Google made noises after the Google I/O developers’ conference this year that more features will be coming to Android Wear – that umbrella of wearable devices where Google’s stamp of approval makes everything official like. Android Wear top honchos said that the announcement will be made by end of year, and true to their word, we have that announcement at hand.
During Google I/O, Android Wear was front and center together with the mothership’s announcement of Android L. At IFA 2014 in Berlin, it seems that a lot of manufacturers have taken notice of the new market for wearables and a lot – we mean a LOT – of wearable devices will be getting unveiled through the course of the trade show. But not all of them will be Android Wear.
To the official ones – like the newfangled Moto 360, the ASUS Zen Watch, the LG G Watch, and the new Sony SmartWatch 3 – new official features are coming out. First is offline music playback, where you can take your smartwatch on your bike ride or run independent of your smartphone, and play music that is directly stored on your watch streamed to a Bluetooth headset. And if a watch has the hardware for it, users can track their speed and distance via native GPS support.
Lastly, Google has announced that there will be downloadable watch faces soon via the Google Play Store – it is already in communication with manufacturers to make this possible. This brings a whole new level of customization and personalization to your Android Wear device. So which one are you getting, if ever? Tell us about it.
SOURCE: Android Official
Think I might stick to my omate for now running independent of phone and/or being able to use as a companion is where it’s at.
First company to put a wireless chip in their android wear watch will get money.
Moto 360!
For me it will be none of them. I really love the concept and I was really hanging out for the Moto 360 but it just doesn’t make the grade. Battery life and a display which is turned off to enable it to get a day of use. It is just not functional enough. The others are just plain ugly.