LG's Smartwatch Shows Android Wear Operating System Has a Long Way to Go
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
This is the impression I get, after using one for about a week. Not only does it seem rather unfinished, it's also quite buggy (some notifications never disappear, the navigation integration is basically unusable, and there was a point where I was getting no notifications and had to clear data for the Google Play Services app to get them back).
However, when it does work, it works brilliantly and I'm kind of lucky that it doesn't look monstrously big on my wrist, so I think I'm going to stick with it for now.
That seems to be how Google is doing things now. Look at Google Glass. It's listed on the Play Store as 'explorer edition' and marketed on the page not as an experimental product but as something hikers, cyclists, photographers etc. should use. It's actually quite dishonest especially considering it costs £1,000.
1. Replying by transcribed voice to Hangouts messages, including SMS, by speaking into the watch. This works even in very loud environments. That's pretty amazing.
2. Google Now notifications that I have to be on my way to my next meeting.
It's not amazing, but it is very convenient to take notes and to-dos by voice when driving, since I don't usually wear a headset all the time when driving. This is the best general-purpose voice note-taking setup I have used.
I have not found it to be buggy. To the contrary, it handles being in and out of range of the phone very well. I never have to fiddle with Bluetooth settings to get it to connect.
I'm not that keen on the round watch-faces either. While the UI might work on a round display, there is nothing about the UI that would actually use roundness in any useful way. That is, apart from analog-style watch faces, there are no other "gauge" metaphors in the UI or any other UI element that wants to be on a round display.
Also I can call someone with one button press on my car. Much less distracting, and much faster, than trying to text/email.
It feels really stupid now to think that my phone would make some kind of noise to inform me that something new happened, and that I should probably get it out and unlock it to check if this is maybe something I want to act on right now.
Android wear is smartly not about "an Android phone on your wrist". It acknowledges that your wrist is a great place to glance at information, that this is what watches have always been used for, and provides a dead simple interface for exactly this usecase.
It's the calculator apps and the pizza ordering apps (stupidly featured at I/O) that put this great product in danger of being misunderstood.
On the lockscreen, swipe left. There'll be a "+". Unlock on this screen, and you get a choice of apps to show on it (email, messaging, calendar etc). You can have several such screens (it seems, one app per screen). A long press gives allows deletion of that screen.
A heads-up display seems much more useful and convenient, solving the shrinking-display problem.
/facepalm
Please, just focus on Glass and preferably other wearable displays, so we don't need to waste a ton of money and time on something that will never be anything other than a fad.
In general mobile devices face the challenge that they can't be too large. So you will find wearables, sensors, radio beacons, and other technologies used to make the interaction "surface" larger.
Imagine a perfected version of these with an optional front cover so you only see the displays when needed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOBo05xvSVk
At this stage of development, Glass is too obtrusive and has too limited battery life. I could see some high-value enterprise apps for Glass. AR glasses are a step or three beyond that.