Author: Julie Campbell

These mobile devices are taking off among all of the major sports leagues.

One of the hottest topics at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that included the attendance of the MLB, the NHL, the NBA, the NFL, and soccer, was wearable technology wand the way that this data will be able to be sued in each respective sport in order to build the capability for understanding the peak performance of athletes while tracking both their health and their safety.

If these fitness tracker devices weren’t considered a major industry before, they certainly are now!

A number of different types of wearable technology devices and uses were discussed when it came to using tech on the actual uniforms of the players. For instance, it is now possible to wear a tiny device of some form in or on a player’s uniform in order to be able to measure and track that athlete’s movement, heart rate, and overall explosiveness. Among the devices gaining a considerable amount of attention are those from Zebra Technologies International.

Fitness tracking wearable technology worked hard to gain notice from the teams and leagues at the conference.

In the case of Zebra Technologies, it had its own conference display to help it to be able to promote the services that it is able to provide to the various types of teams. That company is based in Illinois and took its first steps into the business of sports tech in late 2011. Even before the conference, it had already signed on two NFL clients and a number of teams from college football.

Their wearable fitness tech comes in the form of a simple sticker that adheres to the players themselves and that will measure the force that is put into each of that athlete’s activities. This helps to be able to create a better definition of the movements of the player, as well as of the strength of the hits that are taken. In essence, it is helpful in tracking the trauma that he or she may experience.

According to the vice president and general manager for location solutions at Zebra, Jill Stelfox, “In college, what’s really fascinating about using wearable technologies on players is there is a lot of emphasis on health and safety.” The wearable technology from the company helps to better understand the force that is experienced by any specific player.

The launch event brought back the highly beloved feature to the struggling manufacturer’s handsets.

BlackBerry Ltd. has now unveiled its next smartphone offerings and these mobile devices are making exciting technology news headlines with the long awaited (and hoped for) return of the key-based keyboard built into handsets.

The lack of touch screen keyboard had always been a draw before the brand’s massive decline.

Also revealed in this technology news from BlackBerry was a lower cost smartphone that will make its way to market shelves in April. Its own server software for organizations will also be experiencing an important and flashy update, to try to enhance the experience that it provides while the company fights for it life to become relevant once more.

The BlackBerry technology news will be impacting consumers from various regions around the world.

For example, the inexpensive version of the smartphone, the Z3, will make its way into the Indonesian market first, followed by other Asian markets. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to those who have followed BlackBerry’s movements, as this has been what was predicted for the handset maker. The company has revealed that these mobile devices will sell for under $200, without subsidies.

After that point, it will expand the sale of the device to other southeast Asian markets, which is a region of the world in which the company has been able to keep hold of a notable market share, despite the massive competition with other mobile devices.

For the North American market – particularly in the United States – BlackBerry has become nearly nonexistent, with iOS and Android establishing themselves as the primary leaders in that space. The hope now is that the Q20 smartphone will greatly outperform last year’s release of the Q10. This new version of the device is what the CEO of the company, John Chen, has called “Classic” in its design. This refers primarily to the restoration of a keyboard based on keys, instead of a touchscreen.

BlackBerry responded to the technology news that its consumers enjoyed the keys on their devices and didn’t want to lose them. Now, they’re being brought back to appeal to those consumers, once more.