Android Wear Announces "The Magic Minute Project"

The smartwatch, and by a broader scope, the wearable industry, has not been doing to well in the past few years. Many thought that wearables would be the “next big thing” after smartphones, but they are still a fairly niche product, with really only fitness trackers taking off, instead of smartwatches. Google launched Android Wear back in 2014, as a platform for wearables, although it mostly only has smartwatches right now (one could argue that the Polar M600 is more of a fitness tracker or even a fitness watch than a smartwatch). And these products haven’t sold as well as they, or their partners had hoped. So they are looking at other ways to promote these products, and get users to pick them up especially in the midst of the Holiday shopping season. The latest is “The Magic Minute Project”.

This new project saw Google team up with about 30 people, they say that this group of people include “makers, doers, and dreamers”. And they created a collection of one-minute videos that celebrates “what time means to all of us”. One of the examples they used is a 300-word rap in just a minute from Andrew Huang. Then there is Kie Willis who did a time trial in Parkour in under 60 seconds, and many others. All of which you can check out at the source link below. These videos all showcase different Android Wear-based smartwatches. Google says that some of the smartwatches featured in The Magic Minute Project include the ASUS ZenWatch 3, ZenWatch 3, Michael Kors Access, Moto 360 2nd Gen, Moto 360 Sport, Huawei Watch, Nixon Mission, Polar M600, Fossil Q Wander, Fossil Q Marshal, Casio Smart Outdoor Watch and the LG Watch Urbane.

Google is also opening up the Magic Minute Project to everyone. Stating that users are able to submit their own Magic Minute films and they may get featured on the website dedicated to the project. These films can be anything from painting, coding, cooking, raping or even playing. The possibilities truly are endless. All of these smartwatches which Google showed off in the Magic Minute Project, are still available for purchase at the Google Store and other retailers. The majority of them will be getting the update to Android Wear 2.0 when that launches in the first quarter of 2017.