Amazon to unveil 3D smartphone in June: WSJ

According to WSJ, this smartphone will have four front-facing cameras that will track the user’s retina to “make some images appear in 3D, similar to a hologram.”

NEW DELHI: Amazon is reportedly working on a smartphone that will render 3D images on the screen without the need of any special glasses. According to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal, this smartphone will have four front-facing cameras that will track the user's retina to "make some images appear in 3D, similar to a hologram." 

The eye-tracking technology will monitor whether the user has moved closer to the screen and automatically zoom into images. It may also "manipulate text and images as a person moves the phone," the report says. 

According to people who have used the smartphone, this technology "would be ideal for gaming." The smartphone's software would also be customized to support "very visual games" and designed to render a sense of depth on the flat screen. 

The report says, "Amazon has been inviting select app and software developers to hotels to demonstrate the handset in suites protected by security guards, two people familiar with the matter said." 

It is not clear which operating system Amazon will use to power its first smartphone. The company uses Google's free Android OS in its Kindle Fire range of tablets as well as the newly-unveiled Fire TV set-top box. However, these devices feature a highly customized version of the operating system, with no access to Google's Play Store for apps. Instead, Amazon has its own app marketplace, which has 200,000 apps at present. The same model may be applied with the smartphone as well. 

Amazon is said to be in talks with two display makers, include Apple supplier Japan Display, to produce the screen of the smartphone. The handset is also expected to go into mass production later in April, with an initial order of 600,000 units. 

The smartphone will be unveiled in June this year and hit the market in September, in time for the holiday shopping season in the US. Apple is also expected to announce the next-generation iPhone, which is likely to feature a much bigger screen than current models, in September. 

The pricing and design of the first Amazon smartphone remain unclear and the report says that the company may change launch plans over "performance and other concerns." 

Amazon sells its hardware at cost, making no profit from the sale of the device itself. Instead, it earns by selling content, such as games, videos and apps, to buyers from its app marketplace. 

Considering smartphones are carried everywhere by users, Amazon stands to gain a lot of personal data if its smartphone is a hit. This data, including location as well as download trends, can be harnessed to customize sale opportunities for content the company sells via its devices. It may also help Amazon foray into the field of mobile payments, which is still in nascent stages and not yet kicked off anywhere in the world. 

However, smartphone makers face an uphill task in saturated markets like the US or Europe, which are dominated by Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones
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InMobi, KPMG, Godrej & others are redesigning appraisals

Traditional processes are in a makeover mode as organisations such as InMobi, Godrej Industries, KPMG and the RPG Group revamp and redesign their existing performance appraisal systems to make them more transparent, more inclusive and more agile.

Over the past year, these companies, among others, have been overhauling their appraisal processes, looking to drive better performance and engagement among employees.

Mobile network firm InMobi opted for changes when it started feeling that the quarterly reviews just weren’t doing enough. “What are individuals passionate about? What will give them that 10x multiplier? Those conversations just weren’t happening,” said Monisha Tambay, vice president, HR, at InMobi.

So, appraisal templates were done away with and meaningful conversations were encouraged instead, with an annual meeting to streamline them all. For every employee in a nonsales function, InMobi converted the variable pay to fixed pay to do away with the carrot-and-stick approach.

Employees discussed their aspirations and ‘big opportunity’ goals with their managers, and were encouraged to become the drivers of their own growth and development. At the end of the year, each manager had to deliver a one-page report on the employee that encompassed everything from their contribution to areas that didn’t work well and the manager’s growth plan for the individual.

“Excitement levels have gone up, employees know the organisation is genuinely invested in their development. People are energised, they are driving the development agenda themselves,” says Tambay. “It’s driving a behavioural change, a culture change.”

A Gallup analysis of more than 50,000 Indian employees working in 10 major industry sectors in 22 global companies shows more than half of the employees (54%) feel that their company’s performance management system (PMS) is not effective. According to them, an effective performance management system starts with a thorough goal-setting process, followed by regular feedback and reviews/appraisals. It also identifies employees’ developmental needs, includes robust reward and recognition practices and encourages collaboration, teamwork and communication.

“Given that negative perception about performance appraisal process can breed demotivation, feelings of anguish and frustration that can ultimately impact performance, companies are trying to change the way performance appraisals are done. While the process itself is important in the PMS, the human element is the most important component in whether the employees perceive the system as effective or not,” says Paresh Rajgarhia, senior consultant, Gallup India.

Employee expectations have changed and today’s performance management needs to be more developmental, coaching-based and agile. In line with that, organisations now expect managers to provide guidance, balanced constructive feedback at regular intervals and outline a vision plan for the employee.

Not surprisingly, organisations are spending time training both managers and employees on having these performance-related conversations. KPMG, for instance, has come up with a training module called ‘having difficult conversations’ for its performance managers.

“Vague phrases like ‘your performance is not up-to-themark’ don’t work. You need to give granular feedback, define the benchmark,” says Shalini Pillay, head (people), performance and culture, KPMG in India. The company, which follows a 5-point ratings system, with 1 being the highest, has introduced a performance improvement plan for those getting a 4 rating.

Another change at KPMG has been in the performance tool itself. Called MyPD, it has been launched globally and provides for a lot more qualitative feedback. For a particular business or team, it links goals and priorities to targets and cascades them to different levels. “The new system also allows spontaneous feedback throughout the year as opposed to HR-driven checkpoints from both performance and engagement managers as well as colleagues on particular projects,” says Pillay, who is in the process of relaunching a 360-degree feedback in the coming year.

In some organisations, the most critical changes are happening at the senior leadership level. Last year, Godrej Industries introduced the People Asset Scorecard, applicable to all Godrej Leadership Forum ( GLF) members, who are vice-presidents and above across businesses.

It is designed to measure how well each leader is managing people processes applicable to his or her team.

“We use a 5-point scale. Ensuring base levels are met on people processes counts as a 3. You become eligible to be rated a 4 or a 5 if you play a larger and more active role in building the talent pipeline or as a brand ambassador for Godrej,” explains Sumit Mitra, head – group HR and corporate services, Godrej Industries and Associate Companies.

“When people down the order see senior leaders take a lot more interest in the overall process, it has a trickle-down effect in terms of overall engagement. We plan to cascade it down one level in the coming year,” says Mitra.

The RPG Group last year introduced a system when the company goals become the goals of the MD/CEO and his means to achieve the goals become the goals of his next level.

The system advises employees to have a minimum of five and a maximum of seven goals with the weightage of each at a minimum of 10 and maximum of 40 out of 100. One goal must be on people development. The idea is to have clear focussed goals and adequate weightage in each goal.

HCL, on its part, has substantially differentiated in the distribution of the reward by staggering the quantum and the timing of reward. This aims at bringing about greater ownership among employees to know their goals, define performance standards and strive higher. Based on periodic feedback, HCL works with individuals rated lower in performance in shaping a development and improvement plan over the next performance period.

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Zomato serves it hot with fresh new hiring methods

Online food and restaurants listings start-up Zomato is moving beyond traditional hiring techniques as it looks to double its employee strength in the coming year and expand its global footprint across the Americas, Europe, South-East Asia and Australia.

From tapping social media to launching trial weeks and leadership programmes, Zomato is trying it all to zero in on the right talent.

Zomato currently employs over 650 people across geographies. “Over a period of time, we came to realise that sometimes, to find the right talent, you need to use some slightly non-traditional means of hiring,” says Pankaj Chaddah, co-founder and COO, Zomato.

Hiring for its engineering team used to be one of the toughest tasks, says Chaddah. Finding that an interview wasn’t the best way to gauge a person’s tech skills and abilities, the start-up launched Trial Week in December 2013.

From the 700-plus applications they received, a handful of candidates — including the likes of home-schooler Vajresh Balaji from Tamil Nadu, the name behind non-profit organisation Project DigiKnowledge — were shortlisted to spend an all-expenses-paid week with the Delhi engineering team, working on live projects. At the end of it, full-time positions were offered to the brightest performers who fit in the best.

Faced with the challenge of finding people to take up leadership positions as they scale up operations, Zomato has also launched the leadership program to identify people who have run their own entrepreneurial venture and have the skillsets to lead a business from scratch. Some of the people identified through this are now in key roles at Zomato.

Other hiring routes include referrals, building an effective network on social media channels, and word of mouth. “We use social media a lot to spread the word that we’re hiring. Job portals often work well when hiring large teams. LinkedIn and Facebook have been great for us in terms of connecting with the right people, and engaging in dialogue that inspires them to make bold careers moves,” says Chaddah.

Chaddah says that while Zomato offers competitive packages, it has also been able to offer exceptional growth, learning and a great environment to work in. “We value talent a lot and currently over 15% of our team has ESOPs, which is very high considering we doubled the team strength over the past 12 months. We give ESOPs to new hires at senior levels and to people who have performed exceptionally over time as we want them to stay in the family for the lifetime,” he says.

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SMI Advertisement

By,

Maruthupandian B.E.,MBA

SMI B-school.

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Crowdsourcing your way to talent management

Over 85% of the organisations confirmed using crowdsourcing for various operations, including recruitment and engagement. 

By Savneet Shergill

The Internet today has digitized humanity and how! People the world over now engage with their colleagues, friends and loved ones through the magic world of Social Media. While Facebook gives them the power to be engaged in ‘real time’, LinkedIn brings together like-minded individuals via common connections thereby leveraging both personal and professional relationships.

Furthermore, Twitter has emerged as a platform for netizens, to question thought leaders across the globe with a simple tweet. This social buzz has caused a paradigm shift in the way brands communicate and has taken organizations a step closer to their valuable customers by personalizing conversations. Today, millennials have accepted the internet as a means of day-to-day communication. Finding the right kind of people that fit perfectly with the culture of an organization can be a challenging task but here is where the World Wide Web steps in and opens up a whole new avenue of opportunity.

Say hello to crowdsourcing! Crowdsourcing can help organizations build, engage and foster communities that can be utilized effectively for branding and recruiting. Crowdsourcing can be described as the process by which a company outsources a task once performed by employees, to a network of people in the form of an open invitation. A good analogy will be the internet and how vast its user network is. With millions of people operating out of different time zones, cultures, platforms and devices, could there be a way to marshal these resources of collective intelligence in a systematic way to accomplish specific business goals? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

With crowdsourcing one gets access to a pool of global resources that can help generate solutions overnight, literally. A simple example of crowdsourcing is Employee Referral Programs, a process carried out effectively by most organizations. Very often organizations have a few positions to close and send out information to employees asking them to help in the recruiting process. When an appropriate candidate gets selected, the employees are rewarded. Thereby it’s a win-win situation for both the companies who’ve found talent as well as the employees who enjoy the rewards.

Now, imagine opening up this particular concept to the external world. Think about the kind of possibilities that it could create, the impact of collective networking of employees and the kind of reach it gives organizations. However, one must be careful in terms of strategizing the kind of tasks, systems or processes to be outsourced. Meticulous planning and crafting of attainable objectives while carefully defining deliverables are imperative. One should also remember that crowdsourcing is not a replacement but a useful and additional resource to traditional methods. Building, aligning and infusing attractive incentives into the crowd sourcing strategy will ensure a win: win situation.

While crowdsourcing any task or process, one must make sure that clear and concise instructions are provided upfront. The following principles could be kept in mind; firstly, one needs to make sure that the brief is concise enough for the crowd so that the reader’s time is not wasted. Secondly, one must be prepared at all times to provide feedback at regular intervals.

Also, when trying out ideas, one must make sure that the approach being used is right. Just because a particular campaign was crowdsourced successfully there is no guarantee that the same will work for other campaigns. When it comes to data and tracking, one should focus on numbers that matter in the given context and not get caught up with unnecessary metrics. Lastly, one needs to make sure that the reward being offered is inspiring enough for people to participate. Remember, in their motivation lies your success!

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Want to excel in cloud computing? Get these skills

Large number of companies are deploying cloud-based services and promise to recruit relevant talent

Cloud computing is an important business tool in most IT services companies. A lot of organisations are either using their internal talent to deploy cloud-based activities or outsourcing the same to a third party – but either way these companies have started to realise the real need of implementing cloud-based services for different functions.

As a result of implementing cloud-based services, organisations are also going to face a sea change in the overall business performance. In fact, a large number of companies have been witnessing a change in their way of working over the past couple of years, after implement this tool.

Keeping this in mind, organisations are now concerned about hiring people with relevant skill sets to man their cloud computing services. They want specialists and not generalists to handle these services. While they are ready to hire people with a general know-how of cloud-based technologies, they expect these employees to come up to speed with advanced cloud-based technologies as soon as possible.

Besides the core technical skill sets required to service cloud computing, there are few other complementary skills that the companies are giving equal attention to – such as a thorough understanding of the business processes, ability to analyse business needs, project management skills, negotiation skills, application development skills, etc. According to industry experts organisations will continue to seek fresh talent with cloud computing skills over the next 5-10 years.

According to leading international tech website, the top 10 skills that companies are eyeing currently for cloud specialists are – Linux OS, SaaS Programming, Python, Perl, DevOps, and Ruby among others. These skills can be acquired in several ways. Existing set of employees can gain appropriate knowledge while working and also get cloud certifications from globally recognised institutes.

Having proper validation of cloud computing knowledge is critical for everyone who is involved in the cloud-based services. The reason why companies lay focus on cloud certification is because it allows them to measure an individual’s knowledge and skills against industry benchmarks.

Based on the validation, some of the roles which are most in demand are IT specialist, security specialist, process specialist, computer operators, etc. According to one of the experts featured in a Techgig.com webinar, since cloud adoption is still in a early phase, there are a lot of vacant positions in IT services companies and that it’s a good sign for all the job seekers. JobBuzz.com data indicates that Data Analyst is one of the highest paid profiles in the IT industry.

According to Techgig.com some of the current job openings across all experience levels are application developer, senior engineer– cloud services, cloud project manager, cloud and infrastructure architect, lead architect, cloud systems consultant, etc.

Studies done by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) suggest that the overall employment generation by the IT sector would increase from about 1.4 million in 2012 to about 4.1 million in 2022.

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RBI panel seeks new tool to fix rates

NEW DELHI: A Reserve Bank of India appointed panel has backed sweeping changes in the way bank fix interest rates and end the discrimination of old customers, moves that will come as a big relief to millions of borrowers groaning under the weight of rising EMIs.

In its draft report, the committee headed by former deputy governor Anand Sinha has acknowledged that central bank's moves to usher in transparency and fairness in interest rate settings have not worked well. "These mainly relate to the downward stickiness of the interest rates, discriminatory treatment of old borrowers vis-a-vis new borrowers, and arbitrary changes in spreads, etc," the central bank said in a statement, while seeking public comments on the report.

The panel has suggested that a new tool for floating rate loans — Indian Banks Base Rate — should be fixed by the Indian Banks' Association, which can first be used for home loans. Further, it wants penalties on banks that hold back borrowers from transferring their loans and mortgages to other lenders.
Given the concerns, the panel has recommended that banks with a higher proportion of short-term deposits should link the base rate or the benchmark rate to the marginal cost of funds. This measures incremental cost incurred in raising additional funds which would typically be the prevailing interest rates.

For most Indian banks, a bulk of the deposits mature in one-two years and the change, if accepted by RBI, will have to be used by all banks unless their boards come up with an alternative formula that ensures that old borrowers are not discriminated against.

Banks have a base rate or a benchmark rate, which depends on the cost at which it raises funds, including deposits, and then adds other costs to arrive at the lending rate. The lending rate also includes a premium for risk, which means loans where the possibility of a default is higher, say in case of credit cards or personal loans, come at a higher rate. Similarly, borrowers who are seen to have a poorer risk profile are asked to pay higher rates.

With loan demand remaining weak, banks have reduced the spread over the base rate for new borrowers to offer them lower rates. As a result the older borrowers have been complaining of discrimination, saying often the benefits of RBI's rate reduction are not passed on to all borrowers.

Now, the RBI panel has recognized that and said that the banks can't change the spread for existing borrowers, unless they is seen to be riskier.

Similarly, it wants a fairer treatment for customers and has said that any pre-payment of EMI should be factored in on the day the payment is received instead of waiting for the next EMI cycle to begin.

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Brilliant ways to get a flatter belly

Get a flatter belly

Worried why all your ab exercises aren't showing the results you want? Maybe you are missing something. These simple tips will make your workout work better for you...

Begin with small moves
Begin easy — you cannot go on a cyclothon before you know how to cycle and similarly you cannot do 50 crunches the first time you learn how to do it. Work a small range — hold a plank for 20 seconds or do only 10 crunches in the beginning.

Warm enough?
Some people do not realise the importance of a proper warm up before a workout session, and believe that it is a waste of time. But, warming up your muscles prevents injury. A little walking, marching on the spot, rotating your mid-section gently, bending forwards to touch your toe, etc can warm up your core for an ab workout.

Breathe
Oxygen is important for your core muscles, if you want them to work their full capacity. So, don't hold your breath. Inhale when you are doing the easy part of the move, and exhale when you have to exert force.

For example — exhale when you are on the way up while doing crunches.

Don't get distracted
If you thought only your muscles play an important role when it comes to doing those push ups, you were wrong — our mind too plays an important part in workout schedules. So, avoid watching TV while exercising, instead concentrate on the muscles, and feel them move, stretch and contract. It will improve your results.

Be an all rounder
When you want a flat belly fast, the trick is to do movements in all dimensions. Don't just concentrate on crunches — include other exercises and asanas like Vakrasana that help you twist and turn your body.

Balance
For strong abs you should try to incorporate some balance into your routine. Even something as simple as — standing on one leg while the other feet rests on your thigh, arms raised above your head and palms touching — the Vriksasana or the Tree pose.

Rest it out
Your workout will only work for you if you give yourself adequate rest. Overworking your abs won't help. The rest will help the muscles recover and will make them stronger.

Slow and steady
Speeding up your workout will not help. Slow down and you will burn fat better.

Try yoga
Sick of gymming? Try yoga. Most yoga poses are excellent for strengthening the core. Yoga not only exercises your mind along with your body, but it makes you flexible and reduces your stress-levels.

Weight matters
Your abdominal muscles could do better if they are challenged with some weights. With a kilo or so thrown in, your regular workout can give you even better results.

Pay attention to what you eat
If you want washboard abs, you need to eat right — just going through gruelling gym routines day after day, will not work. A city-based nutritionist says, "Make sure your diet consists of plenty of protein, low fat milk and milk products, fruits and fresh vegetables
.

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Not thinking about leaving handset business, BlackBerry CEO John Chen says

BlackBerry CEO John Chen 

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has taken to the firm's official blog to clarify the Reuters article which said it was thinking about leaving the handset business. In short, it's not. 

Chen writes: "I want to assure you that I have no intention of selling off or abandoning this business any time soon.‎ 

"I know you still love your BlackBerry devices. I love them too and I know they created the foundation of this company. Our focus today is on finding a way to make this business profitable." 
He finishes on: "We have not given up and we are not leaving the devices business." So there you have it. 

Original story...
It would be an understatement to say that BlackBerry has been having a tough time of things lately, as the company made a net loss of $423 million last quarter alone. But new CEO John Chen is committed to turning the company around, even if that means abandoning smartphones entirely. 

As part of an interview on Wednesday Chen claimed that "if I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business" according to Reuters. He also claimed that one way or another he'd have to make the decision soon. 

So what would it take for BlackBerry to make money on handsets? Around 10 million shipped phones per year apparently, which isn't a huge quantity, especially when you consider that back in 2011 BlackBerry shipped 52.3 million devices. 

Sinking ship?
But the company is a lot weaker than it once was, down from a 20% smartphone market share in 2009 to less than 2% now. 
Even if the company does continue with consumer smartphones it doesn't sound like that side of the business will be such a focus any more, as Chen claimed that "we are not going to spend any more money to maintain the latest version of Angry Birds." Going forward the company will focus on business clients instead
.

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Google Android Wear: All you need to know

Google is busy designing a wearable version of its Android operating system.

While we wait for Apple to confirm that it's been making an iWatch, Google is busy designing a wearable version of its Android operating system.

Android Wear is a new platform that extends the company's leading software to the body starting with the wrist in the form of smartwatches. As Android head Sundar Pichai penned in the announcement, these app-driven time pieces understand the context of the world around you and deliver messages and reminders beamed directly to your wrist.

Convenient Google Now notifications are literally on hand thanks to Android Wear, and the ability to seek out additional information with voice controls outfits everyone with the all-encompassing power of the search engine.

It's shaping up to be as fashionable as it is functional thanks to support for both round and square watch faces, as seen on the circular Moto 360 and boxy LG G Watch.

What Android Wear does
Android Wear is intended to provide "information that moves with you" and puts the entire world inches from your suddenly-free fingertips.

It doesn't just tell the time. The wearable operating system makes suggestions based on time and it factors location into its context-sensitive data.

The best everyday habit example involves riding on a bus and seeing a Google Maps-powered notification countdown to an unfamiliar destination. "4 stops to: Jackson St." intelligently reads the watch. The guessing game is taken out of a public transit commute.

The new technology can also tip off wearers to dangers that lurk, as demonstrated in Google's first Android Wear video. A "Jellyfish warning" prompt can be seen with a surfer's flick of the wrist.

A relevant list of nearby beaches saves the video's early adopters who can surf without worrying about the sting of the boneless and brainless ocean creature.

All of a sudden, digging a rectangular smartphone out of your pocket and pulling up a much more involved map or notification app seems so pedestrian.

Making time for families
Google seeds the idea that Android Wear can alleviate our addiction to smartphones in an effort to make more time and eye-contact with our families.

A parent is able to attend breakfast with his family while keeping a close eye on the estimated commute time to work thanks to an on-wrist Google Now notification.

"No surprises" is the unofficial goal of Android Wear. Leaving too early and breezing through traffic would have filled this parent with breakfast-skipping regret. Leaving too late would've started his day with traffic-influenced anxiety.

'Okay Google' on the wrist
Even more touching is the dad who receives a Google Hangouts message right on his Android Wear smartwatch while bathing his son. "Dude, this game is insane!" writes the token friend who doesn't have such responsibilities.

The dad doesn't run to a TV or have to awkwardly palm his smartphone with soapy hands for an update. "Okay Google, what's the Syracuse score?" he asks his watch without pressing a button.

A scorecard of 28-27, naturally in favor of his college basketball team, pops up. He cheesily shouts "Yay" while raising his hands. His young, halfway washed son does the same without us knowing if he really knows why. He could easily be cheering for having more time with his dad.
The increasingly familiar "Okay Google" voice prompt opens up a world of possibilities beyond sports score updates.

Android Wear smartwatches can handle questions like, "How many calories are in an avocado?" to more personal queries like, "What time does my flight leave?"

"Okay Google" can also accomplish tasks outsourced from a smartphone. Calling a taxi, making restaurant reservations, setting alarms and sending - not just receiving - texts is all possible to do hands-free with the Android Wear operating system.

Google Wear fitness apps
Google's Android Wear smartwatches can solve everyone's pesky pedometer gripes, whether it's always losing the easy-to-misplace device or not having it on you at all times.

This should remedy the problem we have with Samsung's S-Health app in Galaxy S4 and the forthcoming Galaxy S5. These phones aren't on us all the time and therefore robbing us of our workout goal.

Latching a smartwatch to our wrist can count every step and chart whether or not we're meeting our exercise goals. Google promises that it'll connect to our favorite fitness apps for real-time speed, distance and time data while walking, running and cycling.

This puts the Android Wear platform in direct competition with the Fitbit Force, Nike FuelBand SE and the activity tracking newcomer the Samsung Gear Fit.

But the Fitbit and FuelBand lack smartwatch capabilities and, as stylish as the Gear Fit may be, it's only accessible by Samsung smartphones, not all Android devices. That leaves the door wide open for Google.

QR codes, music and Chromecast
The company multitasks in demonstrating Android Wear fitness capabilities with a woman who runs to the boarding line for a departing flight. She's able to keep count of calories burned while flashing a QR code in front of the airline employee in order to board the flight.
Google's Android Wear introduction video also illustrates how music on another device can be activated through an Android Wear watch. Calling it "key to a multiscreen world," the watch promises to cast movies to a TV, presumably with its inexpensive Chromecast streaming device, and the video hints at the ability to open garage doors with smart home connectivity.
"There's a lot of possibilities here so we're eager to see what developers build," wrote Pichai toward the end of his announcement post.

Third-party apps in development
Android Wear is made even more convincing as a smartwatch because developers will be able to easily translate their apps from Google's mobile ecosystem.

One of the first third-party apps diving right into Android Wear is Pocket. Formerly known as "Read It Later," this deferred reading app saves longer-form articles for later consumption on a big screen.


It shouldn't take long for your favorite apps to appear on the Moto X or LG G Watch, whereas developers may struggle to navigate Samsung's Tizen platform that's limited to its Galaxy devices.

Android Wear smartwatches so far
The Android Wear smartwatch selection is limited at the moment with LG and Motorola showing off their respective designs. Samsung, HTC, Asus and Fossil are confirmed to have something up their sleeves.

The Moto 360 was front-and-center in the smartwatch announcement, even though Google has offloaded Motorola to Lenovo. There's good reason for highlighting this time piece: it's ambitious.


As the name suggests, Moto 360 has a beautiful circular face that contrasts with other watches we've seen like the square Pebble Steel and wrist-conforming Samsung Gear Fit.

Moto 360 has been confirmed to be orientation-free so that left and right-handed wearers won't see a single difference. The digital screen can be flipped and the classic-looking single knob is symmetrical. Just flip the entire thing around to get the knob on the right side.

Even better is that this beautiful watch face is rumored to comprise of an OLED screen to increase battery life that sits behind sapphire glass. That's the same protective glass that's expected to be in the Apple iWatch.

Sticking with that authentic watch styling, there are no charging contacts or USB ports to be found here, Motorola confirmed. Its so-far-secret charging method is a "special sauce," which alludes to Qi wireless charging for Moto 360 or possibly Kinetic charging.

It doesn't feature a privacy-invasive camera like the Galaxy Gear and Gear 2. This just didn't fit into the classic design, according to Motorola. Also, unlike Samsung's watches, it supports more phones than its own Moto X.

Moto 360 is compatible with Android 4.3 phones and tablets that use low-powered Bluetooth 4.0 for battery life conservation. That means even if you own a brand new iPhone 5S, it won't work with this Android-only device.

It blends familiar Android menus like Google Now and Hangouts messages with a sophisticated-looking digital watchface, and Motorola is promising just-as-premium strap materials that remain comfortable.

The company promises a variety of styles when it ships globally later this summer, starting in the US. To that point, we gleaned both a metal and flexible rubber wristband from the Moto 360 prototype render.

LG is only beginning to talk about its Android Wear watch, dubbed the LG G Watch as if it's a typo with too many Gs. Just as awkward is the fact that the Moto 360 dissed square-faced smartwatches in its unveil.



That happens to be the exact design of the LG G Watch. It doesn't seem to be offended. The company is determined to prove that it's hip to be square by a July release date.

It's square face, only seen in full in one official photo so far, is completely buttonless and roughly the same size as the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.

Like the Pebble Steel, this smartwatch will follow the trend of supporting swappable bands for a more personalized look and feel.

The LG G Watch price is confirmed to be £180 in the UK. That translates to about $301 and AU$322, but it could be cheaper in the US and Australia as UK prices haven't been fairly converted recently.

Where Android Wear stands
Android Wear shows more promise on day one than Google Glass has in its year of availability because it's not a stretch to imagine donning Moto 360 or the LG G Watch.

There are still plenty of questions left to be answered like what are the Android Wear smartwatch specs, how long is the battery life and cost. Google can own the wrist, like it's starting to control the TV apps ecosystem with its inexpensive Chromecast, if the price is right.

Then there's the question of iOS compatibility. Would this Android-powered watch ever be able to connect to an iOS device? Google has made plenty of its gadgets, app and services work with Apple's iPhone and iPad hardware.


We're looking forward to seeing how natural the "Okay Google" voice commands turn out, whether or not some of the watches will be waterproof and if Nest creates an Android Wear project of its own.

Expect to hear more about Android Wear and see the unveiling of the first Wear apps at the company's Google IO 2014 conference in June. More details will literally be on hand then.

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