Wear OS

The Apple Watch, thanks to its life-saving AFib detection, has taken the lion's share of attention when it comes to the smartwatch market. That practically leaves other wearable platforms, especially Wear OS by Google, to contend for the leftovers. That doesn't mean there's no room for massive improvement, especially when it comes to battery life. That's where Suunto makes it big boast that its latest sports-centric Suunto 7 can last you at least half a day even if you leave the GPS on.

Continue Reading

Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion and it turns out it can be a profitable one, too. Just look at the number of retro revivals in the market and on crowdfunding platforms, especially the highly successful ones. The Moto 360 smartwatch may not be that old but, being one of if not the first Android Wear device definitely gives it a place in the annals of history. That name is now making a comeback and you can pre-order the new Moto 360 and expect it to ship in January. That is if you're totally fine that it has nothing to do with Motorola except in name.

Continue Reading

China-based smart device maker Xiaomi just released a "Xiaomi Mi Watch" that looks a whole lot like the Apple Watch. It has a very, very similar size and shape... and home screens (watch faces). See if you can tell which of these watches (at the head of this article) are from Xiaomi, and which are from Apple. There are some simple giveaways, but really - there's no getting around the idea that there's some MAJOR design inspiration going on here - to put it kindly.

Continue Reading

Last week, rumors of a potential Google acquisition of Fitbit started making the rounds. Google and Fitbit wasted little time in confirming those rumors, announcing today that an agreement for a merger has been reached. Assuming Fitbit's shareholders and the appropriate government regulators approve the deal, Google will purchase Fitbit for a total of $2.1 billion ($7.35 per share in cash).

Continue Reading

Raise your hand if you thought the Moto 360 would make a comeback? One of the earliest Android Wear smartwatches, the Moto 360 carved out a place in many Android users' hearts with its circular display and near-analog styling. Now, it's being brought back from the crypt, but as with any resurrection there's some small print.

Continue Reading

It seems that the wearable market suddenly got a little bit more interesting. At least if you're coming from the Wear OS side of things. Google is rumored to be buying wearable giant Fitbit which could give Wear OS smartwatches a new edge. Now another new edge is coming via Qualcomm based on new code for the Linux kernel. Apparently, a new Snapdragon Wear 3300 might be in the works and it could give smartwatches a much-needed performance upgrade.

Continue Reading

Today the folks at Xiaomi decided to tease a new device that'll be revealed on November 5th, 2019. Previous code leaks suggest that Xiaomi's likely set to reveal a "Mi Watch" that's also been referred to with the name "Mi Wear". Xiaomi uses the name "Mi" quite a bit, and previously had (and still has) an app called Mi Fit for their "Mi Band" devices. Now they may be stepping up a bit in the world.

Continue Reading

There is no shortage of Wear OS smartwatches in the market. In fact, some might say there are too many of them. Almost all of them are now made by fashion brands like Fossil and few if not no tech company has remained in that market for long. The exception is, of course, Mobvoi wit it's rather interesting TicWatch Pro. That smartwatch has just become even more interesting with the addition of sleep tracking which comes via a simple app, no new purchases required.

Continue Reading

Smartwatches are primarily designed to be partners rather than full extensions of smartphones. Because of their size, squeezing in components are harder to do than on smartphones but, at the same time, they're often not needed. That said, it is also quite a feat when someone crams more hardware and features into such a tiny space. That may be one of the highlights of Movado's new Connect 2.0 smartwatch that brings the latest hardware and 1 GB of RAM to Wear OS by Google. Fortunately, it does also come with a more enticing price tag.

Continue Reading

Google has actually been at the forefront of the relatively young smartwatch market at the start. Samsung's first-ever Galaxy Gear ran a modified version of Android back in 2013, three years before the Apple Watch launched. Since then, Android for wearables has undergone at least two major branding changes. Despite that, however, a Google-branded smartwatch is still nowhere to be seen and insiders now reveal how a stillborn Google Watch in 2016 is indicative of the company's ambiguity towards that market as a whole.

Continue Reading

The newest smartwatch from Casio carries the same Casio Pro Trek nomenclature of the 2017 device from the same brand. This version of the watch brings updated specifications throughout the hardware, including a new heart rate monitor/optical sensor and new abilities using Google's Wear OS. This device is extremely similar to its predecessor - almost shockingly similar.

Continue Reading

ASICS developed the activity tracker app Runkeeper, and Runkeeper was able to faithfully connect with Wear OS devices until this week. Users were sent a message this week by the folks that develop ASICS Runkeeper. This message suggested that as of app version 9.13, ASICS Runkeeper would no longer connect with any "Wear OS by Google device" whatsoever.

Continue Reading