NOT-SO-SMART
TIMES AHEAD
Google
Android Wear 2.0 attempts to address the old problems of smartwatches
I FEEL REALLY bad for
smartwatches. I really do. They are small creatures, and young too – having
been born just a few years ago – so earnest, trying so hard to attract you,
trying to seduce you with their cute looks and shiny little bodies, working
overtime to make sure you don’t abandon them, trying to conjure up that one
reason why you will fall in love with them. Alas, little do they know that
their time on earth is limited. Those poor tiny little creatures are almost
dead. They just don’t know it yet!
I’m not going to bore you
with statistics. Suffice to say that the smartwatch industry was supposed to be
a 50 billion dollar business by 2020. Latest estimates have curtailed that by
70 per cent. Most people that have bought one (you poor suckers) can’t remember
where they’ve kept it after they took it off one day and forgot to charge it.
Most others who ‘always wanted one’ have taken it off their wish list. Most
brands that were supposed to introduce their own smartwatches have shelved
plans, and most that already have one have adopted a go-slow attitude for their
next version.
The saviour is supposed
to be the all new, major reboot smartwatch operating system – Google Android
Wear 2.0. It’s the most serious relook at what a smartwatch can do. It’s
supposed to correct every single thing that’s wrong with a smartwatch. Let’s
see what new magic it brings to your wrist.
BREAKING
THE CONNECTION
The coolest part of AW
2.0 is that it doesn’t need a phone to come alive. It has its own apps that
work on the watch and its Play Store, and most of the new ones will have a
built-in cellular connection. Breaking the umbilical cord with the smartphone
is the smartest move up its sleeve. It also doesn’t matter now whether you’re
on iOS or Android, the watch is a neutral, self-powered entity.
NEW
INTERACTION
The way you interact with
a smartwatch is critical. And that’s undergone massive changes now. No more
endless left and right swipes now, as pushing in the side button gets all your
apps in a semicircle. You can now rearrange your apps in that arc, with your
favourites right at the top. There’s also a bottom screen menu that has
context-specific actions.
WATCH
OUT
The Google Android Wear
2.0 is a serious relook at what a smartwatch can do (above); smartwatches today
are like cute puppies and yet no one picks them up (above centre); AW 2.0 has
made messaging less torturous (below left)
A NEW
FRIEND
Yes, there’s a proper
voice assistant now on the watch. ‘Hey’ or ‘OK Google’ will now work on your
watch. It’s not as good as the one on Google Pixel but it’s not terrible
either. It works with most accents and kind of works in a noisy environment
too.
COMPLICATIONS
AW 2.0 calls its new
watch faces complications, a term borrowed from classic Swiss watches. You can
customise any face with multiple data from third-party apps and keep multiple
watch faces ready for different uses. Just swipe to go from a night face to an
office face or a workout face.
FROM ME
TO YOU
Messaging is by far the
most frustrating thing on a smartwatch. The small screen and limited input
methods turn it to pure torture. AW 2.0 has multiple ways to reduce that
torture. There’s a keyboard, a handwriting recognition where you draw single
letters, and smart replies where responses are generated based on the message
itself.
THAT
FITNESS THING
For those who want a
watch and not just a fitness band, AW 2.0 goes all out. The Google Fit integration
measures almost anything you’re doing; it’s a great running app and an easy way
to have your music playlists run from your home screen itself.
NOTIFY
ME
Notifications are better
managed as they don’t take up the whole screen. A smaller icon comes up and all
the notification cards are behind that. Also, the notifications now have light,
less jarring text against a dark background.
All in all, AW 2.0 is a
real move forward, one that addresses most shortcomings of the previous
versions. But it’s only addressing old problems and not solving new ones.
Smartwatches are having a hard time because of low battery life and the lack of
a killer reason why someone would invest time and money into discarding their
regular watch and going with one that’s apparently smart! With all the new
features, built-in cellular connection, WiFi, apps running within in AW 2.0, I
doubt if it will have better battery life. And I don’t see a built-in killer
reason either.
·
Rajiv Makhni Rajiv Makhni is managing editor,
Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3
HTBR26FEB17
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