Wear OS

Smartwatches have a two-fold problem. First is how they sometimes feel like a solution in search of a problem. The more pressing problem, however, is the short, often less than 24-hour, battery life. Smartwatch makers Mobvoi can’t really answer the first but is offering a solution for the second. With the new TicWatch Pro that’s launching today, you can get two, even three, days of use. The secret, if you haven’t heard yet, is that it has two screens instead of one.

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Planet Computers' Gemini has already been wooing Psion fans with its clamshell design and finger-friendly keyboard, but now it's looking to fix the absence of an external display. Currently, when closed, the quad-booting PDA uses an array of multicolor LEDs that can flash in different, customizable sequences to flag when certain people are calling, new messages are received, or other notifications come in.

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Today a leak of data on the upcoming Samsung Gear S4 (aka Galaxy Watch) suggests a top-tier competitor for the hottest devices in the market. Much like the tablet market, Apple seems to have all but crushed the competition in smartwatches.* But with the market set to rise over the next couple of years (in a big way, apparently,) Samsung might be in a prime position to grab some share of the cash. If only they had a winning brand name.

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This year might be one filled with red herrings and misleading leaks. Lenovo is receiving some flak over its seemingly intentional attempts to throw people off track when it came to its not so notch-less and still very bezeleed Lenovo Z5 smartphone. Google seems to also be sending mixed signals over the Pixel 3 XL, at least if the leaks are correct. Of course, we can never be sure about leaks, because they are unofficial by nature. So when it turns out that Samsung might not be moving the Gear S4 to Wear OS after all, we can really do nothing but shrug and wait for the moment of truth.

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The Riley watch by Marc Jacobs was revealed in a new edition this week - complete with Wear OS. This was the first time the Marc Jacobs brand released its Riley design with Wear OS - but not the first time the Riley came as a so-called smartwatch. The first "Riley Hybrid Smartwatch" had analog parts, but a few "smart" features - like notifications and Bluetooth connectivity. This new Riley rolls with full-on Wear OS smartwatch software from Google.

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Smartwatch maker Mobvoi has come up with a new twist on the wearable battery dilemma, with the TicWatch Pro doubling the number of displays to cut power consumption. The new Wear OS smartwatch has a circular OLED touchscreen as we've seen from plenty of other wearables, but when that's idle a whole second panel comes into play.

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Although they have never really disappeared, traditional smartphone manufacturers have more or less backed out of the smartwatch market. It has become the territory of accessory makers and luxury brands like Fossil or TAG Heuer. One OEM (aside from Apple) that has remained consistent is Samsung with its Gear line of smartwatches and fitness trackers. But while a new smartwatch is still expected to debut in a few months, change is reportedly afoot. Samsung might be switching back to Wear OS, formerly Android Wear, and it might actually start with this year's Gear S4.

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Is Samsung really turning over a new leaf and becoming a better-behaved Android manufacturer? Once the biggest cause of fragmentation, Samsung has admittedly been trying to better conform with standards and expectations while still remaining uniquely Samsung. Now that might extend even to its wearables with rumors of a new "Galaxy Watch" looming over the horizon. This, according to some speculation could be Samsung's return to the smartwatch fold by being its first Wear OS, but second Android Wear, smartwatch.

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Wear OS by Google, the wearable platform formerly known as Android Wear, is based on Android and, therefore, technically and legally open source. But just like Android itself, development doesn't exactly happen in the open completely and there are some parts that are proprietary to Google. That is especially frustrating for smartwatch believers, especially when their wearables get abandoned and outdated. Now they might have a choice with the first stable release of AsteroidOS, a completely open source operating system designed not just to run on Wear OS smartwatches but also to give the community a hand in its development.

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Android P isn't the only one getting a second developer preview. Being based on the upcoming Android release, Wear OS by Google, formerly Android Wear also by Google, is similarly getting a sneak peek. While the list of new features isn't as long as its smartphone version, Wear OS ' Android P update is promising to address one of the biggest gripes smartwatch users have: a shorter than ideal battery life.

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Smartwatches come in all shapes and sizes but most of them have one thing in common: woefully outdated hardware. This is specially true with wearables bearing Google's Wear OS, formerly known as Android Wear, which mostly run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100. Even when it launched way back in 2016, the chipset was already unremarkable. Fortunately for wearable fans, Qualcomm, unlike Intel, isn't yet quitting the market and is preparing a third gen wearable system-on-chip that could give Wear OS smartwatches an edge over their rivals, particularly the Apple Watch.

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Wear OS by Google is getting a supercharged Google Assistant experience, the company has announced today, with the rebranded smartwatch platform adding new voice control features. The new integrations were revealed ahead of Google I/O 2018, the company's annual developer event set to take place in San Jose, CA next week.

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