Liquid That Makes Gloves Touchscreen-Compatible

Gloves are the part of winter chill season but it causes really disturbance when you have to use your smartphone, as your smartphones' touchscreen does not recognize your command. There are some companies that provides touchscreen-compatible gloves but Nanotips is future of touchscreen compatible gloves. 

Nanotips, Kickstarter funded project, proposes an other solution: Using a conductive, polyamide liquid to add touchscreen capabilities to your any pair of gloves. The project has received an enthusiastic Kickstarter backing, racking up more than five times its funding goal of $10,000 CAD, or roughly $9,070.

The solution uses conductive nanoparticles to mimic the electrical conductivity of human skin, just like a normal touchscreen glove. Creator Tony Yu claims the solution will work on any material, from pricey leather to canvas gloves, for construction, golfing, cycling, skiing and snowboarding or any else.

Yu hit upon the idea after purchasing an expensive pair of motorcycle gloves without touchscreen capabilities. Rather than buy a new pair — "touchscreen leathers are expensive and they wear down really quickly," Yu says — he searched for a solution that would integrate with his current gear.

The resulting conductive liquid is applied to the gloves' thumbs and forefingers by swiping an applicator, not unlike applying nail polish. As it dries it soaks into the fabric or forms a conductive film on each fingertip, depending on the material.

"It wasn't so hard to get a product that would interact with a touchscreen device," Yu says. "The hardest part was making it last long enough."

The Kickstarter campaign offers two separate touchscreen solutions, Nanotips Blue and Nanotips Black. The Blue solution covers standard fabrics, such as knits, while the more durable Black treats leathers, rubbers and other thick materials. 

Each solution leaves behind a slight color residue, however. Blue dries to a translucent blue, while the more versatile Black is, well, black. Yu is still experimenting with creating a fully transparent solution. He also warns the Black solution may alter the texture of certain fabrics.

At $22 CAD (or $20) for a single bottle, the solution is fairly inexpensive, although consumers can purchase actual touchscreen gloves for roughly the same price. The solution lasts for a few weeks (Blue) or months (Black), depending on wear, and can be re-applied. Blue treats an average of 15 fingers, while Black treats up to 30.

The Nanotips Kickstarter campaign ends Feb. 25.
Video & Images: kickstarter

Google Smartwatch Now Ready for Final Production!

According to the Wall Street Journal, their sources who have inside information on Google’s hardware plans have revealed that the firm is in the final stages of producing its very first smartwatch. The anonymous sources have apparently claimed that the smartwatch is nearly ready for mass production and could soon be available on the mass market.

In mid-October a report said that Google’s smartwatch would be coming “sooner rather than later” and had been codenamed Gem. Rumours had claimed that it could potentially be released at the same time as the Nexus 5 smartphone but if the Wall Street Journal’s sources are correct and production has not yet started, then it is unlikely that we’ll see them released together.

There have been no leaked images of Google’s Gem and with smartwatches being a big news recently thanks to Pebble and the Galaxy Gear, no doubt everyone is keen to see what Google will bring to the table.It is expected that it will make full use of Google Now, enabling users to keep up to date with appointments, calender entries, traffic and travel information, as well as weather reports and personal business information.

One obstacle of the smartwatch that Google are keen to overcome is the poor battery life. So far Pebble is leading the way due to the fact that it does not have a colour screen. The Wall Street Journal Sources claim that Google are working hard to extend the battery life of the Gem by reducing power consumption.

So now that we know we don’t have long to wait, the question will be whether it will live up to the hype?

[Via: techbeat]

Samsung Galaxy Gear Supported for More Smartphones

Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch

Samsung announced on Monday it will bring Galaxy Gear connectivity to more smartphones in the weeks ahead. The move will expand the smartwatch's reach beyond just the Note 3, making it available for a wider audience.

The company said it will be rolling out a Premium Suite update that will make a variety of its devices compatible with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, including the Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III.

Samsung’s Premium Suite update will bring Android 4.3 and additional features to smartphones, but the timing and features will differ based on carrier and product, the company said.

The Galaxy S4 mini and Galaxy Mega will also receive an update for Galaxy Gear compatibility, but users will have to wait a bit longer. Samsung said it will become available on those devices in the months ahead.

Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani

The Sticky Situation That Delayed the Pebble Smart Watch

While about 69,000 people waited for his company to ship the smart watches they had ordered through the crowd-funding site Kickstarter  the CEO of Pebble was informed by his manufacturer in China that there was a problem: The adhesive designed to securely attach the screen protector to the electronic body wasn't sticking.

The glue problem was one of many unforeseen manufacturing and assembly issues that forced Pebble to miss its shipment deadline by several months. Such hurdles are common with any hardware product but can be particularly troublesome for small businesses on tight budgets, like those that use Kickstarter to raise money.

Pebble wasn't exactly strapped for funds last year (even though venture capitalists didn't like the idea). It took in more than $10 million on Kickstarter through pre-orders and donations in April 2012. But each production problem could mean another delay, another missed order, another unhappy customer and another week Migicovsky must spend personally overseeing the process at his contractor's factory just outside the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

"We had the assembly line go down for days," Migicovsky said in an interview last week. "I learned what Christmas is like in China."

Manufacturing problems plague even the largest and most experienced operations. For the last couple of years, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has struggled to print a new type of $100 bill due to applying too much ink or none in some spots, as well as issues with wrinkling. Drug shortages resulting from quality control and other manufacturing issues have plagued the pharmaceutical industry, including Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest seller of health-care products.

Before introducing the Pebble smart watch last year, Migicovsky and his team had no experience working with manufacturers overseas. The Pebble's predecessor, called inPulse, sold just 1,500 units. Of those, 700 were assembled by the startup inside a garage in Waterloo, Ontario — not far from BlackBerry's headquarters — and the rest were put together in a small factory in San Jose, Calif.

When the Kickstarter campaign for Pebble took off, Migicovsky sought advice from a friend at Sifteo, another hardware startup. Migicovsky was directed to a consulting firm called Dragon Innovation, which helped him connect with suppliers in Asia.

We "were actually planning to do it in San Jose," Migicovsky said. "But everything is built in China, and it's a big advantage to have the supplier just down the road."

Over the next eight months, Migicovsky spent about one-third of his time traveling back and forth between San Francisco and Asia. He invested in polo shirts to wear to business meetings, which often ended up dripping in sweat by the end of a sweltering summer day. "Price negotiations are hard," Migicovsky said. "And it's hot over there."

Migicovsky signed an agreement with Taiwan-based Foxlink Group to assemble the Pebble watches in a plant near Shenzhen. A team there attempted to recreate the formula Pebble had used to build its prototypes in Silicon Valley. At one point, things started to fall apart. "The glue was failing," Migicovsky recalls.

The adhesive was crucial to Pebble's design because it helped to keep water from seeping in and shorting the electrical components, according to researcher iFixit. "Pebble employs tons of adhesive," iFixit wrote in a report.

Migicovsky flew to China and spent two to three weeks at the factory helping to figure out what went wrong.

"Experimentation follows a different course" in China, he said, where there are a lot of random trials without proper documentation, making any successful outcome difficult to reproduce. "They're not using the scientific method," he said.

It turns out that the glue itself wasn't bad. "The moisture in the air in Shenzhen is different," he said.

The conditions in Chinese plants aren't necessarily what you see in staged photographs. There aren't people wearing bunny suits meticulously working on pristine, white factory floors.

"The window was open," Migicovsky said. If it rained, he urged the workers to move to a different room. Foxlink didn't respond to requests for comment.

Even in less-than-ideal conditions, they eventually perfected the gluing process. Migicovsky said he enjoys the trial-and-error nature of assembly, but he recently hired a director of manufacturing to manage it all. While based in Pebble's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., Jake Lin spends about half his time in Asia.

Last-minute travel to Asia is still a fairly common occurrence for Migicovsky. He was in Taiwan last month. He's started keeping a small gym bag or backpack at home ready to be packed with a toothbrush, phone charger and laptop. He buys new clothes, including Polo shirts, once he arrives in Asia. "It's much cheaper over there," he said.

source: mashable