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Google has confirmed that its Android Wear operating system will be getting a significant update in the coming months.

Among the new features are the addition of offline music playback and GPS support. The GPS support is great as you an track your distance and your speed right from your watch, even if you leave your phone at home. If you want to take your watch to the gym and listen to music and leave the phone at home, as well, offline music playback is great via Bluetooth headphones and most Android Wear watches have at least 2GB of internal storage.

The next update will also allow for downloadable watch faces, allowing you to customize your home screen and your most used apps.

"Our goal with Wear is to build technology that helps you connect with others and get stuff done. So often, technology can become something that gets in the way of everything else. But we want to build devices that you can use when you need and forget about when you don't--technology that's built for your sake, rather than its own sake. Coming throughout the rest of this year, we're making some updates to Wear that will help you get even more out of your watch--and the rest of your life, too," says Google.

Garmin has unveiled their second-generation fitness tracker, the vívosmart, a significant upgrade to their original vívofit.

The new device is a bit more than just a fitness and activity tracker (sleep, steps, calories), as it also notifies of you of your smartphone alerts.

Featuring a touch-sensitive OLED, you will receive viewable notifications for your synced smartphone, including vibrations for texts, emails, calls, calendar reminders, etc.

The smart wearable has a November release date with a price tag of $169 or $199 if you want to bundle a Garmin heart rate sensor.

Twitpic is officially shutting down, meaning millions of your photo links on Twitter will soon go dark.

The service, once the most popular way to post images to Twitter, says they will be shutting down on September 25th. A photo exporting tool will be made available next week.

In their parting post, Twitpic says Twitter has been pressuring the company over their name for some time, even demanding that they drop their pending application to trademark the Twitpic name. The filing was made in 2009. The company says Twitter threatened to cut Twitpic's acess to the Twitter API, effectively killing the service anyway.

"Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours," Twitpic founder Noah Everett wrote. Rather than try to fight the multi-billion company, Everett and the company will shut down instead.

While Twitpic was extremely popular when Twitter was smaller, the company was not necessary now. Twitter has its own image posting links, and now even has its own GIF URL ability, which had kept Twitpic relevant over the years.

Twitter, for its part, says they are sad at the outcome, but reiterates that the company was free to use the name as long as they dropped the trademark filing. "We're sad to see Twitpic is shutting down. We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand," added a Twitter spokesperson.

Although the device is still in its "Explorer" beta, Google has made the Google Glass headset available to all directly from the Google Play Store.

The price will still leave your wallet $1500 lighter, but at least the Glass comes with a free accessory (regular frames or sunglasses frames)

Google has kept the same five colors available: Black, Orange, White, Brown and Blue. As of writing, all models are still fully available and will ship in 1-2 business days.

In addition to the Glass and frames, you get a charger, microfiber pouch and a mono earbud.

There is still no word when Glass will come out of beta, although it seems very unlikely that happens in 2014. At that point, Google is expected to make the glasses available for under $500.

Source:
Google Play

Microsoft has updated popular video chat and messaging service Skype for Xbox One to version 1.8, bringing with it a number of well received features.

The company has touted its new photo viewing features from mobile, updated "Snap" functions and the ability to answer phone calls using a voice command.

First, "Skype 1.8 for Xbox One allows you to view photos sent from mobile phones on Skype for Xbox One. Skype users from Windows Phone and iOS mobile devices can now share pictures with Skype for Xbox One users either in a 1:1 or group chat." If there are more than one photo being sent, you have the option to make a large screen slide show.

In Snap mode, "the frame rate has doubled and the size of the video window has increased" meaning you may be able to actually see your friends and family.

If you are playing a game or using other features of the Xbox One, you will be able to see the Skype call come in and use the voice command "Xbox Answer" to Snap the call without interrupting your current gaming or TV viewing.

Thanks to Chinese site cnBeta, we appear to have full pics of the upcoming iPhone 6 along with the rumored updated Passbook app for mobile payments.

The design looks similar to previous leaks, patents and designs we have seen, showing off the 4.7-inch display, rounded corners and edges, and different volume rocker.

In the software, the Passbook app has been updated with a red stripe that appears to have a credit card, suggesting Apple will be getting into the mobile payments market as expected. In addition, the home screen has a full new row for icons (6 compared to 5) supporting the purported 1334 x 750 resolution.

As far as leaks go, these photos do not seem like obvious fakes we have seen in the past, and the device certainly looks like Apple's purported next flagship.

We will know for sure in just a few days.

In addition to their other higher-profile launches, Motorola also announced the refresh of their popular Moto G mid-range device.

The incredibly cheap yet serviceable device will still sell for $179.99 unlocked, but with improved specs. The phone now has a 5-inch 720p display with Gorilla Glass, a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, dual SIM capabilities, 8GB internal storage and a microSD slot for 32GB expansion.

Stock Android 4.4 is pre-loaded (with some basic Moto apps that are helpful), and Motorola has already guaranteed an update to Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie.

Dual cameras, double stereo speakers, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE and 720p HD video capture are the rest of the upgrades for the mid-range device. The 2070mAh battery is good for one day of mixed usage, says Motorola.

Available now for $180 unlocked, in the U.S., India, France, the UK, Brazil, Spain and Germany.

Motorola introduced the second-generation Moto X today, a powerful refresh to their popular flagship device.

The company has updated the specs, moving the device to a 1080p 5.2-inch AMOLED display, and slimming down the design to just 144 grams.

Powering the smartphone is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, a 578MHz Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Base models have 16GB internal storage, and Motorola has added Gorilla Glass protection, and a "splash guard" water-repellent coating.

Like its predecessor, the Moto X will run on almost stock Android 4.4 (to be quickly upgraded to Android Lemon Meringue Pie), with Motorola adding a few of their own features, all of which are well received. The company kept their Migration tool to help you bring over your old contacts, texts and data. Moto Actions, Moto Display and Moto Assist are back and each are extremely helpful. Moto Actions uses new IR sensors which allow you to, for example, snooze your alarm by waving your hand over it. Tapping and swiping to use gestures are the same, as well. Moto Display is a specialized home page that shows three notifications, allowing you to get a quick preview of each. Moto Voice also takes custom phrases, taking voice control to a new level. "Take a selfie" opens the front-facing camera, "Play YouTube" launches the YouTube app, etc, etc. Very cool.

Motorola has released their long-awaited Moto 360 smartwatch, arguably the first smartwatch that is actually comfortably wearable with a suit.

The device, which runs on Android Wear, has already sold out via Motorola and Google Play, and it should be available in Best Buy retailers later this month.

Priced at $249.99, the device is the most expensive Android Wear device to date, and it will set you back $299.99 if you want metal bands when they become available next month. If you really want the watch now, the metal bands cost $79.99 as an accessory.

Making the watch different is its round face with (almost) edge-to-edge display. The display is 1.56-inch with 320×290 resolution, 205ppi, with a total 46mm diameter watchface. Under the hood is a TI OMAP 3, 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM.

The watch has a pedometer, wireless charging support, heart rate monitor, and as expected, a mic for voice controls. To protect your investment, the watch is IP67 dust and water resistant and has a Gorilla Glass protected screen.

Early reviews of the device have been very mixed. While the design has seen universal acclaim, the battery life is atrocious. Most people claim that the battery life is even worse than current Android Wear devices, with moderate wear leading to just 12 hours of battery life, which is unacceptable by any standards.

Samsung unveiled their Galaxy Note 4 earlier this week, showing off a phablet with killer specs and a plethora of features.

The note 4 has a 5.7 inch inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, (2560 x 1440 resolution) and is powered by a 2.7 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 805 CPU or a 1.9 GHz Octa-Core Exynos CPU depending on your network and country.

Additionally, the phone has 3GB RAM, 32GB external storage, microSD slot for up to 64GB, a 16MP rear camera with Smart OIS, a 3.7MP front facing camera with "Wide Selfie" features.

The phone runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, the phone has support for 4G Cat 4, 4G Cat 6, 3G / HSPA+. 2.5G support and has a large 3220 mAh removable battery with Fast Charging tech.

On the software side, we have Air Command with Action Memo, Smart Select, Image Clip, Screen Write, S Note, Snap Note and Direct Pen Input, also it comes with improved Multi Window, Ultra Power Saving Mode, Voice Recorder, Interview Mode Recording capability, Dynamic Lock Screen, Briefing, Download Booster, S Health 3.5, UV sensor, Heart Rate Monitoring, Bluetooth v4.1, IR LED, HDR rich tone software for camera along with Selective Focus, Rear-cam Selfie, Dual Camera, Virtual Tour Shot, Shot & More, Beauty Face, and others.

Using the IFA event as their venue, Sony has unveiled two new smart wearables including an update to their line of smartwatches.

First, the company unveiled its new SmartWatch 3, an Android Wear sequel to its previous proprietary Android smartwatches. Sony says the watch will work as a standalone and will also sync to your Android Wear capable smartphone for better functionality.

The SmartWatch 3 has a 1.6 inch 320 x 320 LCD touch display, a stainless steel body, and IP68 dust and water-resistance. Under the hood is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 chip at 1.2GHz, 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. As is standard, the device has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, NFC, GPS, an ambient light sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer and a gyroscope. Most importantly is the microphone which allows for voice control.

Better than other current devices, the SW3 has a 420mAh battery good for 48 hours of usage. The watch is also extremely light at 38 grams.

Second, Sony introduced the SmartBand Talk, a fitness band used to monitor your movements and help you keep a log of your activities. The device has a 1.4 inch E-ink display (296 x 128) that can show you the time, synced notifications and the status of monitored activities. Since it doesn't need any major power, the device has an ARM Cortex-M4, 256KB RAM and Bluetooth 4.0 BLE and NFC. The band has a 70mAh battery and also has a microphone and speaker for some basic voice controls.

Finnish casual gaming giant Rovio has released their latest spin-off of the popular Angry Birds franchise, dubbed 'Stella.'

Stella is the main female character of the series, having been featured in a few of the past games including Angry Birds GO! and Angry Birds Star Wars.

The game has a familiar feel to past games, with familiar birds and pigs and stars and unlockable characters. The game does add a new slow motion tap-and-hold mechanic which allows for more pointed flight and attacks.

As usual, the game is free, and the first levels are ad-free. Afterwards, there are banner ads and video ads that you will have to sit through. There are also in-app purchases of coins if you need them for special power upgrades during a level.

Rovio has also announced a set of Telepod toys that can be used for new characters or features after you scan them.

The game is available now on Android and iOS.

Just a few weeks after Apple settled over the same policy, Google has settled with the FTC over their in-app purchasing policies and unlawful billing of unauthorized purchases.

Google has settled for $19 million and will refund parents whose kids may have made unauthorized in-app purchases that did not require passwords. Apple recently settled for $32.5 million, as they had more angry consumers.

When the Google Play Store first launched, in-app purchases did not require a password, meaning a parent could have downloaded a free app, let their kids play, and unknowingly had their kids buy in-app upgrades or DLC that were then charged to an attached credit card.

In 2012, Google updated the policy to add authentication every 30 minutes, but that was still a large open period and some accounts racked up hundreds in charges before parents noticed.

If you made any in-app purchases during that time frame, you will receive an email from Google with steps on how to apply for part of the refund fund.

Nokia will soon release their HERE mapping services for iOS and Android, looking to take some share from its bigger rivals.

Currently, HERE maps are the default mapping service for Windows Phone devices, but will soon be available for free for the two major operating systems.

Giving HERE a major leg up on Google and Apple is the fact that Nokia will make full maps available for downloading when offline. "We will go where the scale is," says a Nokia exec. "I'm convinced people are looking for alternatives. Google Maps is a good solution for many--their maps work very well--but it has looked the same and done the same for a long time."

Nokia is not expected to see any financial gains from the move, since there is really no advertising yet, especially compared to Google Maps. The mapping business makes money through corporate license fees for use of the digital mapping platform especially to companies that have major logistics needs, like a Fedex for example.

According to a new report, the upcoming Apple iTime smartwatch will include a near-field communication (NFC) chip, allowing for one-tap mobile payments and other transfers of information.

Apple is expected to unveil the watch at next week's iPhone 6 launch event. Additionally, the company is expected to also launch a mobile payment platform, one where you can keep all your credit and debit cards in a digital wallet and pay with a simple tap or scan.

There are expected to be two models of the watch, which is not expected to be available to consumers until February.

Although obviously unconfirmed, the iTime is also expected to have a curved screen and be available in black, white and gold.