wearable – Tech News

Humane’s AI Pin is dead, as HP buys startup’s assets for $116M

Humane announced on Tuesday that most of its assets have been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 p.m. PST on February 28, 2025, according to a blog post. The news brings an end to the short-lived, buzzy hardware startup. Humane made a splash in April 2024 by launching its AI Pin, which it positioned as a smartphone replacement. The Bay Area startup, founded by ex-Apple employees Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, raised more than $230 million to create the device.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/humanes-ai-pin-is-dead-as-hp-buys-startups-assets-for-116m/

TikTok influencers are wearing Apple Watches on their ankles

A report from The New York Times over the weekend highlights the small — but apparently growing — trend of users wearing their Apple Watches on their ankles. What’s becoming something of a viral sensation on social platforms like TikTok is the result of a pragmatic decision. Some Apple Watch owners’ wrists are simply too small to get a proper read with on-board sensors like heart-rate monitoring.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/10/tiktok-influencers-are-wearing-apple-watches-on-their-ankles/

Hands-on with Meta’s Orion AR glasses prototype and the possible future of computing

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the Orion glasses on Wednesday and pitched them as “a glimpse of a future that I think is going to be pretty exciting.” The glasses are black and thick framed and come with a wireless “puck” that allows the device to run apps like a holographic game of digital chess or pingpong that appear as digital graphics spliced into the real world.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/27/hands-on-with-metas-orion-augmented-reality-smart-glasses-prototype.html

Humane urges customers to stop using charging case, citing battery fire concerns

“Our investigation determined that the battery supplier was no longer meeting our quality standards and that there is a potential that certain battery cells supplied by this vendor may pose a fire safety risk,” Humane wrote in an email viewed by TechCrunch. “As a result, we immediately disqualified this battery vendor while we work to identify a new vendor to avoid such issues and maintain our high quality standards.”
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/05/humane-urges-customers-to-stop-using-charging-case-citing-battery-fire-concerns

Samsung has big ambitions for the Galaxy Ring

amsung’s VP of Digital Health Dr. Hon Pak didn’t specifically say what sensors are in the ring, but mentioned sleep insights based on heart rate, movement, and respiratory indicators. Dr. Pak says that Samsung’s partnership with Natural Cycles (which already brings period and fertility tracking to its Galaxy Watch series) will extend to the Ring, too — putting it in direct competition with the Oura ring. On the Galaxy Ring, battery size increases slightly in the larger band sizes, though Dr. Pak couldn’t share any exact battery life estimates.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/26/24082729/samsung-has-big-ambitions-for-the-galaxy-ring

Former Apple designers launch $700 Humane AI Pin as smartphone replacement

Humane, a five-year-old artificial intelligence startup founded by former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, announced its first product on Thursday — a $699 pin you wear on your lapel. The Humane AI Pin is designed to replace your smartphone, allowing the user to make calls, send texts and look up information through voice controls. It also has a laser display, turning your palm into a mini screen that can show the time, date or what’s nearby.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/09/former-apple-designers-at-humane-launch-hands-free-ai-powered-pin.html