Google Announces Android Wear For iOS

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• GC2:CS - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  Well google is forced to rech to reach the most lucrative user base on iOS, because they couldn't survive without collecting their information and sending ads to them.
  
  As a matter of fact, there is more choice and freedom available on iOS than any other platform.

• coder543 - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  That is blatantly false, and it really sounds like you're trying to justify continued use of iOS to yourself more than anyone else. On Android, you can use whatever OEM version it comes with, you can run a "clean" AOSP-based build, a feature-filled Cyanogen ROM, or you can run a "Fully Free" version like Replicant Android, if you're afraid of binary blobs.
  
  That's a whole lot of user choice and freedom.
  
  Not to mention that you could even take an Android phone and install Ubuntu's phone OS on it, or a few other options.
  
  Within the Android ecosystem, you can even take the opportunity to combine a featureful ROM with granular permissions control, allowing you to control with extreme granularity exactly what apps installed on your phone can do -- far more so than you can on iOS.
  
  Google may be the driving force behind Android, but it is possible to have Google-free Android. As it is, Android is a perfectly good OS, and paranoia about Google is not beneficial. Concern about privacy is good, but right now there is no need to turn to paranoia. But, if you want Google-free Android, it is absolutely possible.
  
  Apple-free iOS, on the other hand, is not possible, and they have at least as much information collection capacity at their fingertips as Google does. I wouldn't worry about Apple or Google that much at the moment, but if we're discussing "choice" and "freedom" in this context, it should be mentioned.

• Samus - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  You can't honestly say you trust Google with your personal information over Apple.

• erikiksaz - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  100% Agreed. Considering Google's poor security regarding brute-force logins and its subsequent huge leak of all the celebrity nude pics recently, I will 200% not trust them.

• amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, September 1, 2015 - link

  YES, here's the logic behind it.
  Apple is mostly a hardware company, they could "survive" if they lost your data.
  Google on the other hand, better use all their mights to make sure your data is fine, losing your data can mean the end of the company. I believe Google will have better security than Apple simply because I believe Google's survival depends on it and Apple's survival are not.
  
  Also, at least Google is being "honest and upfront" about data monitoring/mining. Unlike Apple, they are known for telling blunt lies without blinking their eyes. Remember from the WWDC 2015, they say they will never mine users data, but very soon afterward, they patent a way to target ads to users base on the amount of money they think you got(aka Apple pay/wallet), e.g. send LV ads to rich people ONLY, which totally makes sense if you think about it.
  Maybe it's just me, personally, I just can't stand companies that lied to us straight in our faces. We wouldn't take this kind of BS from our politicians, so why take it from a tech company?
  
  (ps: Steve Jobs is different, he got a reality distortion field ;)
  (ps2: if you really believe Apple or any [tech] company that don't [want to] mine user data, then please ignore everything I've said in this post, don't want to waste time.)

• sebastianer - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  In Android you could stop using Google stuff, and REPLACE it with other company stuff, like Microsoft. Imaging the ability to disable "Cortana" in Windows 10 and use "that space" with Google (instead of having Cortana at the left and Google now at the right). That kind of things are available in Android, but not in Windows/OS X.

• StubbyMcGee - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  So will Anandtech finally get around to reviewing an Android Wear watch now that it works with the iPhone? (Spoiler: probably not considering there's still no review for the Pebble either...)

• Brandon Chester - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  It has nothing to do with what phones they work with. Every mobile editor here, with the exception of Brett who is all WP8, has an Android device that they keep with them and use. The reason there weren't reviews is because most OEMs didn't send any review samples, which means there's no device to review. I believe there was a Moto 360 sample, but it ended up going to Stephen who ended up leaving after only a short time here due to other obligations. A Moto 360 review isn't really relevant at this point.
  
  One other note. It's probably a bad idea to review an Android Wear device with an iPhone because the feature set is more limited than when using it with an Android phone.

• StubbyMcGee - Wednesday, September 2, 2015 - link

  I remember when Anandtech didn't rely on review units to release each and every writeup. It's been a year since Android Wear has been out; there is no excuse for you not to have bought one and done your jobs as a review site.
  
  Furthermore your stated reason that the lack of reviews is because of an absence of OEM sent samples contradicts the claim in the Apple Watch review that you (or Joshua Ho) "have been trying out various wearables over the course of the past few years... I have been able to use the Pebble Steel and Motorola’s Moto 360... After a few months, I... stopped wearing them"
  
  http://anandtech.com/show/9381/the-apple-watch-rev...
  
  You should clarify exactly what your excuse is otherwise the impression is that Anandtech is being dishonest.

• solipsism - Monday, August 31, 2015 - link

  In terms of the best all around and well designed wrist-worn device in the smartwatch category I feel that the Apple Watch trounces everyone else, hands down, but this move by Google — or should I say Android or Alphabet? — is a brilliant move because the Apple Watch will never be able to fit all needs. This is where Android Wear can shine the way Android and Windows and Linux can shine as compared to a consumer OS sold with single-vendor HW.
  
  Additionally, I can foresee how a consumer wants an iPhone and Apple Watch, but also has some medical issue (e.g.: glucose levels) that they will want an additional device attached to their body somewhere else that an Android Wear-based device would ideally suited for.
  
  Even those it's still nascent I see the wearable market — not just the wrist — to be the next decades CE market… and believe Android Wear, or something else that can be licensed to all HW vendors as an important part of that, even if Apple does its still revenue, profits and mindshare dominance of said market.