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At present there is a huge amount of apprehension surrounding wearable technology in the UK as many people are hesitant to invest in them because of privacy fears.

To try to shed some light on this scepticism, several studies have been conducted into privacy and wearable technology. A major study by cloud computing company Rackspace found that 51 per cent of...

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Unless you spent the past month underneath a rock, you have probably heard enough buzz surrounding the Apple Watch’s unveiling to last a lifetime. Apple’s foray into the smart watch space is just the latest indication that the wearables market is forcing its way into the mainstream.

Recent research from Business Insider projects that the number of...

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Research released by Salesforce has revealed that for those who have already adopted wearables, enterprise uptake won’t be far away.

79% of adopters polled said wearables would be, or already are, strategic to their company’s future success, while a further 76% reported improvements in their business performance since deploying wearables in the enterprise. 86% plan to increase their wearables spend over the next 12 months.

Not surprisingly, and with one eye on the upcoming...

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The first consumer-facing wearable devices launched in the late 1980s and mostly comprised of computers strapped to your head or wrist PDAs that weren’t quite as useful in real life as they were on paper.

However, one big shift that’s happening in the industry is that mobile manufacturers are embracing the wearables challenge, making much more exciting devices than we saw even three years ago.

With the launch of wearables...

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Here’s a novel approach to building a smartwatch. Leatherman is offering its well known multi-tool set as a bracelet which houses screwdrivers, cutting hooks and box wrenches with the Leatherman Tread.

The idea came to Leatherman president Ben Rivera on a family holiday trip, when he was unable to get past airport security. “I knew there had to be another way to carry my tools with me that would be accepted by security,” he explained. Rivera wore a...

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Reports have surfaced that the next generation of Google Glass wearables will feature an Intel chipset, having moved on from Texas Instruments.

The move pushes Intel further into the wearable tech space, and represents the search giant going back to the drawing board in terms of its design for the product, which has recently come in for criticism for its target towards the consumer space.

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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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BlackBerry has been awarded a slew of patents, including a patent for technology which enables users to unlock their smartphone without a lock code when a wearable device is nearby.

According to a Bloomberg report, U.S. Patent 8,869,263 B2 details “how a small electronic device on a watch or lanyard could be used to grant access to a smartphone so users wouldn’t have to key...

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Citrix has launched GoToMeeting as an app on Android smartwatches, showing both the malleability of wearables for business but also the technology’s fallibility.

The app, which has previously been available on Android smartphones and tablets, has been extended to Android Wear but naturally, the list of commands isn’t all that extensive. Through your smartwatch, you can now join or...

By Adam Spearing, VP Platform EMEA, salesforce.com

While the market for wearable devices is arguably just getting started, few would contend that there’s plenty of time for enterprise development teams to get a grip on the wave of new devices heading into their organisations. Consider this: The analyst firm IHS estimates that more than 180 million wearable devices are likely to be sold in 2018, up from 50 million anticipated to sell this year.

And it’s certainly not just...

Salesforce has announced a bunch of new stuff on its Salesforce Wear wearable tech platform, with an array of new hardware manufacturers on board alongside more ISVs and partnerships aiming to create killer enterprise applications.

Five new device manufacturers – Epson, Jawbone, Meta, Oculus and Vuzix – have lent their support to building apps on the platform, joining the likes of Google Glass, Samsung Gear and Pebble.

"The explosive growth of Salesforce Wear has validated the need for a...

Wearable tech startup Wearable Intelligence has shovelled $8m in the direction of bringing Google Glass to the enterprise after the latest round of venture funding.

The latest round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, has been documented in this filing to the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).

The California-based company, led by CEO Yan-David Erlich and president Ryan Junee, is squarely focused on utilising...

Bank branches, desktop computers, landline phones and bus tickets all have something in common: the next generation of children may never experience any of them first hand. Technology consumerisation and the digitisation of services have changed how we live, work and interact, at a pace that continues to accelerate. The next logical step in this transformation is the sensor economy.  It promises to create an entirely new overlay of information, semantics, analytics and, obviously,...

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...

In a BYOD-friendly office, the IT department has plenty on its plate with fragmentation, security policies and device management. With wearable devices threatening to push into the mainstream and enter the workplace, will it push the admin over the edge? Or will security not be as much of an issue?

Stephen Brown is director of product management at IT management provider LANDesk. He sees the easiest way of protecting wearable devices in the enterprise as segmenting the network. “Untrusted, or unmanaged...