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The Week In Wearables: Untethered Apple Watch, A 'Weight-Loss' Helmet And Garmin Watch Spotted

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The last seven days of news in the world of wearables included Untethered Apple Watch leaks, a helmet that claims to help you lose weight and a first look at Garmin’s new fitness watch.

The Week in Wearables is a news digest, out each Wednesday, of some of the things that have happened in the world of tech you can wear on your wrist, head, in your ear, around your waist or tucked into the small of your back or, well, you get the idea.

Apple

All-New Apple Watch Suggested in HomePod Code Leak

When Apple’s HomePod firmware was revealed recently, it proved to be a source of much information, including that the next Apple Watch will likely feature a 4G electronic sim card so be less dependent on a nearby iPhone.

It’s the limitations that come from Apple Watch being what Cupertino calls ‘a companion device’ which can be annoying. Sure, the latest model has GPS built in, but though that’s useful for measuring your run much more accurately, you still need the iPhone nearby to get directions to your wrist because the Watch needs mapping for that. Or, say you want to send a text while you’re out on your run. You need to have your iPhone with you for that, too. The latest suggestions? All that is about to change. Bloomberg is reporting that a new Apple Watch model will be released before the end of the year which will have an LTE chip so that it can send messages on its own, or download apps, stream songs that are not already on the Watch and more.

More on the purported new Watch here.

Neurovalens

Modius Headset Claimed To Assist Weight Loss Launches on Indiegogo

A new device to help users lose weight, promising to do so without diet or exercise changes, has just launched an Indiegogo campaign.

The headset is a lightweight, plastic U-shape that slips on to your head and feels comfortable enough. You then stick two electrodes your mastoids. No, I didn’t know either. It’s the hard, bony area behind your ears. The Modius then sends an electrical signal to the vestibular nerve, stimulating it. This activates the hypothalamus, an almond-sized part of the brain which, Wikipedia tells me, is responsible for the regulation of certain metabolic processes and other activities of the autonomic nervous system. The idea is that the device sending this signal means the hypothalamus reduces fat storage in the body.

More on Modius, here.

Xiaomi Becomes World’s Number One Wearables Vendor

Last week, Apple announced impressive Watch sales in the last quarter – up 50% over the same quarter the previous year. But on Thursday, research from Strategy Analytics gave the highest market share to Xiaomi.

It said that the Chinese manufacturer sold 3.7 million wearables in Q2 2017, up from 3 million in Q2 2016. Fitbit was next with 3.4 million wearables shipped and Apple shipped 2.8 million.

Apple shipped 2.8 million wearables worldwide in Q2 2017, growing 56 percent annually from 1.8 million in Q2 2016. Apple has for now lost its wearables leadership to Xiaomi, due to a lack of presence in the sizeable fitnessband subcategory. However, the rumored upcoming Watch Series 3 launch with enhanced health tracking could prove to be a popular smartwatch model and enable Apple to reclaim the top wearables spot later this year.” It also said that Fitbit is at risk of being trapped in a pincer movement between the low-end fitness bands sold by Xiaomi and the fitness-led, high-end smartwatches sold by Apple.

Xiaomi’s Mi Band fitness trackers are the product that is super-popular in China, though whether it’s fair to compare that to the full-on smartwatch that Apple produces, is another matter.

More at Strategy Analytics, here.

Britta O'Boyle

LG Watch Style reviewed

Pocket-lint's brilliant Britta O’Boyle this week reviewed the LG Watch Style, describing it as a subtle, simple gadget with a light, sleek design.

The Watch Style comes in three colourways, each of which has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating. We had the titanium model in for review which comes with a black leather strap, but we prefer the rose gold model we initially saw back in February. The rose gold appears to have a little bit more to it, with less risk of being mistaken for a toy watch – like this titanium model on review occasionally did. Which is a notable point: even though the Watch Style ticks the metal box for its use of titanium, it goes to show that materials not finished in a certain way can present themselves unfavourably. We've had colleagues handle the Style who thought it was a plastic watch. There's only so much a leather strap can negate that perception.

Read the rest of this comprehensive review at pocket-lint.com here.

More on Fitbit’s upcoming smartwatch

Meanwhile, Fitbit revealed that its smartwatch would be on sale in time for the holiday season.

The CEO isn't ready to reveal exact specifics yet, though Fitbit says the upcoming device will have multi-day battery life, GPS tracking, water resistance, a focus primarily on health and fitness functions, and come at an "attractive" but still undisclosed price. That suggests it will cost in the range of Apple's $269 to $369 entry-level watch models, as opposed to higher-end models at $549 and up

CEO James Park told Fortune that he was ‘excited for the launch’ and that the smartwatch would run third-party apps although, ‘it may take some time for a robust market to develop’.

More at Fortune, here.

Wareable

Garmin set to announce the Vivoactive 3

In an exclusive piece, Wareable has reported that the Garmin Vivoactive 3 fitness watch is about to be announced.

Images of the upcoming fitness watch, which Wareable procured from a reliable source, reveal a new design for the Vivoactive line. Not to be confused with the Vivosmart or Vivofit ranges, the Vivoactive has always been more of an all-rounder, with the Vivoactive HR being the most recent model. From what we can see, the Vivoactive 3's biggest departure from the HR will be how it's instead taking design cues from the Fenix series; this is the first Vivoactive device with that round screen, and looks much better for it. The optical heart rate sensor is, naturally, found here once again.

Read more about it at wareable.com, here.

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