Android Wear 2.0 Gets A Keyboard, Standalone Apps, Activity Recognition, New UI (techcrunch.com) 31
An anonymous reader writes: Google unveiled the biggest update to Android Wear yet at Google I/O -- Android Wear version 2.0. Google VP of Engineering for Android Wear David Singleton said the new version represents a "holistic pass across the design of the whole system" and focuses on providing users more glanceable information, improved messaging tools (including support for keyboards, handwriting recognition and smart replies), as well as new fitness and wellness features. The design features improved Material Design aesthetics with an emphasis on color. By default, the navigation drawer is always at the top of the screen and notifications themselves will always show up at the bottom. Android Wear 2.0 features standalone apps that communicate directly over the Internet via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cellular. Apps are no longer exclusively relying on a tethered phone or cloud syncing. There's a Complications API, which allows developers to pass raw data to watch faces. Wear 2.0 adds two new input methods: a swipe-style keyboard for typing and a handwriting recognition mode to sketch letters on your watch's screen to spell out messages. There have also been various Google Fit-related improvements to make Android Wear watches better fitness trackers. Android Wear 2.0 is available today as a developer preview, with the finished product being released this fall.
Everyone is suffering from the SEGA syndrome (Score:2, Insightful)
Stop upgrading and updating and changing everything every few months or even years. You need to let people, both users and programmers, catch up to what your hardware and software can do.
If all you have is a moving target, like SEGA did by launching one console, one upgrade and two more consoles within only a few years, people will move to something more stable. Programmers don't want to waste time making something that will only be used for a few months or a year or two, so they move to something more stab
Re:Everyone is suffering from the SEGA syndrome (Score:4)
If there's one thing I learned about Google, is that it's not even worth the trouble using anything but their major products (search, mail, maps). Anything else and you risk losing it soon.
Re:Everyone is suffering from the SEGA syndrome (Score:4)
Problem is todays programmers cant actually write good software anymore. It's change the UI and add features not fix all the bugs and tighten up the code so that it runs 25% faster.
They dont even teach decent code optimization anymore in colleges.
Re: (Score:3)
Of course they don't! I bet the majority of teachers never heard of it either.
And when is your boss going to let you optimize your code? Who's that going to benefit? How do you bill that to your client? He'll scream at you for doing a poor job in the first place and ask you to fix his code on your own time.
Re: (Score:2)
His fault for telling us we have to use C#.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My college courses never taught code optimizations in the mid (19)90s. :/
Battery life not mentioned in the article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
The Withings Activite uses a lithium button cell that lasts for months and costs less than a dollar a piece. It's not a full blown smart watch, more of a health monitor with some analog feedback on the dial. It does seem like the least ugly and most practical wearable available right now. I was considering buying one, but I like the dumbwatch I already have. I agree with you on battery tech. I wouldn't be able to stand having to charge my phone and my watch every day.
Re: (Score:2)
I've got the Moto 360, and it lasts about 36 hours on heavy use, and about 48 hours with my normal use. This is acceptable in my case -- I drop it on the charging cradle when I go to bed, and it's ready when I'm up. It only takes about 45 minutes for a full charge, so even charging it when I'm getting ready in the morning is not a problem.
There are other brands that I know are better and many more that have worse battery life. It's a consideration, like like battery life on a phone. But in my case, I fe
Re: (Score:2)
I love my now fairly old Moto 360. I get about a day and a half of battery life out of it and it usually outlasts my phone and yet fully charges in less than an hour. I charge my phone everyday and just drop my watch on its charger at night. It is no big deal. I love being able to create and changes faces when I want as well as being able to see notifications, appointments, and calls without taking out my phone. Although I own several other nice dumb watches, I don't think I could ever go back.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
There's a Complications [wikipedia.org] API [wikipedia.org], which allows developers [wikipedia.org] to pass raw data [wikipedia.org] to watch [wikipedia.org] faces [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
A "complication" is a traditional domain-specific term related to watches, and just means a feature above and beyond standard time-telling (such as moon phases or a calculator).
If you don't know what a complication is related to watches, I could see how "Complications API" is a strange term and might be misinterpreted as a typo of "complicated API".
Otherwise, that sentence seems self-explanatory.
Re: (Score:1)
2.0 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Surface at it's pricepoint? yep. I bought one used from a student that was desperate for money. got a nice 128gig surface pro with all accessories for $150. at that price it's a fantastic device.
At the $1600 price point.... it's a failure.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
fall ? (Score:1)
with the finished product being released this fall.
It is already fall (autumn) in the southern hemisphere.