Smartwatches are the not that recent, yet they are still considered pretty new additions in the world of tehnology. Basically, what we’re referring to is a computerized wristwatch that does more than just tell time.
We’re talking about more than just calculations, translations and calendars; we’re talking mobile apps and tiny game platforms held by a strap on your wrist wherever you go. And yes, I guess it also tells time while you’re at it.
That’s where it all started. More recent models also run a mobile operating system and act very close to what you would expect from lower end smartphones – they are just as capable as becoming portable media players, whether we’re talking audio, video or radio, and can replace your music player of choice by connecting a pair of Bluetooth headphones to it.
Image Source: swide.com
And because that wasn’t enough, some companies have also incorporated a full featured mobile phone capability allowing you to make or receive calls straight through your smartwatch.
Of course, you cannot expect the same performance you would get in a 4GB of RAM, 2.8 GHz processor smartphone because in the end, the smartwatch isn’t here to replace your mobile phone, but it’s a very nifty, albeit situational device. A device that probably got its inspiration from the original fitness trackers (and maybe the iPod Shuffle had something to do with it as well) is now a powerful, upgraded version of it.
Main Features of Smartwatches
Also known as a sport watch, these smartwatches track your physical activity day by day using GPS and other sensors to record your training and exercise sessions. Other features that might be included in a performant smartwatch vary from cameras, SD cards, microphone, modem, all the sensors that you would ever wish for – accelerometer, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, GPS navigation, compass – all accompanied by a touch screen that helps you navigate and make use of the gadget.
A very fun feature of smartwatches is the capability of collecting information both from the outside world through sensors, but also be fed data from other devices such as mobile phones, computers or tablets. Through WiFi and synchronizing capabilities you can turn your smartwatch into a remote system to control other aspects of your tech-blessed life. All these really make it feel like the future is happening already.
Many mobile device manufacturers have already started building up reputation on this market, propelling the development of smartwatches forward at an impressive rate. Giants such as Apple, Samsung, LG and Sony are not skipping on the new trends and improving the hardware in the tiny contraptions day after day.
For example, the latest Samsung smartwatch production and part of the Android Wear line, Samsung Gear S – announced on August 28th this year – is by all means a small mobile phone by itself, featuring a dual-core 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and packing a nano-SIM in its core which, unsurprisingly, has 3G capabilities.
So now that we have a more ample overview of the milestones smartwatches have reached up until the end of 2014, let’s move on to a more select subject of attention.
Android Wear – Frighteningly Smart
If you decide to watch Google’s Android Wear promotional video you’ll be introduced to just how powerful the operating system Android Wear is offering you in less than 50 words. If schedules could talk and acted like a careful butler that is literally following you around all day to appeal to all your needs, even give out the occasional advice without you asking for it, his name would probably be Android Wear.
The software is amazingly intuitive and picks up on your surroundings perpetually, always ready to answer any question you would think of asking. The Android Wear will help you get a cab when you’re in a hurry, point you in the right direction or even tell you when you have to get off the bus when you’re heading somewhere.
You can make more of your life by always knowing how long travelling to your destinations will take, how much spare time you have left until that important meeting and even what chores or other scheduled activities you can fit in until then. Leaving your city has never been safer before, because the GPS-gifted smartwatch is now letting you know what to pack according to weather, special events or phenomena, giving you directions when you need them and packing your flight tickets and passes inside well-kept QR codes.
Image Source: bwbx.io
Keeping in touch with media, sending texts to your contacts, recognizing tunes in your vicinity and even remotely controlling connected devices are all possible through simple voice commands. Your smartwatch would wake up as soon as it heard the key phrase “Ok Google” and would swiftly respond to your queries.
Right now, the Android Wear is present on 6 models of smartwatches, including the G Watch, Gear Live, Moto 360, G Watch R, SmartWatch 3 and the ASUS ZenWatch. Thankfully, the Android software that make these devices so incredibly useful is not restricted to a single type of screen, and can work just as well on both round or rectangular ones. But let’s not get to the point where we forget the original idea that gave birth to these wonderful contraptions.
They are still watches; and just like any other watch, over the years it has lost some of its utility, becoming more of a fashion statement rather than a useful tool for the simple telling of time. Smartwatches aren’t backing off in that respect the slightest, proving that they can also look beautiful, elegant and fashionable while still being one of the smallest and useful gadgets you can pack into your daily routine.
Android Lollipop 5.0 is Rolling Out for Android Wear
The Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Android Wear platform has started rolling out and be made available on all compatible smartwatches on December 10th and will be free to download and apply to your device, regardless of model, by the end of this week. This particular update is bringing us a big number of Android Wear Watch Faces, besides the additions in terms of user experience and the watch’s utility – if what we just described didn’t feel like it was enough.
Google has made these Watch Faces available in the Google Play Store so anyone with the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop update on their smartwatch can grab them and enjoy the new faces of technology, easily changeable when you feel the need for a fresh look.
We have compiled a list of 15 of the most popular and loved Watch Faces so far, so let’s see where this takes us.
#1 Watch Face – Minimal & Elegant
This particular watch face works on both round and square displays and gives off a very stylish way of displaying the time and date as you take a glance at your wrist. It was developed by Studio eXtreme and is highly configurable in terms of color patterns and custom text, also including a feature that allows you to schedule dynamic color changes, making it a very stylish and clean design for your smartwatch.
#2 Pujie Black
Designed by Pujie, features a customizable animated black watch face with battery, date and weather indicators. Also customizable, including several settings and color, the watch face contains an optional digital clock – both 24h and 12h formats, optional analog clock hands, weather indicator, optional circular indications of the time of day, battery indicator, dimmed state and animations from dimmed state to visible state. It has over 5,000 downloads up to date and recently just received its Android 5.0 Lollipop update.
#3 Aviator Watch Face
Developed by German company Zuhanden and designed by Florian Cordier, the Aviator Watch face turns your Android Wear device into an advanced pilot watch. Basing its concept of watches used in the pioneering days of aviation, this watch face prides itself with legibility, accuracy and reliability, while also giving off a spectacular look. The features of the Aviator Watch Face include pilot watch face with superb readability, a battery indicator, date and day of the week, weather conditions, all combined in an advanced and luxurious design.
#4 Weather Wear Watch Face
This one definitely places a focus on your local weather; besides the time and date indicators on the screen, it includes a 3 day forecast – along with pressure and humidity – to keep a look on and a battery percentage indicator. All its weather information is gathered from Yahoo and OpenWeather, and gives you the ability to set the weather refresh interval and several settings that determine when your watch should vibrate to alert you of weather updates.
#5 Minimus360
Minimus360 is a very clean, very minimal watch face that incorporates style in accents of color – turning it in a very refined feeling watch. It includes a dim screen mode but not that much optimization when it comes to colors. It maintains its originally thought out design with a dark background, dark gray indicators, along with the white watch hands. The hues of red used on the sides and for various indicators give the smartwatch a solemn, dignified and professional look.
#6 Stealth360
Developed by the same company as Minimus360 – FlyingRhinoCMG – this one incorporates the same basic idea as the previous: a minimalistic look, dark backgrounds with an electric blue accent to make it stand out. The watch face features date and month along with a smooth second watch hand.
#7 Numeral Watch Face
Continuing the trend of minimal elegance, the numeral design is a beautiful, elegant digital watch with the same few-color idea that the FlyingRhinoCMG Company seems to utilize in most of their watch faces. The latest updates include a quick view status of the time, date and day, but also settings panel, color options, battery indicator and percentage, smooth second on / off option, second hand fade in after wake, European date format option, weather along with a weather sync frequency, Celsius/Fahrenheit unit options.
#8 Speeds Watch Face
The look offered by the Speeds Watch Face turns your smartwatch into a sporty time machine, uniting classic sportive design with modern smartwatch functionality. It features an iconic custom watchface with suporb readability, easy to use speedometer application, “adventurous spirit and explosive design”, and luckily works on both round and squared watches. The watch face functions are classic wear watch face, battery level indicator, numerical date and day of the week.
#9 Roto 360
Developed by Krishna Prajapati, the Roto 360 is a beautiful rotating dial watch face for Android Wear that comes in two themes – light and dark. The concept behind it was putting the minutes on a dial to match the current hour and give you a quick, intuitive way to read the time. It is a very wild idea to be applied to watch faces, and also features the date and day of the week in the center of the dial.
#10 Pure Watch Face
Brought to you by Zuhanden, Pure is a free watch face designated for rectangular smartwatches that can switch between digital and analog. It has a puristic design and turns your Android Wear smartwatch into a delightful time piece in a minimal, extremely clean manner.
#11 Rich Watch face: Theme Concrete
One of the more elaborate watch faces currently on the market and relatively popular as well is CollamoApp’s Rich Watchface. It can be downloaded and used on both round and squared watches and it allows you to set two different timezones for sub-watches. It has a multitude of color themes the white, green and dark-green coming for free, and the other being made available for either purchasing a color or a set. It also involves an energy safe theme, allowing the watch to turn to dim mode to save on battery.
#12 Planets Watch face
Zuhanden’s Planets Watchface brings the solar system to your wrist. The tiny planetarium will display rotating planets, mimicking the movement of the planets in our solar system in real time, the center of the watch representing the sun.
#13 Golden Beauty Watch Face
Elegance with a nuance of steampunk arrive on your smartwatch through the Golden Beauty Watch Face displaying gears and a steam-powered-like look to your device, displaying the time in either analog or digital format. The watch face also includes several set colors.
#14 Binary Watch Face
A watch face for the clever and awesome with a trickier to figure out way to read the clock. It has customizable color patterns, vertical or horizontal layouts and a backup digital clock to teach you how to read time in binary.
#15 Matrix
A very neat and simple theme for the Matrix series fans that will display time in a cascade of symbols and digits just like the featured program in the movies.
Image Sources: GooglePlay
Roxanne Briean
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