Throughout the year we have reported several times on stories, hints and rumours pointing towards Google releasing its own smartwatch with the most recent being that they purchased WIMM Labs, a smartwatch manufacturer, last year. In the last couple days Artem Russakovskii of Android Police fame has posted a rumour on Google+ that Google will release a smartwatch codenamed Gem alongside the Nexus 5 and KitKat. The date he has specified is October 31, saying that the date that were tipped off to of October 14 being the technical acceptance date rather than the release date.
Not much is known at this stage about the Google smartwatch but considering all the actions Google have taken in that arena it seems inevitable that it will happen eventually. Everyone else seems to be ready to release one, why not Google?
Of note is Artem’s next rumour which states that in KitKat the messaging app is no more. All messaging will be handled by the Hangouts app on the Nexus device being tested. This rumour was speculated before the release of Hangouts, back when we thought it was going to be called Babel, although eventually we got it right and went with Hangouts.
The new Hangouts will be able to handle videos now as well as MMS messages to go along with the new addition of SMS messages. His source is not convinced the new version of Hangouts will be ready by the KitKat release but if not will follow soon after.
With so many smartwatches being announced is there a place for a Google/Nexus smartwatch? Would you be interested in purchasing one? What about Hangouts taking over all messaging? Is this a change for the good?
