Moto 360 Smartwatch Is Back

According to media reports, a new Moto 360 is about to be released: After more than four years, a smartwatch with a well-known brand could come on the market again. The name is only licensed by Motorola, the actual manufacturer is unknown in the industry.

The first Moto 360 came out in 2014 and was the first Android smartwatch with a round display. A year later, Motorola had presented a second version. Since then, Motorola has not had a smartwatch. The new model should be based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 3100, have 8 GB of memory and 1 GB of RAM.

The operating system Wear OS is to be used after the first Moto-360 watches were also shipped with Google's wearable operating system. On previously available images, it can be seen that the clock has no more incision in the lower area of ​​the round display - one of the criticisms of the otherwise positively received first Moto-360 smartwatches.

The clock is not from Motorola, but an unknown licensee

The watch is not made by Lenovo, the parent company of Motorola. Instead, the company eBuyNow has secured the brand name. The manufacturer is relatively unknown but is said to have worked with Motorola in the development of the new smartwatch.

The new Moto 360 should cost 350 US dollars or 340 pounds. Whether the wearable also comes to Germany, and how much the clock should cost in this country, is currently not known.

Google Keeps An Eye On Fitbit

It looks like Google is getting ready to head into the wearables business. Both Reuters and CNBC are reporting that Google-owned subsidiary Alphabet has bid to buy Fitbit, a maker of smart bracelets and watches.

According to Reuters, which initially published the news, negotiations are not over yet - and it is still unclear how much Alphabet is willing to pay. That said, CNBC reported that Fitbit's shares grew 27% after trading was announced, reaching a market value of $ 1.4 billion.

The news is no surprise if you are paying attention to the market of physical activity wristbands and smartwatches. Although Fitbit does very well in the United States with its bracelets - so the term Fitbit has become almost synonymous with the category - the company doesn't do so well with smartwatches. The company paid Pebble money at the end of 2016, but Ionic, its first smartwatch, was a little lackluster. And while Fitbit was most successful with its second smartwatch, the Versa, Reuters reported last month that Fitbit was considering a sale after a 2019 revenue forecast cut, partly due to disappointing Versa Lite Edition sales.

Meanwhile, Google has been quietly expanding its “capital” in the smartwatch business. Earlier this year, the company bought Fossil's technology division for $ 40 million, as well as part of its development and research team.

Before this month's Made by Google event, there were many rumors that Google would finally release the long-awaited Pixel Watch. In the end, that didn't happen, but Google made a lot of noise about “environmental computing” - the idea that you should access Google services wherever you are - at the event itself. A smartwatch fits those ambitions perfectly.

At this point, however, Google lags far behind competitors such as Apple and Samsung in smartwatch software. Despite many improvements in the past and Qualcomm finally upgrading the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip, Wear OS is still not great. It's not like Fitbit OS is so robust, but Fitbit has something Google wants: lots and lots of fitness data.

Of course, Apple has a lot of data thanks to Apple Watch - and it will get more from Apple's upcoming health studies - but Fitbit has been in the game for a long time. Besides, by the end of 2018, the company had 27.6 million active users.

On top of a loyal user base, there is also plenty of data covering demographic information, health metrics such as heart rate and sleep data, and more sensitive information, such as when a woman last menstruated or her last sexual encounter. Apart from the fact that Fitbit has recently added voice assistant features via Alexa in Versa 2, it's not hard to imagine switching to Google Assistant.

While there have been reports that Pixel Watch may turn out to be an analog-hybrid, it could be easier for Google to develop with Fitbit and Pebble technology than to build one from scratch on a platform that no one seems to love ( Sorry, Wear OS, but it's the reality).

We'll have to wait and see how all this happens, but if Alphabet buys Fitbit, Pixel Watch might look a little more familiar than originally thought.

WatchOS 6 Gets Its Own App Store!

Apple makes WatchOS 6 standalone. In the future, apps can be installed and run directly on the Apple Watch. There are also new fitness features and better support for streaming apps.

The upcoming WatchOS 6 will have its own App Store to install third-party apps directly on the Smartwatch. The connection to an iPhone is no longer required. It should also be possible to buy apps directly from the clock and app updates are made directly from the clock. Besides, Apple introduces an API that allows other providers to program apps for the use of streaming services.

With the new version of WatchOS comes a series of new dials that provide more information than before. These dynamic dials allow direct access to specific apps, contacts, or information to make them more convenient than before. Besides, acoustic signals can be played at any hour - just as digital watches from the 1980s have been able to.

With WatchOS 6 comes a calculator app, an app for voice memos and listening to audiobooks. Besides, new functions were integrated around health. The activity app, which shows more statistics, has been extensively redesigned. With a cycle tracking app, women can log their menstrual cycle and read the expected time for the next period and fertile periods. The cycle tracking feature will also be integrated into the Health App in iOS 13.

Those who spend more time in loud environments should be warned with a new noise app. The app measures the noise level in the environment and shows the user when it is very loud in the environment and thus the hearing can be adversely affected. If necessary, the app can continuously measure the noise level in the background and tell when a value of over 90 decibels is measured. To do this, the microphone of the Apple Watch turns on again and again to measure the volume. Apple promises that this will not be recorded by voice.

Apple wants to bring WatchOS 6 in the fall of 2019 on the market. For developers, there is a pre-release version of WatchOS 6. The new operating system will appear for the Apple Watch models Series 1, 2, 3 and 4. The first Apple Watch will not receive the update.