Black Hat Asia Wearable devices – and anything that relies on an app to help with configuration – has at least three attack surfaces and your existing secure development lifecycle probably isn’t going to cope with the complexity that creates. So said Kavya Racharla, a security research manager for Intel’s Sports Group, and Deep Armor founder …

LogoWatch LogoWatch Google’s re-branded Android Wear, the cut of Android for wearable devices, as “Wear OS by Google” and added the tag line "make every minute matter". The company’s brief announcement doesn’t really explain why Google’s made the change, other than to say it’s “a new name that better reflects our technology, vision, and …

Fitbit has taken the wraps off its second (or fifth, depending on how you're counting) smartwatch, Versa, claiming the new model has inherited Pebble DNA. It's less weird and clunky than the much-vaunted Ionic, which was inspired by sci-fi movies. And cheaper than comparable devices - the Apple Watch or most Android Wear …

A US stock trader has been sentenced to two years in prison for running a pump and dump operation involving wearables vendor Fitbit, albeit one that earned him only a few thousand dollars. Robert Walter Murray was given the federal prison term after pleading guilty to one count of securities fraud. He had faced a maximum of 20 …

Analysis Did you notice anything else missing from Mobile World Congress this year? Apart from any interesting phones? Previous MWCs have been flooded by hopeful tech companies touting new wearables. The flood became a trickle, and last year Huawei and LG were the only two tech vendors left flying the flag for Android Wear smartwatches …

The American military has ordered a review of its grunts' personal electronics – after the Strava fitness app used by soldiers revealed base locations and other operational security gaffes. In November, the exercise-tracking software maker released a "heatmap" to show where in the world people were using the application to …

Fitbit says it will formally end support for Pebble hardware this summer. The dying exercise wearables specialist said today that on June 30, 2018, it will cut off online services and support for any remaining Pebble wrist-puters. Don't fret. At least you'll have enough time to use one of the doomed smartwatches to shed …

Fitbit's year-on-year losses grew fivefold to $113.4m compared to a year ago, with sales of 3.6 million devices in the quarter, 7 per cent up from the previous quarter. The firm admitted it had been a "difficult year" as the fitness band craze diminished, with sales down considerably compared to the same period of 2016. …

Analysis Just as the Apple Watch was set to go mainstream, bugs and poor design choices have taken the shine off the latest version of the hardware. Apple Watch has been the only Apple product to get a price cut since Brexit, which saw some prices rise by over 20 per cent. The Series 2 42mm was £399 prior to the product launch last …

The new LTE-enabled Apple Watch 3 appears to suffer from a bug that can keep the touch-screen wearable from connecting to cellular data networks. Multiple reviews of the still-unreleased device have found that when wearing it without its paired iPhone, the Apple Watch constantly tries to connect to nearby Wi-Fi networks, …

Something to quicken the pulses of middle-aged men in the shower, whose surname rhymes with "Noble"*. Amazon is reportedly working on a pair of smart specs, its first wearable. The eyewear will "look like a regular pair of spectacles so that it [can] be worn comfortably and unobtrusively", the FT reports. The paper doesn't …

Intel, having accepted the inevitable, has dropped out of the wearables and fitness band game, and canned the teams working on that strap-on tech. Now it's shifted its attention to the next thing it will presumably quickly lose interest in: a USB stick for running machine-learning workloads. Having read between the lines over …

Real World Test Back when Captain Scarlet was still fresh, in the 1970s, I wanted a watch that made phone calls. I think I might have drawn one on my arm with a Biro. This has been a sci-fi staple since Dick Tracy in the 1950s. Now I’ve got one, I wonder why I ever wanted it. After using Huawei’s Watch 2 every day for over three weeks, I …

Something for the Weekend, Sir? Stop squeezing my knob. No seriously, I've had enough. "Then you give it a squeeze." OK but not until I'm ready. "You won't get any benefit until you squeeze it," he announces to the dark, crowded room before turning back to me. "Do it now. Go on, give it a quarter-turn to the right." Reluctantly, while everyone else …

Something for the Weekend, Sir? I have taken it all off. Would you like to join me? Loosen those straps and let it all slip onto the floor. You might feel naked and not a little bit exposed but no one is watching, I assure you. No really, now that you have removed your wearable tech, this will be the first time for ages that your every move is not being …

Sales of wearables did okay in the Christmas quarter, but sales of apps for wearables are in the doldrums. That's the opinion of abacus-twirlers at IDC in the latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. “Early on, the market was bifurcated between smart wearables – those capable of running third party apps – and Basic …

When a technology hype flops, do you think the industry can use it as a learning experience? A time of self-examination? An opportunity to pause and reflect on making the next consumer or business tech hype a bit less stupid? Don't be silly. What it does is pile the next hype on to the last hype, and call it "Hype 2.0". " …

Fitbit has confirmed the long-held belief that it scooped up rival wearables maker Pebble for a bargain basement price before murdering the watchmaker. Exercise-band maker Fitbit said in its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday that it paid a mere $23m (£19m) when it agreed to purchase and then kill off Pebble's line of …