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Samsung Galaxy Watch 4: My favorite (and least favorite) Wear OS features – Tom's Guide

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The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4‘s fundamental feature is its new software, a unified version of Google’s Wear OS called Wear OS 3. 

Unlike the Tizen-powered Galaxy watches of the past, the Galaxy Watch 4 series is outfitted with a suite of Google programs. As much as the Apple Watch is made for iOS folks, Samsung’s latest device is looking to become the premier smartwatch for all Android users. 

By folding into Tizen into Wear OS, Samsung and Google took a major step in merging the market of smartwatch platforms. Similar to how smartphone companies can customize Android to better fit their brand, Wear OS allows augmentation for wearable makers. That’s why I’m finding the Galaxy Watch 4 maintains familiar aspects of Tizen, while supporting greater Samsung ecosystem integration thanks to One UI Watch.

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Getting to know Wear OS on the Galaxy Watch 4 is a fresh experience, even if it’s technically a reintroduction. Some features are great right out of the gate, improving what was already one of the best smartwatches you could buy. 

Others aren’t as impressive, at least in my testing so far. Here are my favorite and least favorite Wear OS features on the Galaxy Watch 4.

Great Google Maps app 

(Image credit: Future)

Google Maps on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is a revelation. As someone who relies on Google Maps to get everywhere, it’s been a drag dealing with a fickle Apple Watch version of the app. But now, when I start a route from my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, it automatically launches on my wrist with turn-by-turn directions.

When I’m on foot or driving my car, my Galaxy Watch 4 will buzz when it’s time for the next step. Since it’s more interesting (and safer) to walk looking up, I appreciated the cues. With the LTE version of the Galaxy Watch 4, you can search for destinations when your phone isn’t nearby, too.

Keyboard for messages

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Wear OS features - Messages and keyboard

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 had a T9 keyboard, which I relied for texting more often than I thought I would. I know, typing on such a small screen sounds ridiculous, but I appreciated the ability to send messages in cases when I couldn’t use talk to text or didn’t want to draw my letters. It’s one of the features I wished Apple would copy in watchOS 8.

But it didn’t, giving Google’s software a leg up in the ongoing Wear OS vs. watchOS face-off. When you send messages on Wear OS, you have the option to type them out using the T9 keyboard. All you have to do is click on a number, and the corresponding letters appear in a pop-up for you to choose from. 

No Google Assistant… yet

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Wear OS features - Google Assistant

(Image credit: Future)

Now we’re onto the not-so-great stuff about Wear OS on the Galaxy Watch 4. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is missing a killer feature at launch: Google Assistant. Samsung confirmed to Android Central that Google Assistant is not on the Galaxy Watch 4 series yet. Apparently the assistant will make it to the new smartwatches eventually, but no word on when that might be. For now, I’m stuck talking to Bixby.

With Google’s voice butler built into the Galaxy Watch 4, users would gain access to the best Google Assistant commands, including control of the best Google Home compatible devices in your smart home and all the other perks that come with knowing how to use Google Assistant. Can Bixby do all that? I think not. 

One thing I’ll note here is the Galaxy Watch isn’t launching until August 27. That gives some wiggle room for updates before the greater population gets a new smartwatch on their wrist.

No battery life improvement

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Wear OS - battery life

(Image credit: Future)

I’m not necessarily disappointed about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4’s battery life. I’m just confused. During Google I/O, Wear OS developers promised the new software would bring better battery life efficiency to smartwatches running the unified platform.

Instead, the Galaxy Watch 4’s battery life might be slightly worse than the Galaxy Watch 3’s. In the first few days of testing, the smartwatch has lasted about 20 hours before needing a charge. That’s with the always-on display enabled, overnight blood oxygen readings and activity tracking, though. Sure, I might be challenging the battery life, but those are all Galaxy Watch 4 features the average person would want to use.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 with Wear OS outlook

I need to spend more time with Wear OS on the Galaxy Watch 4. Getting to know a new software requires many hours of testing, especially in real-world applications. I will say my short time toying with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4’s software is the best experience I’ve ever had using Google’s wearable platform, though. 

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Apple iPad Air 2024: Insider Makes Hasty U-Turn On New Feature – Forbes

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Well, that was quick. On May 18, a respected industry insider predicted a new display technology for the iPad Air that’s expected in the coming days—Apple just announced its latest special event.

The new 12.9-inch iPad Air, the report claimed, would have the same miniLED backlighting currently found on the larger iPad Pro, using the leftover inventory from the current Pro as that model switches to OLED. That was exciting news.

But now, Ross Young, the analyst who made the claim, has changed his mind. The new prediction, shared with paid subscribers only, is that the miniLED technology won’t be coming to the iPad Air, in either size.

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While it made sense that the inventory could be maximized in this way, it now “makes sense” that it won’t.

Young says that while he’d heard from supply chain sources that it would, he’d now had contact from “even more supply chain sources” that it won’t.

And the reason this change of heart now makes sense is that this miniLED technology is expensive, so it would be surprising if it made it to the iPad Air, which is more affordable than the Pro.

That’s not quite all the analyst shared. He also said that there are now reports of a new iPad coming later in the year. This is a 12.9-inch iPad, with miniLED backlighting and it could arrive between October and December this year.

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This is intriguing. What could it be? Assuming that the iPad Pro and iPad Air are released in May, it’s extremely unlikely either will be updated later in the year. And if the iPad Air isn’t pricey enough for miniLED to be included, what tablet could Apple be introducing that is the same size as the bigger Pro, with a pricey screen tech, which would sit between the Air and the Pro, it seems?

Young is highly reliable, but this seems slightly preposterous to me. The only other iPad in the range due a refresh is the regular iPad (at 12.9-inches, the iPad mini is clearly out of the picture) and that doesn’t seem likely either.

It seems to me that any regular iPad will almost certainly have the same screen size as now, 10.9 inches. The regular iPad only grew to this size screen in the current generation, and Apple almost never changes designs after one iteration.

Perhaps things will become clearer as the year goes on.

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Woman who left beaten dad on floor for 2 days was 'overwhelmed' with his care, judge told – CBC.ca

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A Calgary woman who abused her sick, 77-year-old father was “overwhelmed” at the task of caring for him, a judge heard Wednesday at a sentencing hearing. 

In January, Tara Picard, 52, pleaded guilty to charges of assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life after her father (whom CBC News is not naming) was found injured on a basement floor, where he’d been lying for two days. 

On Wednesday, prosecutor Donna Spaner and defence lawyer Shaun Leochko asked the judge to allow Picard to serve her sentence in the community under conditions as part of a conditional sentence order.

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Justice Indra Maharaj agreed to a two-year conditional sentence for Picard followed by a year of probation. 

“There is no doubt she became overwhelmed,” said Spaner in her submissions. “There is no question Ms. Picard has remorse.”

Leochko told the judge that caring for her father “was really more than [Picard] could handle.”

Maharaj heard that Picard is Indigenous and was the victim of abuse growing up. She lives in a sober dorm-style facility and is working with a mental health and addictions navigator, according to Leochko.

A ‘willingness to give back’

As part of the sentence, Picard must complete 300 hours of community service. 

Justice Maharaj commended Picard for “taking that on.”

“That shows me Ms. Picard sincerely does recognize what has happened here,” said the judge. 

“What I interpret from that is Ms. Picard’s willingness to give back to her community.”

During Picard’s plea, court heard that in November 2021, Picard and her father fought over his drinking. 

Nurses discover victim

The victim suffers from a number of medical issues, including diabetes, heart disease, dementia and alcoholism.

At the time, home-care registered nurses were assigned to help provide supplementary care.

Nurses found the victim wearing a soiled adult diaper and suffering from two black eyes with blood on his head. 

He told the nurses who discovered him that he’d been there for two days. 

Picard admitted she knew her father had fallen and she had “administered a number of physical blows.”

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Calgary woman who neglected elderly father spared jail term

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Leaving her elderly father on a basement floor for two days in a soiled adult diaper won’t mean jail for a Calgary woman.

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Justice Indra Maharaj accepted a joint Crown and defence submission on Wednesday for a two-year-less-a-day conditional sentence order for Tara Picard to be followed by 12 months of probation.

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Prosecutor Donna Spaner and defence counsel Shaun Leochko proposed a community-based term which will include eight months of 24-hour house arrest followed by a nightly curfew for the second eight months.

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Maharaj also agreed with the lawyers to order Picard to commit 300 hours of community service over the length of the three-year sentence.

The Calgary Court of Justice noted that amount of community-service hours was “a lot” to commit to.

But Maharaj said it showed Picard, 52, was truly remorseful for her conduct towards her father, whom Postmedia is not identifying because of the embarrassing nature of the facts of the case.

“What that shows me is Ms. Picard does sincerely recognize what has happened here,” the judge said of her willingness to complete community service.

“What I interpret from that is Ms. Picard’s willingness to give back to the community.”

Picard pleaded guilty in January to charges of assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life to her 77-year-old father.

Court heard caregivers found the elderly Calgary man on the basement floor of his daughter’s southeast home wearing a soiled adult diaper.

At the time, Picard was responsible for her father’s day-to-day care after he was moved to her residence, Spaner, reading from a statement of agreed facts, told court at the time.

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“He had a number of medical ailments, including non-insulin dependent diabetes, coronary artery disease, some early onset dementia-like symptoms and chronic alcoholism,” Spaner said.

“(He) had been living independently in a Calgary apartment building. Family members became concerned that he was not caring for himself safely.”

With the help of Alberta Health Services he was moved to a home where Picard resided.

A registered nurse assigned to his care attended the 38 Street S.E. home on Nov. 15, 2021, to drop off food bank supplies for him and was told he was sleeping downstairs.

When the nurse called about an hour and a half later and spoke to the man on the phone he said he was lying on the floor, had fallen and was unable to get up.

When she returned to the home with a co-worker she found the victim lying on his back on the floor.

“(He) said that he had been lying on the floor for two days,” Spaner said.

Leochko said Picard was overwhelmed by the situation she was thrust into.

“It really was more than she could handle,” he said.

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