smartwatch

A smartwatch that lives up to expectations was elusive for decades, but in the past few years technology has begun to catch up to the dream. The commercial success of pioneers like the Pebble helped bring smartwatches to the mainstream in 2014, Samsung’s commitment to the devices resulted in multiple generations of Gear smartwatches in a single year and Android Wear ushered in the era of round-faced models like the Moto 360. 2015 looks to be even better as app stores take off, manufacturers tweak their designs and the Apple Watch arrives.

Motorola kept everyone guessing about exactly when they were going to do their official product announcements at IFA 2014, but it finally happened on Friday. That’s okay, we pretty much knew what was coming. The Moto 360 —the round-faced Android Wear smartwatch that everyone’s been talking about for the past six months— is finally official and coming to Canadian launch partner Best Buy this fall. Also announced were the next generation Motorola smartphones, the Moto X and Moto G and the tiny Moto Hint earpiece.

IFA 2014 was the location for yet more high tech announcements as Sony got in the game. Among the new products from Sony are the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (billed as the world’s slimmest and lightest compact tablet), new smartphones led by the new Xperia Z3 flagship, a new Android Wear-powered Smartwatch 3 and the SmartBand Talk fitness tracker.

The Pebble watch pairs with your smartphone to run apps right from your wrist. See that important email or text or who is is calling without having to pull your phone out.      

Sometimes two products work together so well that they mesh into an extension of one another and become that much better than either is on its own. Each might be pretty cool, but together, they becomes something special. That’s the case with Samsung’s Galaxy S5 smartphone and its Galaxy Fit fitness band. I had a week to try out these Samsung flagship devices and came away impressed with how well the two combine into what’s currently one of the best experiences out there for someone with an active, connected lifestyle.

Yesterday, Google held a three hour-long keynote at its I/O 2014 developer conference. We posted the run-down so you wouldn’t have to watch the entire thing. While some of the presentation like Cloud Debugging was a little dry (unless you happen to be a developer in the cloud app business), one section stood out: Android Wear. We’ve heard about this Android for smartwatches before of course, but at Google I/O 2014 we saw the system in action and even better, saw some of those amazing Android Wear devices that have been hinted at. The LG G watch in particular got substantial stage time. Android Wear is real, it looks fantastic and it’s coming soon!

Every year Google holds a conference aimed at its developer community. Every year a preview of the latest version of its Android mobile operating system is shown and sometimes there are some surprise appearances —like the public debut of Google Glass at I/O 2012. This year, a wicked fast and new-look Android was revealed (it’s “L” for now, with no sweet-themed name attached), Android Auto was announced for connected cars, Google Fit confirmed the rumours Google is interested in your health, Android Wear showed off awesome new smartwatches from LG and Samsung while Android TV is another crack at conquering your living room. Basically, the theme was Android everywhere. Here’s what you need to know from Google I/O 2014.

It began with a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 that successfully brought in over $300K in funding from more than 1,700 backers. Since then, it has become a major competitor in the emerging smart watch market. I’m talking about the MetaWatch STRATA, and I recently had an opportunity to take one for a test drive. 

Right out of the gate, there are 3 things to really like about the LifeTrak Zone C410 fitness tracker – it tracks your activity level and gives you detailed and useful fitness information, it measures your heart rate just by touching it, and it’s one of the easiest to use fitness trackers I’ve ever tried. It does what it sets out to do and it does it so simply that anyone, even people who find fitness watches and fitness trackers complicated, can pick up and use the device within minutes.