Samsung confirms their next smart watch is circular and invites developers to help them

Yesterday, a pair of Samsung trademarks hinted that the company was finally ready to try their hand at a circular smart watch. It didn’t take long for Samsung to come out and confirm those suspicions.

The company has issued an open invitation for developers to help them build their next wearables platform ahead of launch. They’ve confirmed that it’s for the 7 generation of their Gear lineup, and while they didn’t exactly spell out the word “circular” the teaser you see above should do enough to convince you.

Developers who want to get their apps going on the upcoming watch can get started as soon as today by heading here and grabbing the SDK. Unfortunately that’s as much as we know right now as Samsung didn’t even give us an idea as to when this product might be ready for consumers. All we know is that if the Samsung Galaxy S6 is anything to go by, Samsung’s first circular Gear smart watch could turn this market on its head.

[via Samsung]

Samsung Gear W and Wheel UX trademarks hint toward circular smart watches

Samsung has been the odd man out of the circular smart watch battles with LG, Motorola and even Huawei providing some pretty good options, but they could be looking to enter the fight soon. New trademarks filed by the company reveal that they’re working on a Samsung Gear W, and that it might have “Wheel UX.”

The timing of both trademarks surfacing side-by-side and the term “wheel” for its UX implies that this Samsung Gear W will be round, with a Tizen-based circular user interface customized specifically for such a form factor.

Unfortunately the trademark filings don’t give much more information on their own, but we do know Samsung has filed design patents for circular smart watches in the past. Samsung’s current smart watches — while nice — aren’t really seen as elegant, but a circular design for their next big wearable could help change that perception.

[Korean Patents 1|2 via SamMobile]

Nova Launcher 4.0 brings grouped widgets, full Material Design, circular app animations and 25+ other changes

Nova’s Material Design update has been a long time coming for those who aren’t particularly crazy about beta testing, but the wait for it to hit the stable channel is finally over. Nova Launcher 4.0 is out on Google Play, and it stands to be one of the biggest updates yet for the premier home screen replacement.

The biggest changes will be a more refined Material Design user interface, including new animations, updated fonts, new material-themed wallpapers and other aesthetic-focused things. The full list is rather large, and rightfully so: this has been in the works for a few months now, with the last version — 3.3 — having been released as far back as December 2014.

Here’s a full list of changes you can expect if you haven’t been using the beta:

• Full Material Design


• Google Search from the search bar shows as an overlay


• Edit Shortcut dialog, and quick menu, tinted based on colors of the icon


• New icon


• New Nova Action icons


• Rebased on top of Launcher3


• Individual icon layout settings (size, font, etc) in Desktop, Drawer, Dock, Folder


• Max icon size boosted to 150%


• Widget Search


• Circular App animations (Settings > Look and Feel > App Animation > Circle)


• Pull to search (pull down in the drawer to open app or widget search)


• Widgets given their own drawer, removed from App Drawer


• Ability to change Page Indicator color


• Drawer Tab Bar completely optional


• Support for Android for Work managed profiles (Lollipop)


• Workaround Expand Notifications Nova Action not working on Samsung Lollipop


• Requires Android 4.1 or higher (Dropped support for Android 4.0 ICS)


• Unlimited desktop pages (previously limited to 9)


• Add/remove of desktop pages by dropping icons on the blank page, or removing all icons from a page


• Add blank desktop pages (for gestures or live wallpapers) from overview


• Improved bulk edit of folders (Folder > Menu > Select Apps)


• Added shadows to unread badges


• Unread Badge size scales with icon size


• Allow reordering drawer folders by drag/drop within window


• Added Roboto-Medium font option


• Improve handling of apps installed to sdcard

The download is sitting over at Google Play right here so be sure to grab it as soon as possible.

Huawei Honor Band Zero is a minimalistic circular smartwatch

Huawei is teasing a new smart watch today. It’s being called the Huawei Honor Band Zero, with that name being chosen thanks to its minimalistic design. It’s a circular smart watch that seemingly doesn’t have any buttons, and appears to boast a steel chassis.

And that’s about all we know so far. Huawei hasn’t issued any press releases or dished out any additional info, so we’re only left to our guesses. Our first guess is that this could be a souped up fitness wearable, as the watch shares the same “Band” moniker used for the Huawei Talk Band B1 or B2. Whether it’ll use Android Wear for those fitness needs is up for date, as Huawei could just as easily use their own custom platform such as the one featured in the aforementioned TalkBand devices.

We also imagine it isn’t going to be some game changing smart watch, so we’ll expect industry-standard specs such as the Snapdragon 410 found inside the more classic design of the Huawei Watch.

It does look like a decent design for those who prefer this style, though, so if this is something more your taste then be sure to keep an eye out for more!

[via Twitter]