Wear OS

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 have been leaked to death, but those aren't the only ones coming next week. The Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are also set to share the spotlight, and now it's the smartwatches' turn to get a massive leak that spills all the beans. We've already seen the design that's expected for Samsung's first Wear OS smartwatches, but now we also hear about the admittedly impressive things that will make it tick.

Continue Reading

Google turned the excitement around its next major update to its Wear OS platform and doused it with the cold water of uncertainty. After teasing the improvements that Wear OS 3 would bring to the table, Google left people hanging on whether existing smartwatches, especially those released within the past year and a half, would even get the upgrade. Mobvoi is one of the few that has publicly committed to Wear OS 3, but it seems that there's a small catch to its promise.

Continue Reading

Samsung's Unpacked 2021 event in a few days won't just be about its two new foldable phones, even if they are indeed the highlights. There will be other products to be announced as well, most of them are accessories to go along with the phones. The Galaxy Watch 4 might be the more interesting one because of what it's promised to bring. A new pair of hands-on photos not only show how the Classic version of the smartwatch will look but also how the UI might appear.

Continue Reading

The choice of processors has always been one of the biggest criticisms of the smartwatch market, particularly with Android Wear, now Wear OS. Even today, most models run on very old silicon, even while a newer option has been available for almost a year now. Better late than never, as they say, and OPPO is finally catching up with the OPPO Watch 2, the third smartwatch to run on the latest Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform.

Continue Reading

Google has revealed more details on Wear OS 3, its freshly-named unified smartwatch platform, and we could forgive Android wearable fans for being mightily unimpressed by the news. Announced back in May, the collaboration between Google and Samsung was billed as a way to combine Wear and Tizen into a single OS. Problem is, that sort of big change comes with some big issues, too.

Continue Reading

Although Wear OS has been around for a long time now, especially if you consider its former Android Wear incarnation, its strength came from sheer numbers rather than platform strength or brand loyalty. Many found Wear OS itself to be decent, if not mediocre at best, while the hardware it ran on was considered to be a few steps behind the competition like the Apple Watch or Samsung's Tizen-based Galaxy Watches. This year may see a resurgence of interest in Google's wearable platform, and Qualcomm is losing no time to say that it will be a driving force behind that renaissance.

Continue Reading

Google just updated Google Play to make certain wearable-friendly apps easier to find. If you're searching Google Play on your smartphone, tablet, or desktop, you'll now be able to key-in on a few new search terms. Add the terms "watch" or "watch faces" to find apps and watch faces, now even if they do not have said words in their title.

Continue Reading

Smartwatches naturally have fewer hardware resources than their smartphone partners, but Wear OS smartwatches have been unpopular for having rather mediocre hardware in comparison to other platforms. That is particularly true with the processor that most vendors use, with technologies dating back to 2018 or older. The upcoming Wear OS attempts to break away from that bold, but its first incarnation might be taking things even farther. If these latest leaks are correct, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 could be one of the most powerful smartwatches yet.

Continue Reading

Most of the leaks for Samsung's next batch of devices have focused on its foldable phones. There is, however, just as much interest in its next smartwatches, mostly because of the fusion of Google's Wear OS platform and Samsung's One UI experience. There have been a few leaks and rumors here and there, but it seems that we've been treated to what could be the closest thing to official details. All thanks to a clerical error over at Amazon Canada.

Continue Reading

Samsung was one of the first major smartphone makers to jump on the smartwatch ship, and, unsurprisingly, its first smartwatch didn't use Google's nascent Android Wear back then. It struck off on its own with a customized version of Android running inside the Samsung Galaxy Gear. It has come full circle and has returned to Android again, this time with Wear OS running on the upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 series. Surprisingly, there might still be some owners of the Galaxy Gear around, and Samsung is now urging them to switch to its Tizen OS if they want access to some smartwatch apps.

Continue Reading

It seems that Samsung's Unpacked has been set, and fans will be counting down the days to the company's new devices. Most of the attention will probably be lavished on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, and, without the Galaxy S21 FE, that will be it as far as phones are concerned. That said, Samsung does also have wearables destined to debut at the same time, and a new rumor gives those excited for the Galaxy Watch 4 series and Galaxy Buds 2 an idea of how much they need to save up.

Continue Reading

It seems that Samsung is really ready to go all out on its next generation of wearables powered, not by its own Tizen OS, but Wear OS by Google. In addition to making a big splash about the new user experience that will arrive with the merger of One UI and Wear OS, we have also heard about at least two smartwatch models that will be available in various sizes or configurations. One of those will apparently be called the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, and, based on these leaked renders, it will be giving that name its due.

Continue Reading