Tag Heuer Connected races into Android Wear market with official launch
Tag Heuer officially unveiled their Android Wear powered smartwatch today, the Tag Heuer Connected, and started accepting orders on their online store. Tag Heuer is selling the smartwatch for a whopping $1,500 retail. Currently 7 different colors are available for the band, though only black is currently available online. To go with the band colors and workmanship of the unit itself which is constructed with a titanium case and sapphire glass, buyers will get a set of special Tag Heuer digital watch faces. Tag Heuer has indicated in previous statements that part of their goal was to produce a digital smartwatch that looked like and represented their traditional watches, a goal that it appears they have achieved.
The Tag Heuer Connected comes with an Intel processor running at 1.6GHz, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of onboard memory. The display is a LTPS LCD display that is 1.5-inches in diameter running at 360 x 360 resolution, yielding 240 ppi. The watch part is 46 mm with a thickness of 12.8 mm and weighs 52 gm. Powering the device is a 410 mAh battery. Besides being able to run the normal variety of Android Wear supported apps available from the Play Store, the smartwatch comes with a built-in stopwatch, timer and alarm that Tag Heuer refers to as “microapps.” The device is also capable of monitoring wind direction and weather.
If you are interested in what is being described as the world’s first luxury watch powered by Android Wear, Tag Heuer has a dedicated web site at http://www.tagheuerconnected.com where you can get more information, place your order, or find the nearest retail store where you can buy one of these smartwatches.
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: Android Official Blog
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Tag Heuer to launch $1500 smartwatch today
Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer is preparing to launch its high-end smartwatch today, according to company chief Jean-Claude Biver. The watch will be known as the Carrera Connected and will come with a rather expensive $1500 price tag.
Tag Heuer has teamed up with Google and Intel to develop its new smartwatch, suggesting that it could be powered by Android Wear, as previous rumors have indicated, and may sport many familiar features. The Carrera Connected syncs up with a smartphone wirelessly and features a changeable watch face and fitness tracking options, which all sounds very standard, but other features are being kept close to the company’s chest.
Latest smartwatches:
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With its expensive price tag, the Carrera Connected could end up appealing to similar customers who are interested in the ~$1000 stainless steel Apple Watch models, rather than competing with the range of existing smartwatches in the Android ecosystem. Even Samsung’s new Gear S2 only costs around $300.
A move into the premium segment of the watch market could help build the profile of Google’s wearable platform. We know that the very high-end wearables segment is not the most popular end of the market, but Tag Heuer probably isn’t looking to sell millions of units anyway.
The smartwatch looks similar to Tag Heuer’s existing Carrera classic watch (pictured above) and apparently can’t be told apart at a distance. The watch will also come with a selection of six brightly colors wristbands to choose from.
The Carrera Connected will make its debut in New York at noon on Monday and will be heading to Europe three days later.
Google Play services 8.3 brings simplified sign-in with Google accounts, app sharing, and Android Wear improvements
Google has updated their Google Play services framework, bringing things to version 8.3. The update brings a handful of new APIs for developers to implement, including some things to streamline the sign-in process using a Google account and some better ways to save power and performance on smartphones and wearables.
Currently, it takes several steps to sign into an app or service using your Google credentials. With the new Play Services, that’s cut down to a single step to allow apps to access your basic profile info. There’s also a new API to pull data like your name and profile picture to set up accounts in apps based on your Google info.
There’s a brand new app sharing API, too, that will allow users to quickly share apps with friends and family. It integrates with Google’s deep linking activity to speed things up for all users involved.
The rest of what’s included is mostly under the hood stuff, touching on everything from wearables to Google Play Games. The newest version for Play Games offers a signal as to when a player is about to “churn,” or stop playing a game. This lets the developer dish out some promotional offers to keep the player hooked, so if you start to see some irresistible offers for games you haven’t played recently, you’ll know what’s going on.
There are also improvements to wearables, including an API to set the urgency for data to be synced. By default most data is marked as non-urgent now, and specific info will need to be marked as urgent to have it immediately synced from a phone to a device, which should theoretically help smartwatches and wearables squeeze out a little extra battery life.
source: Android Developers
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Huawei Watch now available to buy in the UK
Huawei’s new Android Wear-powered smartwatch, the Huawei Watch, has been creating a lot of buzz with its premium design, but unfortunately, it hasn’t been available for our friends over in the UK. That changes today, as the Huawei Watch will be available to buy at vMall and Selfridges starting at £289.
The Huawei Watch is also available to buy through the UK Google Store. It goes without saying, these three options don’t provide a whole lot of availability, but Huawei says a much wider selection of stores will carry the new smartwatch starting at the end of November.
Huawei’s first Android Wear-powered smartwatch is undeniably one of the most beautiful smartwatches on the market today. However, there are many different premium options available for it, with prices starting at £289 and going all the way up to £599, not including VAT.
Anyone plan on picking one up?
source: vMall
via: Pocket-Lint
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[Deal] Save $50 on the Huawei Watch… by buying a Nexus 6P
Two of the hottest devices Android devices on the market today are made by Huawei. The company designed both the Nexus 6P and the appropriately named Huawei Watch, clearly a sign that Huawei wants to be a global brand on the same level of Samsung, Apple, and LG. Its Nexus handset and Android Wear smartwatch are available from multiple retailers, but only Huawei has a sweet offer that saves you some money. One that encourages you to buy the Nexus 6P and Huawei Watch together.
Hit the break to learn more.
While supplies last, Huawei will take $50 off the price of the Huawei Watch when purchasing it with a Nexus 6P. The only Huawei Watch off limits is the one in gold. All you have to do is add both items to your cart on the company’s official store and Huawei will instantly deduct $50 from your total. Huawei has Aluminum and Graphite models of the Nexus 6P available in all storage sizes; however, they are not expected to start shipping until early to mid-December.
[Huawei]
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Play video game emulators on your Android Wear watch
Someone has found a way to play video game emulators on Android Wear! Although the screen may be super small, and the buttons even smaller, it’s still cool that it can be done.
YouTuber Hacking Jules has posted a video on his YouTube channel that clearly shows him playing Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He is using an LG G Watch and the games seem to be running relatively smooth on it.
Click here to view the embedded video.
I didn’t think Android Wear would be able to run a full game console emulation, but I would be wrong. Not only can he run Nintendo 64, but he also has PSP, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and even Windows 7 emulators. You can see the videos for those too on his channel.
Unfortunately, you can’t download any of these emulators right now. However, hopefully Hacking Jules keeps working on them and releases them for all to use in the future.
Source: Hacking Jules
Via: MobileSyrup
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AT&T reveals the smartwatches that will go tether-free with NumberSync
AT&T today in a post to its blog revealed the Android-based smartwatches that will work with the carrier’s new NumberSync offering. The telecommunications provider revealed NumberSync in mid-October, saying that it would allow users to have a single phone number across multiple devices. In other words, devices like smartwatches will work on AT&T’s network instead of having to connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth.
Starting November 6, AT&T customers will be able to order the Samsung Gear S2 and LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, which will both be able to operate with NumberSync, allowing you to keep your phone number with you without having to have your smartphone on hand.
These are, so far, the only two smartwatches AT&T said will work with NumberSync, which is primarily because there just aren’t a lot of smartwatches out there that support cellular connectivity yet. In just a couple of years, cellular connectivity in smartwatches will no doubt be commonplace, but for now, Bluetooth will remain as the primary avenue of having your smartwatch fully functional.
Anyone plan on giving NumberSync a try with a new smartwatch on November 6?
source: AT&T
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MicroSD offline playback lets you take Amazon Prime music with you
Previously, if you wanted to take your Amazon Prime tunes on the go, you were limited by the internal storage of your device. Offline playback was available, sure, but not for microSD cards. Songs can add up fast in terms of storage space. For a long time, users have been crying out for Prime Music to allow offline playback of songs downloaded to memory cards so that they wouldn’t have to be constantly picking and choosing which songs they were going to bring along with them.
Finally, Amazon updated the app to gain the ability to store songs on the microSD card for offline playing. In addition to this, Prime Music received support for Android Wear. Now your favorite streaming service can integrate seamlessly with your wearables, allowing you to control your beats without even pulling out your phone.
Small perks, to be sure, but Prime Music has to pull out whatever stops it can to get ahead in this market. Amazon’s streaming service has long been lagging behind more popular services like iTunes, Pandora, Google Music All Access, and Spotify.
The main culprit in this shortfalling is Prime’s noticeably smaller library, but Amazon has been making efforts on this front as well, steadily adding to their catalog. They’ve also introduced Prime Stations to go head to head with streaming radio services, and this most recent update also added a “New to Prime” section to put a spotlight on the music Amazon has been acquiring for the service. There’s also a new “Popular” selection so that you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s trending in today’s music world.
Only time will tell if Amazon Prime’s music service will reach the levels of popularity enjoyed by other major streaming services, but if they keep at it with these updates, the future looks bright for them. If you’re an Amazon Prime account holder, you can give their music app a spin by downloading it from the Google Play Store.
What do you think? Do you use Prime to stream your music? Why do you prefer it over other streaming services?
Amazon updates its music app with MicroSD and Android Wear support
If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you’ll be glad to find out that the Amazon Music app is in the process of receiving an update that will greatly enhance its usability. The update brings MicroSD card and Android Wear support as well as a number of other improvements.
New features include:
- Prime Music artist detail pages – the one stop destination in Prime Music for top songs, albums, photos, stations, and much more for your favorite artists
- Android Wear support – now you can browse the app & control playback right from your Wear device
- “New to Prime” tab in Prime Music – highlighting newest music added to the service
- New “Popular” tab in Prime Music – see charts for top songs, albums, playlists
- Lyrics support (UK only – it was already available in the US)
The update is currently rolling out via Google Play and it shouldn’t be too long until it reaches your device.
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This guy got Super Mario 64 running on Android Wear
Back in 1994, I had a Starfox wristwatch that made me, inarguably, the coolest kid in first grade.
Sure, the little buttons were hard to press. And yes, the tiny screen made it impossible to tell what was going on. And perhaps it’s true that Mrs. Graham sent me home with a note that said “John struggles to pay attention as it is, so giving him gadgets to bring to school only exacerbates the problem.”
Nevertheless, I was a hit on the playground. (Or at least I got hit on the playground. Being a geek wasn’t as easy in the 90’s.)
Technology sure has come a long way. Today, Youtuber Hacking Jules released a video showcasing his ability to run Super Mario 64 and the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on an LG G Watch.
Sure, the buttons look hard to press. And yes, the tiny screen makes it impossible to tell what’s going on. And maybe it’s true that Mrs. Graham would be no more thrilled to see this in her classroom than she was to bear witness to my mighty Starfox watch.
But still, you’ve gotta admit it’s pretty damn cool.
The N64 emulator actually looks pretty workable. The framerate seems to chug pretty frequently, but I’ve seen people have a worse time in Minecraft and just deal with it. A physical controller seems like it would free up a lot of the screen and increase playability too.
What are your thoughts? Technological breakthrough worthy of Mrs. Graham’s appreciation or total waste of time and computing power?
AIVAnet 