The Moto 360 was one of the most hotly awaited devices of 2014, but soon after its launch reports of its sub-par battery life did earn it some bad rep. However, the update pushed out by Motorola last week seems to have greatly improved the device's power management, with some users claiming the battery life has doubled.

The software update, known by build number KGW42R, focuses on Bluetooth connectivity and some other bug fixes, and seems to have hugely affected battery life. Users voiced their experiences on Reddit, with one of the more dramatic cases being a user reporting 30 hours of use with an amazing 53% battery remaining.

That however was possible with the Ambient Mode, which has the screen 'on' at all times displaying a watch face, turned off. Still, there have been tweaks made to the Ambient Mode as well which dims the display down to its lowest level, and runs a minimal watch face, which helps save charge.

While there's still no concrete proof of how much better the battery life of the Moto 360 has gotten, but it shouldn't be long before we have someone do a comprehensive test. If the battery life has in fact improved, it will be interesting to see if the Moto 360 can match LG's G Watch, which will help it win in terms of beauty as well as brawn.

TAGS: Motorola, Moto 360, smartwatch, wearable

TAGS: LG, smartwatch, G Watch, wearable, Samsung Gear S

E-commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian technology space, given the sheer volume of consumers gaining access to the Internet each year. Fashion retailer Myntra is one of the most popular online buying platforms, but is looking at avenues which were once under traditional electronics, to boost its growth.

The company which was recently bought by India's largest e-commerce player Flipkart, claims nearly one-third of all its sales come from the 'sports category. While fitness oriented fashion products are always popular, it can also be inferred that there's a growing need for products that promote healthy lifestyles.

Wearables are as much an offshoot of the electronics industry as they are of the fashion trade. It has often been argued that unlike smartphones which rest on a desk or in a users pocket for most of the time, wearables have to be beautiful as they're worn on the body. Moreover, wearables in their current form of devices that help users be more productive and stay fit.

Myntra has recognized the potential market for wearables in the fashion space, and recently tied up with an Indian manufacture of fitness trackers, GetActive. The company brings forth its USP of helping people look better, rather than merely selling clothing and accessories, in order to market the product which is aimed at promoting health and fitness.

Sports, youth and health & fitness will drive growth of the e-commerce space according to Myntra, at least when it comes to selling fashion products. Wearables also opens the door for the company to gain in on the exploding market for online sale of electronics. Recently, exclusive tie-ups between smartphone manufacturers and e-commerce companies has been highly successful.

According to Mukesh Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Myntra, the wrist is currently the hottest piece of real-estate in the fashion and electronic sectors. With the likes of giants like Google, Apple and Samsung outing their wristwear, consumers in India are bound to take notice of global trends and invest in these devices.

Moreover, the company feels it's the perfect platform to sell any device related to health and fitness, given the already existing data set of buyers interested in fitness wear. Myntra's move only goes to show that wearables are more interdisciplinary than other electronics, prompting manufacturers to develop not just functional pieces of kit, but also ones that people don't mind been seen wearing.

TAGS: Myntra, wearable, E-Commerce

Sony has revealed that it plans to bring the Android Wear-powered Smartwatch 3 and SmartBand Talk fitness band to India in the month of December. The devices were unveiled alongside the Xperia Z3 family at the IFA conference earlier this year, and while Sony's latest smartphones have made it to India, we're going to have to wait a little longer for its wearables.

Smartwatch 3

The Smartwatch 3 is Sony's first device to run on Google's Android Wear operating system, meaning it should function almost exactly like LG's G Watch and Samsung's Gear Live. On the hardware front the device sports a 1.6-inch 320×320 square display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

With Google locking down the software side of things with Android Wear, Sony is left to play around with the hardware, and they've stuck to what we've seen on previous models. The main unit is removable, allowing users to easily swap bands, which will be available in a variety of colours.

SmartBand Talk

The SmartBand Talk is Sony's other wearable device, and might we say the more interesting of the two. Essentially a fitness tracker, the company has added a 1.4-inch rectangular e-ink display at the front allowing users to answer calls, receive notifications, read messages and a few other nifty things.

The device is in some ways a primitive smartwatch, but if priced similarly to its predecessor, the SmartBand talk could be a great device to own, especially in India. Further, Sony has stuck with its pill design for the main unit, while the bands can be swapped out by buyers for various different shades.

Pricing details of the two devices aren't known at this moment, but it's likely that the Smartwatch 3 will be priced in line with what Samsung and LG ask for their first generation Android Wear devices. The SmartBand Talk on the other hand offers more features than a regular fitness tracker, but any elevation in price would put it in contention with smartwatches.

TAGS: Sony, SmartWatch 3, SmartBand Talk, smartwatch, fitness-tracker

US-based smartwatch manufacturer Martian has tied up with India's largest e-retailer Flipkart to bring its first product, the Notifier, to the country. The device is priced at Rs 9,999 and is up for pre-order as off immediately, with shipments starting only in early October.

As its name suggests, the Martian Notifier will be limited to notifying you about incoming calls, texts, emails, the weather and a few other things. The device is basically a dumb watch with a small notification screen at the bottom, but doesn't allow you to interact with incoming messages like other smartwatches.

The Martian Notifier is compatible with Apple's iOS devices – iPhone 4s and up, 5^th gen iPod Touch, 3^rd gen iPad and up – as well as any Android device running 2.3.3 Gingerbread and above. The device will however not support Windows Phone devices, which is rather unfortunate given the platform's popularity in India.

While various manufacturers are bringing their wearable devices to the Indian market, it is yet to be seen if these devices actually gain traction among smartphone users. LG, Sony and Samsung already have their devices in the market, with Motorola all-set to unveil its Moto 360 in the country soon.

The cost of ownership is most likely going to be the biggest detriment to smartwatch sales in India, with flagship Android Wear devices costing as much as a mid-range smartphone. Unless the prices align to cater to low to mid range smartphone buyers, smartwatches will only cater to a niche audience in the country., 

TAGS: Martian, Notifier, Flipkart, smartwatch

Clearly, Samsung was not satisfied by the response to its Gear S smartwatch at the IFA Berlin. Moreover after Apple announced its sleek Apple Watch, things may turned too sour; so much so that the company is again working on a standalone smartwatch. This time around they will also be including mobile payments, which will be facilitated by a fingerprint scanner... on the smartwatch!

The news is apparently pretty much credible and comes from high-ranking officer at Samsung Electronics. Samsung has joined hands with Synaptics for biometric security solutions; and has also included PayPal to put things into practice.

The new smartwatch will come with a fingerprint sensor and becomes a part of a network that will send promotional offers that you can purchase even if you are standing right outside a store. Also, sources say that the new smartwatch will be a standalone solution and will not need the assistance of a smartphone to enable the payments. More importantly, similar to the GALAXY S5, Samsung plans to put this smartwatch payment in place globally across 50 countries. Indeed the Korean company has big plans.

This could indeed be the smartwatch that appeared in the news a few months ago, back in June, when Synaptics CEO, Rick Bergman spoke about a smartwatch that the company was working on. The smartwatch supposedly had a curved display on it, but back then was linked to the SAMI health monitoring platform that Samsung had unveiled.

Since Apple also unveiled Apple Pay, Samsung also had to come up with something similar and since they had already partnered with PayPal in the past, it would make complete sense to extend the functionality altogether. With the muscles to flex, Samsung could be up to something big here. As for the launch date for this system and smartwatch, expect it to happen at the next Mobile World Congress in February 2015, right before the Apple Watch launches.

Source

TAGS: smartwatch, wearable, Samsung, Apple Watch