Articles about Smartwatch

One of the main reasons why smartwatches are a tough sell today is battery life. Consumers expect them to work for a very long period of time on a single charge when, in reality, they only last for a day or two. It is no surprise then that, coupled with other issues related to the user experience, most people could not care less about them.

Not even the long-awaited Apple Watch looks like it will be able to match our expectations. When Tim Cook unveiled the device last month he left out details regarding battery life, which we took as a sign that we should not get our hopes up. A statement that Apple's CEO just made at the WSJ.D conference confirms our concerns.

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There are now a lot of smartwatches to choose from, and many of them need to be tethered to a phone to function properly. Google today rolls out an update to Android Wear that adds support for watches with a GPS sensor, meaning that it will be possible to leave your phone at home when you go for a run.

The GPS update is making its way to the LG G Watch, the Samsung Gear Live, and the Moto 360 over the coming days. It coincides with pre-orders opening for Sony's SmartWatch 3, the first Android Wear device to include a GPS sensor. The smartwatch is available on Verizon right now (yours for $249.99) for shipping on 30 October, and will be making its way to Google Play very soon.

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According to Forbes, Microsoft is preparing to launch a smartwatch in the coming weeks. Forbes says the device will "passively track a wearer’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms". So the good news is it won’t be tied to Windows Phone which only has a tiny 2.5 percent share of the mobile market.

A device that isn’t tied to the one platform is a very smart move for Microsoft. Apple Watch will probably be the device that propels smartwatches into the mainstream, but it requires wearers to have an iPhone. Android smartwatches connect to Android mobiles. If you switch from one platform to another -- move from Android to iOS for example -- you’ll need to buy a different watch. Microsoft’s device could solve that problem. There are other benefits too.

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It's not a watch. It's not a watch. It's not a watch. Despite appearances to contrary (it tells the time and is worn on the wrist for starters...), Black Eyed Peas' singer and tech fiend will.i.am is keen to assure us that his new wristband is most definitely not a watch. Unveiling the wearable, the smart cuff, the wristband -- call it what you will, as long as it's not a watch -- at Dreamforce in San Francisco, he showed off the fact that the Puls (pronounced Pulse, not Pulls) can be used to make calls without the need to be paired with a mobile phone.

It's a device that has been teased for quite some time now. Will.i.am has been seen on many occasions with the band on his wrist, but had resisted giving away too many details. Now we know it is a curved screen device complete with its own SIM card, 16GB of memory and 1GB of RAM, and a Siri/Cortana-bating voice recognition system called Aneeda (I need a...).

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While I do sometimes wear a watch, it is not for telling time. No, I strictly wear a timepiece as jewelry -- a gold Michael Kors watch on my left wrist to complement the gold bracelet on my right. It's funny, even when wearing a watch, I reach into my pocket to check my phone for the time.

A smartwatch may be the thing to change this for me, as it allows you to have a computing experience without pulling out a smartphone; however, many of them are fairly limited. Today, Opera brings its Mini browser to Samsung’s Tizen-based Gear S smartwatch, enabling a full web-browsing experience on your wrist.

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Apple Watch could well be the device that brings wearables into the mainstream, but if you’re not a fan of Apple products, there are plenty of Android smartwatches to choose from, and if you want to really stand out from the crowd, how about a watch that runs Windows 95?

Microsoft’s veteran operating system will turn twenty next year, and enterprising Samsung Gear Live owner Corbin Davenport has managed to blend old and new, getting Windows 95 running on Android Wear.

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The smartwatch industry continues to grow with the latest offerings from both Google Android Wear and Apple. But Pebble, a former darling of Kickstarter, got off to a fast start and has been continuing to improve things since its launch.

Now the watch maker is adding yet more features to its offering, giving users access to health and fitness monitoring. Thanks to RunKeeper, there was already a bit of this present, but the latest update brings much more along with it.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is among the most important new mobile devices to go on sale in the second half of 2014, alongside Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (which launched last week); the latter is a direct competitor. The Android phablet was slated to go on sale next month, but, in no small part thanks to the strong sales performance of the new iPhones, Samsung wants to get it in consumers' hands much sooner.

Samsung has announced that Galaxy Note 4 officially goes on sale this Friday, September 2014, in its home country of South Korea. There pre-orders started earlier this month, with consumers reportedly showing a strong interest in the device. But what if you live outside of South Korea?

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Luxury watch brand Tag Heuer has announced plans to follow the likes of Apple and Samsung into the smartwatch industry.

The Swiss watchmaker, now part of French luxury goods group LVMH, recently lost its vice president of global sales, Patrick Pruniaux to Apple and is seeking revenge by going into direct competition with the tech giant.

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The big event is over. Today, Apple announced iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens, respectively; Apple Pay; and Apple Watch. What we don't know is as important, if not more, than what we do. For example, Apple didn't pinpoint when in 2015 the smartwatch would be available or how long the battery will last. But Cook did discuss the ease of charging overnight, which probably indicates enough.

As I suggested three days ago, today's media event marks the beginning of the Tim Cook era, as he does things his way rather than Steve Jobs'. Notice how the CEO favors emphasizing the company brand over "i" this or that in product names. He also shed typical stern look for big, bold -- and frequent -- smiles. This is Cook's day.

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Smartwatches seem to be a polarizing force in the marketplace these days; love or loathe them, they seem here to stay. So far, when it comes to Google's Android Wear, we've seen three devices debuted and another on the way, all of which should appeal to those looking to this market as the future.

Now, Google has expressed its software plans for the future of its wearable platform. Included in this roadmap is both music and new watchfaces, which should appeal to potential customers, though the hardware already boasts thousands of apps.

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Motorola managed to really impress with last year's Moto X and Moto G. The two smartphones have shown time and time again that they do not need heavily-customized software, large screens or the fastest hardware around to stand out from the rest of the pack. They successfully targeted different parts of the market -- the former has gone after flagship buyers while the latter has sought to attract consumers on a budget -- in a different, impactful way, relying on the appeal of the overall package to tell their story. But, no matter how good they might have been, Moto X and Moto G are clearly showing their age.

Today, Motorola is relieving the pair of their leading roles, as it unveils the new Moto X and Moto G (the 2014 editions, if you will). The names might be the same, but the latest offerings are new inside out.

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It does not matter if smartwatches have yet to catch on with consumers. The big players in the mobile industry are just getting started announcing their efforts. ASUS is the latest to reveal its Android Wear-based device, which it calls ZenWatch.

ZenWatch, which is ASUS's first wearable according to the company, is designed as a companion device to smartphones running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or newer, meaning that, like other devices in this category, it cannot do much without being paired to one. It runs the ZenUI user interface on top of Android Wear, which offers dedicated apps and a custom, rather elegant, design, among other features.

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Sadly the summer is winding down, with Labor Day weekend having arrived. But that means the best time of the year for runners is now on the horizon, with cooler autumn weather. To get you ready for this time of year, Samsung has struck up a deal with Nike.

This deal brings together one of the top phone makers and a famous running shoe manufacturer. The two are teaming up for a new Nike+ app that will be coming to the Samsung smartwatch platform.

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One of the biggest weaknesses that a typical smartwatch has is that it relies on a smartphone to do most things it advertises. Answering a phone call? It has to be paired to a smartphone. Seeing Facebook notifications? It has to be paired to a smartphone. Reading your email? It has to be paired to a smartphone. The list goes on and on and on. You might just as well pick up your smartphone and do all those things; it just works.

Samsung has decided to do something about it, as, today, the South Korean maker unveils a smartwatch that does not have a smartphone addiction. That's because the new Gear S has its own cellular connection, which allows things like social notifications to be displayed without being paired to a smartphone. It's grown up. Who knows, it might even decide to move out of the smartphone's shadow one day and create its own path. It's got what it takes.

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