The day Android Wear went from Eclair to Froyo become – Hypertext

CNET.

I’ve always said that after the tablets, I was excited the arrival of what looked like the next trend: smartwatches. Personally, pre-2014 proposals did not convince me, because although they were pretty good, were somewhat ahead of their time. In that sense, for me Android Wear was El Salvador , and when it presented its SDK and smartwatches as the Samsung Gear Live, everything seemed fine.

But it was time to try and the experience left much to be desired a priori. Battery very low (although he later corrected), general slowness in the system disconnects smartphone, unintuitive gestures, few apps, and especially poor accessibility. Therefore, although I loved the hardware, experience for the software side seemed somewhat poor . From there I lost a little hope to see something good renovation until Google I / O this year. However, it has come a big update soon. Will he be able to solve the errors?

The autonomous clock

The Samsung Gear S approaches the idea of ​​smartwatch autonomous.

My Nicolas Rivera has always maintained that his ideal smartwatch was autonomous, ie it can take away the phone and still maintains its functions. What? With a SIM card. In Android Wear, yet we find that functionality, but it has reached the end support WiFi. This means that clock can connect our WiFi home network instead of to our phone Bluetooth 4.0 , so that the signal is increased. However, the most important is not so much that they now go notifications via Google services. As I understand it, we can go jogging without mobile wearing only the Watch, and if we care about our notifications, we can connect to a public network and answer any notification. Very good.

Organization and new interface

The interface Android Wear gestures had its good points, but in most cases, learning curve was very large and the fact that the platform does not have a quick and convenient way to launch applications frustrated the two days of use, if somewhat easily solved by installing apps and Wear Mini Launcher. With the new update, finally has facilitated access. Now the interface between Google Now, contacts and apps splits. With A tap on the clock go to the list of applications that are compatible , and making swipe towards contacts and Google Now. In practice, the fact that you can still use the clock is the most importanto step.

This section is also noteworthy to mention that, although they carry with us a long time (what memories MSN), the emoji are increasingly used, and now can make drawings to invoke , and respond so quickly. Within the needs of such a new system, I think one of the least important things, but hey, not subtraction.

Until now watchfaces remained slightly lit, with dim light (provided it was set, as well), but with the new update may be any app which overlaps the clock in the low power mode . I see very interesting that developers write apps that take advantage of the location, showing relevant and related information to the location where we are.

Finally, the new Android Wear includes the possibility of pass card in card with a slight twist of the wrist , which appreciate when we have both hands occupied. The downside that I see is that in a sense is comfortable, but the doll ends up suffering and which would be the gesture of going to the above, I find that the wrist is in a very unnatural position.

Conclusion: progress is real

Failing to prove this update Android Wear gives me that Google has not abandoned the platform and is taking it seriously, about a year after its presentation . In my review of Moto 360 said, “if we were patient with Eclair, Donut, Froyo and Gingerbread, why not be with Android Wear?”. To this day I still think, and I think the improvements are palpable. Android Wear will continue, for now, approach problems and serious application support (cuantitavivos and qualitative), but Today it is a small leap forward .

If when I tried the Moto 360 my feeling was to be testing a product up to Eclair , what I have seen has given me be the Android Froyo Wear. A system in 2010 brought one of the biggest waves of significant progress in living memory in Android. As of then, is history . Much remained to reach maturity, but was reached.