Tag Archives: android-wear

At this year’s Google I/O, Google’s smartwatches aren’t invisible like Daydream VR, but they’re definitely laying low. One domed demo space has a number of Wear OS watches running the latest software feature, Tiles, which I had a chance to finally use. But that’s not what things were like last year. A year ago, Google …

Google’s yearly I/O developer conference is next week, but the company announced an update to its smartwatch software ahead of the big show. The feature may seem familiar if you’ve ever used a Samsung Galaxy Watch. Wear OS, Google’s five-year-old smartwatch software platform, got its last big update in the fall. That update added swipable access to new fitness features …

Google has already improved the Wear OS interface and has turned its attention to battery life for the next update. Google The H system update will add several features aimed at making each charge go further, the company said Thursday. The main update to battery saver mode will make your smartwatch display only the time when its charge falls below 10 percent. …

It’s November, and new Wear OS-compatible smartwatches keep dribbling out as we approach the holidays. Fossil’s latest, the Fossil Sport, is another Google Wear OS smartwatch, But it adds Qualcomm’s newest 3100 wearable chip for what could mean longer battery life. (Fossil only claims 24+ hours in smartwatch mode, though, and two-plus days in a new standby watch-only mode.) Fossil Sport …

Now you can control your Spotify music from your wrist. Spotify on Wednesday announced its new app for Wear OS smartwatches. The app lets you pick a song or playlist, and pause, play or skip tracks on your smartwatch. That way you won’t have to pull out your phone in the middle of a jog if a song you don’t …

When Google pushes a device like its new Pixel 3 phone, it’s not really about the phone. It’s about all the ways the hunk of metal and glass can get you to use Google’s software — and, as a result, help the company find out more information about you. But what if your faith in Google’s ability to protect your …

Apple is dropping the price of its Watch Series 3. The smartwatch now starts at $279 for the GPS model, the company announced at its product event in Cupertino, California, on Wednesday. Customers can get the smartwatch at the new price after the event. It previously started at $329 on Apple’s site. Now playing: Watch this: Apple Watch 4 gets larger screens, …

With the next Apple Watch likely to debut this week, Qualcomm has launched an early smartwatch counterpunch. Qualcomm’s next-generation smartwatch chip platform, Snapdragon Wear 3100, will be in Google WearOS watches starting this holiday, starting with the Montblanc Summit 2 watch in October. The new chips were first teased by Qualcomm at Google’s developer conference in May. Along with Google’s updated …

Sitting in a corner of the Mobvoi’s booth at this week’s IFA tech conference in Berlin, Jason Zheng offers a colorful pitch for his company’s smartwatches. “You don’t want to be that douche who pulls out your phone,” Zheng, Mobvoi’s international head of PR, said jokingly. “We think smartwatches can reduce those douche pain points in your social life.” While …

The competition among smartwatches and fitness wearables is heating up like never before: Fitbit has a new model, there’s a new Samsung smartwatch and Apple is expected to have a new watch soon. Not surprisingly, Google is upping its game, too: The company’s line of Wear OS smartwatches is getting some overdue software updates starting the middle of September, alongside …