Just when you thought Google has mostly forgotten about the other incarnations of Android, it revealed a few updates related to those just before Google I/O next week. Wear OS, formerly known as Android Wear, isn't getting a major overhaul again but it is getting a new major feature called Tiles. And more than just the advanced announcement, it seems that Google is also pushing the feature to users in advance as well.
Now that non-iPad tablets are practically gone, the next tech market that is being eyed with uncertainty is the smartwatch segment. Straddling the fine line between fitness tracker and smartphone, many aren't able to make heads or tails of what smartwatches should really be. The good news for players in this field is that a recent study shows that the market grew by 48% since last year. The bad news for Google is that it is barely part of that growth.
Following a leak detailing as much, Google has announced a new Wear OS UI feature called Tiles that enables users to quickly toggle between information using simple, natural swipes. Tiles cover a variety of content, enabling users to arrange and rapidly access everything from the weather to their fitness goals. Tiles can be rearranged from the smartwatch or using the Wear OS smartphone app.
There are dozens of smartwatches available in the market today and they mostly differ in design and available functionality. Two things that most of them have in common, though, are location tracking and poor battery life. Now the Google Fit for Wear OS by Google is being updated to include a special low power GPS mode but its power-saving benefits only really kick in under very specific circumstances.
The Google Pixel 3 Lite is set to launch later this year and undercut the iPhone XR, a new report claims, bringing the long-anticipated Google smartwatch and other hardware with it. It's said to be part of Google's attempt to expand its audience with Pixel smartphones, offering a more affordable version as it scales up its hardware ambitions with a number of new devices and form-factors.
There is no shortage of Wear OS smartwatches these days but, not so long ago, Mobvoi made a name for itself by being Google’s entry into the Chinese wearable market. These days, the company is making headlines with Wear OS products that are often half the price of their nearest competition. Announced earlier this month at CES 2019, the TicWatch E2 and TicWatch S2 are finally available for purchase and its bringing more than just swim monitoring.
Google and Fossil Group just announced that there'll be a $40 million deal to buy IP-related wearable info from the watch-maker. Smartwatches and such from Google's Android Wear - or Wear OS, if you're nasty - might well be changing quite a bit in the near future. This deal includes not only data, but some members of Fossil's R&D team, too.
Appliances, even some that may not make sense, these days are getting smarter just by connecting to the Internet. That, however, is almost moot if you can’t control them at your convenience. Sure, you can probably ask your smart speaker, but what if you don’t have one. Sure, you can use your smartphone, but what if you left it in the other room? Fortunately, there are such things as smartwatches that may always be on your wrist all the time. And if you have a Wear OS smartwatch and a Whirlpool connected appliance, those two will soon be able to talk to one another as well.
When it comes to smartwatches, Louis Vuitton isn't the first name that comes to mind, but the luxury designer has produced its Wear OS-powered Tambour Horizon wearable since 2017. Now it's announced that the timepiece is being upgraded for 2019 with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, which was built in collaboration with Google.
When it comes to weather, Dark Sky is one of the most trusted and most used data sources around. It’s so famous that other apps pay to get access to that data to serve to their own users in their own unique way. Dark Sky is already available on all major mobile platforms unless you count smartwatch platforms. Well, now it really is because Dark Sky, at long last, is available on Wear OS by Google, formerly Android Wear, also by Google.
Is Google itself downplaying the relevance of its Wear OS smartwatch platform? That seems to be the case when nary a mention of smartwatches was made in its latest Google Assistant dump of new features. And now it has almost silently made an update to Wear OS, simply called "Version H" that you'd think would actually be of interest to its users. Because while it might not be a grand update, it addresses one of the biggest flaws of smartwatches to date: battery life.
With Wear OS receiving a redesign back in September, a few manufacturers have been looking to leverage the OS in new devices. Fossil is one of those manufacturers, today announcing a new smartwatch simply called Fossil Sport. Customization is the name of the game here, as the Fossil Sport is launching in six colors with what Fossil describes as "endless" strap options.