UK is contactless capital of world due to the Tube as payment limit to hit £30 July 5, 2015 Over one billion contactless Visa card payments were made in Europe alone in the last 12 months, double the previous year, in transactions worth a total of €12.6bn (£8.9bn). The UK is leading the trend, with 49.6m contactless Visa cards in circulation, an increase of 37 per cent from March 2014. Britain has [...]
Barclaycard’s bpay wearable band and contactless devices let you pay with just a swipe of your wrist, key or phone June 29, 2015 Shoppers heading to the tills and travellers passing through ticket gates will soon be able to pay with just a simple swipe of the wrist using Barclaycard's new wearable technology. The new bpay band, due to launch next month, will bring an end to rummaging through bags for contactless cards and is one of three [...]
Fitbit share price jumps 52 per cent on market debut in New York June 18, 2015 Shares in wearable fitness gadget maker Fitbit surged 52 per cent in their stock market debut across the pond yesterday, valuing the firm at more than $4.1bn (£2.6bn). The shares, which are now traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FIT, were priced at $20 per share for the initial public [...]
War of the wearables: Jawbone sues Fitbit for second time ahead of IPO June 11, 2015 The war of the wearables is hotting up even more. Jawbone, the maker of the Up fitness tracker has filed a second lawsuit in the US courts alleging that soon-to-IPO rival Fitbit, which also makes fitness trackers, infringed several of its patents. It's the second lawsuit filed by Jawbone against Fitbit in two weeks – [...]
Project Jacquard: Google and Levi’s to launch world’s first pair of “smart” jeans June 3, 2015 Google is to team up with Levi’s to manufacture the world’s first pair of “smart” jeans. The digital denim will be made using a revolutionary new fabric interwoven with conductive material. The firms have not revealed exactly what the jeans will be capable of, but the technology can be used to interact with smartphones [...]
Google I/O 2015: From Projects Vault and Brillo to smart jeans and cardboard virtual reality, the impossibly advanced technologies unveiled in San Francisco June 3, 2015 BRILLO Essentially an operating system for the Internet of Things (IoT), Google’s Project Brillo is an adapted version of Android designed to manage a number of connected devices from a central management console. It’s Google’s attempt at standardising the way we control devices, from household appliances like Nest (which, incidentally, Google owns) to wearables [...]
War of the wearables: Jawbone sues Fitbit ahead of IPO May 28, 2015 The war of the wearables has just been taken up a notch after two of the leading companies pioneering the technology have become involved in a legal dispute. Jawbone, the maker of the UP fitness tracker band, has filed a lawsuit in a California court alleging rival Fitbit, which also makes health tracking devices, stole [...]
Fitness Tracker: The best running apps to use with your Apple Watch May 20, 2015 It’s been almost two weeks since I decided to get fit again, using technology to help to keep me motivated. This week I’ve been trying out different running apps to see which ones are the most helpful, with a focus on those I can use with my Apple Watch. It’s worth pointing out that as [...]
Apple Watch review: It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best smartwatch out there May 14, 2015 The most hotly awaited device of the year bears all the hallmarks of the Cupertino company. Apple is the master of selling products that nobody knew they wanted. A phone with a computer in it? Yeah, you’re going to want that. A massive version of a phone that doesn’t make calls? Trust us. But a [...]
Fitness Tracker: How useful is technology in the quest to get healthy? May 13, 2015 Last year I underwent a 10-week fitness program with City gym No 1 Fitness. It involved four personal training sessions a week and eliminating carbs and sugar from my diet. Unsurprisingly, it worked; I ended up fitter than I’d ever been. But how easy is it to get to that level of fitness if you [...]