Smartwatches are the tech industry’s topic du jour after Samsung launched its Galaxy Gear watch , while even Qualcomm got in on the act when it unveiled Toq . If seeing Qualcomm — which makes chips for countless smartphone companies, but has little awareness among consumers — launch a watch was unexpected, there’s an even less plausible new entrant: car-maker Nissan.
That’s right, Nissan has unveiled the Nismo Watch ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show, which begins tomorrow, as it seeks to connect drivers to their cars, and provide real-time biometric data.
More specifically, the watch — which is still at concept stage — will monitor the efficiency of a vehicle (by reading average speed and fuel consumption), provide telematics and performance data, monitor drivers’ biometric data (via a heart monitor rate) and receive in-car messages from Nissan.
There’s no word on price or availability, but the device will be available in black, white or black and red and is worn on the wrist (surprise, it’s a watch). It pairs to Nissan vehicles using a Bluetooth Low Energy connection, includes a lithium battery and charges via micro-USB.
The company says the Nismo Watch battery will last for over seven days “under normal usage conditions,” but it remains to be seen how that pans out in real-world use.
The watch follows Nissan’s launch of a mobile lab — the Nismo Lab — which opened earlier this year to investigate innovation around biometric training tools.
Images via Nissan
A flying video drone for $35 is here: The Cheerson CX-10C Nano
Meet your new favorite flying toy! The Cheerson CX-10C Nano Drone with Camera is a tiny quadcopter is small enough to rest on the tip of your finger, and can easily maneuver through small spaces with acrobatic finesse while recording crystal-clear video and photography.
It’s tons of fun for beginners and drone enthusiasts alike, and for a limited time TNW readers can pick one up for just $34.99 .
The Cheerson CX-10C Nano offers a gentle learning curve, so even if you’ve never flown a drone before you’ll be stunt-flying in no time – and getting great footage to transfer from your 2GB microSD card.
Users can easily control the drone even in the tightest spaces via side flight, hover, flip & hand launch capabilities. You can even give your friends some UFO-speculation excitement at night, thanks to its built-in LED lights.
For such a tiny device, the Cheerson CX-10C Nano Drone packs a huge amount of fun. Don’t miss out on this limited time offer – grab yours today for $34.99 plus free shipping.
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Google opens up Chromecast to developers, releases Cast SDK for Android, iOS, Chrome apps, and websites
Google today launched the Google Cast Software Development Kit (SDK), bringing the tool out of preview. The SDK lets developers build Chromecast support into their apps for Android, iOS, and Chrome, as well as websites.
Google announced the developer preview of the Google Cast SDK back in July, showing off the underlying Chromecast technology that brings content from phones, tablet, and laptops to the big screen. The Google Cast SDK is simple to use because it doesn’t require writing a new app: developers can just incorporate it into their existing projects.
Developers control when they publish their cast-ready apps through the Google Cast developer console. The SDK is available on Android and iOS as you might expect, but it also works on Chrome through the Google Cast browser extension .
Here is what you need to know about receiver support:
Google says all its Chromecast devices have been updated to the latest software with support for the SDK. If you’re a developer, you can get started by heading to the Google Cast Developers site and checking out the sample apps on GitHub .
While the SDK is obviously aimed at developers, this is still good news for users. If you own a Chromecast, you should expect to get access to even more movies, TV shows, and music via cast buttons in your favorite apps and websites.
Top Image Credit: Google