Take a look at the two videos embedded below. The first one is more of a commercial, showing different aspects of life with a Google watch. The second one is more detailed, a bit more of a mission statement.
The linked blog post lays out four keys to Google wearables:
- Useful information when you need it most. Android Wear shows you info and suggestions you need, right when you need them. The wide variety of Android applications means you’ll receive the latest posts and updates from your favorite social apps, chats from your preferred messaging apps, notifications from shopping, news and photography apps, and more.
- Straight answers to spoken questions. Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions, like how many calories are in an avocado, what time your flight leaves, and the score of the game. Or say “Ok Google” to get stuff done, like calling a taxi, sending a text, making a restaurant reservation or setting an alarm.
- The ability to better monitor your health and fitness. Hit your exercise goals with reminders and fitness summaries from Android Wear. Your favorite fitness apps can give you real-time speed, distance and time information on your wrist for your run, cycle or walk.
- Your key to a multiscreen world. Android Wear lets you access and control other devices from your wrist. Just say “Ok Google” to fire up a music playlist on your phone, or cast your favorite movie to your TV. There’s a lot of possibilities here so we’re eager to see what developers build.
It’ll be interesting to see how these devices actually perform once they actually appear in the wild. Some questions:
How is the battery life? How do you recharge them? I assume the answers to these will vary by manufacturer.
Most importantly to me, do I have to have an Android phone in my pocket in order for a Google watch to work?
I assume the answer to this last question is yes. If so, where does this leave Samsung? Has the first giant splintering begun?
Exactly. “Is it feathered” will be the first question (until the cellular component drops to the price of a candy bar). Guessing that will be a while.
Google hosted a hangout yesterday with the lead designer for the Moto360. He refused to give details on several of Dave’s questions pertaining to battery life and how it charges. What’s the point of announcing a product without specs? Seems like it’s all just marketing fluff. One detail that was confirmed is that the Moto360 will require Android 4.3 or later, so unfortunately no iOS compatibility. In my opinion, they’ve left the door wide open for Apple to move into this space with something that’s actually innovative, and doesn’t simply serve as an extended screen for notifications.
pretty obvious this is vaporware put out prematurely in an attempt to steal some of Apple’s wearable thunder.
Everything in these commercials are mockups! None of this is going to look this nice when it actually comes out.
The thing that struck me in the videos, aside from how ridiculously mocked up all the screens were, is how do you navigate to what you want to get to? The videos showed people swiping to get from one card to another, and the cards came up in the order that the soundtrack was talking about the information shown, but what if I wanted to hop about the info in a different order? Are you just paging through a carousel of cards?
They are being so vague about any details of this that my money is on them not having thought through implementation details like that yet. The summer launch for the Moto360 seems unlikely from here…
These remind me of cuter versions of the information-free concept videos Microsoft used to make about The Home of the Future. They’re throwing vague ideas out, hoping someone else is hungry enough to make something tangible out of them.
Nothing displayed here has actually solved any problems yet, either for the consumer’s needs, or for the function of a gadget itself.
Until your company demonstrates a repeatable ability to make products and services that non-nerd consumers will actually want to use, these videos might as well be b-roll for a SyFy series pilot.
Perhaps they’re hoping for constructive ridicule in Youtube comments.
The circular UI does not make me sanguine as to Google’s seriousness, even in mockups.
Rectangular watches are not uncommon already. Using a circle “because watches” really means “we don’t care about UI/UX”.
Which makes sense, because Google is honestly kind of terrible at UI.
(Siegler said, on his blog, “you had me at Google Now”.
I can’t tell if he’s making a very dry joke, or he’s in one of his “I suddenly lost the ability to judge computing-related objects” phases.)
Cost, schmost – the cellular component is bulky [need at least a nano-SIM, which matters in wrist-sized things] and sucks battery like nothin’.
If it’s not tethered, at least for network access, it’s DOA in terms of battery life (and God, who wants another cellular provider/contract/bundle in their life?).
I can see utility, possibly, for one that doesn’t need to be tethered for time/alarms/contacts, of course – but for the Awesome Stuff, tethering is the only option here and now.
I believe cellular chipsets are still above $100 (iPhone 5S’s is something like $130), which is the information I based my opinion on. What is the cost of this component in regard to a ‘band?
I agree about battery life, of course. That would be the second question. On your point about the cellular carrier factor, I also agree. (Ubiquitous WiFi might reduce the pain there, particularly if they follow something along the lines of Republic Wireless.
If it’s tethered, that means “we” are going to be asked to carry and manage another device. No thank you….and I don’t think I’m alone in suffering from device fatigue.
Google’s grasp of UI is occasionally laughable and mostly indifferent.
The argument could be made that this is what the Nest acquisition is meant to directly address. But if that was entirely true, why present these half-baked non-products at all?
I saw a post about Moto 360 having a “secret charging method” which I assume would be from skin contact (a school girl built a flashlight using it), heat, or solar.
Your questions are legit and key though. There is still a lot to answer here.
SEAHAWKS!!
That sets off vague memories of another tech product that launched a while back that in their pre-launch hype were talking about a secret, novel something or other but it turned out to be nothing special at all. If only my braincells worked and I could remember the details.I do remember it being total BS.
“Secret” doesn’t really mean anything other than “I’m not telling you”… It doesn’t mean novel or groundbreaking. I would expect them to use inductive charging, but pretty much everything about the device is “secret” for now, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
True on secret. Here’s one article about the 360 charging:
“Motorola confirmed that its ambitious Android Wearsmartwatch with a round watch face doesn’t posses any sort of USB port, alluding to a “special sauce” for charging the device.
“That’s one of the secrets of the Moto 360,” said Barbara Liss, Motorola senior director of social media in an ironically late Google Hangout video conference call.”
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/portable-devices/ambitious-moto-360-smartwatch-confirmed-to-feature-secret-charging-method-1235363
Moto 360 is round. LG’s G is square.
It is up to the manufacturer to decide on the shape of the “device” [not Google].
Nope, not just mocks. It is actual software: http://www.androidcentral.com/bringing-google-now-your-wrist-this-is-the-android-wear-interface. [see videos]
They are dev videos but show you actual UI updates happening through the emulators. You can see it live if you download the bits and set them up yourself.
Sweet! Vaporware now comes complete w/ a working SDK and mobile app! #vaporware2dotO
I look forward to seeing how these devices provide a “richer experience” for people who are most likely already carrying a smartphone. (By “people,” I mean potential customers who aren’t the gadget nerds that Google habitually designs for.)
The possibilities are indeed “endless” when you haven’t solved any new problems that consumers actually have. But I suppose that’s what Google’s hoping developers will figure out.
I’m not sure what problems it may or may not solve. That is something we need more info to answer. The only one I see is quick access to app info, search, and app interactions [reply, etc].
We’ll definitely have to wait and see what the final product actual solves.