Saturday 22 March 2014

Developer Preview

Developer Preview

Your app’s notifications will already appear on Android wearables.
With the new Android Wear APIs you can customize and extend those notifications.

Receive Voice Replies
Add actions to your notifications to allow users to reply by voice or touch. The system delivers the text to your app on the phone.
Add Notification Pages
Add additional pages to your notification that are visible on the wearable device to provide detailed information on the wrist.
Stack Multiple Notifications
Your app should consolidate similar notifications. On a wearable, you can stack them together so the details for each are immediately available.

You can also trigger your notifications contextually using existing Android APIs. For example, use geofences to provide glanceable information to your users when they are at home, or use the activity detection APIs to send messages to your users’ wrists while they are bicycling.
See the Android Wear Developer Preview Design Principles for more suggestions on creating great wearable experiences.
 

 

 

Android Wear

Extending Android to Wearables
Android Wear extends the Android platform to a new generation of wearable devices.
The user experience is designed specifically for wearables. 



Say “Ok Google” to ask questions and get stuff done. 

Image of a Hangouts message
Get glanceable, actionable information at just the right time throughout the day.
Image showing
A wide range of sensors is available to your applications, from accelerometers to heart rate monitors.
The Android Wear Developer Preview lets you create wearable experiences for your existing Android apps and see how they will appear on square and round Android wearables.
Later this year, we’ll be launching the Android Wear SDK, enabling even more customized experiences.

Thursday 20 March 2014

When will we get it, how does it work?

It’ll be a little while before we see Wear-running smartwatches on shelves - the first are planned for mid-late 2014 - but Google is already in the process of releasing an early version of the Wear SDK to developers. For the less geeky among you, SDK stands for software development kit, and is used to produce software for any particular system.

It’s what developers will use to make Wear-compatible apps. And judging by how fast some of these developers are, it won’t take long.

Some Android watches are rounder than others
 Something one of Google’s talking heads said in the Android Wear developer demo video tells us much about how the software works. Director of Engineering on Android David Singleton said the apps are "still running on phones and tablets," but "provide richer experiences for the new form factor." The Wear part of an app sounds like it'll function a little like a plug-in for Android apps.

At present Android Wear devices are intended to be paired with Android phones or tablets. It’s just how the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Sony SmartWatch 2 operate, except this time around they’ll be working within the walls of the same system. Apps than run on a Wear device won’t – necessarily – be fundamentally separate from the apps you run on your phone.

The Google developer blog entry confirms this – Wear can use “existing Android APIs” to function. APIs are what control how apps operate within the Android system, and will be fundamental in making Wear watches feel much like your Android phone in use.
 

What is Android Wear?

Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.

Android Wear will bring us the Google watch we’ve all been waiting for (well, some of us). However, there are plenty more questions to ask about this new version of Android.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear will bring us the Google watch we’ve all been waiting for (well, some of us). However, there are plenty more questions to ask about this new version of Android.


What is Android Wear?

Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99

What is Android Wear?

Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99
Android Wear is an extension of the Android mobile operating system designed to power wearable gadgets – primarily smartwatches. Although it has just been announced, it’s no small-scale operation. Many of the biggest mobile phone brands are working with the software already.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os#fpBRiQq4mZZUI0ly.99

Is there any way to detect if the clock is round?

If I understood correctly it'll be using standard Android resources, meaning you can just put your layout in layout-circle and you're done.

Android Wear Preview app - which smartphones are compatible?

I don't think there is a device specific restriction, but according to developer.android.com
Note: The Android Wear Preview app is compatible with Android 4.3 
and higher and is not available for the Android emulator.
Edit: I think BLE is used for communication between smartphone and watch. So obviously that would be hardware restriction.

Tutorial: Android Wear with Genymotion

Hi, for people who does not have a phone with Android 4.3 or above, we can not try the Android Wear Preview. :'(
And here is a way you can try, use Genymotion Nexus 4 with Android 4.3 and it works!

  1. Setup a Nexus 4 with Android 4.3 in Genymotion.
  2. Start both the Nexus 4 and Android Wear emulator.
  3. You should first install Google Play Services on the Nexus 4:
    1. Download the zip file
    2. Drag it into the Nexus 4
    3. Reboot the device, and now you are able to install "Android Wear Preview" on Play Store
  4. Open Terminal, use adb tools:
    ./adb devices
  5. you shoud see 2 devices,
    ./adb -s [device name of Nexus 4] forward tcp:5601 tcp:5601
  6. Done!