Samsung might be using Wear OS for upcoming smartwatches

Is Samsung ditching Tizen for Wear OS?

The Samsung Galaxy Gear and Gear Live were the last Android Wear-powered smartwatches Samsung released before shifting to its own Tizen operating system. That might change soon, though. According to Evan Blass (a.k.a. @evleaks), Samsung employees have been spotted wearing Gear watches that were Wear OS-powered instead of Tizen-powered.

It has been rumoured that Samsung was planning to rebrand its Gear smartwatches. The company has even applied for trademarks on the names Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Fit. But with these new rumors, it looks like they might even be thinking of dropping its own operating system in favor of the rebranded Wear OS platform. Samsung hasn't released a smartphone in a while, so it should be interesting to see what they plan to do with this.

Source: Android Central

Google Assistant on Wear OS will help make your life easier

Google Assistant on Wear OS is about to get that much more useful with several updates heading its way over the next few days. One thing coming is smart suggestions. This means, when you ask Google Assistant a question, it’ll automatically populate the screen with contextual follow-up questions that you can select. Another is that if you ask Google Assistant to “tell me about my day,” it’ll speak back to you through the watch speaker or Bluetooth headphones to let you know about what you have going on for the day. You previously had to look at the watch’s display to get these answers. Last new feature is Google getting support for third-party actions with Assistant. Actions are the little things you can do with Google Assistant and third-party developers that support it. By making Actions available on Wear OS, you can do things like turn on a compatible oven while you unload groceries and help get things started.

Hublot debuts US$5,200 Wear OS smartwatch

After discarding the Android Wear name, Google’s Wear OS platform is well and truly alive. It finds home in some of the big fashion brands like Tag Heuer, Kate Spade, and others. Joining the fray is another LVMH brand, Hublot. (LVMH also owns Tag Heuer.) The watchmaker is making a limited edition US$5,200 Wear OS smartwatch called the Big Bang Referee 2018 World Cup Russia watch, which as you suspect is helping promote this year’s World Cup. There will only be 2,018 units made and some of these will be given to the referees. It will, as Hublot details have the referees’s watches “connected to goal-line technology, an electronic video assistance system for refereeing which follows all the trajectories of the ball and determines for certain if the ball did or did not entirely cross the goal line. “

On top of this, wearers will also be alerted 15 minutes before kickoff of any match, player changes, whenever goals are made, and red/yellow cards. The watch will also get a special watch face during matches that will show things like the current score, player substitutions, number of cards/goals, and the match time. The Big Bang Referee 2018 World Cup Russia watch features a 49mm titanium body, six H-separated screws along the bezel, and Kevlar insert. The watch will go on sale starting May 1^st at Hublot shops.

Source: Android Central