mobile caused a 1.85 second delay. The TRL also tested...

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Analyst house Juniper Research has released a new paper asserting ‘invisible’ wearables – hardware which is indistinguishable from non-smart technology – will provide a key market opportunity by 2020.

In a report entitled ‘The World in 2020: A Technology Vision’, made available for free download here, the analysts argue many wearables companies are...

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Analyst house CCS Insight has put out its latest global wearables forecast, and predicted that wearable shipments will jump to 75 million in 2015 – a 158% increase on last year.

Not surprisingly, a large amount of this number will be provided by the Apple Watch, due for release in April. CCS Insight expects Apple will account for 20 million of these, representing over a quarter of the market.

Yet the analyst firm sees this point as key – if the Apple Watch succeeds, then it...

Most devices on the market use Bluetooth to communicate, and therefore rely on a six-digit PIN code to authenticate between them. This represents approximately one million possible keys which with today's computing power is simple to crack and allow an attacker access to private data about the user without consent.

The researchers showed how information from the wearable device could be revealed in plain text

Other than just notifications, wearable devices are collecting data such as...

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41% of respondents in a new Accellion and Vanson Bourne survey expect to see the Apple Watch in its organisation in the coming year, ahead of Google Glass and the Sony Smartwatch.

Apple’s smartwatch, which is still at a tentative early 2015 release date, is certainly getting a lot of consumer and enterprise buy in compared to Glass, the second generation of which will be powered by Intel chips

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A study from Reportlinker on the wearable electronics and semiconductor market has agreed the current state of wearables for enterprise is far stronger than the consumer equivalent.

The report analyses the different industry sectors, market drivers, demographic factors and emerging markets, and notes the difficulty of sizing up a market which is so nascent and contains so many potential offshoots.

For the purposes of the report, Reportlinker classifies a wearable computing device...

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A report from Juniper Research has predicted fewer than 10 million smart glasses units will be shipped per annum by 2017.

The researchers cite reasons for the relatively low number as lengthy time to market, a lack of a key consumer use case and a slow path to social acceptance.

Type ‘Google Glass’ into any search engine and you will see a variety of stories, both good and bad. For example, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Association of...

Microsoft has just unveiled their fitness band with the most sensors of any wrist-worn consumer device yet. In total, the "Microsoft Band" packs 10 different types including sensors which allow it to measure heart rate, stress levels, and even UV exposure.

But not a company to sit still, Google has announced the tech giant is working on perhaps the most important and innovative solution yet, cancer detection. Google has developed a "nanoparticle pill" which they will incorporate with a...

Research firm GfK has revealed that over 420,000 wearables were sold in the UK from January through to September 2014. During this period, the total value of the smart devices sold is expected to be in excess of an eye-watering £51 million ($82 million.)

Despite this, the firm believes wearables are far from becoming mass market. Anne Giulianotti, GfK, says: “There’s no question wearable activity trackers have caught on – but with a small percentage of the population....

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ABI Research has gazed into its crystal ball, turned over portentous cards and sifted through the tea leaves, and predicted that Apple Watch will nab at least half of Android’s share in wearable devices in 2015.

The findings, which are part of ABI Research’s Wearables and Smart Accessories Market Research paper, found that iOS will gain a 35% share in the global smartwatch segment, just behind Android at 42%. For comparison, Android’s overall stake was at two...

In case you missed it last night, Apple launched a wearable device – the Apple Watch, not the iWatch – as part of its latest product developments. But what sort of market is Cupertino heading towards?

According to the latest survey results from law firm Osborne Clarke, less than one in 10 UK consumers are expecting to buy wearable technology in the next year, with the share among 18-24 and 25-34 year olds not exactly skyrocketing at 10% and 14% uptake respectively.

It’s worth noting at this...

It goes without saying that, in the majority of cases, the first tech vendor that comes to mind when you think of wearables is Google, be it through Google Glass or Android Wear. Yet a new report makes the prediction that Apple could transform the smartwatch market.

The report, ‘Smartwatches: Market Prospects’ comes from Jackdaw Research and predicts that Apple is the likeliest candidate to do one of two things to turn the smartwatch market on its head: either overcome current technological...

The most common wearable device today, the smartwatch, is being targeted as the optimum place to keep track of our general health and offer ways we can improve our lifestyle - if we wish. This is great, but there are those out there with more serious ailments which must be monitored continuously or face more serious symptoms than an inflated waistline.

Chip manufacturer Intel is partnering with the Michael J. Foundation, who specialise in Parkinson's disease research, to offer their own expertise in the...

Research from HP of 10 Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices has found on average 25 security flaws per unit, including denial of service and Heartbleed.

The research, alongside Symantec’s study of wearable devices last week, pours cold water on widespread usage of wearables in the enterprise markets.

“A couple of security concerns on a single device such as a mobile phone...