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Android Authority
9 minutes ago
- Android Authority
After Facer, Pujie and WatchMaker announce Wear OS 6 support
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR After Facer, watch face distribution apps Pujie and WatchMaker are extending support for Wear OS 6. The updated versions comply with Google's mandate to switch to the new Watch Face Format. While Pujie is separating development into two apps (for new and old watches), WatchMaker is likely to continue using just one. With Wear OS 5, Google introduced a new standard to make watch faces more power-efficient. And, to ensure watch face designers and developers running distribution apps like Facer, Pujie, or WatchMaker make the switch to Watch Face Format (or WFF), it effectively blocked support for legacy watch faces on newer Wear OS versions. Starting 2026, legacy watch faces cannot co-exist with WFF ones on these distribution apps, which is why Facer recently announced an updated phone app that works with Wear OS 6 watches. That will include support for the Watch Ultra and the newly launched Galaxy Watch 8 — with many more to follow. Now, other apps, Pujie and WatchMaker, are also making the switch, bringing similar solutions with Wear OS in mind. Pujie is bifurcating its efforts into two apps: one to apply watch faces to smartwatches running Wear OS 6 and future versions, and another to support watches running Wear OS 4 or older versions. This separation ensures that the older app continues to support legacy watch faces while the newer version works only with WFF. Pujie's approach differs from Facer's, which does not require you to download two separate apps if you have two different smartwatches. However, you need to select the smartwatch within Facer's Android app where you wish to apply a new watch face, and the app dynamically refreshes to support only one of the two kinds — legacy or WFF — faces. To put it simply, Facer is running two versions of the apps in a broader environment. In contrast, Pujie's approach might make sense for its use case, since it allows extensive customization of watch faces, including a system where you can create your own watch faces using different building blocks. Among other changes to the new app, it introduces a real-time simulator to reflect changes immediately and supports animation preview and will also let you transfer watch faces between two versions of the app. Meanwhile, WatchMaker did not clarify in its blog post which approach it is taking, although it appears to be proceeding in the same manner as Facer. This approach is suggested by a single app listing on the Google Play Store by WatchMaker's publisher, 'androidslide.' Additionally, WatchMaker's blog post notes that more than 130,000 watch faces have already been adapted to support WFF, and all you need to do to use those is sync them to the new watch again. What's with Google's Watch Face Format? Google's Watch Face Format takes a modular approach, where designers and developers only need to work on the front end and upload the details in a lightweight XML file, while the Wear OS system automatically handles the execution. Although this allows for lighter watch faces that are quicker to sync and consume less battery, it also limits visual effects such as depth or shadow, rendering very artificial-looking visuals. This approach can be especially detrimental to watch faces that simulate analog watches, and has also resulted in enthusiasts, including my colleague Rita El Khoury, lamenting these limitations. Follow
CNBC
39 minutes ago
- CNBC
Where is Nvidia? Chinese rivals take the limelight at major AI event in Shanghai
BEIJING — Less than two weeks after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's high-profile visit to Beijing, the U.S. chipmaker was conspicuous by its absence at China's biggest AI event of the year. Despite renewed hopes this month of selling its less advanced H20 chips to China again, Nvidia didn't have a booth at the World AI Conference that opened Saturday in Shanghai. The company declined CNBC's request for comment. In contrast, Nvidia's China rival, Huawei, had a large display — focused on its Ascend AI chips — near the venue entrance. Huang has called Huawei "one of the most formidable technology companies in the world," while warning that it could replace Nvidia in China if U.S. sticks with its export curbs on Beijing. The telecoms giant showed off for the first time the hardware for its computing system that links 384 Ascend chips together to power AI model training and use. Huawei is marketing the product as "Atlas 900 A3 SuperPoD." Earlier this year, research firm SemiAnalysis pointed out that even though one Ascend chip may be less powerful than Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chip, an early look at a Huawei system similar to the one unveiled in Shanghai more than offsets the disparity by piling in five times more chips than Nvidia does in its GB200 computing system. But there's an efficiency cost as Huawei's systems require far more power than Nvidia's to operate, the report said. Huawei is far from being the only Chinese player in the complex supply chain for advanced chips. For example, semiconductor designer Moore Threads and startup Yunsilicon both had booths at the AI expo center in Shanghai. Many of the exhibitors from startups to giants such as Tencent and Alibaba showed off AI applications in robotics, smart glasses and translation apps. Overall, there was less talk at the expo about needing Nvidia to power their products. Internet tech company NetEase's Youdao business displayed a handheld bar device that uses AI to help students study material including that for college entrance exams. The device currently uses both AI based in the cloud and "edge" AI that runs on the device, said Gao Huituan, product manager of educational learning hardware at Youdao. Looking ahead, he said that new AI chips are becoming more power efficient and are able to support different types of products. While Nvidia's chips focus more on cloud computing power, "many domestically made, very excellent chip manufacturers are working on some edge devices," he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. "Now everyone has relatively good computing power." Nvidia has become the world's most valuable company, riding on the demand for its chips that have been heled drive the latest generative AI breakthroughs. The company had to stop sales to China in April due to new U.S. restrictions, following tougher export controls over the last three years aimed at reducing China's AI capabilities and which have prevented Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to the country. The company tailored the H20 for China, which Huang has said is a $50 billion market. Tesla, Google, Amazon Web Services and Siemens were among the U.S. and European companies with booths at the AI conference in Shanghai. Nvidia had a booth in Beijing earlier this month at an annual supply chain conference, which coincided with Huang's third visit to China this year and news that the U.S. will allow the chipmaker to resume sales of the H20 chips to China. But the company has not shared when shipments would begin or how many orders it had received from Chinese customers. "Nvidia is the model in (AI) GPU development for the short to medium term not just because of H20, but also because of flagship products like the GB300," Phelix Lee, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in an emailed statement. "The return of H20 could help Nvidia to remain as the de facto standard in AI datacenter systems, especially when domestic alternatives are lurking." Beijing has been striving to boost tech self-sufficiency as it has faced U.S. restrictions accessing high-end tech. The country over the weekend also took another step toward promoting its AI standards globally. Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced plans for a global AI cooperation organization during a speech at Saturday's opening ceremony. The initial headquarters will likely be in Shanghai, state media said. The plans come just days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an American action plan for AI that included calls to reduce alleged "woke" bias in AI models and support the deployment of U.S. tech overseas.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Google Maps for Android has developed an annoying public transit bug
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Public transit routes are buggy on Google Maps It seems to be affecting some but not all users Google hasn't yet made any comment on the issue Millions of us rely on Google Maps to get from A to B every day, so when something goes wrong with the app it can cause a serious headache – as seems to have happened with a new bug that affects searching for public transit directions. As noted by Android Police, a lengthy thread on Reddit documents the experiences of many users who are seeing the Google Maps app for Android crash when they search for public transit directions to a direction. It's difficult to assess just how widespread the problem is at the moment: the Android Police team was able to replicate the bug on one of their phones, but it's not an issue I'm seeing on my own Google Pixel 9 at the moment. What's certain is that it's frustrating for those people who are seeing it, leaving them unable to use Google Maps to plot a route to their destination. As yet, Google hasn't said anything officially about the problem or a potential fix. What you can try With no word from Google yet – and I'll update this article if there is – users are really left sitting and waiting for a fix. It sounds as though the issue has hit multiple Android phones, including those made by Google, Samsung, and Poco. From the Reddit thread, it seems that putting Google Maps into incognito mode might help. You can do this by tapping your Google account avatar inside the app (top right), then choosing Turn on Incognito mode from the menu. This apparently fixes the problem, though your searches and journeys obviously won't be saved in your Google account. It also suggests that the problem might be something to do with the way Google Maps is syncing to accounts. It might also be worth your while checking out some of the alternative public transit apps available on Android, such as Citymapper and Moovit. There's also Apple Maps too of course, but this bug doesn't seem to affect Google Maps for iOS. You might also like Some Garmin watches get a Google Maps upgrade 10 things you didn't know Google Maps could do Google Maps gets key upgrades for routes and AI
