Smartwatch

The bezels attach and detach with a simple twist, and you also get a choice of over 180 watch faces to further customize the watch’s look. The watch’s features include the ability to track winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, and curling, and there are also some Apple Watch-style one-handed gesture controls for good measure. It’s joined by a new Wear OS smartwatch, the Xiaomi Watch 2. Prices start at €149 for the S3, and €199 for the Watch 2.

According to 9to5 Google, you’ll soon be able to tap the Pixel Watch 2 and it’ll tell you the time through vibrations. There are two modes — one that tells you the hour and minutes via varying vibration lengths, and another that rounds the current time to the nearest quarter hour.

If you’ve got a broken Pixel Watch 2, you can now skip the customer support process to get a discounted replacement. All you have to do scroll down the Google Store site and click Repairs. You should see a form. Fill out the information requested and select the mail-in option when it appears.

Despite mixed earnings, Tim Cook doesn’t seem to be sweatin’ the Apple Watch ban. Apple Insider spotted Cook telling CNBC on a live broadcast that it’s “focused on appeal” and that customers have “lots of reasons to buy the watch even without the blood oxygen sensor.”

If you got a Series 9 or Ultra 2 before Apple had to remove the blood oxygen feature from new ones on January 17th, congrats!

One of the biggest complaints that reviewers — myself included — had with the Pixel Watch 2 was that it only came in one size: 41mm. That’s fine if you’re petite-wristed like me, but it’s not great if you’ve got a larger frame. Well, 9to5 Google cites an unnamed Google source as saying the company is working on two sizes for the next Pixel Watch. That’s about all we know but if true, it’s a step in the right direction. After all, Apple, Samsung, and Garmin all offer their flagships in multiple sizes.

Word of this comes not from US Customs, but Masimo’s own lawyers in a letter published by 9to5Mac. It says the updated watches “do not contain pulse oximetry functionality,” which is a step further than last month’s report that Apple engineers were working on new algorithms.

The company’s fitness watches are unmatched in longevity, value over time, and their ability to track all the performance minutia athletes want to track. But Garmin Connect — which ties everything together — well... sucks, which was made all the more obvious after Apple started playing on Garmin’s turf. The new Connect app and website is currently beta-only for select customers, but is coming to everyone “later this year.”

In the age of planned obsolescence, Strava’s annual Year in Sport Trend report has uncovered a surprising factoid: The most popular smartwatch among its users worldwide is the Garmin Forerunner 235 — a device that launched waaaaay back in 2015.

On Monday evening, Bloomberg reported the work on algorithm changes that it could submit to the US customs agency in hopes they’ll be approved to get the devices back on the market, plus a few other details about Apple’s response to the ban.

This is not a drill. Back in 2021, Mobvoi was listed among the few companies whose Wear OS 2 devices would get the upgrade to Wear OS 3. And then Mobvoi users had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. But the company just sent out an email with guidance for a forthcoming Wear OS 3 release.

As part of its ongoing partnership with (Red) — a brand dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS — Apple has released an all-red version of the Apple Watch Series 9, alongside some exclusive watch faces to mark World AIDS Day.

In a blog post, Google detailed the Messages improvements, some nice Wear OS and accessibility updates, and more. With Wear OS, for example, you’ll soon be able to set home or away statuses in Google Home, which could be handy if you forget to change your status when you leave the house.