Wear OS

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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There are a lot of expensive watches on the market, both smart and not so smart. The average cost of a premium Android Wear device is upward of $300 right now, but the TAG Heuer Connected has always been the most expensive on the market at $1,500. Today, however, the bar has been raised — by a lot…

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ASUS said earlier this month that the company’s new ASUS ZenWatch 3 would be available sometime around early November, and now the company is making good on its promise. Just a little bit earlier than expected, the circular ASUS ZenWatch 3 Android Wear smartwatch is now available on the company’s own website…

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One of the primary reasons smartwatches haven’t been selling very well is the lack of solid options. Over the past couple of months we’ve seen a few new Android Wear devices debut, and now those options have finally made their way into the Google Store.

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Android Wear 2.0 is bringing a lot of useful user-facing features, but it seems that there’s one as-yet-unreported change happening in the background with Wear 2.0 that might not be so well received.

According to one of Google’s Android Developer Advocates, Android Wear 2.0 will require completely standalone watch and phone apps, and abandons the system used since the first version of Android Wear that automatically installs Android Wear apps based on the apps you have on your phone.

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Smartwatches aren’t a necessity, and that makes them a tough sell for many customers. Paying $200+ for a watch with a display that shows notifications and lasts a couple of years vs buying an inexpensive normal watch that lasts basically forever just doesn’t make sense for a lot of people.

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Google’s Pixel event has come and gone. With it, Google introduced its first solely self-branded smartphone, claiming that the Pixel and Pixel XL bring the very best that Google has to offer — for the moment, at least — in both hardware and software. It’s a refreshing move from a company that has traditionally only sold hardware built in partnership with OEMs, and it’s finally a sign that Google wants to take a serious top-to-bottom design approach with its future products.

But what about its other product lines? Google replicated the Android strategy with Android Wear a couple of years ago, and in that case the company has yet to release any Android Wear hardware that has its name on it. The company never even did a “Nexus” Android Wear device to give OEMs an idea of what Android Wear would look like if Google did it themselves. That’s about to change according to recent reports, perhaps as soon as the first quarter of next year…

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