Android Wear has landed. One of the worst-kept secrets in the Valley is now out there – Google Now is coming to your wrist, this summer, voice-driven and paired to your phone. Pretty much what I and a million other people predicted.
This is actually potentially interesting. For one, it lets Google leverage a lot of what they’ve learned from Google Glass in a less obnoxious package. For another, it gets you away from the biggest cause of battery drain: the screen. The modern smartphone uses more power on its display than anything else, which is why the constant make-the-phone-bigger race is a false economy in Android and why phones like the Moto X, with its emphasis on dialing down the specs race in the name of battery preservation, are pointing the way forward.
I’m still holding out until the notional iOS device, but wearables are going to happen – at this point, it’s just a question of who gets it right first. On the face of it, Google appears to be closer than Samsung…