Microsoft Corp plans to weigh into the wearable computing market with a smartwatch, Forbes reported on Thursday.
The US technology company has tapped the talent behind its gesture-sensing Kinect accessory for Xbox game consoles to help make a sensor-loaded smartwatch, according to Forbes.
Smartwatch capabilities were said to include fitness features, such as measuring and tracking heart rates.
Like the growing array of “wearable computing” devices, Microsoft’s creation will be designed to sync wirelessly with applications on smartphones, Forbes said.
Last month, market tracker International Data Corp (IDC) predicted sales of wearable tech items would triple this year to 19 million units worldwide, growing to 111.9 million by 2018.
IDC said the wearable sector is still led by fitness trackers, such as the Jawbone UP and Fitbit devices.
“The increased buzz has prompted more vendors to announce their intentions to enter this market,” IDC research manager Ramon Llamas said in a statement released with the forecast. “Most importantly, end users have warmed to their simplicity in terms of design and functionality, making their value easy to understand and use.”
Apple Inc is also rumored to be working on an “iWatch,” although the iPod, iPad, iPhone and Macintosh computer maker has not commented.
Meanwhile, Google Inc recently opened its Glass “explorer” program to anyone in the US with US$1,500 to spend on the Internet-connected eyewear.
In related news, Microsoft said on Thursday it has partnered with business services software star Salesforce.com as part of its push into the Internet “cloud.”
San Francisco-based Salesforce is a cloud computing poster child, winning big by offering programs for managing marketing teams or other company operations as services hosted online.
Salesforce compatibility and capabilities will be woven into the Microsoft Office 365 suite offered as part of its cloud platform. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained