The watch’s lugs, strap, buckle, digital face, and physical module can be swapped out. WIRED tested the watch in Switzerland

TAG Heuer’s first attempt at a smartwatch, in 2015, sold 56,000 units and was deemed a success by the Swiss manufacturer. For its new version, the company’s CEO has set a more ambitious target.

“We will work to sell 150,000 pieces,” Jean-Claude Biver, the firm’s boss, said at the launch of the TAG Heuer Modular Connected 45 in Switzerland. “It’s my objective at least. We have to own your wrists”.

It carries the Swiss Made label and had most of its parts made in the country despite partnerships with Silicon Valley giants Google and Intel.

“Every customer wants to have an individual watch,”

While operating the watch – which has an Intel processor inside and 4GB of RAM – it is smooth to move between screens and it responds quickly to touch. Unlike the first TAG smartwatch the new model has an entirely metal casing; the initial offering came with a plastic backing. To include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC for payments, within a metal casing, Intel says it was forced to redesign its antennae so the signals could pass through the device. What is missing, when compared to other watches in the field, is a heart rate monitor.

The inclusion of the Android Wear 2.0 operating system means the watch is one of the first models to run Google’s OS and allows for software to be customised. The new operating system also means it is possible to use the watch’s features when it is not connected to a phone – runners, for example, can track their movements via GPS without having to carry their device.

Jolla released their Android-free mobile Linux OS (Sailfish) on their own smartphones, “but has always intended to offer it to other manufacturers,” according to Silicon. The next Sailfish smartphone was the Inex Aqua Fish, and people with Sony Xperia phones can now also run Sailfish through the Sony Open Devices Program.

The Sailfish China Consortium has gained the exclusive rights and license to develop a Chinese operating system based on Sailfish. Russia is also using Sailfish to build a national mobile OS in a bid to reduce its reliance on Western technology and reduce the risk of foreign surveillance.

IDC: Wearables grew 16.9% in Q4 2016, Fitbit still first but Xiaomi is gaining
http://venturebeat.com/2017/03/02/idc-wearables-grew-16-9-in-q4-2016-fitbit-still-first-but-xiaomi-is-gaining/

Despite a tough few quarters last year, including market share losses throughout, Fitbit is still the king of wearables. Big tech companies were expected to dominate just as they have with smartphones and tablets, but the little guy continues to hold on. In Q4 2016, Fitbit took first place again, Xiaomi held onto second, and Apple came in third.

Mobile companies shipped a total of 33.9 million wearables worldwide last quarter. That figure is up 16.9 percent from the 29.0 million units shipped in Q4 2015.

In MWCs past, the event’s news has typically been dominated by Samsung showing off its latest Galaxy flagship smartphone for the year. But the company’s delayed announcement this time around meant that the scores of tech aficionados at the show needed something else to get hyped about. Surprisingly, it wasn’t LG, or HTC, or even Samsung’s own newly unveiled tablets that stepped up to fill the void. The phone that has got everyone most excited here is the new Nokia 3310.

Nokia — via current brand owners HMD — delighted folks by unveiling the revived 3310.

Whether it’s nostalgia, curiosity, or simply the need to find something cool to post to Instagram, something is driving people to the Nokia 3310. And since the phone will cost just €49 when it arrives in the second quarter of the year, it’s extremely possible, given the hype here at the show, that the handsets will sell out the day they’re available.

Mozilla has acquired Pocket, a kind of DVR for the internet, for an undisclosed sum. The nine-year-old company, which makes tools for saving articles and videos to view them later, is Mozilla’s first acquisition. It represents a homecoming of sorts for Pocket, which began life as a Firefox extension before eventually expanding its team and building a suite of apps for every major platform. Pocket has been Firefox’s default read-it-later service since 2015.

Mozilla said Pocket, which it will operate as an independent subsidiary, would help bring the company to mobile devices, where it has historically struggled to attract users. Best known for its Firefox web browser, Mozilla has faltered in the mobile era, spending years on its failed Firefox phone project and waiting until 2016 to release Firefox on iOS globally. Meanwhile, the slow decline of the desktop web has made Mozilla’s broader future uncertain.

But while Pocket was a great app, it was not yet clear that it could be a great business. At 10 million monthly users, the app is small by the standards of the mobile era, particularly for a company building an advertising-supported business. Its chief rival, Instapaper, sold to Pinterest last year.

MWC 2017: what to expect from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
So many new phones
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/24/14724382/mwc-2017-barcelona-dates-preview-samsung-sony-htc-nokia-lg

The LG Watch Sport is too big for its own fitness-tracking good
A good fitness tracker — if you can stand to wear it
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/23/14701338/google-lg-watch-sport-health-and-fitness-tracker-review

This new smartwatch, made by Google and LG, seems like it would be the platonic form of a fitness-focused smartwatch. It has an always-on display. It has GPS. It has LTE. It has built-in heart rate sensors. It has a barometer. It’s waterproof (sort of). And it runs on brand-new Android Wear software. Most other smartwatches lack something, whether it’s GPS, LTE, or all of the above. Not the $349 LG Watch Sport.

There are actually a lot of good things to say about the smartwatch’s fitness features, which makes it even more of a shame that it feels like a handcuff.

The biggest brag this watch has is that it recognizes (some) of your weight-lifting exercises

This watch is too damn big for its own good

Samsung Announces Exynos 8895 SoC: 10nm, Mali G71MP20, & LPDDR4x
by Ryan Smith on February 23, 2017 1:45 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11149/samsung-announces-exynos-8895-soc-10nm

Even though Mobile World Congress doesn’t kick off for another few days, Samsung isn’t wasting any time in getting started. This morning the company is announcing their latest generation high-end ARM SoC, the Exynos 8895. Their first in-house 10nm SoC

it’s a safe bet we’re looking at the SoC for at least some SKUs of the next Galaxy S phone.

While Samsung has been in the SoC game with the Exynos series for a number of years now, it’s been in the last few years that they’ve really cemented their positon as a market leader at the high-end. Thanks in part to the company’s 14nm process, the Exynos 7420 proved to be a very capable and powerful SoC from the company. Last year Samsung followed that up with the Exynos 8890, which among other firsts marked Samsung’s entry into designing their own CPU cores with the M1.

Android Can’t Compete With iMessage. Google Is Changing That
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/google-support-for-rcs/

When text messaging was simple, SMS worked beautifully. You could send 160 characters to anyone with a cellphone, and they’d receive it the same way they would a phone call. In the age of flip phones and nine-key texting, that was all anyone needed. But when texting gave way to group messaging, video calls, and (Sent with Fireworks), the SMS standard just couldn’t keep up anymore.

And so users ran to solutions like WhatsApp, which grew huge audiences on the back of one simple idea: it’s like texting, only better and free. Apple built a huge devoted fanbase for iMessage by adding features right on top of texting.

SMS squandered its tremendous inherent advantage—it’s built into your phone, so everyone has it

Over the last couple of years, Google has been working with hundreds of carriers and manufacturers around the world to bring the text message into the 21st century. Using a standard called Rich Communications Services, the group plans to make a texting app that comes with your phone and is every bit as powerful as those dedicated messaging apps. This would make all the best features available to everyone with an Android phone.

Oh, and the plan’s working. New carriers have been slowly announcing RCS support over the last few months.