Global economy is changing rapidly

Prolific leaker Evan Blass posted earlier today that Android Wear 2.0 is due out February 9, and now, over at VentureBeat, Blass claims Google's smartwatch will launch on the same date. Google confirmed earlier that it would launch a pair of "flagship" smartwatches soon, and it said that while they weren't going to be "Pixel" branded, the devices would be a Nexus-style collaboration. Blass says that those watches are made by LG and are called the "LG Watch Sport" and "LG Watch Style." Android Police has been tracking a Google smartwatch since July of last year, and Blass says that reportâ€”including a mockup produced by Android Police, pictured aboveâ€”is still spot on. Blass says the larger "Sport" watch is 14.2mm thick and has a 1.38-inch, 480Ã—480 circular P-OLED display, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 420mAh battery, an IP68 ingress rating, and a heart rate sensor. There's also tons of connectivity; besides the standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it has 3G and LTE data, GPS, and NFC, presumably for Android Pay compatibility. The smaller "Style" is definitely not as flagshippy, with a 10.8mm thick body and a 1.2-inch 360Ã—360 circular P-OLED display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a 240mAh battery. It has a worse IP67 ingress rating, and it apparently lacks the cellular, GPS, NFC, and heart rate monitor of the bigger version. It's presumably sacrificing so much in order to be svelte, but we'll have to see it in person to know for sure. The devices' SoCs aren't mentioned in the report, but given Qualcomm's monopoly in the Android space, the Snapdragon Wear 2100 or 1100 are both good possibilities. Both watches apparently have a "digital crown" button that "serves to facilitate navigation," similar to the Apple Watch. Navigation has been a sore subject on Android Wear 2.0 lately. Google's original 2.0 developer preview changed the back button from a swipe gesture to a press of the crown button, and, after a user revolt, Google reverted it back to the original style. Hopefully we'll hear from Google about an actual event on the 9th soon.