Android Wear update will bring WiFi support and gesture control

[mountainbikermark]

There is talk that a low-power WIFI may be available and that this chip is compatible. The talk is that it would actually consume less power than BT4.0 AND provide faster connectivity and communication while maintaining backward compatibility and consistent connection. In theory, it could effectively either replace Bluetooth for the connection between it and the watch, or possibly supplement it so that BT is left to maintain the harness while WiFi does the heavy lifting.

The obvious other possibility is that WiFi compatibility would give it the ability to communicate with the internet directly, pulling feeds, emails, even possibly remaining tethered to the phone if left home. Imagine, being able to leave the phone home, and STILL being able to make and receive phone calls? The watch could connect to your headset, and the watch would be an extension of the phone WITHOUT 4GLTE but instead using the 4GLTE that's coming from your phone sitting in the charger at home, and connected to your home WIFI network.

Now do you finally see why I like my S so much? The things you're imagining now are what I have now, including 4g, a-GPS as well as Wi-Fi .
And yes IT IS VERY COOL to leave the phone at home and still be in full communication including a web browser.
Once the general masses see that AW just took a leap forward, and I'll bet the next generation of AW will have phone capabilities as well, they'll start to see what we saw last year. And without needing a Samsung phone or expensive app to make it work completely!

 

[FoxKat]

Now do you finally see why I like my S so much? The things you're imagining now are what I have now, including 4g, a-GPS as well as Wi-Fi .
And yes IT IS VERY COOL to leave the phone at home and still be in full communication including a web browser.
Once the general masses see that AW just took a leap forward, and I'll bet the next generation of AW will have phone capabilities as well, they'll start to see what we saw last year. And without needing a Samsung phone or expensive app to make it work completely!

Perhaps you misunderstood me in the past. I never said I didn't like that watch...quite the contrary. What I said was, I didn't like that it was so tied to Samsung as far as compatibility with a phone. If it were more generic in its connection to the phone I would have no issues with it at all. I realize it's a phone itself, but that's not really the issue here. It's when it's connected to the phone and how it interacts with it.

From what I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it will only work as a mate to a Samsung phone but will not participate and play nicely with another Android phone. You MUST use a compatible Samsung phone to even start the watch. Without it, you will never get past only being able to make an emergency 911 call. You can't install new apps without a Samsung phone and the Samsung Gear Manager app.

I wasn't very happy to hear that it runs Tizen, thereby being again - proprietary. Only Tizen apps will run on it. That means it will have far less support from developers than Android Wear products will.

I don't really like the square/rectangular look of it, but that's something not too difficult to get over.

My wrists are small, so that watch would look humongous on me. That's one of the biggest things I have as far as reservations for it.

I also don't like that without the proprietary base, you can't charge it. With my Moto 360, I can place it on ANY Qi charger and away she goes.

Really, there are other reasons I didn't go that route, but the biggest for me was that I don't use, don't want, have had and was disappointed with, and don't expect I'll feel differently about not wanting a Samsung phone. This gets back to the whole "make it only compatible with another product that is proprietary to our brand, so others can't benefit from it and have to buy our products only" drink the coolaide montra. Otherwise, it's a fine smart watch.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Perhaps you misunderstood me in the past. I never said I didn't like that watch...quite the contrary. What I said was, I didn't like that it was so tied to Samsung as far as compatibility with a phone. If it were more generic in its connection to the phone I would have no issues with it at all. I realize it's a phone itself, but that's not really the issue here. It's when it's connected to the phone and how it interacts with it.

From what I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it will only work as a mate to a Samsung phone but will not participate and play nicely with another Android phone. You MUST use a compatible Samsung phone to even start the watch. Without it, you will never get past only being able to make an emergency 911 call. You can't install new apps without a Samsung phone and the Samsung Gear Manager app.

I wasn't very happy to hear that it runs Tizen, thereby being again - proprietary. Only Tizen apps will run on it. That means it will have far less support from developers than Android Wear products will.

I don't really like the square/rectangular look of it, but that's something not too difficult to get over.

My wrists are small, so that watch would look humongous on me. That's one of the biggest things I have as far as reservations for it.

I also don't like that without the proprietary base, you can't charge it. With my Moto 360, I can place it on ANY Qi charger and away she goes.

Really, there are other reasons I didn't go that route, but the biggest for me was that I don't use, don't want, have had and was disappointed with, and don't expect I'll feel differently about not wanting a Samsung phone. This gets back to the whole "make it only compatible with another product that is proprietary to our brand, so others can't benefit from it and have to buy our products only" drink the coolaide montra. Otherwise, it's a fine smart watch.

Can't change the aesthetics but it can work with non Samsung phones except for using Samsung bloatware

The concept is what I meant, not the actual device. I passed on the Xoom for the aesthetics and got a Tab so I know what you mean by not liking the design so not buying the product.
Had the S had the same size screen as all the AW watches I looked at I would've passed on it. I've got a ~7" (16" biceps) wrist, wear xxl gloves so the phwatch doesn't look big on my arm.
More importantly the next update top AW looks really sweet. Now if they'll just lower the prices some.

 

[FoxKat]

Well that's certainly a step in the right direction for being more compatible. Frankly I wouldn't probably care about not having the bloatware since I don't particularly like the bloatware at all anyway. There's no question that you as a big guy can pass off the size of the S with ease. Me, if I wore it I'd look like I'm under constant surveillance perhaps as a prisoner under house arrest or something.

There is no question that as time moves forward we'll have greater choice but at the same time things will start to congeal more. I was just watching a series of personal transport device videos on Youtube, and my God, the variety in size, style, price, performance, speed, distance, charge time, agility, form factor, sitting, standing, one wheel, two, three, four, the list goes on and on. There will be a similar deflating or condensing of that wide variety of form factors and with it the creams of the crops in terms of each various feature or function will eventually begin to attract each other, join forces into devices and rise to the top. The Segway was the first, most amazing and certainly most well-thought out of all the devices in this genre of its time, so much so that it was THE device to own. Now, there must be hundreds of varieties.

So is the smart watch. First there was a few, limited in features and function, but effective in some. Then more ideas about how to blow this thing wide open. We're in the expansion phase of the smart watch space. It will get MUCH larger in the coming few years. Then, just like Android phones have, it will all begin to contract or compress and come back around to a common center, and with it will be the top performers, the top styles, the ones with the features and functions most desired, and we'll be down to several basic form factor designs, much like we are now with smart phones.

There will always be a few trying to push the bar higher and design blockbuster type new features and styles, such as the Edge from Samsung, and the Note with the Pen, but like anything, it will expand and contract as the ideas prove either more or less appealing, functional and therefor profitable.

I hope that Samsung, LG, Motorola, Huawei, Sony, and I'm sure there are plenty more I'm missing - will continue to push the boundaries and come up with new, dare I say "crazy" ideas for our futures. It's from those "crazy" ideas that come the greatest innovations. We are in an age of expansion in technology that is mind-blowing, and anyone who is alive in the timeframe from the first home computer to now and the next perhaps 20-30 years will likely have experienced the most incredible turning point in modern technology in perhaps all time, but certainly in the history as we know it.

I am excited to be in on the ground floor of this Android revolution, and going all the way back to the OGD, although I know it wasn't the FIRST Android phone, but certainly was the most influential in bringing the concept and function to market and gaining the momentum it needed to begin climbing the massive hill ahead of it. I am now just as excited to be a part of the Smart Watch revolution. I see even other possible new products that will shape and change our futures in such incredible ways. I only wish I could live a hundred more years to see things that today's science says are impossible become reality.

Anyway, forge on, Smart Watch manufacturers and Google, and...yeah, Apple too.

 

[Mustang02]

Oh if I could use runkeeper, on my watch without a phone attached...I just marry this moto 360.

 

[mountainbikermark]

That very well could happen after the GPS inside gets support. No more need to track location, etc via the phone.

 

[akhenax]

The Gear S is one of the more beautiful square smart watches on the planet. Now if they would make an Android version....

 

[mountainbikermark]

Honestly I wish they'd have stayed with AW but it is what it is. My S is more a pda/music player than anything else.
As Wi-Fi gets hold I bet you'll see more stand alone capabilities such as notes, maps, music streaming, phone calls (voip), etc.

 

[jstafford1]

Honestly I wish they'd have stayed with AW but it is what it is. My S is more a pda/music player than anything else.
As Wi-Fi gets hold I bet you'll see more stand alone capabilities such as notes, maps, music streaming, phone calls (voip), etc.

Will have to see on the music and calls. I don't think any current AW watch has a speaker. And you can't pare it to a Bluetooth headset as far as I know.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Will have to see on the music and calls. I don't think any current AW watch has a speaker. And you can't pare it to a Bluetooth headset as far as I know.

If the Bluetooth radio is already there wouldn't they just have to add the software stack? I had an old LG phone that a firmware update added a2dp (music protocol) to but I don't know enough stuff about codes and tech to know if maybe it was there already and just dormant. If it can't be added, the G and 360 are just first generations of something I'm sure will get newer models of.

 

[jstafford1]

If the Bluetooth radio is already there wouldn't they just have to add the software stack? I had an old LG phone that a firmware update added a2dp (music protocol) to but I don't know enough stuff about codes and tech to know if maybe it was there already and just dormant. If it can't be added, the G and 360 are just first generations of something I'm sure will get newer models of.

I don't know how all that works either. Might be able to be added, would be cool. I'm really looking forward to some second generation offerings.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

You can't pair it to a headset? There's an option in my watch settings for Bluetooth devices. When I tap it, it says it's scanning for devices. I know Google music will supposedly let you store music on the watch. Might have to play with my headphones later.

Sent from my Note 4 via Tapatalk

 

[akhenax]

You can't pair it to a headset? There's an option in my watch settings for Bluetooth devices. When I tap it, it says it's scanning for devices. I know Google music will supposedly let you store music on the watch. Might have to play with my headphones later.

Sent from my Note 4 via Tapatalk

Did you ever buy the JAM Bluetooth earbuds?

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Did you ever buy the JAM Bluetooth earbuds?

Sure did! They've served me well while snow blowing this winter.

Sent from my Note 4 via Tapatalk

 

[jstafford1]

You can't pair it to a headset? There's an option in my watch settings for Bluetooth devices. When I tap it, it says it's scanning for devices. I know Google music will supposedly let you store music on the watch. Might have to play with my headphones later.

Sent from my Note 4 via Tapatalk

If that's the case maybe I'm wrong. Then indeed being able to leave the phone behind would be pretty cool.