The FDA has put out a recall for almost half a million pacemakers over fears they are vulnerable to being hacked.

In an episode of TV show Homeland, terrorists plotted to hack the vice president’s pacemaker. At the time some may have found the idea ludicrous, but now it’s a very real possibility faced by nearly half a million people.

The pacemakers affected are manufactured by health company Abbott (formerly St. Jude...

When I was growing up, there was a popular commercial on TV. It was an ad for financial services, and the tagline went, “When EF Hutton talks… people listen.”

I guess today, and especially given that the original EF Hutton is long gone, we’d say: “When Apple talks… people listen.”

From PCs to MP3s, smartphones to tablets, Apple has not necessarily been the first to introduce new technologies. They were neither first nor...

Analyst firm Tractica believes that the healthcare applications for smart watches, fitness trackers, and body sensors will be a major driver in the next phase of wearables market growth.

In its recently released report, titled “Wearable Device Market Forecasts”, the market intelligence firm has predicted that the annual wearable device shipments will increase from 118 million units in 2016 to 430 million units by 2022, representing a CAGR of 24.1%.

The report states that the wearables market...

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is set to transform manufacturing – and according to a new report from Zebra Technologies, the number of organisations achieving a fully connected factory will rise ‘dramatically’ in the coming five years.

According to the company’s 2017 Manufacturing Vision Study, almost two thirds (64%) of manufacturers say they expect to be fully connected, using a combination of technologies including RFID, wearables and automated systems, by 2022. Half of...

Xiaomi secured top spot as the largest wearables vendor for the first time in the second quarter of 2017, according to new figures from Strategy Analytics.

The Chinese firm shipped 3.7 million units, capturing 17% of the marketshare, overtaking Fitbit (3.4m) and Apple (2.8m) into second and third place respectively. Overall sales grew 8% to 21.6 million in Q217, from 20 million this time last year.

The figures make for an interesting comparison with long-time wearable watchers IDC, whose

Xiaomi and Apple cannot be separated as the top wearables vendors in the first quarter of 2017, pushing long-time leader Fitbit back, according to the latest figures from IDC.

The analyst firm, posting its latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, found Apple was the biggest growth in branded device shipments – excluding OEM sales – year over year, going from 2.2 million to 3.6 million. Xiaomi technically finished above Apple, with a 14.7% market share compared to 14.6%, but with both on...

Global shipments of wearable devices hit 22 million units in the first quarter of 2017 with Apple overtaking Fitbit to become the world’s largest wearables vendor, according to Strategy Analytics.

In the company’s latest report, Strategy Analytics states that the global wearables shipments figure saw an increase of 21% on an annual basis from 18.2 million in Q1 2016, owing to a stronger demand for new smartwatch models in North America, Western Europe and Asia.

Neil Mawston, executive director at...

After a slowdown in 2016, the overall wearables market is expected to return to strong growth, according to new data from IDC’s worldwide quarterly wearable device tracker.

New vendors, emerging form factors, and an expanded number of retail outlets will drive worldwide wearable device shipments from 102.4 million in 2016 to 237.5 million in 2021, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.3%.

Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC mobile device trackers, said: “With the shift...

Unobtrusive wearable tech used to be an oxymoron, but some of today’s technologies are getting close to achieving this lofty goal — devices that function so naturally, wearers don’t even notice they have them on. And it has potential to alter the healthcare industry in major ways. 

Monitoring patients for overall health and to track recovery has become a round-the-clock endeavor. Unobtrusive wearable devices are able to gather some of the highest quality data available, and their mostly...

The human brain is the most complex system in the known universe. It is imbued with enormous potential that we have yet to fully understand or to harness. But we’re making progress, for many good reasons.

By studying how the human brain functions and how it responds to stimuli, we can potentially train our minds for optimal performance and, perhaps, overcome physical disabilities or detect neurological abnormalities for treatment. We stand now on the cusp of what has been called ‘The Fourth...