Google Launches 'Android Wear' Project for Wearable Devices

[samcraig]

I don't see the irony. If Apple was announcing a watch, it would be followed with a shipping date in the near future. Google releasing an SDK with a vague timeline for when it's partners will bring out actual products is par for the course. Nor do I see how Google would fit into the role of rehashing old products.

The difference being Google believes in harnessing as many developers as possible to get apps created for products that will be produced while Apple is more secretive and often only invites a few companies to create apps that show off new hardware.

Different models.

 

[arkhanjel]

Moto Vapor-wearables

I'll just leave this here then (A real motorola 360 smart-watch)
Image

You do realize that all of you posting those Moto 360 images aren't posting real products right? They're all renderings. Just because it's on the internet doesn't make it real. If Motorola actually makes and launches that product and it works like they say it should then kudos to them, but for now it's just a concept with a launch window.

 

[kshitijshah]

Except that it isn't vapor. LG is launching next quarter. Apple better have a summer event lined up.

Google just video-launched a product that doesn't even exist. You don't even know if the round-watch device has a 20 minute battery life or a 2 hour battery life. For all we know, you don't even know if it was CGI magic with a round hunk of metal that created that video.

Google loves vapor/paper-launching. As always, there were no release dates, and no actual products launched that you can use today (forget the alpha SDK, anyone who has developed for Android knows what a nightmare it is to develop cross-platform code on there).

If I were you, I would go buy some more Apple shares today. There is still one company in the world who waits and waits, and only open its mouth and releases something when it's not vapor-ware. When you can actually go buy it in the next few weeks. When you can actually start using it. When you know.. it actually matters.

Google launched this so when Apple releases an actual working, purchasable product, they can anchor back to this video and say: "Look, we're not copying Apple! We're innovators! We were first! We're a giant university of idea-men! We've got tons of ideas! Ideas as we all know are worth 100000x more than execution!!! We are Google!!! The innovation capital of the google-verse. All bow to our vapor-novation"


Google is just an ad company that has a ton of money to run vapor-ware science experiments with.

(P.S. I also think you should buy some Google shares, they're going to keep rocking the advertisement/data world)

 

[theBigD23]

iPad 4 and 8GB iPhone 5c are available in stores. Android wear devices aren't available. hmmmmm

I'd rather have an announcement of a 'product' with amazing potential, than the previously listed 8gb 5C and iPad 4.

 

[JHankwitz]

It's like I don't already have too much information being thrown at me. My TV, computer, radio, iPad, and iPhone just don't give me enough? I now need a watch to give me more information to process?

 

[69Mustang]

And that GTV is doing amazing huh?

How about that Nexus Sound ball and Nexus phone?

The glasses are still vaporware. This is vaporware. It's a video with CG effects on a watch face. Lets actually SEE a REAL watch running it and a guarantee the responsiveness will be absolute sh-t.

Google hasn't innovated sh-t in the last 10 years.

I'm not sure what a Nexus Sound Ball is. If you're referring to the Nexus Q, the latest iteration of that idea is the Chromecast. It's a sweet little product. Nexus phones are on their 5th iteration. GGlass is in no way vaporware. It's in the hands of developers right now. Not for consumers yet.

You need to go back and... wait for it... read the article. The SDK is the product. The video is a conceptualization of products that are possible using the SDK. Knowing the difference would have saved you some keystrokes.

 

[knewsom]

Sure I would. I wouldn't even buy me an expensive phone holder for my bike. I would just drive with one hand, grab into my pocket and use my other hand to operate the iPhone. But I can see how this is not an option for phablet owners. Maybe smartwatches are a solution only to overcome the deficits of Android hardware? Saving the phone for more complicated tasks, is an idea that never came to me before. But if my phone would be such a giant atrocity, maybe I also would want to leave it in my bag.

#victims-of-the-screen-size-wars

Hope you don't drop it and see it run over by a bunch of cars...

 

[Serelus]

I really don't get all the hype, I am never getting one of these.

A watch to me is for aesthetics, not as a tool. Smartphones work fine right now.
If it turns out apple isn't releasing any wearables at all, this kind of thing will die of in a matter of weeks.

 

[knewsom]

I think there are a lot of cases where an iWatch device would be useful. Just not enough to make it profitable. Apple isn't an edge case company. I'm not saying your use examples are not legitimate. I'm just saying I don't think Apple is going to serve those use cases.

Oh, I'm not saying that my needs reflect those of the average person, and they're certainly far from the minds of the designers at companies like Apple. ...but there are many more needs beyond my own that I imagine people have and don't really realize are there yet. I think once this technology is done right it'll become commonplace.

 

[69Mustang]

I don't see the irony. If Apple was announcing a watch, it would be followed with a shipping date in the near future. Google releasing an SDK with a vague timeline for when its partners will bring out actual products is par for the course. Nor do I see how Google would fit into the role of rehashing old products.

That's because you are still trying to make a comparison. He wasn't. Let's just chalk it up to you didn't get the irony in his statement.

Regardless, I see no downside. You obviously do. Totally cool. We can agree on something else some other time.

 

[allistera]

The moto round watch looks really nice, love the screen, really bright and clear colours.

 

[knewsom]

I really don't get all the hype, I am never getting one of these.

A watch to me is for aesthetics, not as a tool. Smartphones work fine right now.
If it turns out apple isn't releasing any wearables at all, this kind of thing will die of in a matter of weeks.

Then you don't do anything that requires such a tool. I do, and many other people do. If it doesn't do anything for you, don't get one. As for me, I'd love to be able to read texts while fishing without making my phone smell like fish guts.

 

[IJ Reilly]

They will certainly come

It's google

I didn't say they wouldn't come, only that they are not here yet, so the quality of the products can't be evaluated now. What I also said is that no doubt a lot of them will be garbage, but that this will nevertheless pose a significant problem for Apple.

 

[poppy10]

Great, now how about you show us an actual product?

The product in the video is the (very real) Moto 360

 

[Alx9876]

I have no interest in wearing anything on my wrist, Even if Apple makes an iWatch as well.

For me, It has nothing to do with the tech or who makes it. I hate the feeling of an object sitting on my wrist all day. My skin is uncomfortable no matter what.

I will sit back and admire the tech, But it's not for me.

 

[Popeye206]

Still waiting to see a use that makes me say "I gotta have one of these".

 

[Gudi]

Hope you don't drop it and see it run over by a bunch of cars...

Why would I be cycling between cars? That's suicide. Don't you have bikeways where you live ...

 

[Bobleh]

A smartwatch can never work in a wristwatch design from early 1900s (yes, a hundred years old!).

Before the iPhone, there were so called smartphones which weren't really smart - their tiny screen and input method made their apps practically unusable. And it's the same with the current wave of smartwatches - their 1900s design based on the one app they were capable of - measuring time on a round clock - cannot support any apps beyond telling time and giving simple number or text-based information. Have you noticed how everything is so tiny on that small display (of a rather bulky device) in the Google video?

It's not a coincidence that almost each piece of iWatch news mentions the word "flexible". If you want smart apps, you need a large display (remember iPhone?) to provide for room and context. If you want to put a large display on your wrist but keep the device small, the only solution is a flexible, wrap-around display. If you want to power such a large display, you need a large battery. To put a large battery into a small wrist device, you need a flexible wrap-around battery. And that's a lot of cutting-edge technology needing a lot of R&D, innovation and money.

And that's why only Apple can succeed. The others lack vision, commitment and in the end the investment required to pull this off. They just test waters with accessory devices. Apple, on the other hand, has a bold vision for what it seems will be a futuristic flexible display wrapped around your wrist with high-tech sensors allowing for a unique health, fitness and portable computer app ecosystem. They are willing to invest billions of dollars in this idea (as evedinced by setting up the brand new sapphire glass plant [Tim let it slip it's for a product creating a brand new app ecosystem], preparing flexible displays manufacture, hiring the best people from fashion, health and fitness, etc.) and their most trasured asset - their brand and reputation.

Apple is betting their company on iWatch and I cannot wait for the result.

 

[kdarling]

The product in the video is the (very real) Moto 360

Well, soon to be real, anyway... if they meet their summer 2014 launch window.

Here's Moto's video about designing it. Not a lot of info. Mostly designer-speak

 

[Piggie]

No. This is day one, of a 20 year waiting period, before the technology is ready for wearables to gain capabilities similar to current smartphones. We have just entered the era of smartphones and tablets and it will stay just as long as the era of laptops and desktops did. If you try to build a smartwatch with smartphone technology, you will end up like Bill Gates trying to build a tablet with laptop technology. It is undoable. With todays technologies we can build wearable peripherals and sensors like the Nike Fuelband, but not a smartwatch that is worth its name.

So what do you want?

Let's not build a single car till we can build a Bugatti Veyron?
Let's not build any phone till we can build a iPhone.
Let's not build any space ship till we can build a Starship Enterprise.

That's just moronic.

You always try and build the best you can with the materials and knowledge you have today.
That's how we got from a mud hut to a skyscraper.

Or perhaps you think we should of stayed in mud huts till we perfected the skyscraper plans and materials.

How dumb and stupid is that.

You build the best you can today.
Tomorrow you can built a better one.
The next day, a better one still.

That's how humans got where they are.

Or do you think Apple will product perfectiong with their 1st attempt

like the 1st iPhone, the 1st iPad, the 1st iMac, 1st Mac book.

Ok, well you go hide for 20 years.

 

[kdarling]

Apple, on the other hand, has a bold vision for what it seems will be a futuristic flexible display wrapped around your wrist with high-tech sensors allowing for a unique health, fitness and portable computer app ecosystem. They are willing to invest billions of dollars in this idea (as evidenced by setting up the brand new sapphire glass plant ...

Perhaps, although "flexible" does not describe sapphire very well.

 

[rpenzinger]

I hope you can make the clock bigger than that, why does the weather temperature have to be bigger than the actual time? I mean it's still has to be a watch with extra functions. And some of them still looks bulky.

and why does it need to tell you what city you are in? Duh, if google thinks that is pertinent info I'm afraid there are other things they have missed

 

[Kwill]

Oh ohh, here they come Apple.

Maybe Apple will get the SDK instead of expecting people to strap a Mac Pro around their wrists.

 

[samcraig]

Before the iPhone, there were so called smartphones which weren't really smart - their tiny screen and input method made their apps practically unusable. And it's the same with the current wave of smartwatches - their 1900s design based on the one app they were capable of - measuring time on a round clock - cannot support any apps beyond telling time and giving simple number or text-based information. Have you noticed how everything is so tiny on that small display (of a rather bulky device) in the Google video?

I would argue that the original iPhone was more a feature phone than smartphone. And they were quite usable - moreso than the iPhone AT LAUNCH. And did a lot more.

You must not have spent time using the Pebble smart watch. It's extremely usable - and in my opinion even trumps what was in the video in this story and everything/anything I've read about a rumored iWatch. Like some here - I don't want a computer or phone on my wrist. I want simplicity - a quick way to get alerts without taking my phone.

YMMV

 

[sixrom]

Apple Vaporware...

You do realize that all of you posting those Moto 360 images aren't posting real products right? They're all renderings. Just because it's on the internet doesn't make it real. If Motorola actually makes and launches that product and it works like they say it should then kudos to them, but for now it's just a concept with a launch window.

Tim Cook "we've got big plans".

Well then where are these products?

Others showing prototypes designed to explore public acceptance is far better than nothing. Plus at least it will help give Apple ideas if that's what they're struggling with.

Apples all talk and no visible action is eroding their credibility. But when you're as fat and happy as Apple, it doesn't seem to matter.