Little Worlds watch face makes clever use of the Moto 360’s flat tire bezel

Motorola’s “flat tire” bezel on the Moto 360 has been the subject of many jokes, but instead of rejecting that component of the watch like a bastardized step child, why not put it to some interesting use? This “Minimal and Elegant” watch face by Studio eXtreme does just that with its cool Little Worlds feature.

What it does is simple: it uses the flat tire as the foundation for a silhouette of a city skyline, flowers on a hill or any other cool little thing you could think of (it’s entirely customizable). The watch face itself is well-designed, to boot, so the $.99 you’ll need to spend to get it seems well worth it.

Give it a download if you’re tired of the flat tire being little more than an ugly blemish on an otherwise beautiful device. Oh, and Motorola: this is no excuse to keep the flat tire on your next round smart watch. We want this thing gone.

The new ZTE Nubia Z9 has the thinnest bezel we’ve ever seen (and some impressive specs, too)

The ZTE Nubia Z9 was announced this morning, and while we don’t often get excited for a ZTE launch this one woke us up quite effectively. The first thing you’ll notice is that the device has an insanely thin bezel, with ZTE claiming they were able to get it down to just 0.8mm on the left and right edges.

Those edges are also more than just edges, as they’re outfitted with ZTE’s FiT feature, which stands for Frame Interaction Technology. It’ll allow you to perform a number of gestures by stroking the left or right bezel with your fingers, such as switching between apps, adjusting brightness or launching the camera. You can see an illustration of some of those gestures in the graphic above.

The best part about all this is that the device doesn’t impress on the back of a cool gimmick alone — it also has some pretty baller hardware beneath its chassis. Here’s what you can expect in that regard (note that there are two different versions that differ by RAM and internal storage):

• 5.2-inch 1080p display with 2.5D curved glass


• Octa-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810


• 3GB RAM and 32GB storage for Classic, 4GB RAM and 32GB storage for Elite


• 16MP Sony IMX234 camera sensor with optical image stabilization, 8MP front sensor


• Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and MHL 3.0


• Nubia UI 3.0 and Android 5.0 Lollipop


• 2,900mAh battery


• 147.38 x 68.34 x 8.94mm

The device lands first in China sometime soon, as pre-sales have already commenced. You’ll be able to snap it up for 3999 Yuan for the Classic version or 449 Yuan for the Elite version, though if you’re importing you may have to incur additional costs to make that happen. Truth be told we wouldn’t mind seeing this thing spread to other regions before too long.

[ZTE via GizChina]

Samsung’s Gear SDK reveals new details about Gear A smartwatch, shows rotating bezel and slick UI

A few weeks back Samsung confirmed round smartwatch rumors when they revealed their upcoming Gear SDK for developers that showed a variety of round smartwatch faces and apps. Today, the folks at SamMobile were able to dive into said SDK and managed to dig up a few details on Project Orbis, which could officially launch as the Samsung Gear A later this year.

The most interesting hardware feature is the inclusion of a rotating bezel that can be used to navigate the watch’s Tizen-based software. Samsung’s answer to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown, the secondary form of input can be used for app specific actions, zooming in and out of images, to change the volume, or simply to navigate between screens. Initially it sounded odd, but now we’re getting a better picture of how useful this feature could be when used properly.

The Gear A will also feature a round 360 x 360 resolution display and appears to be using a fair amount of aluminum in its housing. A handful of sensors were also revealed and include the standard accelerometer, gyrosensor, heart-rate monitor, pressure sensor, and magnetic sensors. Wi-Fi, GPS, and a cellular radio were also on board, but absent was a camera and ambient light sensor.

The all new 100% more round Samsung Gear A is expected to be officially unveiled alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 later this year. Although not an Android device, it still looks to be an interesting entry into the smartwatch category.