Items tagged with Android-Wear
Google just cannot seem to catch a break from European regulators. Fresh off being hit with a record-setting €2.42 billion fine (around $2.7 billion in U.S. currency) for favoring its own shopping search engine in search results over third-party comparison shopping tools, antitrust regulators in the European Union are now considering slapping Google with a subsequent penalty over its Android mobile operating system. Back in April of last year, the European Commission determined that Google was using its dominant Android platform to gain an unfair competitive edge against rivals. An initial team of investigators looked into things after receiving a joint complaint filed by lobby group FairSearch,...
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In the hunt for the connected wrist, Tag Heuer has set early autumn for the introduction of their first product offering in the smartwatch space, an Android Wear device whose bow will serve to make the company the biggest Swiss entrant into the burgeoning market. The Tag Heuer smartwatch will last approximately 40 hours on a single charge, and will thus perform over twice as long the new big player in the space, the Apple Watch, this according to Jean-Claude Biver, the head of watchmaking activity for LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (owner of the Tag Heuer brand). In an interview, Biver professed that Apple Watch may cause those in the younger market demographics to develop an interest in...
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Last week, Google announced that a fresh update for Android Wear was on its way. The new software upgrades the base operating system of Android Wear from Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 5.0 Lollipop and brings with its faster navigation, new operating modes, and support for new watch faces built with the new Watch Face API. Motorola began rolling out the Lollipop update to Moto 360 users on December 10 to a limited number of users (roughly 5 percent). By December 13, the update should have been available to 50 percent of Moto 360 users, and everyone with the device should have the update by the end of today. The Lollipop update is officially based on Android 5.0.1, and carries the build number...
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If you’re one of many people out there that has already bought into Android Wear with devices like LG G Watch R, Samsung Gear Live, Sony SmartWatch 3 and Motorola Moto 360, you’ll be glad to know that Google is in the process of pushing out a rather big update for he platform in the coming week. The base operating system that powers Android Wear is getting an upgrade from Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 5.0 Lollipop. The Lollipop update implements API 21 and will roll out to users in an over-the-air (OTA) update. As for what’s new in Android 5.0 Lollipop for Android Wear, here’s the changelog from Google: Easier Navigation: Quickly bring a card back if you’ve accidentally dismissed itWhen you tap...
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Who would have thought that bootleg watch faces would become a thing? Yet that is what is occurring as smartwatches continue to make their way to consumers. The Apple Watch isn’t out yet, but the need for consumers to customize the watch face of their device is growing as smartwatches like the Moto 360, allows them to customize the watch face. However, this has prompted luxury watchmakers to band together in order to remove watch faces from download sites.Users wishing to customize the look of their smartwatch can go to websites, such as FaceRepo, in order to download watch faces that are digital copies of luxury watches from companies such as Rolex, Cartier, and Tag Heuer. It’s a much cheaper...
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There’s some question about how popular the original Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch ended up being, but in any case Samsung announced an update for the Gear that will bring it up to par with the Gear 2 (at least as far as software is concerned). Both devices now have the same user experience. The optional Tizen OS update will primarily give users access to twice the apps as before (140)--which isn’t saying all that much, as we discovered with the Gear 2. Gear 2 Still, the Gear does get some nice updates. You can now store and directly play back music from the device, and Samsung’s S Health is now on board. There are several new UI options, as well, including fonts and homescreen...
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If you want to experience the LG G Watch, you might as well do so with a new LG G3 smartphone. AT&T has both available online and in store starting on July 11th, and you can order the G Watch ($229) and preorder the G3 starting tomorrow. For a limited time, you can get up to half off select LG accessories--including the G Watch--when you make a two-year contract and snap up an LG G3 or LG G Flex smartphone. The G Watch is part of a new crop of smartwatches powered by Google’s Android Wear, which is an extension of Android and a companion to devices running Android 4.3 and higher and offers choice features such as Google Now. As for the LG G3, we happen to have a full review of the device...
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Google had a whopper of an I/O conference last week, and if there was one prevailing theme from the whole event, it is this: Android has evolved. Already a mature mobile OS that is one of the two dominant operating systems in a huge and still-growing mobile market, Android is officially not just for phones and tablets. It’s on your wrist, in your car, and in your living room. Suddenly, the smartwatch is evolving. We had an inkling that this would happen when we first caught wind of Android Wear back in March, and we’re just about to be inundated with Android Wear-based smartwatches from all the usual consumer tech companies, including LG, Samsung, Motorola, and ASUS. Android Wear...
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Google’s Android Wear is now a Real Thing, and there’s no doubt that a slew of manufacturers will be jumping on the bandwagon. (That is to say, more of them will.) You can count ASUS in that number, as the manufacturer is reportedly going to release an Android Wear-based smartwatch in September. According to TechCrunch’s sources, the device will have an AMOLED display, and it will come at a price point that may prove quite compelling--between $99 and $149. ASUS, then, will be undercutting the competition. LG announced its G Watch ($229), while Samsung’s Gear Live smartwatch will be $199 and the Motorola Moto 360 will cost about $249. We’ll be looking forward to seeing...
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It would seem that Google’s groundbreaking Android Wear UI (and forthcoming SDK) will open up a wealth of possibilities for wearable hardware makers, but don’t count Sony among that group. The company is reportedly not interested in Android Wear and will instead continue developing with its own homegrown SmartWatch platform, according to a CNET interview with head of Sony Mobile US Ravi Nookala. "We've already invested time and resources on this platform, and we will continue in that direction," he said. Sony SmartWatch 2 Sony already has a reasonably robust cadre of wearables available, including its SmartWatch, SmartWatch 2, and SmartWear devices, and it has definitely beaten Google...
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The ink is barely dry on the announcement about Android Wear, Google’s forthcoming wearables platform, but developers are already tinkering with the Developer Preview SDK. Pocket, which makes a nifty tool that lets you save anything you see online, be it in a web browser or app, to view later in a “pocket”. You can even view what you’ve stashed without an Internet connection whether you’re on your computer, phone, or tablet. Pocket has already pushed out a prototype Pocket app for Android Wear. After you get an alert on your smartwatch, “You swipe, and an action pops up to save to Pocket,” reads a blog post penned by Pocket’s Max Weiner. “In...
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Google may have just figured out smartwatches--and other wearables, too. The somewhat mysterious wearables SDK that Google’s Sundar Pichai mentioned briefly just days ago isn’t coming until later this year, but Google did announce a rather important precursor with Android Wear. Essentially, Android Wear is a unique UI, and it’s actually an extension of Android rather than a whole new OS. And it looks spot-on in terms of what people seem to want in a smartwatch--it’s clean, bright, simple, and designed specifically for that tiny watch form factor. Motorola Moto 360 At a glance and/or with a simple flick, you can see the time of day, check the weather, peek at the news,...
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