Cronologics is coming home to Android Wear. The smartwatch OS startup, which was founded by ex-Googlers, is joining Google to work on its delayed Android Wear 2.0 update.
After an Indiegogo campaign earlier this year, the CoWatch was the first smartwatch to run Cronologics OS with Alexa voice controls added in to the features mix.
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Imco, the hardware partner on the CoWatch, has posted a statement saying "the CoWatch will live on" with a new software team updating the existing OS. "We are fully committed to continue the support and further development of this software platform," it reads, "and will also be developing future generations of CoWatch based on this platform."
London startup Blocks also has a partnership with Cronologics but this modular smartwatch has been delayed. Blocks posted this Kickstarter message to say that the watch will still launch with the OS:
"We will still be shipping with the Cronologics OS and using it for the foreseeable future. For us, this news is a clear sign that Cronologics was onto something special with their bespoke OS, and we are truly grateful to have inherited it from them."
We've had a couple of demos of Cronologics OS on the CoWatch and Blocks and have been impressed by the simple, intuitive UI of the Android based operating system. We're very optimistic about Google making use of what Lan Rcoche, Leor Stern and John Lagerling's team has built so far.
The system of allocating 'containers' i.e complications in a collection of watch faces, and swiping through icons as the watch face stays the same, saves time and looks slick, for instance.
Google hasn't announced how much money the deal was worth but Cronologics posted the following update on its site:
"We are joining Google to help grow the portfolio of watches powered by Android Wear. We see strong alignment with Android Wear's mission and look forward to working with our new colleagues at Google to continue pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond."
Source: VentureBeat
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