One of the promised features of Samsung’s Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic was the ability to use Samsung Pay on the watch for NFC payments, and now — nearly a year later — Samsung is finally launching this functionality on the Gear S2 along with a fairly beefy update…
Earlier this month OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that OnePlus had been working on their own smartwatch back in 2015, but the company never decided to bring it to market. Now, we know the watch would have featured a circular display, as seen in design sketches from 2015. The image tweeted by co-founder Carl Pei shows roughly what the watch would have looked like as well as describes some of its functionality.
After announcing the device on June 3rd, Samsung’s latest fitness wearable, the Gear Fit 2, is now available for pre-order from multiple online retailers. You’ll be able to order the device in black, blue, and pink for $179.99, and it’s set to ship on June 10th.
With Microsoft almost out of the consumer phones business, it’s working harder to find a new home for its intelligent assistant, Cortana. After initially making it available to Android users six months ago, it has now updated its health app so that you can access Cortana through the Band 2 fitness wearable.
With Cortana on your Band, you can access your personal assistant for instant notifications of important events, communications, and voice-active info without reaching for your phone. Speak into the mic on your Band to Cortana to take actions for you …
Back at Google I/O 2016, Google took the wraps off of Android Wear 2.0. The Mountain View company has added a lot of new features in this version, but one thing we’ve noticed is that — despite many hands-on articles and videos floating around — most publications haven’t really shown everything that Android Wear 2.0 really has to offer.
Let’s fix that. Follow along with us as we dive into everything you already know and everything you might not already know about Android Wear 2.0…
We’ve seen dozens of smartwatches hit the market over the past couple years, but none of them have yet to be a real runaway hit. Just about every major OEM has one on the market, so with all of those options out there, it’s tough for smaller companies to get their chance in the game — or at least, that’s what OnePlus thinks.
According to OnePlus CEO Pete Lau, the company not only was considering a smartwatch, they also had a completed design. But as we know, they decided not to release it (via WSJ).
At an event in New York this evening, Samsung announced two new wearables as part of the Gear line. The Gear Fit 2 is a successor to the model released in 2014, while the Gear IconX is Samsung’s first truly wireless earbuds. At launch, both products are only compatible with Android and not iOS.
Pebble has just unveiled its latest smartwatches, and has done so in the most Pebble-like way possible, by launching a new Kickstarter project. The smartwatch maker has returned to the platform it used so successfully with the original Pebble, and the following iterations, with a true second generation Pebble and a second generation Pebble Time along with an all-new 3G wearable called the Pebble Core.
IDC’s latest report is out today with new estimates based on worldwide wearable shipments, and in it is a prediction that Apple Watch will hold the market lead this year and through 2020 as Android Wear begins to close the gap.
While the report shows estimates based on overall wearable shipments, which IDC says will go from 72.2 million last year to 100 million in 2016 for watch and wristband products, it also shows a breakdown of estimates for leading smartwatch platforms by operating system…
Update: Turns out this isn’t Glass, but rather smart glasses made by a company called Pivothead.
At an NFL event marking the start of the Super Bowl festivities week, Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders was seen wearing a rather interesting wearable that may possibly be the next version of Google Glass.
In an effort to get customers entirely absorbed into their ecoystem in one fell swoop, HTC and Under Armor have today announced HealthBox. Although it may sound like the brand-name for some kind of nutritious lunch, it is in fact a system which ties together a smart scale, fitness band and heart-rate monitor with a smartphone app…
Taiwanese processor manufacturer, MediaTek has announced that it will soon begin producing a brand new compact processor built specifically for smartwatches. The company claims that it’s the first system-in-package chip to offer GPS, dual-mode Bluetooth LE and a MIPI-supported high resolution display all in one unit.
Although exact power and specifications aren’t mentioned, MediaTek claims that its chip is 41 percent smaller than solution from its competitors and can also enable much longer battery life. The press release states that devices with the MediaTek MT2523 chip can last more than a week on a single charge. If true, this could be a game-changer. Manufacturers will be able to make smaller, slimmer watches that last more than just the standard two days on a full charge.
“The MT2523, with its combination low power and rich features, marks a significant step forward for the smart watch and wristband industries, said JC Hsu, MediaTek’s corporate vice president and general manager of IoT business unit. “Power combined with efficiency has always been the hallmark of MediaTek technology solutions and we are leading the charge in bringing this know-how to IoT products.”
MediaTek’s MT2523 product family is based around a highly integrated system in package (SiP) that contains a micro controller unit (MCU), dual-mode Bluetooth, GPS and a power management unit (PMU). The MCU enables wearable devices with lower power consumption and smaller form factors than Android Wear. The display component supports MIPI-DSI and serial interfaces, resulting in a high-resolution mobile screen. It includes 2D capabilities of true color, per pixel alpha channel and anti-aliasing fonts, plus 1-bit index color to save memory and computing power.MT2523’s low power comes from its ARM® Cortex®-M4 processor, which combines high-efficiency signal processing functionality with low power, low cost and ease-of-use benefits.
The new SiP will be available to manufacturers at some point during the first half of this year.
Samsung makes a lot of technology on the consumer side, but it also has a semiconductor division that makes chips comparable to Qualcomm. Their new Bio-Processor is meant for health wearables and can compute numerous health data and “bio-signals” without the need for any other chips.
When Pebble announced its new Pebble Time watches and (later on) the Pebble Time Round, it also released a brand new operating system for its popular wearable. This new Timeline was a drastic departure from its original user interface. Sadly, it was a UI only available to those with the new Time models, although the company did promise that the new OS would make its way to older devices too.
Android Wear smartwatches may not be as much of a “hot gift” this year as the Apple Watch is, but if you have friends without an iPhone, going with an Android-based smartwatch is pretty much your only option if you want to gift them a wearable. There are a lot of options to pick from across many different price points, but we’re here to help you pick out the perfect combo of fashion and tech for your loved one…
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When Android Wear was initially unveiled as a smartwatch platform, only a couple of manufacturers were ready with hardware right at the outset. LG had the plastic square G Watch, and Samsung had the Android-based version of its pre-existing Galaxy Gear. Of those two, the Gear Live was certainly the more appealing.
As new companies jump onboard and new watches are released, that usually means tasty discounts for the old gadgets. In this case, it’s a very healthy discount. Samsung’s Gear Live is available now from a trusted seller on eBay for just $79.
If you’re an Android user who isn’t certain on the benefits of having a wearable connected device (or a smartwatch), snagging an older generation for little outlay is a fairly safe way of testing the water. Sure, you won’t get the sharpest screen, the fastest processor or the classiest design, but you will get a very basic taster for what Android Wear is like to use every day. It’ll certainly save you from spending $250 or more on something like the Moto 360, Huawei Watch or recently released Fossil Q Founder.
It might even make a decent stocking-stuffer to go alongside some of our other favorite ideas for holiday gifts. Of course, be sure to keep an eye out on 9to5Toys’ Black Friday Deals page for up to date news on all the best deals over the next week.
Update: The discounted prices are also now available at Amazon.
Black Friday is just a few days away, and tech companies are now tripping over each other to make sure they get products in to people’s hands when the made shopping rush begins later this week. Several retailers have kicked off their Black Friday deals early, including the likes of Amazon.
Now, Huawei has revealed its planned discounts for Black Friday, and it looks pretty good if you’re in the market for an Android Wear watch or an affordable smartphone. Here are the products discounted, and their prices:
The deals go live on Black Friday, November 27th and are only live for 24 hours at GetHuawei.com, Huawei’s official US online store. You should also keep an eye on Huawei’s products on Amazon, as we’re expecting prices to drop there too.
To stay on top of all things Black Friday, be sure to bookmark the 9to5Toys Black Friday page which will be updated constantly to include all the best and latest discounts anywhere online.
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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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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Google has updated its Play Services to allow developers to make use of some very useful new enhancements to the overall experience of using Android. Google Play Services 8.3 includes updates to the way users sign in to apps, as well as new functionality for app invites, wearable data layer APIs and improvements to location services…
Huawei has taken a leaf from Apple’s book with its latest promotion, offering discount on its wearable product when customers order a smartphone. Buyers who order the Nexus 6P direct from Huawei can get $50 off the Huawei Watch when they buy both devices at the same time. That means you’ll be able to get one of this year’s best Android Wear smartwatches for as little as $299.
This deal, of course, is more than likely being launched to counter Apple’s very similar promotion in which customers purchasing an iPhone and an Apple Watch at the same time receive $50 discount in select stores. Overall though, there’s still a huge price difference between buying the new Nexus and buying the new iPhone. Nexus 6P models start at $499, where the iPhone 6s begins at $649. Huawei Watch begins at the same price as the Apple Watch Sport, and is $200+ cheaper than the stainless Apple Watch models.
If you want to take advantage of the deal, head on over to GetHuawei.com and add the Nexus 6P and Huawei Watch to your basket. The $50 discount will be applied automatically. All in, the cheapest combination will set you back about $800, that’s only $50 more than the price of the cheapest 16GB iPhone 6s Plus on its own. That’s really not bad when you’re getting two of the best Android/Android Wear products available right now.
Google may have made leaps and bounds already in the development of future automotive technology with its autonomous vehicle program, but that’s not all it’s working on. A patent recently published by the USPTO reveals a concept for an in-car tool which uses your wearable device’s movements to work out if you’re the driver or passenger…
AT&T is announcing a new network-level advancement called NumberSync capable of sharing one phone number with all connected devices. With NumberSync, AT&T customers will soon be able to use what’s called mobile twinning to share a single phone number with multiple SIM cards in smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and other connected devices. The goal is to let you send and receive phone calls or messages from all your connected devices without relying on a specific app or operating system feature.
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Asus’ ZenWatch 2 is easily one of this year’s best value Android Wear smartwatches. With prices starting at just $149, it’s about half the price of the other Android wearables launched in 2015. Now, it’s available to order from the Google Store.
As is customary these days with new smartwatches, there are two sizes of ZenWatch 2. The 45mm and 49mm versions sport slightly different specs, with the smaller model featuring a 280 x 280 resolution screen, 300mAh battery and support for standard 18mm watch bands. The larger watch supports 22mm bands, has a 400mAh battery and a 320 x 320 display. Both have 4GB storage, 512MB RAM and the same Qualcomm processor, IP67 water resistance, Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.
If you order the 49mm model from Google, the predicted shipment timeframe is 1-2 business days, while the 45mm model just says ‘coming soon’. If you want to save a little cash, NewEgg is offering pre-orders for the ZenWatch 2 for $129 and $149 for the rubber and leather-strapped models respectively.
If the ZenWatch 2 isn’t your style at all, and you’re on a tight budget, there are a bunch of last year’s Android Wear watches available at similar prices.
