As the smartwatch concept stumbles and splutters into the public consciousness through a series of lacklustre device launches, it would seem Google is trying to come up with a way to make the idea more appealing. The word is that Google is working on a version of Android tailor-made for smartwatches.
The news comes after Samsung revealed the Gear 2 smartwatch, note the absence of the term “Galaxy” ahead of that moniker, because unlike the first Galaxy Gear smartwatch from Samsung the latest iteration doesn’t use Android – no, Samsung has dropped it for its own Tizen software.
According to reports, Google is planning to unveil the smartwatch Android software as early as Spring 2014, potentially ahead of its Google I/O conference. The same reports also reiterate earlier rumours that Google has its own smartwatch product in the pipeline and it would seem it is taking a Nexus-like approach to use such a device as the launch model for its software. It is also reportedly shopping round manufacturers to get the hardware produced, with both LG and HTC said to be under consideration.
And those rumours also say that as with the Android phone and tablet software, Google will make the Android smartwatch software available to other manufacturers to use in their own products.
It’s not clear how the new build would be different, although an obvious answer would be for it to build on KitKat’s optimisation for lower-end hardware, as smartwatches offer even less scope for flashy high-end processors due to their form factor. Other bits of speculation suggest implementation of Google’s existing app and content suite and some expansion of its always on Google Now features seen on the Nexus 5. Potentially, you may be able to say “Ok Google” to your watch to get things done. Certainly this is an idea we’ve heard before as earlier Google smartwatch rumours implied a focus on Google Now.
Google experimenting with a bespoke smartwatch build does make sense, we’ve seen the company do this before with tablets via Android Honeycomb 3.0 and subsequent builds saw the software rolled together with the smartphone builds and made adaptable across different form factors. The only issue we have with all of this is it’s coming from a site called Android Headlines which doesn’t cite a source for the information, so take it all with a good dollop of salt.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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