So you know how "everybody" is saying that the Apple Watch is too expensive at $349 to $1100? (Yes, we're ignoring the $10,000 gold model.) TAG Heuer execs says its smart watch, which will run Android Wear, will go on sale in November for $1400. The chief differentiator, other than the operating system, is that the TAG Heuer watch promises a 40-hour battery life, rather than … [Read more...]
New Android Wear Functions Coming Soon
Google is talking officially about an upcoming update to Android Wear, an update that will include several interesting improvements to the UI. Several of the improvements are designed to trim the number of times that using your watch becomes a two-handed operation. You'll soon be able to move your way through screens by flicking your wrist instead of touching the screen. … [Read more...]
TAG Heuer & Intel Unveil Android Wear Smartwatch at Baselworld [UPDATED]
![TAG Heuer & Intel Unveil Android Wear Smartwatch at Baselworld [UPDATED]](https://wearablesinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/03/449c820954ad2bf022f50cd6384ca8989a8d5ce6-150x150.jpg)
The watch industry's big trade fair, Baselworld, started today, and the first smartwatch announcement is a bit of a deflation. TAG Heuer and Intel went public with their much-rumored alliance, but it turns out that the software behind it will be Android Wear. Reuters reports that the hardware will be based on TAG Heuer's popular Carerra design, pictured here. There are many … [Read more...]
Android Wear Gets New Gestures; Details on Apple Watch
We're now into the war of public attrition between Google and Apple as details dribble out about Android Wear and the Apple Watch. None of it is worth a full article, but you may find it all worthwhile to know. (We suspect there's going to be a lot of this for the next month or so, by the way.) 9to5Mac is reporting breathlessly that the Apple Watch will contain 8GB of RAM, … [Read more...]
Android Wear Has 5 Percent of the Smartband Market, Less Than Pebble, Says Canalys
Remember when Android Wear was going to take over the smart band market? Hasn't happened yet, according to market research firm Canalys. The company says 740,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014, out of a total 4.6 million smart bands. (Keep in mind that Wear-based devices only were available in the second half of the year, though.) Pebble alone shipped 1 million units … [Read more...]
Pebble Teases a Pivot
Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky gave an exclusive interview to The Verge, in which he said that his company has sold 1,000,000 watches, and that 2015 will bring new products and a new software platform. Pebble's in a pretty difficult spot. It more or less pioneered the notification device use case for wearables, and but saw Google wield its sharp elbows in the market with Android … [Read more...]
Android Wear Update Adds Untethered Music and GPS
For the record, Google has unveiled a new revision of Android Wear. This version ties its users closer than ever to the Google ecosystem, giving them direct access to their cloud-based Google Play music libraries, without the need for a smartphone. (You need offline playing, also part of the update, turned on.) Also, the new rev supports GPS on Wear devices, for functions like … [Read more...]
Five Small Items in an Apple Watch Roundup
There's a bunch of little pieces in the news about the Apple Watch, none of them really worth their own abstract. So we're pulling them all into one briefing: -- Two hospitals will be experimenting with Apple's HealthKit software, coming at the end of this week in iOS8. Stanford University Hospital is working with Apple on bloodlessly measuring glucose levels. And Duke … [Read more...]
Smartwatch Coming From HTC?
HTC made the first Android phone and has built some sweet units since, although they've had some clunkers along the way, too. There have been rumors that they were coming after the watch business, too, but then there were rumors that they were spooked and backed off. Now, the company is reportedly back in. Cnet says HTC will release a smartwatch running a heavily modified … [Read more...]
Offline Music, GPS and Watchfaces Coming to Android Wear This Year
Now that the first Android Wear watches are on the market, it's time for Google to announce what's next for the software. A post on Google's official blog said today that AW watches will be able to play back music stored on them over Bluetooth headphones, without the need to tether to a smartphone. Also, AW will enable GPS functions, allowing wearers to not get lost -- or, at … [Read more...]