Android Wear: Where Mobile is Heading

Do you find yourself checking your phone 10, 20, 50, even 100 times a day just to see if your professor replied to your e-mail or your friend liked your "First Day of College" picture on Facebook? Most of us do. It's something that has caused our society and societies across the globe to be so attached to their phones that I would be hard pressed to say that nearly 1/2 of all people I see walking around campus between classes have their intention directly upon their cell phones, often times neglecting the people around them. 

Android has an answer.

This summer, Google introduced a new form of their popular Android mobile software called Android Wear. Android Wear is essentially Android built for smartwatches, a new category of personal electronics that has burst onto the consumer market in the last year or so. For those that don't know what smartwatches are, they are essentially devices that act not only as a watch to tell you the time and date, but will actually pair with your smartphone through Bluetooth technology to display notifications such as e-mails, weather, calendar events, Facebook & Twitter updates, etc. Their intention is to merge the sophistication of the modern time piece with the productivity and connectivity of smartphones. A few smartwatches such as the Pebble and Samsung Gear series have tried and failed. Google hopes to be the leader in this new category.

Here's how it works:

Useful information when you need it most

Android Wear organizes your information, suggests what you need, and shows it to you before you even ask. Get messages from your friends, appointment notifications, and weather updates at a glance.

Just say “Ok Google”

With just the sound of our voice, you can respond to texts, instant messages, and emails by voice. Ask questions like “Will it rain this weekend?”, “What time is it in London?”, or “How do I get to the post office?” and get straight answers.

Right now, it's only on three devices: LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live, and the Moto 360.
These devices range between $199-250, so they are definitely still not intended for the mass market yet. They are mainly meant for early adopters and tech companies to test for bugs and issues. The advantages are obvious:

• Quickly check your smartphone notifications at a glance

• Receive up-to-date sports, weather, and calendar data

• Replace your current watch with a much more powerful device or get a watch for the first time

I'm excited for what this could mean to us all. I love what smartphones have done to our lives by connecting us in ways we never thought possible to our friends, co-workers, favorite sports teams, and local weather forecasts. What I don't like is how it has disconnected us from the people around us. I hope and believe that Android Wear and all smartwatches that follow (Apple?) will bring us one step closer to a more integrated, yet personal, balance of our busy lives.