The Lenovo Smart Clock was one of the simplest ways for you to get started on a smart home ecosystem. Right next to Google’s NEST speakers, the first iteration of the Lenovo Smart Clock is the best smart home peripheral you might be able to put on your nightstand. It does not look totally invasive as a home tech; it looks like a regular bedside clock. It is also powered by a Google Assistant. How could the Lenovo Smart Clock be better?
Lenovo has the answer to that in the new Lenovo Smart Clock 2 though. If it is not obvious enough with the naming scheme, the Lenovo Smart clock2 is the follow up to the original Lenovo Smart Clock. It shares all the great design cues that made the Lenovo Smart Clock a great one. Lenovo added a few more things to make it even better though.
Source: Lenovo
The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 still has a 4-inch display. This time though it is an LCD display that you can use to display your photos and clock. It even has a night mode that turns down its display brightness just enough that it does not hurt your eyes when you see it first thing in the morning. While the display remains the same size, the entire device got a bigger compared to before though. That also means that it stands a little more upright than before.
While it is also still powered by a MediaTek processor that you find on the previous Lenovo Smart Clock, the larger body allows Lenovo to hide 3W front-firing speakers just below the display. The new Smart Clock 2 rocks a 1GB RAM to work with Google Assistant and to display your gallery. With 8G of storage, you can even store some music in the clock alongside photos you want to display.
Like the original Lenovo Smart Clock, the Smart Clock 2 does not have a camera to work with, or to spy on you. The new Smart Clock to also includes a button that a mute toggle to turn off the microphone at the back of the device. There are no USB charging ports on the clock itself though.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
To remedy that is a secondary plate dock that you can use with the Smart Clock 2. The base adds an additional wireless charging pad that sits right beside the clock. The charges at up to 10W, which also means that it should quickly charge your smartphones, including the Apple iPhone. The base also adds a USB-A port behind the entire clock assembly for wired charging too.
The Lenovo Smart Clock 2 will be available globally September 2021 onward. It will be available in three colours – Abyss Blue, Cloud Grey, and Shadow Black. It will retail for US$ 89.99 (MYR 373*) onward. There is no word on whether we will see the Lenovo Smart Clock 2 coming to Malaysia though.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.14 as per xe.com as of 28/06/2021
Android 12 is undoubtedly the most anticipated Android operating system (OS) to date. It is not too difficult to see why it gained its popularity. Despite all the excitement though, it will be a few months before we see Android 12 coming to Android smartphones in full force, especially smartphones that comes with manufacturer skins like Samsung.
If you cannot wait to try out the new interface though, you can always go ahead and work with the Beta version of Android 12. If you have a device that supports Android 12 Beta as well, you are in luck because Android 12 Beta 2 has just been released. On Android 12 Beta 2, you are also one step closer to working with the full Android 12 that is supposed to come in August 2021 or so. But what is new on the second Beta version of Android 12?
Privacy Dashboard
Source: Google
Google talked about the Privacy Dashboard in their Google I/O 2021 keynote. Privacy is more important than ever in today’s world. Manufacturers and developers alike are putting more emphasis on privacy as well than ever. They are also giving more control and power ever to their users.
This Privacy Dashboard is one of them. It gives you more control and visibility over what hardware are being used by different apps and what access different apps have on your device. The dashboard can also help you understand the way and why apps need access to certain things on your device.
Mic and Camera Indicators
Smartphones are terrible at telling you that certain things on your smartphone is being used for something. While the Privacy Dashboard does add a little more control and transparency, it is also important to know when something is being accessed or used. It is especially true when it is your mic or camera that are being used. With the new indicators, users can easily and quickly find out which apps are accessing either the camera, or the microphone, or both in real-time. You can also easily and quickly bar the access of mic and camera in that case.
Mic and Camera Toggles
To completely block off any access to your Microphones and Cameras was virtually impossible on a modern smartphone before this. With Android 12, you now can. That feature is now available to play with in Android 12 Beta. You do have to go through some checks to see if your device supports the function or not. Once you turn off access to the mic and camera though, no apps can access both functions at all.
Clipboard Read Notification
Clipboards is naturally something we put out of our mind. It is the list or a collection of texts or things we copied from websites, notes, documents, and anything as such. Android 12 Beta now notifies you if the clipboard is being used in a particular app. A toast will appear at the bottom of the screen each time a clipboard item on another app is being accessed or read by the app you are currently using.
Simpler Connectivity Options
Source: Google
The networking page and access has been completely redesigned on Android 12. One of the primary focus on Android 12 is its intuitiveness. They completely overhauled the network connection screen to do just that. You can now switch between their network providers and WiFi easily and quickly. The new Internet Panel also allow users to quickly troubleshoot network connectivity issues.
Android 12
Android 12 was announced, and its first Beta launched at Google I/O 2021. The new platform is expected to fully release by August 2021 onward and partnering manufacturers will release their own versions of Android 12 soon after. Google’s Android 12 also features one of the platform’s largest visual overhaul in its history. The platform now features something they call Material You in their design language. The UI is designed around more personalisation and more intuitiveness than ever. Find out more about Android 12 on our release write-up here, or you can also visit their website for more information on Android 12 Beta 2. At the same time, you can visit the Android 12 Beta devices page to find out if you have a compatible device.
Google I/O happened last week and there was a lot to take in and dissect even from the two-hour long keynote to kick the Google’s 2021 developers conference off. We highlighted our favourite moments and things that we learned from Google I/O 2021. What caught our attention this year was their WearOS partnership with Samsung announcement. Android 12 is getting a huge visual revamp too this year. At the end of the show, something else caught our attention, and that was the Project Starline.
Google’s Wear OS is about to get a revamp and overhaul thanks to their new formed partnership with Samsung. This also means that Samsung will be ditching their Tizen OS development and focus on developing Wear OS with Google. Funnily enough Fitbit is not really getting involved. While they spent a very small amount of time making the announcement, there is more to Wear OS and Samsung’s involvement than Google made it out to be though. Fitbit is also not entirely out of the picture at this point.
We also saw the new Android 12 with Material You design language. The UI is cleaner, more intuitive, and even more customisable now. It is technically more YOU, more personal. You can change your theme colours to fit YOU. You can tune certain UI features to YOU. It is even more personal too with a Privacy Dashboard. You can even turn off your camera and mic completely if you want to; even your camera app will not be able to access both functions.
Project Starline was amazing. In brought to life a concept that we though will never see the light of day until way later. The whole pandemic situation has isolated us even more, and with conditions expected to take a turn for the worse in the coming year, physical connection to other human beings is sorely missed. Project Starline is as close as you can get to a physical touch and interaction to others at this point of time. To be fair, the technology is still in its early development stage and brings 3D and holographic telecommunications to life. It was encouraging and exciting to see, but we wonder how practical it would be if you want to bring that kind of technology to your homes or offices.
Android is currently the most popular mobile operating system (OS) in the world. At least 72% of the entire smartphone market in 2021 runs on Android. That is also mostly because there are so many Android offerings out in the market that fits almost all sorts of budget.
There is also another good reason why Android becomes the OS of choice for plenty of enthusiasts. The fact that no two Android devices looks and feels the same is one of them. You could put a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra beside another similar device with similar colour option but when you pick them up, they could feel completely different in terms of its interactions and layout. If you are its owner, you know which one of the smartphones is which the moment you pick it up. Of course, there is the fact that you cannot unlock the other smartphone.
Android 12 is not the largest update in terms of added feature on the user interface (UI), technically. It is the largest though in terms of visuals. The concept for the 12th major iteration of Android, as Google puts it, centers around You.
They call the new design language Material You. That also means that the design language is not entirely different from before. It is technically an evolution of the older Material design language. Thing is, it is not like the old Material design felt dated in 2021. Its simplistic and minimalistic language still does well enough in 2021, and we think beyond.
Still, Android 12 is coming and here are the major changes we think you might like; at least we like the changes.
More Personalisation
Source: Google
Colours turn out to be everything in our lives, and that includes our smartphones. We all wanted dark mode at some point in the past two years. Admittedly, Dark Mode looks sick and made our smartphones look extra sleek. But it does get a little boring when everyone starts doing the same things.
Adding some colours is a way to go to make your device even more unique to you other than having different home screen layouts. That is what Android 12 is, colours for your life. The UI can cleverly extract dominant colours and determine complementing colours from your wallpaper and turn your whole theme around that chosen colour. That extends even to the new widgets Material You is introducing. Of course, you can change those colours as well in the settings, if you want to have a different colour scheme for your theme. You technically can decide how thick you want your on-screen volume control knob to be too.
Better, Faster, More Sensible Animations
Source: Google
The UI is designed to be more intuitive and allow certain things to come up front and center for you. For example, picking up the device can turn your screen on, but the fluid animations can flash up according to how you pick up your device. The display might come to life from the bottom of the device up, or vice versa. It responds to touch and gestures too, apparently.
The most visible change on Android 12 in terms of animations though is on your lock screen. On Any Android device, you can view your notifications via your lock screen. You can close the notifications from your lock screen too. Once you cleared out your notifications though, Android 12 brings out your clock front and center to let you know that you are all caught up and tell you the time, obviously.
With Material You as well, Google have supposedly improved animation load times and speed by up to 22%. The development team somehow found a way to cut back on CPU loads for animations which both sped up the animations and extend battery life in the process. On top of that, the cut back in CPU reliance also means that older and lower-end devices can benefit the full animations of Android 12.
Bigger Means Better
Source: Google
A part of system designs in Material design is making things more compact, cleaner, simpler, and more minimalistic. A lof of quick access spaces and buttons are made smaller, more rounded, and take up so little space you could cram a million of them on your large 6-inch display. They sort of rolled back on that for the sack of intuitiveness and better-looking spaces though.
In Material You the notification is a much cleaner space to look at. Gone re the clutter that you might see in the current iteration of Material design. The notification page is much easier on the eyes to navigate and work with as well with a slightly larger interaction space.
You see the biggest change in Quick Settings though. Instead of little round balls that you are used to, they are now bigger buttons to work with. This not only prevents clutter, but also wrong presses when you use your device one-handed. The have added Google Pay and Home Controls button too for you to quickly access your ewallet payment gateway and even quickly control your Home IoT devices just through a couple of taps.
Privacy Dashboard
Source: Google
Transparency over data collection and sharing has been one of the most important features we look for in our smartphones today. Apple’s iOS now allows you to track each app and what they do with your data. For Android, it is a little different.
Instead of implementing app specific algorithm to identify what data is being used by each app and how, Android 12 gives you a one stop shop to understand what apps are using what and when. The dashboard allows to check also the kinds of permissions you give each app. You even can revoke access of the apps too from one Privacy Dashboard.
At the same time, Android 12 tells you when an app is using your camera or microphone. In some ways, Android 12 can help you track which apps use the two items when it does not need to as well. You can either revoke camera or mic privileges from apps via Privacy Dashboard in that sense.
There is more to that, however. You can revoke the entire systems access to both microphone and camera. All you have to do is pull down the notification bar, and then pull down again to quick access and turn off camera, or microphone access, or both. In that case, even if you launch your camera app, you are not going to see anything.
Regarding location, sometimes apps do not need to know where you are precisely. In that case, Android 12 allows you to set “approximate location” sharing with some of the apps that you feel might not need your precise location. An example of that kind of app is the weather app, to tell you what the weather is like in your general area.
And More…
Source: Google
There are more subtle changes in Android 12. To be really honest, we have not had our hands-on with the Android 12 Beta just yet, because we do not own devices that supports Android 12 Beta at this time. We are hoping that the list might expand a little more soon though. If you want to get your hands on Android 12 Beta, you can check if your devices are supported at the Android 12 Beta page.
Google I/O 2021 is happening right now. The three-day conference kicked off with a bang though. To put it bluntly, Google I/O 2021 kicked off with a two-hour keynote highlighting everything coming from Google in 2021. While two hours do sound like a lot of drag, the announcements do sound mighty interesting though.
Google Workspace for Everyone
Source: Google
They kick off with something that everyone is concerned about in the period of pandemic, working from home. For that Google has something called Google Workspace. Google Workspace has been one of the most popular and thriving services since the world has gone into isolation with the looming pandemic situation. In 2021, the suite is updated with something called Smart Canvas.
Smart Canvas is a collaborative workspace within Google Workspace built for project management and keeping track of a project with your team members. It is kind of like a private chat or conversation within the larger organisation, but much cleaner. You can create and share Google Docs, Sheets, and even Slides within the group and work on the files together in real time.
Workspace is also now integrated with Google Meet, Google Doc, Google Sheet, and Google Slides. That also means that you can have a meeting on Google Meet within Google Workspace, share your files across the chat, and even edit the files together with your team in the Meets room. It is all about making remote collaborative work as seamless and organised as possible. Google also said Google Workspace will be available for free later in the year.
More in Google Search
Source: Google
Google search can also bring contents or search results that comes from other parts of the world in different languages with the integration of Google Translate algorithm and Google Lens as well. On top of that, Google is improving their language understanding and processing algorithm that should benefit more than just Google Translate, Google Lens, and regular Google Search.
They developed something called Wavenet, to make Google Assistant sound more natural and more contextual. They put that together with something they call Multitask Unified Model (MUM). All these makes Google Search and Google Lens the most powerful search and item identification tool ever.
The technologies that got mashed together means that Google search is not just single words anymore. It could be a sentence, a photo, and even both. The results can turn to be more than just web suggestions too. The result can turn out to be top suggestions, a place, and even connect you to merchants to buy what you need. If you set up your Google wallet correctly with all your merchant memberships as well, Google can connect you directly to deals that might be tied to your memberships too. There is a bit more to that too with Google Chrome, where you can track back your shopping carts on various sites even after you close the page.
Cleverer Google Maps
Source: Google
Google Maps is technically the most popular navigation app in the world. But that does not mean the app is flawless. There is always room for improvements.
Eco and Safe Driving
For example, Google introduces an ‘Eco Mode’ into the app. That basically means Google will take you through the most fuel efficient and economical route to get you to where you want and need to be. It may not be necessarily the fastest though, just keep that in mind.
They also introduced ‘safer driving’ routes for Google Maps. Obviously, that is what we call it, not what Google calls it. The idea is to navigate you to routes that might avoid traffic with sudden braking points and overall a smoother, clearer ride. All these are obviously done with Google’s navigation algorithm, traffic analysis, and GPS data such as speed or acceleration that Google Maps itself can see and work with in real-time.
Better Live View
Source: Google
They have expanded on Live View too in this case. Google Maps Live View does not just include navigation data in Augmented Reality anymore. It now shows you street names so that you can navigate better. It also now includes points of interest, landmarks, and you can pull up information regarding a place including its reviews directly from Maps app itself. Google Maps is also introducing Live View indoors now. It starts with the major train stations and airport in Zurich for now. The feature will be introduced to Tokyo also next month.
More Details
If you are getting yourself around by driving though, Google Maps is also a lot more detailed. Major intersections with road crossings and traffic lights will now show on maps so that you are better prepared. With Google’s understanding on your behaviour, your routine, and your usual routes, Google can also highlight relevant information, landmarks, or points of interest for you. A breakfast takeaway for example, on a Monday morning drive to work.
On top of all of that, Google Maps can now be a tool to help you plan your day not just on the road. Google Maps can track or predict how busy and packed an area will be at certain times just so you do not have to squeeze into the area at that time. You could plan to go another day for example, or just not go at all if it is not important. This is important in this day and age where social distancing is a recommended practice.
LaMDA
Source: Google
LaMDA is meant to be a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google says they have been using and testing it internally and it is powered by everything great about Google’s search engine and linguistic programming. In its demo, it sounds like an amazing piece of tech that could keep you having conversations with it from day to night.
It is programmed to know everything there is to know about our current world and situation. But it is not built to answer you with data necessarily. It is built to have natural conversations about the weather in general terms like “you might want to bring an umbrella in the afternoon”, rather than “there is a 78% chance of a light rain at 2.00 p.m.”.
While the answers that we saw from the demo does sound a little metallic and robotic at times, we cannot wait for LaMDA to be introduced into things like Workspace, YouTube, or even Google Maps. It is like having your own version of Iron Man’s JARVIS in your smartphone, or PC, or whatever you fancy.
More Organised Google Photos
Source: Google
Google Photos is a little bit more than just your photo gallery now though. It is now something you can use to create photo collages, to understand yourself better, and sort of your memory bank. Google’s image recognition recognises your photo patterns and puts all of them together to tell you that you tend to take photos of a certain context or a certain look. It tells you that you might be attracted to a certain sort of colour for example.
With Machine Learning (ML) as well, Google Photos can stitch multiple similar photos taken in succession to create a moving photo or video for you, even if there are gaps. Organisation and searching for your photos are even more intuitive too when you can find photos associated to certain celebrations for example.
Android 12 and Wear OS
Source: Google
Trust us when we say Android 12 is a huge overhaul of the Android OS. There is nearly no difference in terms of function, to be fair. Most of the changes are in the way things look and gets organised, and even customised. They call all this Material You design.
In terms of looks, things are a lot more intuitive, most organised, bigger, and a lot less cluttered. You get more control in how your User Interface (UI) looks in total as well. There are supposedly about 22% faster animation, they say.
You get more control over your own security and even privacy, and they are easier to access and understand with Privacy Dashboard. With the new UI as well, IoT controls are more front and center than before. There is a new improved remote app for your Android TV too.
Wear OS is getting a fresh lease of life too, thankfully. They want to make Wear OS a major smartwatch platform competitor to Apple’s WatchOS. To do that they managed to strike a partnership with their long-time partner, Samsung to bring Tizen and Wear OS together to make a more robust wearable operating system (OS) for everyone to use. Fitbit will also be introducing their own Wear OS later in the year and lend their expertise and know how in health and fitness into the upcoming Wear OS.
Your Safety, Privacy, and Protection Matters
Source: Google
Google has also improved their Google Password Manager. While the app still functions the same as before, you can now transfer password information from older devices. That also means that your passwords can be stored on-device instead of on-cloud. With Android’s on-device encryption nature, saving your managed passwords on your device could be a more secure option. With compromise alerts, you know when your accounts are accessed, and you can easily change passwords for whatever you have quickly via Password Manager.
Privacy Core
Google also introduced something called their Privacy Core. It is Google’s effort in giving control over information shared with Google back to its users. Supposedly as well, thanks to Privacy Core, you Live Caption sessions or translations will not be shared back to Google.
But security and privacy are more than that as well. It spreads to your search history, and even browsing history. Google is including an option now to delete ‘recent history’ on your Google Chrome.
Even in Google Maps, you can tell the app to not track your location history just so that the app does not collect your location data. You can allow Google Maps to track you accurately, or just give Google access to your approximate location now, in different apps. Not allowing Maps to track your data and build a history data also means that you are not going to get recommendations or suggestions from Google though. A worthy trade off, we think, for more privacy.
Better Health, Better Quality of Life
Source: Google
Since Google’s expansion and changing their own corporate name to Alphabet, they have been hugely involved in medical research. One of the places they have been pushing on is in the field of Mammograms. Google’s AI push into the platform means that screening for breast cancer is more accurate than ever. Their AI also helps doctors in understanding Mammograms and the severity in the diagnosis helping the health institutes prioritise different cases.
That is not all though. Dermatology is one huge field that could be expanded even using your own devices. Because this field has more to do with skin conditions, Google Lens can be an early diagnosis tool. You can take a photo of your skin conditions and Google can possibly identify what you have to a certain degree. Of course, nothing replaces a doctor in matters of treatments and full diagnosis, so Google can direct you towards a dermatologist near you via your browser. This feature will be available in the EU region by the end of the year 2021.
Project Starline
Source: Google
Speaking of health, we cannot ignore the current pandemic situation. We are all recommended to stay at home as much as possible and avoid as much human interaction as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, while has brought humanity together more than ever, ironically has isolated us even more too.
Project Starline is a video chat tool that uses multiple cameras to create a 3D image model and project that 3D image to another part of the world. While that means that the file packages from that implementation are so bug that our regular internet speeds will not be able to cope, Google is working to compress the image files to a more sensible package size so that the images can be transferred using our regular internet connection.
The function of that is to implement a 3D video chat experience. While regular video chat today has progressed further than before, nothing replaces a physical presence and interaction. The idea with 3D projection calls looks to bridge that gap a little. Although you cannot touch the person still, having a 3D representation of a person is as close as you can get in having a physical presence in today’s world.
Google I/O 2021
Source: Google
To wrap up, Google announced that they are committing to shift their entire operation to carbon free energy sources by 2030. While Google has been proud of operating entirely on renewable energy, they are taking the first steps in relying on clean energy that does not leave any footprints. The commitment has led them to invest into Geothermal energy currently.
As promised by Google, the Google I/O 2021 is the largest ever. It is not just based on attendance though. It is also about the number of things that Google is introducing for 2021. It is also about Google’s commitments for the future, and we are excited, especially for Wear OS. For more information on what happened in Google I/O, you can check out Google’s Blog.
Android Wear or Wear OS as it was renamed a few years ago has been a little anaemic when it comes to updates; that is until NOW. Google took the stage at I/O 2021 to announce what could be the biggest and most important update to Wear OS: Google and Samsung are partnering to push Wear OS to the next level. The announcement confirms rumours which have been making their rounds for months.
Source: Google
The new partnership sees Samsung bring their know-how, expertise and features from their successful Tizen OS to Wear OS. As the companies put it, they are bringing “the best of their platforms together into one unified experience”. So what does this mean exactly? Well, the biggest change is that Samsung’s next Galaxy Watch will be shipping with Wear OS instead of Tizen OS. While this might seems like Samsung will be leaving their older watches behind, the company reassures its users that Galaxy Watch and other Tizen OS powered wearables will be receiving updates and support for at least 3 years after their launch.
Improvements Under the Hood
That aside, the new collaborative Wear OS approach also brings a slew of improvements that will not only be improving the user experience but also making developing for Wear OS a lot easier. The collaboration’s biggest improvement comes in its improved load time. Google is touting a whopping 30% improvement in app load times. In addition, Samsung and Google have made improvements to the lower layer of Wear OS to improve battery life. If you’ve used Wear OS smartwatches, you’d know that battery life can be an issue with them.
Source: Google
Google and Samsung have optimised background processes, making them more efficient and less intensive on the processors. In fact, processor-intensive processes like continuous heart rate monitoring have been optimised to use lower power cores to conserve power. This also opens the doors to more power-efficient features for wearable devices. Samsung has also helped with power efficiency with its bundled sensors which allow them to include more than one sensor in a single module.
More Diverse User Experience
Aside from improvements under the hood, the improvements are also creating a more diverse user experience. Manufacturers are now allowed to skin the operating system to have a more unified look across their devices. This also means that we might see slightly different experiences from manufacturers like Tag Heuer, Fossil and even Samsung will have their own design language when it comes to the user interface for their wearables. Google is expecting that the new customizability will result in a more diverse Wear OS ecosystem.
Google is also opening up more features in the OS to developers. Developers will be able to bring features like tiles to their apps. They have also integrated development for Wear OS into Android’s Development Studio. They are creating a more unified development experience across Android and Wear OS with a single touchpoint for development. Development is also made easier with Google’s Jetpack development suite which allows developers to call and implement API more readily. In addition, they are bringing Kotlin APIs to Wear OS.
Wear OS is also getting more focused on health with help from Samsung. Developers will be able to create new apps and improve their current apps with a more streamlined and simplified work flow. This comes thanks to the new Health Services platform which allows developers to retrieve data without building from scratch. Developers are able to take advantage of continuous data from the sensors and other contextual metrics without impacting the battery life of the device too much.
New Apps, Better Experience
Finally, these improvements directly impact how the OS performs and how accessible apps will be for the platform. The most direct improvements that users will be benefiting from is improved navigation on wearables. Google is bringing simple improvements like a double-tap to jump to your most recent app and even simpler swiping gestures to access your information.
Source: Google / Double Tap for Recent App
Source: Google / Tiles
Google is starting the ball rolling with updates coming to its core apps like Google Maps, Google Pay, Google Assistant and YouTube Music. The first change that will be coming to these apps is the adoption of the new “Material You” design. In addition, Google Maps will be getting better, more visible turn by turn navigation to help with using the app on the go. There are plans to take Google Maps offline. The same applies to YouTube Music as well. Google Assistant and Google Pay will be getting improvements as well. The latter will be making its way to 26 countries in the next few months while the former will become more user friendly on Wear.
It isn’t just Google that is improving its offerings. Spotify has revamped its experience on wearables; allowing users to seamlessly move on the go. The simplified interface allows users to not only control their music but also seamlessly switch between speakers and their Wear OS device. Other companies like Nike, Calm and Adidas have been working on revamping their experiences on OS. Fitbit will also join the Wear OS family. Wear OS apps will also be more visible on the Play Store with a dedicated section and recommendations.
The new Wear OS will be making its way to the market in the coming year. Current Wear OS devices find out if they are getting the big update in the coming months.
Google’s I/O is just around the corner and there are plenty of things to look forward to in Google I/O. One of them is improvements and updates to Wear OS. If you do not know what Wear OS is, it is basically Google’s perception of what a wearable interface should look like. The smartwatch OS can be found on plenty of smartwatches you can find on the market that is not a HUAWEI, or Samsung, or Fitbit, or Apple. In Malaysia, the most popular Wear OS smartwatch currently are still from Fossil.
While it is considered one of the major smartwatch interfaces you can find in the current market, contents for Wear OS can be limited. Of course, the app ecosystem for Wear OS is still growing and there are still room for improvements for the wearables that are equipped with Wear OS. Google also hardly updates or releases new apps on their own Wear OS, weirdly enough. Until now that is, with a certain GBoard.
Message the way you want to with the new Gboard ⌨️ on #WearOSbyGoogle. Multiple ways to message like voice, QWERTY keyboard or gestures ✔️ Enhanced suggestions and corrections ✔️ Multi-language support ✔️
GBoard is a keyboard, yes. In fact, it is one of the most popular and most loved keyboards in the world of Android. Some of the best and most popular Android smartphone sports GBoard as their default keyboard, that is how good it is. Wear OS also sports Google’s own default keyboard on the platform that has not been updated until now.
Previously known as Google Keyboard, GBoard gets a new update that borderlines a makeover of the app on Wear OS. The new Wear OS still retains the full QWERTY layout but with a more streamlined and cleaner design compared to the clunky Google Keyboard of old. Of course, GBoard also retains gestures and voice input functions. They are much easier to access now though.
Source: Google
The new GBoard also still has word suggestions, except that it is now scrollable instead of a drop-down menu. That makes word suggestion a lot more accessible and much more intuitive to work with. The word suggestion bar is also your quick access to input methods now. To allow for a bit more space and accessibility on the keyboard, the language toggle is now moved to the spacebar instead of a dedicated language button.
The update for Gboard for WearOS should be a huge welcome for the platform and its users. The platform, since its 2.0 release five years ago, have stagnated a little. Its last update was a minor update to version 2.23 with minute changes to improve its connectivity support and battery life mostly. Wear OS is expected to receive a major update in the upcoming Google I/O.
Google’s I/O even is set to happen on the 18th of May 2021 onward (19th May 2021, following Malaysia time). Usually also, Google’s I/O is where Google announces their latest and greatest Android version. We can safely assume that the latest update to Android (Android 12) will be announced in Google I/O with Beta version rolling out immediately after.
According to their three-day conference calendar too, a new Android update is definitely on the cards with all the talk about “What’s new in Android”, and “What’s new in Material Design” talks. But Google I/O is more than just Android. This year it really seems like Google’s biggest one yet.
According to the calendar also there seems to be a new Chrome OS lined-up for announcement with its own keynote. There is also a new update to Google Assistant in Google I/O. Smart homes ecosystem is getting some attention this year too at Google I/O with its own keynote segment. Google Play and Google Pay also get some new updates this year from Google I/O.
Oddly enough though there are no mentions of Wear OS within the schedule. While that also means that there should not be any update to Wear OS for the time being, do not discount Wear OS to be updated later in the year. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit will also not be addressed in Google I/O 2021, in this case. The Fitbit acquisition could also mean a new hardware announcement from Google in the wearable space though.
There are also numerous rumours surrounding Google’s upcoming or speculated Pixel device, the Pixel 5a. Alongside that, Google is also supposed to be announcing their new TWS earbuds in the conference. According to the schedule, there seems to be no acknowledgement on the hardware end of things. Most of the time though, hardware announcements are made in the first keynote of Google’s I/O. We are still expecting some new hardware from Google from Google I/O though. If you are too, keep your eyes peeled on Google’s I/O 2021.
You’d be wondering if anyone is still using Google Assistant – the short answer would be, yes. However, development on new features for the Assistant hasn’t been as fast as it once was – at least not as revolutionary. That seems to be changing with the a tasty update codenamed “Guacamole”.
The new update reportedly appears on the the beta version of the Google app which runs atop Android 11. Version 12.5 of the beta has a menu called Guacamole in the settings of the Google app which comes with a short description of, “Quickly get things done with Guacamole.” Needless to say, we’re pretty sure they don’t mean the delicious Mexican spread.
Source: 9to5 Google
Source: 9to5 Google
Upon opening the menu, users are greeted with another screen saying, “Skip saying “Hey Google” for help with quick tasks”. In 9to5 Google’s deep dive into the APK, they discovered that the feature will allow users to define commands where they can skip saying the activating “Hey Google” for Google Assistant. In their exploration of the APK, they found that ringing alarms can be cancelled by simply saying “Stop” or “Snooze” whil.e “Answer the call” or “Decline the call” will work for calls.
The feature isn’t really a revolutionary new feature. Nest Hub users have been using a similar feature since 2019. However, it looks like Google is looking to bring the feature to mobile devices which makes so much sense – I mean how many of us actually use our phones as alarm clocks!
There’s no real indication of when the feature will make it to the public Google app but it looks like the search giant is testing the feature with their employees. The screencaps, acquired by 9to5 Google appears to link to an internal page accessible by Google employees only.
Last year, plenty of conferences and keynotes did not happen. One of the most anticipated conferences that did not happen last year was Google’s I/O conference. We expected Google to launch a new line-up of Pixel smartphones as well in the 2020 edition of Google I/O. Of course, that did not happen.
This year is a year where all these big conferences are making a comeback though. Apple and E3 have made a commitment for an all-virtual WWDC 2021 and E3 2021 this year. They are also making the event available to attend completely for free. Google has just done the same.
Source: Google
As with any other year, Google is a little cryptic with their Google I/O conference and its event date. This year you have to solve some puzzles over in Google’s event page. They call it the punch card, and it is exactly that. With some guidance from 9To5Google, you should be able to breeze through the Punch Card puzzle and reveal the Google I/O dates.
Google’s I/O event for 2021 is also confirmed by Google’s own CEO, Sundar Pichai to be happening from the 18th May 2021 to the 20th May 2021. As with any other virtual conferences happening in 2021, Google I/O 2021 can be attended online completely free. You should be able to sign up right after you complete the puzzle for Google I/O.
We are still expecting a Google Pixel announcement out of Google I/O 2021’s keynote. Other than that, the three-day conference is filled with workshops and learning experiences. The best part of all of that, of course, is that they are all completely free. All-virtual also means that you can take your learning all from the comfort of your homes.
There are also some rumours of Google working on their own new-generation TWS earphones in the Google Pixel Buds A. Not much is known yet about the new TWS earphones from Google though. Of course, the TWS earphones will be compatible with Google Assistant and probably come with more functions than your average TWS earbuds.
As mentioned, Google I/O 2021 is happening May 18th, 2021 to May 20th, 2021 onward. The event will be held completely online, and attendance is free. The only catch is completing their puzzle.
