Smartwatch

November’s Pixel Watch update is here to address last month’s botched Wear OS 5 rollout for older devices, but the curious thing is the update note says the next one is months away:

Pixel Watch 1, Pixel Watch 2, and Pixel Watch 3 devices will receive the November 2024 software update, with the next update planned for March 2025.

It’s odd since Google generally pushes out an update every month. There’s also simply no reason given. Well, a lot can happen in four months.

If you’re worried about damaging your Pixel Watch’s glass screen, Google now sells a Zagg “flexible polymer hybrid” screen protector, as 9to5Google spotted.

It works for all three generations of the watch, the glass of which held up poorly in Victoria Song’s Pixel Watch and Watch 2 reviews.

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Health Canada published its approval of the feature this week, MacRumors reports. Apple Watch sleep apnea detection was also recently cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.

However, Apple hasn’t added Canada to the list of regions where the feature is available quite yet.

At a Climate Week NYC panel, Google policy manager Nicole Azores said the company is considering how to change its watch design, which currently has to be replaced entirely if damaged.

Here’s a snippet from Wired’s reporting which notes that Apple’s and Samsung’s watches are repairable:

Watches and wearables are still fairly nascent, and we are thinking through how to make this repairable,” Azores said on the panel. “We’re thinking about repairability on a broader scale, not just on phones and tablets, and we want to make sure that all of our products eventually become repairable.

The app, which measures your sleep with the help of Snorlax and friends, can now help you track your nightly habits with your Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch, Pixel Watch, or Fitbit.

This should allow for more accurate sleep tracking, as the app previously had you place your phone under or beside your pillow to monitor your sleep and snoring.

I highly encourage everyone to read this breakdown from our former colleague Nicole Wetsman. It neatly summarizes the difference between wellness features like blood oxygen, versus detection features like EKG and sleep apnea.

As I wrote in my review, I understand FOMO in not having the feature. But you’re only supposed to use it to monitor your baseline — not much else.

In watchOS 11, all you gotta do is hold down the button and swipe through the options. Before you had to go into the Settings menu, which is no fun. Hopefully this helps folks get more use out of the button. Will definitely be giving this a whirl!