Android Wear - page 2

Viper SmartStart makes your smartwatch an essential car accessory

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Viper SmartStart comes to your wrist.
Photo: Viper
Viper SmartStart comes to your wrist. Photo: Viper
Viper SmartStart comes to your wrist. Photo: Viper

Remember that Ericsson phone that let James Bond control his BMW 750iL remotely in Tomorrow Never Dies? Now you can have your own… kind of.

Viper SmartStart is a smartwatch app for Android Wear and Apple Watch that puts car controls on your wrist, allowing you to locate, start, and control your vehicle before you even get in it.

Samsung could make its new Gear S2 watch iPhone-friendly

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Samsung's new smartwatch could hit Apple Watch where it really hurts.
Photo: Samsung
Samsung's new smartwatch could hit Apple Watch where it really hurts. Photo: Samsung
Samsung’s new smartwatch could hit Apple Watch where it really hurts. Photo: Samsung

Samsung’s new Gear S2 smartwatch is its first to support third-party Android devices, and the South Korean company is reportedly looking extend its reach even further by supporting rival platforms, too.

According to one report, the Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic could soon play nicely with iPhone.

You miss out on HealthKit when using Android Wear with iOS

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HealthKit won’t be available to Android Wear customers any time soon.
Photo: Apple

Android Wear made the leap to iOS yesterday, meaning that iPhone owners can now buy and use Android Wear smartwatches should they feel so inclined.

One thing they can’t do, however, is to use Apple’s HealthKit platform to monitor their Android Wear fitness data. According to Apple, data such as step count and heart rate can only be tracked via the Google Fit dashboard — meaning that health-conscious users will want to hang onto their Apple Watches.

And somewhat surprisingly, the decision was entirely Google’s.

Samsung’s Gear S2 is coming to tackle the Apple Watch

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Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic hope to appeal to traditional watch wearers.
Photo: Samsung
Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic hope to appeal to traditional watch wearers. Photo: Samsung
Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic hope to appeal to traditional watch wearers. Photo: Samsung

After teasing the new Gear S2 smartwatch during its Galaxy Note 5 unveiling earlier this month, Samsung has confirmed all the juicy details we’ve been waiting for.

The new wearable will be available in two flavors — the Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic — both of which have round faces and are aimed at consumers who “prefer more timeless watch design.” But will the devices be good enough to trip up the Apple Watch?

Smarter watches: Android Wear works with iPhones now

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iOS users can now use iPhones with Android Wear.
Photo: Google
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iOS users can now use an iPhone with their Android Wear watch. Photo: Google

Google’s smartwatch platform, Android Wear, has officially gained support for iPhones. The Android Wear for iOS app is currently rolling out and anyone with an iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus can start using the Android Wear app at last. Just make sure you’re running iOS 8.2 or later.

The move comes somewhat randomly but makes total strategic sense for Google.

Wearables: Doomed or darlings of the next decade?

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Do you own a wearable yet? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Do you own a wearable yet? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

After outselling all Android Wear watches within 24 hours, Apple Watch looked set to be the device that would finally give smartwatches their big break. But according to a recent report, sales of Cupertino’s first wearable have since nosedived 90%.

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2It’s wise to take that report with a pinch of salt, but it got us thinking; if Apple’s first smartwatch really is a flop, which company can make a wearable worth wearing, and do wearable devices have a future at all?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over that very question.

How Android Wear stacks up against the Apple Watch

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Now that we know more about the long-awaited Apple Watch, it’s time to find out how it stacks up against Google’s Android Wear platform and the growing number of wearables that support it.

There are lots of similarities between the two, but there also some big differences in software, hardware, and price that will likely help you decide which one is right for you.

Turn your Android Wear into a neutered Apple Watch clone

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Apple Watch and its revolutionary UI were in the making for three years, and even though it was revealed less than a week ago, it only took Android Wear four days to copy it.

Android Wear users who don’t want to wait until early 2015 to try Apple’s UI can get a taste of neutered version of it via a copycat watchface called Pear from UhrArt that imitates the bubbly homescreen of Apple Watch.

Android Wear smartwatches get the jump on Apple’s iWatch

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With Google showing off Android-powered wearables from Samsung, LG and Motorola at its Google I/O developers conference this week, the smartwatch competition has officially heated up.

The LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live will ship in early July, so Android Wear smartwatches will definitely beat Apple’s rumored iWatch to the market. In today’s video, Cult of Mac shows how these handy, Android-powered devices — which let users access smartphone features from the convenience of their wrists — set the bar high for the iWatch.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Google reveals its real face: unfocused, unoriginal and a little bit evil

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Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Wednesday's Google I/O keynote offers a window into the search giant's world. Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

Google’s keynote presentation at its I/O developer’s conference today offered a revealing picture of the company itself: meandering, unfocused, copycat and just a little bit evil.

The two-hours-plus keynote had a lot of everything, from a new version of Android to new phones, smartwatches, TVs, cars, Chromebooks and big data — but much of it was deja vu from Apple’s WWDC two weeks ago.