Today Apple has announced a few important details if you’re craving its first wearable. First off, all Apple Watch orders placed through May will be shipped to customers within the next two weeks, as the company is trying to clear its backlog. The sole exception to this is the 42 mm Watch in Space Black Stainless Steel with Space Black Link Bracelet. It’s unclear when orders of this particular model will ship.

In around two weeks from today, Apple will also finally start selling the Watch in its physical stores. You probably shouldn’t expect all versions of the wearable to be available in all stores, however. The company says “some models” will be making it to Apple retail locations, though. Read more »

While the initial batch of the Pebble Time started shipping last week, those hoping to use the smartwatch with their iPhones will have to wait as its companion iOS app, which allows users of the wearable to install software updates, new apps, and watch faces, isn’t yet available for download on the Apple App Store.

Pebble is blaming Apple for the situation, saying that the Cupertino-based company’s App Store review process is responsible for the delay – the smartwatch maker had requested an “expedited” review of the app, which was last submitted on May 22. Read more »

Xiaomi, which currently has only one wearable tech product on the market – the Mi Band, was the second-largest wearable vendor in the first quarter of the ongoing year, according to a latest report by market research firm IDC.

The Chinese company shipped a total of 2.8 million units of the wearable in the quarter, capturing a 24.6% market share. Read more »

Now that LG has launched the new Watch Urbane (which we’ve just reviewed), the Korean company seems to be ready to simply let the G Watch R go. Its previous wearable has started disappearing from retailers, and it looks effectively like it’s been discontinued at this point.

Asked about the situation, LG officials have apparently confirmed that the G Watch R is being wound down. Existing stocks will be sold, of course, but production may have already stopped. Read more »

Microsoft has updated its Skype for iPhone app to version 5.13, bringing web link previews for chat, as well as more ways to manage conversations from Apple Watch.

The updated app now shows you a preview of the content whenever you send or receive a web link, thus making it “much easier to see the cat video or information that’s been shared before you open the link,” the company said in a blog post. Read more »

At Google I/O 2015, the software giant introduced its Advanced Technology and Projects team working on a handful of next generation technologies. Google has just released a video explaining one of them – Project Soli.

Google’s ATAP team is experimenting with an interaction sensor for tracking gestures using the radar technology. With a tiny sensor incorporated in any gadget or wearable, you get to interact with the controls using different hand gestures. Those gestures are basically recorded by the new interaction sensor by estimating the speed of movement, direction, or range. Read more »

Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team is working on a special weaving technology with textile makers to weave touch and gesture sensitive materials along with regular ones to make special yarns. These yarns are woven into fabrics that can be used for making products ranging from a shirt to a car’s upholstery. Furthermore, small circuits to work closely with that material are to be smartly crafted inside such final product. Connected fabrics is the objective of ATAP’s Project Jacquard.

The regular cotton, silk, polyester or any other material will get woven with equally thin conductive metallic alloys for making a strong yarn meant to be used in an industrial loom settings. But the cloth is only one part of the connected clothing. Read more »

AT&T cut off $200 from the price of the LG G Watch R smartwatch today and you can now have it for just $99. The offer is available via the AT&T online store, but you can opt for picking up the watch in-store.

LG G Watch R runs on Android Wear and features a P-OLED circular display, elegant sport looks and a beefy 410 mAh battery. It supports smartphones running on Android 4.3 or later. Read more »

While we already know that TAG Heuer – which is one of Switzerland’s best known watch brands – is working on a smartwatch which is set to be launched in October/November this year, there was no information on what it would be called. However, that was until now, as in a recent interview with Wearable, CEO Jean-Claude Biver revealed that the smartwatch would be called Carrera Wearable 01.

“There is no other choice for Tag Heuer than to have all its DNA, all its watchmaking emotion and flair into the connected watch,” he said. “Somehow, one should not see from a certain distance the difference between a Carrera Heuer 01 and a Carrera Wearable 01.” If you aren’t in the know, the Tag Heuer Carrera – Heuer 01 (see image above) was unveiled at Baselworld in March this year. Read more »

The Google I/O keynote didn’t miss its chance to update us on the progress of Android Wear. The dedicated wearable platform has really come a long way for its relatively short life and third-party developers have played a major part in this success.

During the presentation the popularity of Android Wear was put into numbers and, it appears that Google-powered smartwatches now have a flourishing ecosystem with over 4000 dedicated apps at their disposal. Read more »

Apple Watch was announced last September and went on sale this April. However stock quantities are very limited, and even waiting times are down, it is still hard to purchase one.

Many apps now support the Apple Watch, but since there is no official SDK, those apps actually run on the iPhone and transmit the data wirelessly. This often makes the Apple Watch lag, stutter or even crash, as we reported in our Apple Watch review. Read more »

Sony SmartWatch 3 is now getting the latest available Android Wear OS – 5.1.1. The update was officially announced by Google a month ago and it introduced numerous improvements and features.

Android Wear 5.1.1 adds support for Wi-Fi connectivity, which will allow the SmartWatch 3 to stay connected to your phone and do all major stuff (calls, messages, emails, fitness tracking), even when you leave or forget your Android smartphone at home. Read more »

If you were’t a participant in the most successful Kickstarter project to date and were wondering when will you be able to pre-order a Pebble Time, we have some good news. Pebble’s latest smartwatch will be available for pre-order to general public in less than a month, on June 22.

Prospective Pebble Time buyers can leave their contact information on a dedicated sign up page set up by the manufacturer. Read more »

The Asus ZenWatch, which was unveiled by the company at IFA in September last year and went on sale a couple of months later, is now available for purchase from Best Buy at a discounted price of $180. That’s a saving of around $20 as the smartwatch usually sells for $200.

Specs-wise, the wearable is powered by a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, and sports an AMOLED screen covered in Gorilla Glass 3 and with a 1.63-inch diagonal of a square 320 x 320px resolution. It comes with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, and has an IP55 dust- and water-resistance rating. Read more »

A few days ago the latest version of Android Wear, 5.1.1, started rolling out to all smartwatches running Google’s platform. This release has many new features, chief among them being Wi-Fi support. What that means is that if a particular watch has the necessary hardware, it can connect to Wi-Fi networks directly, thus not being dependent on a Bluetooth connection to a phone.

The LG Watch Urbane launched running the latest Android Wear iteration, but the G Watch R is only now in the process of getting it. Intriguingly though, even if the G Watch R does have the required internals for Wi-Fi support, this will not be enabled after applying the Android Wear 5.1.1 update. Read more »