ReadWriteReflect offers a look back at major technology trends, products and companies of the past year.With new technologies like wearable devices starting to break into the mainstream, it’s easy to look at the old smartphone industry and proclaim it a big, dull dud. But as 2014 winds down, the year...
Google CardboardWhen Google Cardboard, the virtual reality viewer constructed of corrugated paper, came out this summer, people thought it was a joke. But the company was serious—and if there was any doubt about it, you can nix it now that Google just released a software development kit for it.See also:...
Two years after Italian design firm ADR Studio introduced its concept for one of the most adorable cameras ever, with numerous teases popping up since, the Socialmatic point-and-shooter has finally opened for pre-orders. A dead ringer for Instagram's app icon, the chubby, squarish device—which packs its own built-in printer—comes with...
Smartphones aren't like most other gifts, since they're quite possibly the single most personal gadgets in our possession. They're constantly in our hands. We entrust them with our private messages and photos. Increasingly, we're starting to talk to them and even to count on them knowing us well enough to suggest...
This year, wearable devices have branched out, extending all over our bodies. Tech companies have put “smarts” everywhere from our heads to our fingers, offering a slew of new uses that hardly seemed imaginable just a few years ago.Tracking your steps or sleep, answering emails, making calls or immersing ourselves...
The advent of the connected home has made it possible for our everyday appliances to talk to us, and more important, to each other. Thermostat control, energy conservation, and routine maintenance are just a few more things your average smart homeowner no longer has to worry about. So when you...
Offering a shot of one-stop convenience, Starbucks began its roll-out of free Powermat wireless charging last week. The Seattle, Wash.–based coffee purveyor equipped roughly 200 stores in San Francisco with the technology, ahead of a nationwide launch next year.I stopped by a location in Levi Plaza to check out the...
ReadWriteBody is an ongoing series where ReadWrite covers networked fitness and the quantified self.One of the interesting things about writing ReadWriteBody, where I've chosen to focus on digital fitness, is the constant conflation of health and fitness.As I remarked during a panel I moderated on Wednesday evening, it's often treated...
This was the first time that I attended the XDA DevCon conference and this event was an opportunity for me to get know the wider XDA Community, look at collaboration opportunities and also to let them know there is an alternative Operating System on the horizon for them to keep...
ReadWriteHome is an ongoing series exploring the implications of living in connected homes.According to the experts, we may all be living in a smart home before long. Google wants it to be theirs. Forget the fact that it doesn’t actually have a cohesive smart home system yet—it’s working on that, and quickly...
At the Tizen Developer Summit shanghai 2014, Brian Warner kicked off the Keynote sessions to a packed Chinese crowd, which was a great sight to see. He drew attention to the fact that there have been releases several Tizen products this year, which hasn't been the case in recent...
Google pushed out a major update for its Android Wear smartwatch software that, among other things, supports location-tracking GPS hardware and offline music syncing. All that potentially gives these gadgets useful features that will still work, even if they're not tethered to a smartphone.That’s a first for the platform, which makes...
We had a slight surprise when we saw Tizen being used to run a portable personal cloud pocket webserver, and now we have Tizen running (hopefully) under the hood of another Smartwatch, but this time it's not Samsung. The concept of this Smartwatch is different, "modularly" different. Just like...
Android 5.0 LollipopWith its latest device announcements, including the Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet, Google has effectively given the public its first real glimpse of Android 5.0, officially dubbed Lollipop (née Android L). The operating software represents a sea change in the way the company approaches mobile development.See...
Jony Ive, Apple vice president of design, at the Vanity Fair New Establishment SummitYou know that saying about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery? It’s total hogwash, at least according to Apple’s Jony Ive.At the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on Thursday, the typically reclusive, but recently chatty Sir...
The schedule for the upcoming Tizen Developer Summit Shanghai 2014 has been released. Reminder: If you want to attend than the early bird registration ends on 30th September, so get registering now (links at the bottom of the page). We have keynotes from the Technical Steering Group (TSG), which...
Apple’s message this week was loud and clear: Forget everything you thought you knew about the iPhone maker or its mobile products.The plan: Reboot the iPhone product line as a beautiful phablet line, give the larger flagship an even bigger premium sibling, introduce Apple’s first-ever smartwatch, and tackle brand-new categories—from...
iPhone 6, AppleWhen the iPhone 6 debuts Tuesday, it will join a crowded field of brand new mobile devices. But Apple has more than new hardware up its sleeve.The New York Times, Recode, the Wall Street Journal and other outlets have published numerous—and occasionally contradictory—reports predicting giant new iPhones, Apple smartwatches,...
Next week will be all about the new Apple iPhone. This week, however, is more of a free-for-all among manufacturers determined to garner as much attention for their new smartphones as possible.Maybe some of these companies want to beat Apple out the door; others may have simply set their launch dates...
I rarely buy things in stores with cash anymore. Between mobile apps and credit cards, there’s very little need.Apple reportedly wants to streamline that experience even further—by using a technology many had given up for dead. Wired's sources tell it that the iPhone maker is putting NFC wireless chips in its...
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