Odds are, the next big wave of Google smartwatches are coming later this year. In the meantime, Google’s updating Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) with a few key upgrades. In addition to a better on-board Google Assistant, Google’s added battery-saving functions to the new developer build of Wear OS, the company announced Wednesday. The key …
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If a new Apple Watch debuts this fall, Google is likely to have a major new smartwatch (or watches) debuting right alongside it, powered by Qualcomm chips. Pankaj Kedia, senior director and business lead for Qualcomm’s Smart Wearables Segment, said as much yesterday in a story reported by Wareable. But I sat down at Google’s I/O developers conference with Kedia and …
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Google Assistant is already on over 5,000 devices, and smartwatches are some of them. While Google software features can be summoned on Wear OS watches (Wear OS was formerly known as Android Wear), it hasn’t been quite the same as what you can get using a Google Home smart speaker. But it’s become a lot closer now, just a few days …
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It’s a real name-changer. Google announced Thursday that it’s got a new name fo Android Wear, its software that powers a wide-ranging lineup of wearables like smartwatches. From here on out, you’ll know it as Wear OS, and reminder, it’s not connected to Google’s mobile operating system. A big part of the reason for the change: One-third of new Android …
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Google just rebranded its Android Wear watch platform with a new name: Wear OS. This news arrives less than two months before Google I/O, the annual developer conference in which Google announces its new initiatives and software broad strokes. New Google hardware generally (though not always) hits around October. Maybe Wear OS is an indicator that Google’s smartwatch strategy is …
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Apple’s smart devices are often criticized for exclusively running within the company’s own ecosystem — but the market doesn’t seem to mind. The electronics giant shipped 8 million Apple Watches in the fourth quarter of 2017, Canalys research shows, which the firm said is a record for wearables sold by a company during a quarter. Fitbit was the previous record …
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It’s already hard to keep track of how many Android Wear-powered smartwatches exist in the world. Fossil Group makes many of them: Misfit, Fossil, Diesel, Michael Kors, Emporio Armani and others. Kate Spade and Skagen now join the fold, too. Continuing Android Wear’s push to fashion watch brands last year, these models seem to promise extra style over new function. …
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What started as a spin-off project from Samsung’s experimental C-Lab arm is now a fully fledged, fully funded product that makes you look like a secret agent when you answer your phone. The smart strap Korea-based Innomdle Lab connects to your phone via Bluetooth and allows you to listen to phone calls conducted through the tip of your finger into …
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If you have one of the many Android Wear watches compatible with Android Wear 2.0 (full list in link), you’re in for a treat. With Android Wear 2.0, and the more recent Android Wear update bringing the platform in sync with Android Oreo, Google redesigned the interface and added new features that are aimed directly at competing with the Apple Watch, and …
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Back in 2013, I was boarding a New Jersey Transit train with a piece of metal and plastic on my head. Google Glass ended up being a symbol of many things — the technology industry’s cavalier invasions of privacy, or its increasing elitism — but its promise of a cyborg future didn’t ever really arrive. More from Google’s event Google …
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