Wear OS

I’m in agreement with most that the Huawei Watch is one of the best Android Wear smartwatches of the year (and thereby one of the best smartwatches of the year, period), and now it’s getting a little better. According to a post on the Huawei Community blog, the device is now getting a minor maintenance release with optimizations all-around a new watch face, and a new app…
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The holiday season is well and truly upon us, and whether you’re looking for gift ideas for yourself, your friends or your family, we have you covered here at 9to5Google. This list contains some of my favorite smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks and some awesome accessories that I’ve used and loved. Ranging from $25 to $630, these are some of this year’s great gadgets…

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Last week, LG abruptly announced it was canceling the launch of its Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE indefinitely, citing an unidentified hardware problem that directly affected the day-to-day functionality of the device. Now, Telegraph has obtained a statement from LG in which the company reveals the hardware issue plaguing its LTE-capable watch relates to the display.

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A few months ago a report surfaced suggesting that Google has plans to bring the Play Store to China, and today another report surfaced (via Reuters) that Google has plans to bring the Play Store to China. You read that sentence correctly; there isn’t anything new here. But if you had any doubt that Google was going to be headed (back) over the Pacific, I think you can put that doubt to rest…
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Update: LG has now acknowledged the issue and says that it is canceling the rollout of the device worldwide. It also is unsure if it will be available at any point in the future.

AT&T today appears to have started notifying customers that a quality issue has occurred with the recently launched LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition. According to sources, AT&T has notified its retail stores and customers that those who purchased the latest Watch Urbane are eligible for a refund due to the “quality issue.”

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Google has released API 23 SDK for Android Wear, which means developers can now start optimizing their smartwatch apps for Android Marshmallow. Once apps are updated, it means they’ll be able to take advantage of a number of new Android features, and they’ll be better at automatically detecting if they’re being displayed on a round or square watch face…

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After nearly seven months, Google Fit received an update today that introduces a personal trainer feature for Android Wear. The Fit Challenge app allows users to select a push-up, sit-up, or squat and a difficultly level. It then runs you through a rather detailed tutorial of the exercise you’ve selected, showing text and pictures of how to do it properly…
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To the surprise of pretty much no one, LG’s recently-launched Watch Urbane 2nd gen. LTE runs the latest version of Android Wear, based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This version is certain to be rolling out to the current line of Android Wear devices soon, and as was revealed in the recently-updated Android Wear companion app, the update will bring some features to other watches that are currently exclusive to the new Watch Urbane. Now, Google has published some support documents detailing the two major features coming in this version: new wrist gestures, and support for hardware speakers…
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Earlier this fall, LG announced the second generation version of its stylish round Android Wear watch. The LG Watch Urbane 2nd generation was sleeker and more attractive than its predecessor, and also the first Android Wear device to come with an LTE-equipped model. Both AT&T and Verizon will be accepting orders for the LTE model from this week…

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There really wasn’t any doubt it was coming, but Google this evening has made it official that Android Wear will soon gain cellular support. In a post on the official Android blog, the company announced cellular support and explained that it will allow for your smartwatch to stay connected wherever you are.

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A new smartwatch prototype experiment from Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon might just be the smartwatch use case we’ve all been waiting for.

The technology, called EM-Sense, which is currently being shown off running on a Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, uses electromagnetic (EM) noise from electrical and electromechanical objects to determine what you’re touching. This gives your theoretical future smartwatch a glimpse into what you’re doing and allows the device to be context aware beyond just your email inbox, your calendar, and your geographical location. It’s also maybe a little creepy.
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In March of this year, TAG Heuer, a luxury Swiss watchmaker, announced they were making an Android Wear smartwatch with an Intel chip inside. For background, this was a full month before the release of the Apple Watch, but just over a week after Apple announced the prices of their watch. It was clear from the start that TAG Heuer would be competing with the highest end Apple Watch.

The TAG Heuer Connected was finally announced this morning. During that eight month period, Android Wear devices have matured and are in their second iteration. And for the most part, Tag’s watch is not all too different from the current line-up of watches running Google’s operating system — but there are a few notable differences.
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After months of teasing us, TAG Heuer — in partnership with Intel — finally announced its Android Wear powered smartwatch in New York. It marks the first time any luxury watch maker has officially unveiled an Android Wear watch, and comes with TAG Heuer’s world-renowned build quality. Despite being a smartwatch, TAG also wanted to make sure the device was a great watch and so ensured that it displayed time very accurately. It claims the watch is accurate to 1/100th of a second.
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Update: The TAG Heuer Connected is now official. It goes on sale for $1500 very soon, has a 46mm case, connects with Android and iOS phones and will be available with a choice of 7 different color straps. Watch the promo video, see the official press renders and read up on the full official details here.

Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer has announced that its Android Wear-based Carrera Connected smartwatch, launching today in New York, will have go on sale at $1500, a little lower than previously expected.

TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver told Le Matin Dimanche that he didn’t want to reveal too much ahead of today’s official unveiling, which takes place at 11am ET. Although it runs on Android Wear, the company appears to be targeting Apple rather than existing Android brands … 
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The Android Wear companion app received an update to version 1.4 over the weekend, and these 1.x updates to the phone app are usually a sign that a new update is coming to the watch(es) as well. Tomorrow will see the introduction of Tag Heuer’s long-awaited luxury entry, so the stars might be aligning for more than just hardware announcements in the morning…

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Google’s long stated vision, if not obsession, is turning your smartphone into the Star Trek computer. A key part of the computer on the Enterprise is that the primary means of interaction is through voice. The entire process mimics more asking a person a question rather than the ‘typing out what you want to know into a search box’ process that has made the Google so well known.

To meet this goal, the company has been continually doing massive research and investments into speech recognition and machine understanding. The latter is Google’s Knowledge Graph, announced in 2012, that understands concepts and their relationships between things.

These massive investments in speech recognition and Knowledge Graph ultimately culminated with Google Now. If ever there was a thing that paralleled the Star Trek computer in real life, it would be Now and its ability to provide verbal responses to verbally-asked questions. Now, Google is pushing the tech even further with Marshmallow and the new Nexus devices…
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