Android Wear App updated with new design and features

Google has announced updates for its Android Wear app which is now available on Google Play Store. Android Wear is Google’s operating system for smartwatches. Google had earlier announced a major Android Wear firmware update which includes Wi-Fi support, always-on app support and other usability upgrades. Your smartwatch will first have to receive this firmware update for some features of the new Android Wear app update to take effect. The firmware update will be rolling out for all the Android Wear smartwatches starting with LG Watch Urbane.

The new Android Wear app update comes with several changes to the settings of your smartwatch.  General settings will be just a click away and through them, you will be able to block notifications and choose which calendar you want shown on the watch. You can adjust settings to show card previews. Your watch will remain always-on although its battery life may decrease somewhat.

In the settings, there will also be a new “Cloud Sync” feature which you can opt for, but it will work after you have installed the latest firmware on your Android Wear watch as it will enable Wi-Fi connectivity on it.  If you enable the Cloud Sync feature, you can receive notifications and also search even though your watch may not be connected to your Android phone via Bluetooth. If you disable Cloud Sync, the Wi-Fi connectivity will be turned off on all the Android devices you have. On turning Cloud Sync again, your watch will get back its WI-Fi connectivity.

You can install the Android Wear app update on your Android phone through Google Play Store.

Android Wear App updated with new design and features

Sony teases Android Soft Keys that will be introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop

Sony has already confirmed that it will be releasing the new Android 5.0 Lollipop update for its latest flagship Xperia Z3 next month. Now it looks like the Japanese electronics giant is also going to release some new Android on-screen soft keys too.

Sony has been using the same custom soft keys on its devices for some time now but these keys are set to get an update with the Lollipop. Sony recently released an update to its Movie Creator app for Xperia smartphones. The company teased these new Android soft keys in the screenshots showing features of the newly updated Movie Creator app. Looking at the screenshots, it can be seen that Sony has not adopted Google’s Android soft keys totally. The back button and the recent app button have been retained but Sony has tweaked the Home button. The original round outline of the home button has been changed to the outline of a home. Well, now no one can mistake what it stands for!

          

Since Sony will begin pushing the Android 5.0 Lillipop updates to its Xperia Z3 family in February, those having Xperia Z3 devices will soon see these soft keys on their handsets along with a multitude of other new features and performance enhancements that come with the new Android version.

What do you think of Sony’s new soft keys?

Source Xperia Blog

Sony teases Android Soft Keys that will be introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop

Google’s Android Wear Lollipop Update is here with new watch faces, easier navigation, brightness boost and more

As we had reported yesterday, that Android Wear Lollipop could hit on December 10, it did. Google has announced the Lollipop update for Android Wear as rumored and it brings with it a number of features including the official Android Wear Watch Face API, better access to settings, screen brightness and much more.

Most of the rumored features have found a place in the updates such as retrieving dismissed cards, showing of recently used actions just by tapping the watch face, quick modes for screen brightness and sound and easy viewing of battery and storage information. The Sunlight mode will increase the brightness to a maximum while the theater mode will keep the screen off and mute the vibrations.

There are some new changes too, that were not included in the rumors. One is the change in the action carried out with the swipe-down gesture. Earlier, a short swipe would show the date and battery info while a full swipe would mute the watch. In the new update, swiping down will show the quick settings menu that will allow you to change notifications and brightness settings. All the notifications can now be muted directly from the watch instead of the smartphone as before.

The most important in the update is the inclusion of official Android Wear Watch Face API. You can choose from a wide selection of watch faces available on Google Play and many other enhancements. Watch faces in Google Play will be available under a new section and include Pac-man, Despicable, Plants v Zoombies, Google Santa, Porche as well as those from designers like Hugh Turvey, Rebecca Minkoff, Craid Ward and many more. Android Wear app in the smartphone will also be updated to make it easy for browsing, downloading or swapping watch faces.

The new Watch Face API will be available to developers who can create more watch faces. Google recommends developers to update their apps on Google Play only after the roll out of Android Wear 5.0 API 21 OTA is over because otherwise a watch face that needs API 21 will not be visible in a watch that is running API 20. Google also warns that support will be removed for watch faces not using the official API by 31 January 2015.

According to Google, both the updates will roll out over the next week. The Lollipop update will roll out for all the six Android Wear devices.

Here are a few watch faces:

 

Source Android Official Blog, Android Developers Blog

Via PhoneArena

Google’s Android Wear Lollipop Update is here with new watch faces, easier navigation, brightness boost and more

Google Play Store Ascending

As the title suggests, Google Play Store is doing some improvements with its pages. Pages are being updated as I am sharing you this. Google has announced the coming of Android L prior to this about a month ago. Certain changes are expected on this new Google Play Store 4.1.13. But the thing is would this new experiment of a new material design work? Would it be user-friendly and not solely concentrated on the design?

The main page has not been updated. I can’t disclose yet if it is their intention to keep it that way. The most remarkable changes took place in individual content pages for apps and other media. What other alterations to expect in the user experience? Now, once you tap an app description, it expand full screen instead of the section enlarging like how it used to. The Changelogs app is also relocated if you haven’t installed the app, but remains the same position for already installed apps. And video trailer of certain applications, it will go over the top of the page. If you quite familiar with the old version of Google Play Store, you can easily notice these changes. The dedicated share button is now beside the +1 button. There are improvements in UI too.

The Android L is rumoured to be wholly released this fall, so until then we can still expect for changes in Google Play Store. What can you say about the updates for the Google Play Store? Is the navigation favourable?

Google Play Store Ascending