Skip to main content

LG may be developing its own smartwatch and glasses

LG Logo

According to the source, “The company has spared no efforts to invest in products that it believes are must-haves to stay ahead technology-wise in the market, whatever the situation may be.”

LG has already shown that it has the technology available to create a watch that can sync up to a phone. Plus, it has shown that it can create a display that suits the shape of a watch, possibly even flexible screens, which would be extremely beneficial to the watch concept.

As far as its efforts to tackle the Google Glass challenge, the details are scarce, and not much has been leaked other than the notion that it’s in the works. It’s not all that shocking though, since the concept is so new, if the company is in fact working on its own version, it’s very likely in the extremely early stages.

With all the buzz about both the smartwatch and Google Glass, what’s most surprising is that we haven’t heard about more competitors stepping up to the challenge of coming out with similar gadgets. Sure, they’re not the most essential gadgets, but they’re definitely hot button objects that tech enthusiasts will do anything to get their hands on.

Joshua Pramis
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Spending a childhood engrossed in such technologically inspiring television shows like Voltron, Small Wonder, and Power…
Google is bringing its futuristic AR glasses to the real world … kind of
Google's AR glasses laying on a table.

Google is bringing back Google Glass ... well, sort of. The Silicon Valley tech giant has announced that it will be testing out its prototype AR smart glasses in the public starting next month.

The company gave a sneak peek of the prototype AR glasses at Google I/O 2022 back in May, where it said the glasses are designed to serve as a visual aid to people navigating different environments, especially if someone's visiting other countries or communicating with family members who speak a different language. On Tuesday, Google wrote in a blog post that it will be sending the AR glasses to a few dozen people and trusted testers to use them in select public settings.

Read more
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip might actually save Android smartwatches
The Mobvoi TicWatch 3 Pro on someone's wrist.

Qualcomm has a new wearable chip for smartwatches. Actually, there are two of them. They're the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and W5+ Gen 1, and Qualcomm thinks they're the next big revolution in smartwatch chipsets.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Snapdragon Wear 3100 from 2018 was also supposed to supercharge Wear OS watches and take them to the next level. But beyond some fairly modest battery improvements, performance on the Wear 3100 left a lot to be desired. And 2020's Wear 4100 and Wear 4100+ chips weren't much better. Qualcomm again made some battery improvements and performance gains, but seldom few smartwatches actually adopted the 4100 platform. A handful of watches from Mobvoi and Fossil use a 4100-series chip, and that's about it. Samsung's Galaxy Watch lineup is using Exynos chips, and rumors even suggest Google's Pixel Watch will do the same.

Read more
The Pixel Watch may need its own special supporting app
Fossil Gen 5 Wear OS

The Pixel Watch is set to debut later this year and could be paired with a dedicated app. References to a Google Pixel Watch App were found by 9to5Google in a recent APK teardown, and while this doesn't necessarily confirm the app, there’s a possibility that such an app is in the works. If this is true, the standard Wear OS app could be replaced by a new Pixel Watch app for the upcoming smartwatch.

The app was referenced inside the latest beta update of Google Play Services. The report mentions a change expected to the Smart Lock features on Google devices, which will enable WearOS 3-powered smartwatches to unlock devices such as smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks. The feature was initially teased in January and may now be ready for release. It could have a similar implementation to Apple’s "unlock iPhone with Apple Watch" feature.

Read more