Tuesday 18 March 2014

Android Wear: Google shows how a Smartwatch should work

Google has just announced Android Wear, a project that extends Google's reach to werables - more specifically right now, watches. We've seen Samsung, Sony and other manufacturers delve into this rapidly growing space of the market with little success (excluding possibly Samsung's Gear Fit if that takes off). So Google has come forth today doing what it does best, brilliant design of software for the intended hardware.

Google has shown off quite a few potential uses for Wear within it's two videos in it's Blog post that it has uploaded to www.googleblog.blogspot.co.uk. Google Werable shows contextual information to your watch-face when it is most relevant to you. For example, it will show you local weather conditions if you move to a new place, how far away from a meeting you are or if there are any traffic alerts. Apparently it can even tell you if the beach you've justt arrived at has a Jelly Fish warning... Think of Google Wear as Google Now on your wrist!

Like Google's Google Now on smartphones, Wear also allows you to say "Google Now" and ask your watch questions that it will then google and give you results to. This is a feature that would make me feel very much like I'm in an episode of Star Trek, but one that would make more sense to me than asking my phone. However, I think the feature would be perfect if it worked without having to activate anything; Moto X-style in that you could just say Google Now and it jumps to the screen. Now if the screen is constantly on (due to it being a watch face) this would make sense.
Android Wear also allows you to better monitor your health and fitness as seen in the first video that Google uploaded. This is something that Samsung has already cottoned on to that people would want to do with their smart watches which is nothing new, but the ability to check information like this would be nice.
Responding to messages is also something you'll be able to do with Google Wear. Personally, I've never been keen on responding to a message with voice as we still don't quite live in a world where you can rely 100% that the device with correctly hear and dictate what you've said. In addition, the video shows that the message is sent immediately which could result in a lot of replies saying "what the duck!"
Overall, Google Wear looks like the smartwatch that everyone has been waiting for. The watch is the only thing on the planet that I say you'd take with you more than your smartphone, Google have realised that and want you to be able to see all the information YOU want to see when YOU want to see it.
Do you think Google Wear will be a success? Do you hope that these prototype designs make it to the final hardware? Have Google cracked it?

No comments:

Post a Comment