techcrunch: Google brings interactive watch faces and Google...

techcrunch:

Google brings interactive watch faces and Google Translate to Android Wear. You’ll be able to install interactive watch faces that allow you to pull up more information and launch apps with a tap right from the watch face.

Google Translate on Android Wear supports 44 languages and works with the built-in microphone in your watch. You simply speak into the watch, flip your wrist, and out comes the translation. Translate will automatically recognize what languages are being spoken.

Click here to read more on the update.

It’s funny that people think this is like new or innovative… This is literally what Apple did in watchOS with “complications” …

via Tumblr http://bit.ly/1NHqoYG

Smartwatch rant

Fair warning: I jumbled all of my thoughts here into one mega paragraph.

Android Wear is better software than what we know of running on Apple Watch, but that's not going to matter in the near future. Apple Watch is a far more elegant solution hardware wise, and that's what most people are going to care about. Every existing Android Wear smartwatch makes some sort of design sacrifice, whereas the biggest/only gripe with Apple Watch is that it is square (which I honestly don't think is a problem, and may actually be part of the solution). Android Wear watches are also universally too big, meaning that their appeal to women is extremely negligible. Android Wear watches are also not uniformly customizable in the way that Apple watch is. Sure, you can get some models in different colors, and some offer interchangeable bands, but the former isn't that great of customization, and the latter isn't incredibly user accessible. Apple's solution is elegant; they make tons of different colors and styles of great watch bands, and users can swap them easier than they change phone cases - no tools required. 

Let me know what you think in the comments. 

Apple Watch is clunky, but...

Apple Watch is clunky in it's first iteration, and I will absolutely support anyone making that argument. The thing about Apple Watch, though, is that in spite of that clunk, it's reimagining what a watch is and should be while at the same time retaining key attributes of watches as they are. In a very real sense, it's the iPod of the wrist.

Android Wear is a great platform, and I kind of want an Android Wear watch. I'm sure that the next round of Android Wear watches are going to be really good, and the platform will continue to grow. Google (and OEM's) did a really great job of adapting Android to fit our current idea of a smartwatch. Motorola did an awesome job of fitting that into a modern round watch.

But that's the problem: they fit smartwatch technology onto a watch.

The Moto 360 is a round touchscreen with a leather strap, so it looks like a regular watch, and it behaves like a smartphone. That's the definition of a smartwatch right now. And that's great.

Apple Watch, on the other hand, is something different. Yes, it's still a touchscreen that delivers notifications, and it still has a strap. The complaint is that it's not a round face, so it's a little more phone than watch. But Apple Watch isn't trying to be a normal watch; most people don't wear normal watches right now. The interface is gross, I agree, and I'm not sold on the contacts button or the crown, but it's trying.

The crown is a new way to interact with devices which is reminiscent of watches of the past, but does something completely different. Most of Apple's bands reimagine the traditional clasp mechanism into something far better and more modern. Most importantly, Apple want their watch to do something, rather than the notification hub with other limited features that Google is pushing with Android Wear. Wear is still a good platform, and it's far more sophisticated than Pebble, but Apple Watch is doing a better job reimagining what a smartwatch is than either of those platforms.

In fact, one might even say that Apple Watch isn't a smartwatch the same way that iPhone isn't a smartphone. iPhone is an iPhone. Apple Watch might just be its own product category.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments. This was literally a stream of consciousness writing (zero editing) so let me know if I even make sense.