Wearables Archive

The big Wear OS 6 news is that Gemini is headed to the wrist. It’s unsurprising to see Samsung’s smartwatches will get it first. After all, new Galaxy Watches have launched before new Pixel Watches ever since Google and Samsung teamed up to create Wear OS 3. The good news is you won’t necessarily have to upgrade. Google told me that Gemini will be coming to any Wear OS watch that currently supports Assistant.

Android XR didn’t get a lot of screen time at today’s Android Show — apart from confirmation that it’s going to get Gemini AI support — but Google promises that there’s more to come at the full Google I/O event next week.

The $249 46-mm running watch has a bright 1.32-inch OLED display and weighs just 36g. It offers up to 12 days of battery life — or up to 20 hours of always-on dual-band GPS tracking — and 34 modes to track everything from a short recovery run, training session, or marathon. It’s the latest option for athletes worried about Garmin’s shift to subscriptions.

Garmin’s Connect Plus subscription raised fears of enshittification, and lo, the company confirmed in its Q1 earnings call that going forward “certain [features] we will likely reserve for premium offerings.” This isn’t surprising — this is, after all, how subscriptions tend to go. But it does sting given how vocal Garmin has been in the past about not having a paywall. That said, the conversation revolved around features, not data so hopefully raw data will remain free.