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Ralph Lauren made a great fitness shirt that also happens to be 'smart'
Ralph Lauren's PoloTech shirt is smarter than it looks. It's also more expensive. The tee combines the fashion label's preppy aesthetic with the ability to deliver live metrics (heart rate, breathing and steps) from the shirt to your iPhone. The tech built into it isn't completely new, but Polo has added extra value through a companion app that offers workouts tailor-made to how your body is reacting. Basically, then, your effort informs the workout. Recently, I fell out of love with wrist-based fitness trackers, but the eventual goal of those gadgets is to become something akin to Ralph Lauren's shirt: sportswear that you would have worn anyway, but smarter. There are some big caveats, but just as Nike's Fuelband helped catalyze the whole fitness tracker thing, the PoloTech shirt could be the start of yet another generation of fitness tech.
Ralph Lauren starts testing interactive fitting rooms in NYC
Ralph Lauren isn't afraid to experiment with new tech. Last year, the brand introduced a smart shirt for athletes, designed to measure performance with conductive silver threads and other tracking sensors. To add to this, Ralph Lauren's announced it will begin testing interactive fitting rooms at its Polo flagship store in New York City. These smart mirrors, created by a startup called Oak Labs, are capable of recognizing a customer's clothing pieces via RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags and displaying these on a large touchscreen. Once that happens, you can request different sizes and colors of items in your possession, which are then brought over to you by a Polo associate. From there you're able to keep trying on different looks or simply check out -- and if you don't speak English, there's support for Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese.
Amazon's war on e-books, LG's G Watch R and other stories you might've missed
This week, we reviewed the HTC One for Windows, investigated Amazon's controversial e-book-pricing model, played around with Hyperlapse, learned about LG's G Watch R and more! Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last seven days. Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
Engadget Daily: Amazon's war on e-books, Ralph Lauren's smart shirt and more!
Today, we break down Amazon's controversial e-book-pricing model, learn about Ralph Lauren's smart shirt for athletes, anticipate LG's round-faced G Watch R and more! Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
A closer look at Ralph Lauren's smart shirt for athletes
I wish I could say I went "hands-on" with Ralph Lauren's new tech-infused smart shirt, but that would have meant putting my hands all over Marcos Giron, the collegiate tennis player who's making his US Open debut this week. I'm sure he would not have appreciated that. Even so, I still got to see the shirt (and Giron) in person at a press event here in New York, where the tennis tournament is already underway. Read on to see how it works.
Ralph Lauren is making a tech-infused polo shirt
US Open ball boys will be sporting the latest in wearable tech starting this Monday, according to the NYT: Ralph Lauren's "Polo Tech" shirts. Of course, nearly everything the company makes is a "wearable," but these particular shirts contain conductive silver threads and other sensors designed to measure performance. The apparel maker said it wanted to do something different from the usual sports bands while eliminating the complexity: "You're just putting on a shirt." It'll still have the tech, though, measuring factors like your heart rate, breathing and movement, and relaying them to a smartphone or computer (though there's no word yet on exactly how). It won't be limited to athletic wear either, as Ralph Lauren plans to also launch sensor-equipped dress shirts later in the year. We're not sure what you'd do with those -- hanging out at the yacht club can't burn that many calories. [Image credit: AP/Ralph Lauren]
Ralph Lauren's solar-panel backpack charges your phone in hours, your credit card in seconds
We here at Engadget are in favor of hitting the books from time to time, but we can't have lame gadget-less backpacks hurting our true techie rep. That's why we're excited to see Ralph Lauren outing its first solar-equipped knapsack as part of its RLX sports line. Four solar cells around back harness the sun's power to generate 3.45 watts -- completely juicing up an iPhone in a purported two-to-three hours, assuming you've got "proper sunlight orientation," of course. Like the optional orange hue (it also comes in black), the sun-sucking cells aren't particularly low profile -- but for $800 don't you want something, uh, recognizable? Still, if you simply must be that guy be sure to hit the source link and don't look back, but for everyone else, might we recommend a portable USB charger for a little less coin?
Apple uses third-party app screenshots in patent applications, world erupts in hysteria
There's been a bit of a furor in the past couple days over Apple using third-party app screenshots in several patent applications that were just made public -- the most talked-about example is a screenshot of an app called Where To? that appears in a travel-related patent, but other apps like a Ralph Lauren app appear in a shopping-related patent as well. And, since it's Apple, there's been the usual blind panic of hysterical reactions, with some claiming that Cupertino's trying to patent third-party app ideas and pull the rug out from under its own developers. At this point, we hope you know better -- let's take a look at what's really going on. First of all, all of the patent applications in question are just that -- applications. None of them have been granted, and since all of them are still so new, it's a virtual certainty they'll be narrowed in scope as Apple's attorneys and the Patent Office continue through the patent prosecution process -- a process that typically takes years. Second, the only operative parts of a patent are the claims -- not the drawings, and not the description, which are technically known as the "specification." (We've now repeated this basic axiom of patent interpretation so many times we're considering making T-shirts.) The only reason the drawings and description are there is to explain the claimed invention in sufficient detail so that someone else can make it. Remember, patents are a trade: in order to get protection, you have to give up the full details of how your invention works. (The other option is to keep your invention a trade secret, but then you can't prevent anyone else from figuring it out and using it if it gets out.) Bottom line? If it's not in the claims, it's not in the patent. So... let's look at the claims, shall we?
Ralph Lauren launches Make Your Own Rugby app
During the existence of the iPhone, shopping has always been the domain of Safari. Browsing web-based stores could be extremely awkward, thanks to bitty drop-down menus and inadvertent "quick views" of garments that you can't seem to click out of. No longer, my fellow clotheshorses. Today, Ralph Lauren launched a unique iPhone application integrating social media with fashion design and online shopping, called Make Your Own Rugby [iTunes link]. The app centers around Ralph Lauren's Rugby line, launched in 2004, that is inspired by the Ivy League atmosphere circa 1940 and that targets preppy college students. The company describes Rugby as "preppy meets urban," though you will only qualify for street cred through a few light touches such as embroidered skulls. The fact that the skull is embroidered on a varsity sweater probably won't do you much good in the back alleys, but you can hope.The MYO Rugby app allows the user to select a blank rugby shirt, polo, sweater, or jacket from a set of stock designs and customize it with as many distinguished crests, football-themed patches and letters as they want. You can use it to design and purchase clothing for yourself, or you can be a little more creative (and financially devil-may-care) and make designs to be displayed for browsing in the application or to share with friends.
Ralph Lauren unveils "touch-sensitive window shopping" in London
Alright, the whole touchscreen thing is getting a little out of hand. In the latest example of touch-frenzy, luxe clothier Ralph Lauren is converting a large window at its London flagship store into a giant touchscreen shopping experience as part of its Wimbledon marketing campaign. Much like Microsoft's Big-Ass Table, the 78-inch window is coated with touch-sensitive foil, and the image is beamed onto it by a hidden projector -- allowing users to purchase Ralph's latest duds and even take in a tennis lesson or two. Purchases are paid for via phone or email the next day -- so you can't explain away that $75 pink polo by saying you accidentally brushed the screen.[Via Switched]
Polo Ralph Lauren offers literal window shopping
It's not unusual to see the latest and greatest fashions prepped up behind a huge glass pane when strolling by a retail clothing store, but the traditional idea of enticing customers to come in could be replaced by just handling transactions at the glass. Polo Ralph Lauren has unveiled a unique way to shop in at its stores, allowing customers to complete purchases by interacting with the glass window of the building, and is testing the idea at the flagship location in New York. While we've seen some fairly obscure ways to shop, picking up a new outfit by tapping on a huge window may take the cake -- a projector beams 67 inches worth of Ralph Lauren's latest threads onto the store's window, while a "thin touch foil" mounted on the glass powers the touchscreen. Apparently customers can shop around the clock (if you dare wander out on city streets at those odd hours of the night) by just tapping images of the clothing they want and swiping their credit cards on the wall-mounted card reader. The company plans to keep the display up and running through September 10th, after which a decision will be made based on its success (or lack thereof) to either nix the windows shopping experiment or introduce it into more stores. While we're unsure what makes waiting in an outdoor line to purchase items any less annoying than waiting inside, this may be the perfect way to exercise those impulse buying muscles, and hey, at least it gives window washers some steady work.[Via SmartMobs]
