You know those digital gadgets for your wrist that connect to a smartphone and display the time, weather, and latest incoming e-mails and texts? Smartwatches are supposed to be the next big thing, and in a way they are — big, that is.
The one I am testing, the $236 G Watch by South Korea’s LG Electronics, is a plastic half-cube that juts from my wrist like a remote control for the Death Star. But as the market for smartphones nears saturation, LG, Sony, Samsung, and other electronics companies are counting on smartwatches for a fresh surge of revenue.
Until now, smartwatch makers have each created their own operating software that is often incompatible with many phones. For instance, first-generation Samsung watches work only with Samsung’s own smartphones, and not all of those.
But Google Inc. sensibly figures that a standardized software platform will boost demand for the watches and slash their cost. It worked brilliantly for its smartphone operating system, Android. Now comes Android Wear, a version built to run on watches and other wearable devices, and compatible with virtually all late-model Android phones. The LG G Watch is one of the first Android Wear devices to hit retail stores, and Google’s betting its new software will give millions of us a good reason to strap
The G Watch confuses right out of the box. Where is the “on” button? There isn’t one. The watch switches on when you snap it into its battery charging cradle. There is a touchscreen command for turning it off, but without the charger, you cannot switch it back on. This would not be so bad if the battery could last through a day. But on a recent busy day, with lots of incoming e-mails to check, my G Watch died at 3 p.m. Even on slow days, the battery just ba
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