Google officially announced today a rebranding of its wearable platform from Android Wear to Wear OS. The company says the shift “better reflects our technology, vision, and most important of all—the people who wear our watches.” Along with this news is some interesting data on how a subset of users on Google’s wearable platform are also iPhone users.
About one month ago we reported on a serious pairing issue iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users were having with multiple Android Wear devices. In the month since, it seems that the issue has been resolved.
Android Wear is a fantastic platform, but one of its best aspects is that it works not just on Android, but also on iOS. While Android Wear’s functionality is more limited when used with iOS devices, it’s still great to have the option. That said, something odd is seemingly going on with a handful of Android Wear smartwatches and the recently-announced iPhone 7.
IDC’s latest report is out today with new estimates based on worldwide wearable shipments, and in it is a prediction that Apple Watch will hold the market lead this year and through 2020 as competitors begin to close the gap.
While the report shows estimates based on overall wearable shipments, which IDC says will go from 72.2 million last year to 100 million in 2016 for watch and wristband products, it also shows a breakdown of estimates for leading smartwatch platforms by operating system…
Now that Android Wear is officially compatible with iOS devices there’s a lot more smartwatch love to go around, at least for Apple fans. Android users have had a taste of the first generation, but Motorola’s new Moto 360 is one of the many new options available for both sides for the fence. The question is, should you give Motorola your money?
Android Wear finally has iOS support after Google pushed its iPhone-compatible software to the App Store. This means that Android has beaten Apple Watch to the cross-platform game. Or, at least it would, if iOS didn’t restrict it to a state of almost uselessness. The only device officially supported is the LG Watch Urbane although — as we previously revealed — the older generation Android Wear watches do work. I got it set up with my Moto 360, and have been mostly disappointed by my experience so far.
Google has good news for iPhone users curious about Android Wear and the diverse design selection of smartwatches running the OS. Starting today Android Wear watches will work with the iPhone for the first time. Just like Apple Watch, Android Wear watches is compatible with iPhone 5 or higher with iOS 8.2 or higher required. The slight catch is that not all current Android Wear watches will be compatible with iOS…
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Ahead of the new iPhones currently rumored to be announced on September 9th, Samsung has today announced the latest in its Galaxy line of smartphones. The Korean company introduced the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, as well as a larger S6 Edge called — yes, it’s a bit of a mouthful — the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+. The company also detailed the launch of its Samsung Pay mobile payments platform.
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<a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/05/08/diy-apple-watch-box-charging-case/" target="_blank">Jordan Kahn’s DIY Apple Watch charging case</a>
The market for buying and flipping Apple Watches at a profit established itself in less time than it took Apple to deliver the first round of watches to pre-order customers. Taking entrepreneurialism way up to the next level, some ambitious Apple Watch owners are now taking to eBay to sell their Apple Watch boxes for a profit. Not the Apple Watch itself; just the packaging.
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Motorola’s Moto 360 is generally considered the flagship of the Android Wear devices, and over the last several days, many outlets across the web have deeply discounted the device—including Google itself. Normally priced at $250+, various cuts have seen the watch drop to as low as $165 from the official Google Store, and to $179 from third-party stores like Best Buy and Amazon.
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You don’t want to admit it, but you were talked into being an early adopter of Android Wear or Pebble before Apple Watch was even a thing. Now that Apple Watch preorders have kicked off and the Watch is almost in your hands, it’s time to unload your Android Wear watches before people catch on and resale values plummet.
Good news: NextWorth, one of the leaders in mobile device trade-ins, today announced it will begin paying out for your old Android, Samsung, and Pebble watches (and soon Apple Watches too).
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Adding to recent reports that Google is working on iOS support for Android Wear devices, today The Verge reports that the company is “close to finishing the final technical details” on the companion app for iOS. The report cites sources close to the development of the project and also includes the image above showing a FaceTime notification on the LG G Watch R. More from the report:
In its current state of development, Android Wear works along with a companion app on the iPhone and supports basic functions like notifications — as you can see in the photo below. As it does on Android, on the iPhone Android Wear also supports Google Now’s ambient information cards, voice search, and other voice actions. It should also support some more advanced features with Google’s own iOS apps, like replying to Gmail messages.
A previous report noted that Google was developing Android Wear support for iOS and could debut the project as soon as its I/O developer conference in May.
Today’s report brings up the possibility that Google might have a bit of trouble getting through the App Store’s approval process. At the very least it could run into guidelines that prevent it from bringing over all of the features it offers on Android devices to iOS. Pebble and other smart watches have companion apps, but like them Google will be limited to working within the iOS and App Store guidelines, unlike on Android.
Last month developer Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh managed to get an Android Wear-based smartwatch to display notifications from an iPhone, even though Google’s wearable OS doesn’t support Apple’s mobile devices (at least, not yet).
A new video posted by the software dev today shows an Android Wear watch working with the iPhone’s calling function. In the video, an incoming call on the iPhone is answered using the Android watch. Abu-Garbeyyeh says he simulated the gesture to answer to phone call on the watch in software to avoid filling the video frame with his hand, but the functionality works perfectly just as it would with an Android device.
The Apple Watch was once again shown off at Apple’s “Spring Forward” event on Monday, and many have been left wondering how the device compares to the Android Wear devices currently on the market. Technology has surely evolved a bit since the G Watch was announced, but how much have things changed?
There are several differences between the two platforms, but one that has now been brought to light is the device’s physical dimensions. Looking at Apple’s renders and images makes the device look big, but comparing its actual dimensions to Android Wear devices does the opposite. It’s tiny compared to most of what’s available today.
Last month a developer managed to hack together a solution that enabled iPhone users to see their notifications on Google’s Android-powered wearable operating system, but at the moment there is no official way to use the two competing platforms together. That could change at Google’s annual I/O conference later this year, if new rumors are to be believed.
According to French tech blog 01Net, Google is developing an update to Android Wear that would enable it work with Apple’s iOS devices…
Android Wear is great, but if you’re an iOS user, it looks like the Apple Watch is going to be your only option for a while. Google has yet to make any of Android Wear’s functionality compatible with Apple’s operating system, and it doesn’t look like they plan to do so any time soon. But that’s not stopping one developer, Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh, from hacking Android Wear to at least support notifications from iOS devices.
Google invited us to check out their new line of Nexus products running Lollipop earlier today. The Motorola Nexus 6 is about the size of the iPhone 6 Plus with a slightly bigger screen and thicker/heavier profile. On the other hand, the HTC Nexus 9 is smaller than the iPad Air with a 9-inch display and stereo speakers. Both run Android 5.0 Lollipop which has a new Material Design. The new products will go up against Apple’s iOS devices for global electronics consumers’ holiday shopping money.
However, one set of devices won’t be competing for Apple users’ shopping dollars. An Android Wear project manager told me that there were no current plans to make Android Wear compatible with iOS but that they were continuing to evaluate other platforms because they wanted to get Wear devices into as many hands as they could. When I pressed and said something to the effect of “if ever there was a time to sell these to Apple users, it was the holiday season before the Apple Watch is released”, the product manager said something akin to “Our Christmas lineup of announcements is set and over”.
On one hand, it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard. After all, Google eventually got Google Glass to work on iOS devices.
Microsoft, on the other hand, just announced its new Fitness Band which will work with Android, iOS and of course Windows Phones.
Macworld today suggested that you take a $99 Pebble for a spin to see if it could act as a smartphone gateway drug until users get their Apple Watch fix next year.
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Home automation, a category more broadly referred to as the “internet of things,” is almost surely going to be a large and growing market in the coming years. And while Apple’s recently announced entry is the forthcoming HomeKit platform, Google has yet to announce anything exactly equivalent. At I/O 2014, however, Google did announce its plan for Nest, and shed much more light on its Android Wear smartwatch operating system.
Google I/O starts today, and as per usual, the company is kicking things off with a huge 2-hour press event set to start at 9 AM PT. The event is said to be bringing a multitude of new products and service announcements, rumored to include the “L” version of Android, Android Wear smartwatches, a new line of “Android Silver” smartphones, a second-generation Chromebook Pixel, an “Android TV” set-top box, Project Tango tablets, and Google Glass announcements.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c]
Ahead of the release of Apple’s much rumored “iWatch” wearable product, Google has now officially announced Android’s entrance into wearables with project “Android Wear.” The Android Wear SDK allows developers to integrate a number of features into Android powered wearables and relies heavily on Google Now functionality, as we were first to report late last year.
Google also confirmed that it’s working with a handful of partners to bring Android Wear powered wearables to market by later this year:
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