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Android was once the darling of the open source community, though you'd be forgiven for forgetting that - these days its commercial elements seem to be all that make the news. One developer is hoping that community can save the smartwatch, or at the very least, breathe a little new life into existing designs. Florent Revest, a French computer science student, released the 1.0 alpha version of AsteroidOS today. It's ready to run on multiple Android Wear devices: the original LG G Watch, the Watch Urbane, the Asus ZenWatch 2, and the Sony Smartwatch 3.
Even though it's been out for a while now, the LG G Watch Urbane is still one of the most premium Android Wear devices you can buy. Its normal price currently sits around 0, but today you can pick one up for just $200 on BuyDig via eBay. We posted this deal a couple of weeks back, but that was just days after the holidays and I expect that some of you were too broke or hung over to notice. You're welcome.The device ships free anywhere in the US and retail tax is only charged in the state of New Jersey. Both the rose gold/brown and silver/black models are available, but they are selling very fast, so if you are particular about the color you want I would suggest that you click the buy button posthaste.The Urbane is a bit big and thick for my taste, but it's one of the only round Wear devices available without a flat tire, and a pretty compelling deal right now for just a couple of Benjamins. If you've got wrists big enough to rock it, you can snag one for yourself using the link below.Source: eBay
Before we start, let's get one thing out of the way: there's no practical application for the apps demonstrated below, at least not in the way they're being used. You can't seriously play a game meant for a 20-button controller on a screen smaller than two inches across, even if your fingers are tiny enough to hit the virtual buttons. This is the work of an enthusiast gamer and Android fan. It doesn't have to make sense.
It was rumored that LG would be launching a cellular-connected Android Wear watch soon, and well, here it is. The Watch Urbane Second (or 2nd) Edition is the first Android Wear device we've seen that uses a cellular connection instead of a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone or a local Wi-Fi network, much like Samsung's Gear S series or LG's own Watch Urbane LTE (neither of which ran Wear). Aside from the addition of a mobile connection, it's a round screen watch presumably using at least some of the same hardware as the older Urbane.
If you didn't get in on those crazy $50 deals for the G Watch earlier this year... well, we can't give you that deal again. Sorry, but he who hesitates is lost. But Amazon subsidiary Woot has a deal nearly as good going on for the next week: the original black LG G Watch, refurbished, for .99. So, he who hesitates has only lost about twenty bucks in this example.
The LG G Watch was one of the Android Wear launch devices, and even then it didn't feel like the best smartwatch for Google's wrist-bound platform. That has definitely changed in the year since.
Interested in Android Wear, but don't want to drop the cash on a $350 Urbane? You can get a G Watch for $50 right now. The original LG G Watch is almost a year old, and there are much better watches out there, but this is a killer deal.
It was just over a year ago that we first caught wind of Android Wear. At the same time, we were introduced to the G Watch, which would be the first Wear device—released alongside the Samsung Gear Live—to be sold to the general public. Now, with the addition of the G Watch Urbane and a permanent price drop for the G Watch R, the original G Watch is headed out of the Google Store.
Target's Cartwheel app serves as a way for the company to offer discounts and get you into its stores. Today you can get the LG G Watch for 50% off. Since the retailer is selling the smartwatch for $160, that brings the price down to $80.
In just a few months, it will be the one-year anniversary of Android Wear's announcement (March 18th). Since the first two official Android-powered watches were released at I/O 2014, we've seen half a dozen total watches running Android Wear, each with its own pros and cons. These devices run the gamut from kind of ugly to truly gorgeous. A new wave of watches will be upon us in the coming year, but the current ones are still a great way to get into wearables. In fact, I bet there will be some solid discounts on these devices in the not too distant future.
[Deal Alert] Seriously, Hurry: Best Buy Also Has The G Watch For $80, PLUS $50 In Google Play Credit
Update: It looks like the black model is sold out, but the white is still available as of 8:55 AM PST.
If you couldn't get in on Google's Black Friday deal on the G Watch, or Best Buy's deal that disappeared so quickly that we didn't even get to post it (update: it's back, but might go in and out all day), now you've got another chance - and this one's even better. Groupon is currently selling the original LG Android Wear device for just .99, an amazing $150 off of the retail price. Hurry, folks, this one is likely to disappear very quickly.
Update, 8 AM Pacific: Predictably, both the Nexus 6 and the discounted G Watch are out of stock. You can still grab $50 of Play Store credit with the purchases of any other Android Wear device or the Nexus 9.
Back in September, we heard Google's official plans to update Android Wear and add more functionality to the platform and its watches. The first update promised to bring GPS and offline music playback capabilities, so that Wear watches could be used without a phone to track activities and listen to tunes via Bluetooth. The second update is supposed to add native support for watch faces. And it looks like LG's G Watch is the first Android Wear device to start benefiting from these additions.
When Samsung and LG began selling their Android Wear watches, it seems they made a small oversight: the only way to get the proprietary POGO pin charging docks was to buy the watch. That left customers who had lost or damaged the chargers with no way to get their devices charged again. LG made good on the problem by adding a G Watch Charger to the Play Store back in August, and now Samsung has followed up for the Gear Live as well.
Look, $200+ is a lot to pay for a watch, especially when you've been wearing the same $30 Timex Ironman from Target for the last fifteen years. If you've been on the fence on the first generation of Android Wear devices, waiting for a good deal on at least one of them, then your time is now. Best Buy is selling the LG G Watch for 9.99, a full $80 off of the list price.
Amid a flurry of news from a certain (ahem) other watch today, it looks like the powers that be at Google have matched Best Buy's price for the LG G Watch. The Android Wear device is now being sold for 9.99 in the United States, a $50 reduction over the initial price. According to promotional text on the Play Store, this reduced price will only last until September 23rd.
If you have neither a G Watch nor a Nexus 5 but want both and you live in the right market, Google has a deal for you. In certain countries, Google is offering up discounts on the Nexus 5 when you buy a G Watch. So far it looks like the deal is available in Europe and Australia, with the UK getting a £60 discount on the N5, other Europeans receiving an €80 price break, and Australians shaving AUS$100 off 2013's Nexus phone, a device that already competed on price.
To tell the truth, the first round of Android Wear devices aren't all that expensive if you think of them as luxury watches. But if you think of them as notification-based accessories for your $500 smartphone, yeah, they're pretty pricey. Big box retailer Best Buy is here to alleviate some of that sticker shock with a sale on the LG G Watch. You can pick up the black or white/gold version for $179.99 right now, $50 off the retail price.