Pebble recently announced that they were bringing Android Wear compatibility and actionable notifications to their smartwatch platform, and those features have finally gotten the green light for users. The update is available on the Play Store and brings the Pebble application to version 2.3. This update will let any Android Wear app work with the watch, plus you’ll get the ability to quick reply to text messages with some predefined responses.
You’ll also see some bug fixes, as well as the new option for apps and watch faces to update while Pebble is idle. You can see the full changelog below.
Android Wear Notifications. Reply and act on Android Wear notifications (requires Firmware v2.9+). See http://pbl.io/f for full details.Pebbler-defined replies. Set your own replies to notifications (up to 5, so get creative, buddy!).Reply from Pebble using most Android-compatible SMS messaging appsAutomatic app and watchface updates when Pebble is idle.Support for Android 4.0+ devicesFixed Issues with Whatsapp notificationsUTF-8 support in PebbleKit JSBug fixes and stability improvements
Come comment on this article: Pebble app version 2.3 hits the Play Store with Android Wear compatibility
Today is the last full day to get your entries in for a chance at winning the Choose Your Own Smartwatch Giveaway. Entries will no longer be taken after 12PM (PST) on 2/17 and you can’t win if you don’t submit. Enter now and place your name in the hat for a free Moto 360, Samsung Gear 2, or LG G Watch R. Good luck!
See more at deals.androidguys.com
Today is the last full day to get your entries in for a chance at winning the Choose Your Own Smartwatch Giveaway. Entries will no longer be taken after 12PM (PST) on 2/17 and you can’t win …
In today’s world it’s almost a social prerequisite to have a fundamental understanding of Adobe’s suite of products. Whether you’re a journalist that needs to superimpose …
Motorola last not shot out emails advising that its Valentine’s Day weekend promotion will be extended a few more days. Indeed, you can now save a sizable chunk of money on products through …
Imagine the horror of a bricked or water-damaged phone and the sudden realization that all of your valuable photos, contacts, and sensitive information are drifting away in the digital wind. We …
(function() var script = document.createElement(‘script’);script.src = ‘https://stacksocial.com/widget.js?publisher=androidguys&type=editorial_post_widget_preferences’;script.async = true;var entry = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0];entry.parentNode.insertBefore(script, entry);)();
http://www.androidguys.com/pubgalaxy/728×90.html
The post Last chance to enter our Choose Your Own Smartwatch Giveaway appeared first on AndroidGuys.
We recently discussed wearables, smartwatches in particular, in our Friday Debate podcast and post. One of our shared opinions what that current Android Wear and wrist bound devices could use a little design makeover. It seems LG felt the same way already, we are hearing that they will have a new, classy watch headed to MWC in March, the LG Watch Urbane.
At first glance, the LG Watch Urbane appears to take the basic rounded design of the LG G Watch R, and glam it up a bit. We’re told it is a full metal design, save the watch-face itself, and can accept any 22mm band of your choosing.
Rounding out the specs list, expect the same internals as the G Watch R, a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 SoC, 512MB of RAM, 4GB internal storage, that 1.3-inch rounded display and sensors including accelerometer, barometer, compass and heart rate sensor. A 410mAh battery should keep the lights on for a day, hopefully. The LG G Watch Urbane will also be dust and water resistant.
Keeping things running, the LG G Watch Urbane will ship with the Android Wear operating system, Google’s home-grown OS for wearables.
We’ll be at Mobile World Congress in March to see LG’s new watch, and a large list of other exciting new devices in action. Sadly, we may have to wait until then to learn more about the LG G Watch Urbane, including pricing and availability.
What do you say, would you purchase the LG G Watch Urbane, the full-metal luxury variant of the G Watch R?
Elegant, Full Metal Smartwatch from LG Coming to MWC 2015
SEOUL, Feb. 16, 2015 ― LG Electronics (LG) will unveil its first all-metal luxury Android Wear device, LG Watch Urbane, at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015. As its name suggests, the smartwatch is designed for a sophisticated and cosmopolitan wearer that delivers unparalleled technology and performance. LG Watch Urbane is the perfect device for wearers looking to add both style and high-tech flare to their everyday lives.
The LG Watch Urbane follows closely in the footsteps of the LG Watch R, the first smartwatch with a full circular Plastic OLED (P-OLED) display, which LG launched in October 2014. While the LG Watch R was designed with the active user in mind, the LG Watch Urbane is more formal with a thinner profile making it perfect for either men or women. Resembling a luxury timepiece, LG combined a classic design and innovative features to add style and convenience to everyday life while raising the already high standards set by its predecessor.
The LG Watch Urbane is crafted around the same 1.3-inch full circle P-OLED display as the LG Watch R but features a narrower bezel that gives it sleeker lines. The LG Watch Urbane has all of the hallmarks of a fine watch, making it the perfect fashion accessory. Its stainless steel body is available in polished silver and gold finish and is complemented by a beautifully stitched natural leather strap for a more classic look. The strap can be replaced with any 22mm wide band to suit the occasion or the wearer’s mood. Powering all of this is an intuitive touch-based user interface that makes the LG Watch Urbane compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 and above.
Like the G Watch R, LG’s latest Android Wear device includes a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that can measure a wearer’s heart rate and average pulse during exercise. Always-On ambient mode shows the time on the display at all times in dimmed mode, saving battery life.
“The LG Watch Urbane’s classic design and smart features make it the perfect smartwatch to complement our G Watch and G Watch R, which were designed as more casual and active devices,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “LG Watch Urbane is an important part of our strategy to develop wearable devices that are worn and viewed as everyday accessories, not electronic gadgets.”
Additional details including price will be announced in local markets at the time of availability.
If you’ve been waiting to pick up a Moto 360 with a metal band in Canada, your wait is almost over. The company is set to release the metal-clad variants of its smartwatch later in March this year at a few different retailers.
The dark and light metal Moto 360 will be available for $329, and you’ll be able to pick up both options at Future Shop or Best Buy. TELUS will also be carrying the dark metal 360, and they’ll exclusively sell the champagne finish watch with the 18 mm strap, if you’re looking for something a little thinner.
Of course, you can always swap these out for custom watch bands if you don’t like the options or don’t want to wait.
source: Mobile Syrup
Come comment on this article: Metal Moto 360 variants will be available in Canada in March
For years now, companies have been claiming that wearables will be the “next big thing”. It’s 2015 and wearable devices are still niche at best. With Apple, HTC and likely many other players entering into the game this year, it’s clear that OEMs want wearables to be successful. The problem is that consumer reception is still fairly lukewarm.
For this week’s Friday Debate we talk about what it will take for smartwatches to go mainstream. What features would make you buy one? Or do you think they will always remain niche? Additionally, why do you feel the first generation of wearables (Android Wear, Gear, etc) haven’t taken off in a bigger way?
This week there wasn’t a lot of community responses, though you can check out the official forum thread to read all the responses we received. We will showcase one response this week, however, from the well known community member MasterMuffin.
I believe that smartwatches will always remain niche, or at least for a very long time. Personally, absolutely nothing realistic could make me buy a smartwatch as I don’t find anything in them that could justify spending any money whatsoever. Heck, I’m not sure if I’d use one should I get one for free! I do not represent the majority of people though, so why isn’t this new product category gathering more attention?
Part of the reason why smartwatches haven’t caught on is, of course, the one we always like to talk about: Apple. They did a smart thing by announcing their watch so early, because I’m certain it ate the sales of the others by quite a bit. There are plenty of articles that mention Apple Watch when talking about smartwatches and how we should wait and see before making any buying decisions. There’s nothing other manufacturers can do about this. Still, I wonder if even Apple can pull this off. Will their fans really buy anything with an Apple logo?
Another thing that manufacturers simply can’t do is make the hardware good. The technology needed to make a “truly” smart smartwatch just isn’t there yet, at least if you want a reasonably sized watch, and magic is unreliable. And I’m not talking about better batteries as battery life might not be an actual problem, because everyone that I’ve talked with who has a smartwatch has said that you can just charge it at night and all is fine and dandy. What I’m talking about is technology that allows for independent smartwatches with functions like those in sci-fi movies. The current smartwatches feel like feature phones on your wrist!
One feature that could help the sales is compatibility with phones with different operating systems. Samsung’s Tizen-powered watches only work with a handful of Samsung’s own devices, Android Wear only works with Android and the Apple Watch will only work with iOS. Sadly, cross-compatibility is not going to happen in a million years.
My amazing, never-before heard tips for Samsung, HTC, LG etc. are the following: design, advertise, advertise and advertise. You need to make regular folks want to use something they’ve never needed before (and something that’s 110% useless in this writer’s opinion), so the easiest solution is either to make smartwatches fashion items or just to imprint them deep into everyone’s subconsciousness. Better start working on your mind controlling techniques!
Robert Triggs
I believe that usefulness is still the big issue for smartwatches. The benefits are few and difficult to sell to consumers, while the costs are relatively high for, what is essentially, a smartphone accessory.
Currently, Android Wear’s design, which steers watches more towards a notification hub, isn’t providing the substantial boost in functionality that would make a smartwatch truly useful. I’m going to speculate that this may have something to do with why some smartwatch developers, such as HTC and LG, are said to be working on their own smartwatch platforms.
If smartwatches are to become a successful mainstream technology, companies are going to have move beyond fitness gimmicks and smartphone extensions into making watches viable products on their own. SIM-enabled watches will help with this a little, but they’re also going to need better technology in areas such as memory and connectivity. For example, I’d be more inclined to grab a smartwatch and ditch my phone if I could wirelessly listen to music from it or use it as a storage space to carry documents and media around with that I could then beam to other devices.
If I concentrate really hard, I can maybe see smartwatches taking on the role of the social platform, for calls, messaging, email, calendar appointments, etc, while the smartphones take a backseat to provide video and gaming content, if only smartwatches were more flexible in terms of features. But I haven’t seen a company indicate that their product is capable of much more than tracking your steps and duplicating information already available on your phone.
So I’ll continue to pass, for now.
Matthew Benson
Several weeks ago I wrote an opinion piece on why I prefer Samsung’s Tizen over Android Wear smartwatches. Among the various reasons: Gear products, the Gear S especially, have more native functionality and features than Android Wear. This includes everything from a telephone to a contact list to an email application to a calculator, etc.
When I saw the report of Android Wear device sales, the low number shocked me. Considering the platform is compatible with any Android device running Kitkat or higher, that’s a ton of potential users. It’s far different than say, the Gear line, which requires not only a Samsung device, but a compatible Samsung device no less.
Android Wear has the ability to be very successful, but isn’t. Heck, even our readers seem to prefer phone or tablet posts over wearables. Is it the fact that the hardware selection is so limited? Perhaps. Is it because the hardware itself is rather expensive for such a fledgling platform? Certainly a possibility. In reality I think it’s actually a combination of the two, as well as perhaps something more.
While this could be totally wrong, I expect the Apple Watch to sell over a million units the launch weekend. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if 5 million are sold within the first few months. Does the Apple Watch look fantastic? Not really, though I am quite fond of the Digital Crown and the navigational prowess it claims to possess. No, I believe that the Apple Watch will sell simply because (1) it’s made by Apple, and (2) Apple users are willing to spend more money than those who prefer Android: see any comparison of App Store vs. Play Store sales, or say… Apple’s Q4 2014 earnings report.
I am not trying to characterize Android users as “cheap”, nor am I even implying frugality is bad. One could easily shake their head at Apple customers, who continue to buy products that lack the same hardware capabilities and features as Android. Still, while Android devices have been on a race to the bottom/commodity path, Apple’s prices have remained expensive and exorbitant. Heck just look at the backlash Google received with respect to its Nexus 6 pricing; as if the first three Nexus phones weren’t also expensive. Look at the big winners in 2014: Chinese companies with very low profit margins.
I feel a large part of the problem with Android Wear is that the (relatively) high cost of entry is just too much for consumers. Perhaps they literally don’t have that money to spend, or that Google has failed to substantiate why they should. This goes back to the marketing problem I touched upon with last week’s question. Either the hardware itself needs to get cheaper (and considering Android Wear specs, the existing hardware is seemingly priced way too high just because its new and there isn’t much competition) or else Google needs to do some real promoting and pushing of the platform. Google needs to sell customers on the the idea of a wearable before the hardware will take off.
Andrew Grush
I will start by echoing both Mastermufin and Matthew Benson, in saying that I think that the arrival of the Apple Watch will be a boon for the smartwatch industry. While I’m not so sure that the watch will be as big of a hit as Apple hopes, I think it will get the wearable conversation going. Right now, there are probably a fair number of “regular folks” that know very little about the smartwatch market and what these devices do. Public exposure is important for smartwatches, and something they currently lack. While advertising exists, it’s pretty limited at this stage and I think that’s a big part of why smartwatch sales are still slow going.
Most of the comments from other writers and Mastermuffin were pretty negative, calling out smartwatches (and Android Wear in particular) as useless and very limited. I agree that for some consumers this may be the case, though personally I love my Moto 360 and use it regularly. Does it do anything my phone couldn’t? Technically, no. In reality, I can check emails and other notifications in situations where I otherwise wouldn’t — while jogging, biking, in church, in a meeting, during dinner, etc. It allows me to stay constantly connected without my phone. Glancing quickly at a watch is arguably less rude in circumstances like a movie, meeting or church than pulling out a phone would be.
As for whether or not smartwatches can ever be truly mainstream? I’m not so sure. For now, they will remain niche, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Long-term, I think that smartwatches mainstream potential depends on how much OEMs invest on either design (making watches a fashion accessory) or functionality (making watches more stand-alone and not just for augmenting the smartphone experience).
You’ve heard from both Mastermuffin and Team AA, now it’s your turn. How do you about the current crop of smartwatches? Do you feel that smartwatches will ever go beyond their current niche? We welcome you to leave your responses in the comments below, or you can get even more detailed in the forums.
The steel version of the Sony SmartWatch 3 will be reportedly made available for purchase later this week according to a blog post by the company. The Japanese manufacturer failed to divulge pricing details for this particular model, but we’re guessing it will be slightly more expensive compared to the current model.
Sony mentioned that it will sell these steel bands for existing owners of the SmartWatch 3 to get the new look. There will also be a new holder kit, which will let customers add any 24 mm band to the SmartWatch 3. This is a feature that is available on almost every Android Wear smartwatch by default, but unfortunately missing from the SmartWatch 3.
At $250, the SmartWatch 3 isn’t cheap to begin with. The steel variants should set you back by at least $300, which is the same price as the LG G Watch R and the Moto 360 in steel.
Source: Sony
Come comment on this article: Stainless steel Sony SmartWatch 3 will be available this week
A new report from renowned leakster Upleaks claims that HTC is looking to finally enter the smartwatch segment with a new wearable known as the “Petra“. It is said that this wearable will run a custom HTC developed operating system called RTOS instead of Google’s Android Wear platform. This means the wearable will be compatible with both Android and iOS devices at the time of launch.
The Petra will reportedly feature a 1.8 inch 32 x 160 resolution display, IP57 certification for water and dust resistance, more than 3 days of battery life and support for GPS. The smartwatch will weigh only 23 grams apparently, which is feather light for a wearable.
The launch is expected to take place by Q1 2015 so it should be shown off during HTC’s One M9 launch event on the 1st of March. The Petra will reportedly break cover in the U.S. first and is said to be available in Teal/Lime and Black/Blue Gray color variants.
Source: Upleaks
Come comment on this article: HTC to unveil “Petra” smartwatch at the MWC 2015
Cheating for an exam is something that pretty well everyone has tried to do at one time or another, and it’s a constant struggle between the students, who try to find new ways to cheat, and their teachers, who try and stay one step ahead of them. Well, before smartwatches get any more mainstream, some universities […]
The post British universities have started banning smartwatches from exams appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
If you think your school is overly cautious when it makes you ditch your phone before a big test, you haven’t seen anything yet. BuzzFeed News has learned that multiple universities have issued blanket bans on all watches during exams in case students are wearing smartwatches they could use to cheat. According to London’s City University, it “wouldn’t be practical” to have proctors checking every watch to make sure it’s analog — it’s easier to make you write with bare arms. The move is unfortunate if you’re used to glancing at your watch to gauge your progress, but it does make sense given how easy it is to get memos, text messages and other unfair advantages on your wrist. Whether or not you think smartwatch cheating represents a major problem, it’s probably a good idea to leave that Pebble or ZenWatch at home during your mid-terms.
Filed under: Wearables
Via: SlashGear
Source: BuzzFeed News
The threat of smartwatches is now great enough that even the most stoic of timepiece manufacturers are having to pay attention. This week, yet another big name, Swatch, has said it is throwing its hat into the smartwatch ring, and says to expect a Swatch smartwatch in the very near future. “Swatch will launch a new […]
The post Swatch says to expect a Swatch smartwatch in the “next two to three months” appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
AIVAnet 