The Verge is covering the rapidly evolving world of wearables. We test everything from smartwatches like the Apple Watch, to smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Bans, to fitness trackers like the Oura Ring to find out which ones deliver on their promises. Follow along to find out whether covering our bodies in screens and sensors can actually make us smarter and healthier.
In addition to their discussion of what happened with AI Siri, Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak talked about how an Apple Watch might fit into Apple’s AI device plans, if Apple is working on a foldable (“who’s to say?”), and if iPhone prices will go up due to tariffs (“nothing to announce”). It’s worth watching.
The company’s first chief technology officer (CTO), Francis Shanahan, has a remit “to focus on artificial intelligence efforts,” announced alongside a new head of marketing. New-ish CEO Peter Stern has already said AI “has the potential to give humans superpowers,” which in Peloton’s case so far means personalized workout plans and AI-powered subtitles for classes.
Developers are already barred from publishing new AndroidX or Wearable Support Library on the Play Store, and starting January 14th, 2026, users will no longer be able to install new legacy watch faces, nor will developers be able to publish updates for them, Google says.
[android-developers.googleblog.com]
Vivo claims its X Fold 5 has achieved an Android first: interoperability with the Apple Watch. According to product manager Han Boxiao the watch can display calls and texts from the X Fold 5, and sync health data. The phone can also receive calls and texts sent to an iPhone, access iCloud, and extend the display of a Mac.
How? We have no idea, but hopefully we’ll find out when the phone launches this month.
At WWDC 2025, Apple just showed off a new update coming to its wearables this fall.
Once watchOS 26 is available, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 wearers will be able to dismiss notifications, silence times and alarms, and ignore calls just by turning their wrist over and back like this (below), in addition to the existing double tap gesture.
On the list of apparel-related data breaches, Adidas was early to the trend. Then, the Victoria’s Secret website was offline for a few days last week as it dealt with a “security incident.”
Now, Bleeping Computer has two more to add to the list, reporting that Cartier has sent emails to customers informing them that info like name, email address, and country of residence was stolen, and that The North Face has apparently suffered its fourth reported credential stuffing incident since 2020.
[bleepingcomputer.com]
That’s what researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are proposing in this paper published in Device. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, co-author Nanshu Lu says it’s meant to help people in “high-stakes, high-demand” jobs monitor their stress in real-time. The e-tattoo measures brainwaves and eye movements to decode mental workloads to help prevent people in stressful jobs from reaching a breaking point.
Obviously, this is research and not an actual thing yet — but it sure does look cyberpunk.
I hear you like your Nokias... blung? Listen, it’s early and I’m not Kendrick. However, behold this iced-out Nokia phone and wallet chain that jeweler Alex Moss made for Drake’s Some Sexy Songs 4 U album. Hypebeast has the details but apparently this project took four months to complete and has over 150 carats of diamonds.
I think this counts as a wearable.
This year’s rumored redesign for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS is also coming to watchOS and tvOS, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. In an April subscriber edition of Power On, he wrote that watchOS would only get elements of the redesign “here and there.”
It’s expected the updates will take cues from the look of the glassy, translucent visionOS, which, Gurman writes, is also getting tweaks where they “make sense for a headset.”
I wear three to five wearables all the time, so I relate to the anxiety described in this New York Times article. Managing it is a huge part of my job, which is why I wrote this how-to with a lot of my tips and tricks. And as I’ve said on many a Vergecast episode, I purposefully break streaks to preserve my mental health. Friendly reminder from your neighborhood wearables expert: you are allowed to take breaks.
[nytimes.com]
AI hardware has entered its spaghetti era, and notably, Altman and Ive aren’t betting on glasses.
After last month’s acquisition of Runna, mostly to get at its running plans, Strava is repeating the trick in cycling. It just acquired The Breakaway, an iOS biking app with a focus on... AI training plans.
It comes as Strava closes a round of funding that valued the business at $2.2 billion. Yesterday it announced new AI route planning and improvements to its cheat detection.
The Verge team has a few guesses about the first hardware release from the OpenAI and io combination. Let us know yours in the comments.
[Insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme here, which I should really have saved last time!!!]
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.
[news.samsung.com]
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.
Android president Sameer Samat even broke out the company’s prototype XR shades to promise some “really cool Android demos” to come. And as you can see, this is a man who knows what’s cool.
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.
