Wear OS

From early 2017 to Q1 and eventually early February, we now possibly have a more precise date for when the next major version of Android Wear is launching. Rumored by the usually reliable Evan Blass, “Android Wear 2.0 launches on February 9th.”

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Update 1/18: With yesterday’s rumor that LG is manufacturing the upcoming Nexus-like Wear 2.0 devices, it’s more likely that ZNFW280 is in fact the Watch Sport.

Looking through further FCC filings, we have found an LTE-lacking ZNFW270 that is presumably the Watch Style, while there is also ZNFW281 with cellular capabilities. These filings include near identical screenshots confirming they run Wear 2.0

Two new flagship devices are expected to launch with Android Wear 2.0 this quarter to invigorate the form factor. Following Google alerting developers to an early February launch for the OS this week, an LG smartwatch running Wear 2.0 has just passed the FCC.

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Delayed from fall of last year to a vague early 2017, Android Wear 2.0 might finally have a launch date. According to emails currently being sent out to developers, the next version of Google’s wearable OS will be released in early February.

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If you’ve been following our coverage this week, you know that CES 2017 has already brought the introduction of countless new phones, laptops, accessories, and more. In the Google realm, that means we’ve seen plenty of new Android phones, Chromebooks, wearables, and more.

But CES is always a matter of finding the diamonds in the rough. There are always some impressive announcements, but the vast majority of things we’ve seen this week have been either mundane or old news. That’s why we’ve done the work for you.

Follow after the break to get a peek at our picks for the best Android, Chrome and Google-related products that debuted at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show…

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CES 2017 hasn’t had a ton of exciting announcements in the arena of Android Wear, but one of two big reveals is New Balance’s long-awaited Android Wear smartwatch, the RunIQ.

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Android Wear has made its way to quite a few styles of smartwatches, but few have been as, striking as those from Casio. The Casio WSD-F10 rugged smartwatch certainly turned heads at last year’s CES and for 2017, Casio has refreshed that watch with a few key additions.

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Announced last CES with availability originally slated for 2016, New Balance’s first Android Wear smartwatch has finally been made available. The fitness-focussed RunIQ sports GPS and a heart rate sensor with exercise software from Strava.

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Smartwatches still haven’t proven themselves to me. I was quick to jump on the Android Wear train with the launch of the LG G Watch, but since, this Android Wear ride has been nothing more than mundane. I think one of the easiest ways to sum up my underwhelming experience is to say that this watch — the third generation of the budget “ZenWatch” line from ASUS — is almost functionally identical to the Moto 360 that launched two years ago.

That’s not to say that this watch is bad. It’s actually pretty good. It actually might be the best Android Wear device that you can buy right now. But for me, that’s not enough. It has required discipline to go out of my way for the last week to wear this thing, and I probably won’t keep wearing it every day from now on. But this review isn’t about me; don’t let me sway you if you’re dead-set on getting a smartwatch. If you are, the ASUS ZenWatch 3 might be a great option for you…

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Before Android Wear 2.0 was delayed to early next year, rumors swirled that Google would make its own smartwatch. Now, in an interview with The Verge, the company has confirmed the two upcoming “flagship” devices, but revealed that they will not be solely Google-made hardware…

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When smartwatches first debuted, most people saw them as the futuristic wearable we always wanted. Early adopters loved options like the Pebble, first generation of Android Wear, and more. However, it seems like those early adopters might have been the only ones who were interested.

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From more devices with built-in cellular connections to more powerful apps, Google is focussing on making smartwatches truly independent from the phone with Wear 2.0. Following the fourth developer preview earlier this week, Google is sharing how upcoming apps will take advantage of the new features.

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Smartwatches are facing what looks to be an ever-shakier future with Fitbit acquiring Pebble and Motorola opting to miss the launch of Android Wear 2.0. With Android Wear delayed in order to make sure it’s actually shippable, Google is continuing to release more developer previews. With DP4 today, Wear adds one-click Google Sign-in and authentication, in-app billing, and more.

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While smartwatches are in dire times, Google still seems committed to bringing Android Wear to the masses and further improving it in upcoming releases. To make things even better, the company has quietly acquired and hired the staff of startup Cronologics.

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I’ve talked about this time and time again, but it seems today Google is giving me another opportunity: smartwatches just aren’t compelling. I haven’t always been this skeptical (many will know that I was on the “wearables are the next big thing” bandwagon for quite some time), but they’ve become little more than a way for smartphone makers to upsell you on an add-on. I don’t entirely hate them as products, but they’re not going to become — at least in their current form — anything close to a fundamentally useful new computing platform the way smartphones did.

And Google just so happened to announce its new “Magic Minute” marketing campaign for Android Wear today, and it only further proves to me that these watches just don’t have anything close to a killer app. In this new campaign, Google has enlisted a bunch of popular online figures and YouTubers to make one minute videos showcasing their use cases for Android Wear. But really, they’re videos showing some really cool things that they already do in real life without a smartwatch, and they are using their Android Wear watch to… time themselves.

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Even before Android Wear 2.0 was delayed, partners like Huawei, LG, and Motorola announced that they would not release new smartwatches this year. It now seems that the Lenovo-owned company won’t be releasing a new wearable for the launch of the updated OS either.

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Code spotted by Android Police in Google Play services v10.0 suggests that Android Wear will soon support contactless payment for Android Pay. So far your only options for paying by watch are Samsung Pay on the Gear S3 and Apple Pay on the Apple Watch.

Strings like ‘Try holding your watch to the terminal again’ leave little doubt about Google’s plans …

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