Android Wearables: Developer Preview | Hacker News Reader

Android Wearables: Developer Preview

developer.android.com

113 pointsdeepblueocean29 comments

Looks like they're taking a lot of what they've built for Google Glass, and moved it to a watch form factor, which should give it a much better chance of success.

I personally have been wearing a pebble for over 6 months now and it's one of the best purchases I've ever made. I don't see myself ever not owning a smart watch again and I'm really excited to see what Google can do with this.

It seems like they could form a single standard customizable platform for "heads-up android" devices that emphasizes minimal/no touch, voice-control, compact display, slaved to a full-featured Android phone. Then you could apply it to all kinds of devices - glass, watches, a dash-mount, a bike-mount, etc.

"it's one of the best purchases I've ever made" <- can you please elaborate on this? I'm considering one of these as well, but I'm curious what you're actually finding most useful about it.

I don't have one, but what I've heard is that not having to take your phone out to check why it buzzed is a really nice change. It stays in your pocket unless you want to actively use it.

I don't either, but I can definitely see that. I've been using Pushbullet to send notifications to Chrome and I can only see it being even more useful when I'm not using a PC.

I love my pebble - it has changed the way I use the information available on my phone for the better. Below are some reasons I find it useful/fun and which onboard/Android app I use.

(Builtin/Glance) Receiving text messages on your wrist (and having custom preset replies) is great. Especially when you are on the move, commuting, in company or a meeting. It does take some time to know how to look at your phone without seeming like you are being rude and checking the time - but my acquaintances know what I am doing, and like my phone, I know when not to react to incoming notifications.

(Glance/Tasker) The Glance app with Tasker allow you to make a button on your phone interact with literally anything your phone can. Send an API call to a remote server, silence the phone, send an sms with your current lag/long in a google map link all withing two button presses. It's insane.

(PebbleDialer) lets you see who is calling and mute, hang up, or pick up. Also great when you are commuting with a headset.

(PebbleBike) is like having a bikecomputer on your hand, but whenever. And it stores your trip. If you are interested in the 'social' aspect then Strava and RunKeeper are meant to work too.

(Builtin) The built in music app is fantastic if you don't have a headset, or need to know the music - but really, it is bloody amazing when you are at home and playing music through your phone (or have your phone linked to XMBC!) and need to pause or wish to skip tracks.

(Glance) I never lose my phone around the house. Two buttons and the volume goes to full and it plays a soundfile.

(Tasker) My phone is unlocked while connected to Pebble with bluetooth, and locks otherwise (except on home wifi)

(Glance) The weather update is actually great. "What's the weather outside?" can be answered with a glance at your wrist.

(Glance/Tasker/SoundHound) Knowing what song is playing without fiddling with your phone at the pub is good. Most impressive is that SoundHound can recognise songs while the phone is in my pocket.

For me, it has also meant that I am not checking my phone constantly for new emails. In fact, now I only have particular filtered labels from gmail sent to my watch, and the rest do not even notify.

Most of the good 3rd party apps are free, but accept donations which I've been more than happy to contribute to.

I can live without it, but a year on I am still enjoying it immensely.

Ya, I would pretty much echo all of this.

I used to almost always pull out my phone all the time, either when I felt a vibration, but it was just some spam notification that didn't matter, or I just thought I felt a vibration, or I was just checking if I had gotten any notifications. Now I can just take a quick glance at my wrist, and leave my phone in my pocket. I'm also almost never late with seeing texts/messages/emails, which means I can respond to them more immediately.

Only problem is, while the software may be mature at this point, the HW just isn't there. These bulky watches aren't going anywhere. Same for glasses.

These devices will become widespread when they'll come in sizes comparable to "analog" offerings and, crucially, when we'll start seeing products thought by designers instead of engineers.

Those look like designers to me:

http://moto360.motorola.com/

I thought Google sold Motorola to Lenovo. Anyone knows why it still says - Google Company?

The sale is still pending government body approval.

Yes they do... but not watch designers. Really, look on some current watches - Omega Speedmaster Professional ("moonwatch") or Rolex Submariner or some IWC watches. Moto 360 looks decent, but it looks like it was designed by mobile phone designers, not watch designers.

It's really a matter of taste! I wouldn't wear a single watch you mentionted. Watch design shouldn't be about showing off your wealth but about unobstrusive design, much like the Braun watches do for example. http://www.braun-clocks.com/watch/BN0024WHBKG

I wonder how successful it would be to build it all into a candy bar phone with one of those ancient number pads on it.

Problem is ... I suspect that the Wearables SDK will be another case of Google launching proprietary libraries on Android. I have no problem with proprietary, but a lot of people think that because it's Android, it is open. It isn't. Core Android gets slimmer, Google's tie-in to your business gets fatter (unless you re-write their APIs). As an example, developers followed the location APIs in to the Play SDK ... switching from an open, core API to the Play API without fuss. It's creep if you ask me.

While true, Google has made a big mention of pointing out that everything in the Play SDK leverages their cloud, and that they make all the APIs that can't inside of AOSP.

You can still geolocate inside AOSP, it just isn't as efficient as getting the location Google already has for the user in their cloud.

Stuff like the new Printer APIs and the new Storage APIs are solid evidence that Google isn't closing up Android. Only opening it further and making it more useful for everyone.

Developers followed location APIs to Play SDK because it was more efficient. Better for battery, and faster. Who wouldn't make that switch?

I agree with you, I made the switch myself. My point is that rather than enhancing the Android core, many of these closed APIs seem locked down soley to give Google more data, ie when that key API has the potential to be a data broker.

But since it's their internal infrastructure they can't not lock it down. Anything that is cloud-based has to be locked down. If at all possible, APIs for interacting with cloud-based services should be put into AOSP.

Intuitive, form-conscious interfaces are definitely needed, but I think the hardware problem is the biggest hurdle facing wearables. Especially the battery design. I own a Pebble, and there is something significantly different about how I look at charging it... and that's with them doing everything they can to eek out battery life. This necessitates e-ink, accelerometer-based backlighting, etc. Having a beautiful display usually means abysmal battery life and an need to shake/touch your wearable every time you want to interact with it.

This. I'll get properly excited when I see battery life for these things. I suspect there's an ugly surprise lurking there. Already that Moto looks ever so slightly too thick for me to not care. Now watch when it gets 4 hours of battery life.

I note that neither of the guys talking on the video (including one who wears spectacles) is using Google Glass. Also that the most prominently displayed information on the "watch" is the temperature. Now, I can understand time not being front and center, but...

Sorry, Google - photorealistic renderings and simulations are not allowed on Kickstarter...

Oh, you're not trying to sell us that cool watch?

Well, somebody will have it up on Kickstarter soon. Probably using your slick video, too.

EDIT: Looks like the watch is real (Moto 360), and is coming this summer: http://moto360.motorola.com/

Attempts at making watches do more:

Calculator Watch - 80s/90s -Enjoyed sucess in still produced

Game Watch - 80s/90s - pretty much non existent now

Radio watch - http://www.in-ovation-products.com/images/gadget_sports_radi...

TV Watch - Too young dont know what happened to these

Remote Control Watch - dont know if it ever caught on but it was fun to use it to screw with substitute teacher when playing videos

i think the same argument cud have gone for "making mobiles do more" in the pre-iPhone era. That "the idea is good in theory, but practically all implementations/executions suck"

It's interesting that (unlike Google Glass), they are going out of their way to attach this to "Android". So the question is, is all the code for this going to fall under the same license as AOSP? Will it be part of AOSP? Or is there no code as such, just a bunch of APIs, and the OEMs are going to create proprietary implementations from the ground up? Does it imply the watches are going to be running Android, or can they run any OS as long as it supports the Android Wearable API set?

Might be a bit like Google Play where it becomes a super-package on any Android OS, integrating apps with the API and while giving the apps functionality also feeds Google with data.

Watches are jewelry. Because of the "social-classy" value of these products, I do not think that adding them some geeky features will find a real market.

Because we can't be geeks who like to wear beautiful things? Maybe you are not the target market - and that's fine. But I'm willing to bet there's a fairly large group of people who combine geekdom and fashion. (Viz. the amount of fashion startups)

Most of my friends aren't tech people, and most of them own iPhones because they like the way they look and feel. One of them just swapped to a Nokia because she liked the colour. Phones are jewellery for a lot of people, they're all roughly functionally equivalent anyway. Why not smartwatches?

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