As the watch industry gears up for the Baselworld 2018 trade show next week, Google has announced a new name for its Android-powered operating system for wearable devices, which shall be henceforth called “Wear OS by Google”.
Android Police ran a story two days ago, that’s now picking up traction, learning from supposedly reliable sources that Google is secretly developing a pair of smartwatches—code-named “Angelfish” and “Swordfish”—that will run its latest Android Wear software, have circular displays and more.
One of the devices, ”Angelfish”, is said to have a subdued but sporty look and include a built-in heart rate sensor, embedded LTE cellular connectivity and GPS for truly standalone operation.
The Google I/O 2016 keynote wrapped up so we compiled interesting tidbits that we think iDownloadBlog readers might be curious to learn about, because it pays off to keep tabs on what competition is doing.
Google’s Android Wear for iPhone software debuted earlier this week and while we suspected ahead of its release it might not offer tight integration with iOS like the Apple Watch does, I don’t think many people expected it to be incompatible with HealthKit, Apple’s platform for developers of health and fitness apps.
Sadly, that’s exactly what transpired here.
As discovered by BuzzFeed, the decision to make Android Wear incompatible with HealthKit was entirely Google’s as the search company wants iOS users who own Android Wear devices to log their steps and physical activity through its own Google Fit dashboard.
As has been rumored for quite some time now, Android Wear now officially supports iOS. In a blog post on the Official Google Blog entitled “Android Wear now works with iPhones”, Google outlines the specifics behind the iOS compatibility.
Right now, only the LG Urbane, one of the latest Android Wear devices to hit retail, works with the latest update that’s rolling out to users throughout the day. Eventually, however, more Android Wear devices from Huawei, Asus, and Motorola will work.
Clothing and accessory giant Fossil took the stage at Intel’s Developer Forum (IDF) on Tuesday to unveil new wearable products. Among them was a connected band, a connected watch, and a new smartwatch based on the Android Wear platform.
The watch bears a circular face, similar to that of the popular Moto 360, which sits upon a classic leather band. Other than that, however, and the fact that it features an Intel processor, Fossil is being fairly coy regarding specs and other device details.
Google announced a sizable update to its Android Wear platform on Monday, days before the Apple Watch lands on the market to much fanfare. Google’s update to Android Wear is the platform’s largest yet, making it more usable, and even gets rid of the need to use it with a smartphone.
I know, it may sound fairly niche, but hear me out. Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz about using Android Wear devices with the iPhone, and that’s the reason why I started exploring this topic to begin with.
As it turns out, when you buy an Android Wear device, you need an Android device to “activate” the smartwatch (go figure). Since I don’t currently own an Android phone, my LG G Watch was stuck at the pairing screen.
Yes, there are more “in-depth” ways to go about getting passed this screen, but not everyone is up to that task. With this in mind, I’ve created a video tutorial that shows you how to run an Android virtual machine on your Mac with Parallels, and how to then pair an Android Wear device with the virtual machine.
If you can’t beat them, join them. This could be the motto for Google, which is rumored to bring iOS compatibility to Android Wear. And if strings of code that were recently discovered are any indication, it seems the rumor actually holds a lot of truth to it.
Considering this probable move, there seems to be a lot of excitement about the potential possibilities, especially among people who don’t believe in Apple Watch, or want the convenience of a smartwatch without all the strings attached to the Apple ecosystem.
One thing people don’t seem to realize is that even with full iOS support, Android Wear will never be more than a shiny screen with a handful of limited features.
Over the past few days, I’ve been working with developer MohammadAG to test his in-progress iOS-to-Android Wear application on the LG G Watch. This application, which has a ton of potential for both jailbreakers and non-jailbreakers, allows iOS to forward notifications to Android Wear devices. In the video that follows, I showcase some of the features that are in the current version of Mohammad’s new Android Wear APK.
Taking a play out of Pebble’s playbook, Google’s line of smartwatches under the Android Wear brand may finally be ready to give the Apple Watch a run for its money by being supported by both iOS and Android.
Google’s Android-powered software platform for wearable devices launched a year ago without official support for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac devices. But that may soon change.
Back in February, Cydia developer Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh, the brains behind jailbreak tweaks like DoubleTapToSleep and SpotlightSiri, showed off proof-of-concept which lets the stock iOS Messages app notification to be sent directly to a flagship Android Wear device, Motorola’s Moto 360.
He’s been since exploring ways to add more functionality to the app and this morning posted a new intriguing video depicting an Android Wear watch accepting an incoming call from an iPhone.