Of course Swarovski has an Android Wear watch

It no longer comes as a surprise that traditional watchmakers have versions of smartwatches. You’d think it’s about time they got with the program. But here’s a surprise from Austrian jewelry maker, Swarovski. The brand will be launching its first Android Wear-powered (and obviously bedazzled) smartwatch at Baselworld 2017, which will be held in March 23. Swarovski partnered with Qualcomm and Google to develop the watch and it’s designed specifically for women. It’s been teased at CES 2017 but details about the hardware, price, and availability aren’t been released yet. This announcement also comes in the heels of the delayed Android Wear 2.0. We’re expecting to hear more about this smartwatch at the jewel and watch conference happening in March.

Source: Android Authority

Google plans to release two Android Wear 2.0 flagship smartwatches in early 2017

As industry critics and tech media speculate whether the whole smartwatch market will last, Google isn’t ready to throw in the towel for its initiative. According to The Verge’s interview with Android Wear Product Manager Jeff Chang, there will be two flagship smartwatches coming out early next year and both will be the first to carry the Android Wear 2.0. These won’t be branded as Google smartwatches but will carry the names of the manufacturer who made them. Chang won’t give the name of the company they collaborated with for the new smartwatches but he says this manufacturer has produced Android Wear devices before. Chang also adds that the collaboration with this brand is much like the Google Nexus smartphone program of recent past. You can expect more announcements in 2017 of new Android Wear 2.0 devices starting from CES in a few weeks and Baselworld later in the year.

Click to read more ...

Google buys Cronologics to boost Android Wear efforts

Google’s latest acquisition looks to improve Android Wear’s chances of a more sustainable future—or at least that is the hope. The tech giant bought Cronologics, the company behind CoWatch’s software, which is an Android-based smartwatch operating system that also brings Amazon Alexa to smartwatches. The team will be joining Google and working on Android Wear and they plan to “help grow the portfolio of watches powered by Android Wear” and will be “pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond.” Interestingly, a number of Cronologics employees are also ex-Googlers, making this a homecoming of sorts for them.

Source: TechCrunch

Tap-to-pay functionality slated for next generation of Android Wear

Upcoming Android Wear devices might be getting some feature parity with the Apple Watch once Tap-to-Pay functionality comes to Google's wearable platform. In order for this to happen, the devices will likely need to run the next version of Android Wear (slated for next year) as well as have a smartwatch with an NFC chip. 

Click to read more ...