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LG’s G Watch will be one of the first smartwatches to ship with Google’s Android Wear software. While Google has given us a pretty good idea of how the software will work with your phone to display notifications on your wrist, up until now we’ve only had glimpses of Android Wear in action on a real device.
But the folks at AppDated have managed to get their hands on a pre-release LG G Watch and they’ve posted a 3 minute video showing the watch face, notifications, touchscreen gestures, and other features. The video’s in German, but it gives us the first good look at the G Watch in action.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- LG G Watch hands-on preview video
The animations and gestures look a bit more elegant than what we’re used to seeing from smartwatches… but the functionality seems pretty limited at this point. That’s not surprising since the device hasn’t actually launched yet. [AppDated/YouTube] - Microsoft’s smartwatch will reportedly sync with Windows Phone, Android, or iOS
Google isn’t the only company with a new smartwatch platform on the way. Microsoft has yet to announced its entry into the field, but according to this report Microsoft’s watch will sync with a wide range of phones and offer fitness tracking features including heart rate monitoring. It’ll reportedly get about 2 days of battery life and could launch this summer. [Forbes] - Asus FonePad 7 FE170CG pops up in Thailand, gets reviewed
The 7 inch smartphone/tablet has entry-level specs including an Intel Atom Clover Trail+ CPU and a 1024 x 600 pixel display. But it’s a dual IM device with decent battery life and it’s expected to be cheap in the markets where it’s available. [Papyatop] - ZTE ZXV10 B760E RichMedia Box IPTV set-top-box with Android hits the FCC
While it looks like a typical Android TV Box, it’s not clear that this device will be targeted at consumers. Instead it’s likely to be positioned as an IPTV set top box [FCC] - NFL Now launches for Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Kindle Fire
The league’s upcoming video channel will provide news, highlights, and analysis on mobile devices and internet-connected TV boxes. [NFL] - Mozilla begins testing browser-based voice/video calls with WebRTC in Firefox nightlies
WebRTC is a standard that lets web apps access your device’s mic and camera hardware to make it possible to make voice and video calls without installing a plugin. [Mozilla] - Capsules.io is a new location-based system that lets you drop virtual messages in real-world places
For example you could lave a “capsule” for friends or family at your favorite restaurant, create a virtual scavenger hunt, or create an virtual walking tour of a museum, park, or city. [Kickstarter] - Chrome app launcher getting experimental “app tiles” with 5 apps below the logo and search bar
You have to enable an experimental flag in Chromium to see the new user interface… and in some ways it’s probably less useful than the classic view that shows *more* than 5 tiles. But look! Shiny! New! [+François Beaufort] - Closer look at the mystery of TrueCrypt’s demise
Yesterday the developers of TrueCrypt abruptly shut down one of the most popular and powerful open source disk encryption utilities. It’s not clear exactly what led to the shutdown, but the official website suggests that TrueCrypt is not secure and that users should look for alternatives. Here’s a look at a few theories about what exactly is going on. [BoingBoing] - Lian Li’s new desktop PC case is actually a desk
Who needs a desktop when you can build a PC *into* a desk? This desk is basically a high-priced PC case that you can use to build the PC of your dreams… assuming the PC of your dreams doesn’t live on top of a standing desk. [Engadget]
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Video offlin! new: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ARLLqA_MBk
That’s got to be one of the most pointless videos i’ve ever seen. They don’t show anything off except for the same thing over and over again.