What’s happened? Google is adding a flag in the Play Store to alert Wear OS smartwatch users of watch faces which have high battery drain.
This is important because: Many of today’s best smartwatches are packed with features, sensors, and useful apps, but even if you’re not an overly heavy user, there’s a good chance you’ll be recharging your wearable every day or two. Maximizing battery life on your smartwatch can help reduce the frequency of charging.
Why should I care? You can now easily see which watch faces are kinder on your smartwatch’s battery life, and select the best one for your needs, without fear of it zapping all your power.
Okay, what’s next? Keep an eye out for software updates on your phone and smartwatch in the coming weeks, as the rollout heads to users around the world.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.