The G Watch, above, is equipped with Google’s voice recognition service and can perform simple tasks including checking email, sending text messages and carrying out an online search at users’ voice command. Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters
The G Watch, above, is equipped with Google’s voice recognition service and can perform simple tasks including checking email, sending text messages and carrying out an online search at users’ voice command. Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters
The G Watch, above, is equipped with Google’s voice recognition service and can perform simple tasks including checking email, sending text messages and carrying out an online search at users’ voice command. Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters
The G Watch, above, is equipped with Google’s voice recognition service and can perform simple tasks including checking email, sending text messages and carrying out an online search at users’ voice c

Business

Samsung, LG launch smartwatches with new Google software

Samsung’s Gear Live and LG’s G Watch — both powered by Android Wear — are the first devices to adopt the new Google software specifically designed for wearables.

AFP

June 26, 2014

  • English
  • Arabic

South Korea's Samsung and LG on Thursday launched rival smartwatches powered by Google's new software as they jostle to lead an increasingly competitive market for wearable devices seen as the mobile industry's next growth booster.

Samsung’s “Gear Live” and LG’s “G Watch” — both powered by Android Wear — are the first devices to adopt the new Google software specifically designed for wearables.

G Watch — LG’s first smartwatch — is also equipped with Google’s voice recognition service and can perform simple tasks including checking email, sending text messages and carrying out an online search at users’ voice command.

The two devices cannot make phone calls by themselves but can be connected to many of the latest Android-based smartphones, the South Korean companies said in separate statements.

Samsung and LG are the world’s top and fourth-largest smartphone maker, respectively.

A typical smartwatch allows users to make calls, receive texts and e-mails, take photos and access apps.

G Watch opened Thursday for online pre-order in 12 countries including the United States, France and Japan before hitting stores in 27 more including Brazil and Russia in early July.

Gear Live was also available for online pre-order Thursday.

The launches come as global handset and software makers step up efforts to diversify from the saturated smartphone sector to wearable devices.

Samsung introduced its Android-based Galaxy Gear smartwatch last year but it was given a lukewarm reception by consumers.

The second edition, Gear II, was unveiled in February and based on Samsung’s own Tizen softwear in a move to break free of its heavy reliance on Google’s Android platform.

Samsung's arch rival Apple is believed to be set to launch its own smartwatch soon, while Google is moving towards a wide consumer launch of its eyewear Google Glass later this year.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei also unveiled a connected watch called TalkBand.

Global smartwatch sales are expected to grow this year by more than 500 percent from 1.9 million units in 2013, according to the market researcher Strategic Analytics.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sri Lanka World Cup squad

Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Avishka Fernando, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal.

Miguel Cotto world titles:

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WBA Welterweight champion – 2006-08
WBO Welterweight champion – Feb 2009-Nov 2009
WBA Light Middleweight champion – 2010-12
WBC Middleweight champion – 2014-15
WBO Light Middleweight champion – Aug 2017-Dec 2017

Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Roll of honour 2019-2020

Dubai Rugby Sevens

Winners: Dubai Hurricanes

Runners up: Bahrain

 

West Asia Premiership

Winners: Bahrain

Runners up: UAE Premiership

 

UAE Premiership

Winners: Dubai Exiles

Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes

 

UAE Division One

Winners: Abu Dhabi Saracens

Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes II

 

UAE Division Two

Winners: Barrelhouse

Runners up: RAK Rugby

JAPAN SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa

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Two stars

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

Packages which the US Secret Service said contained possible explosive devices were sent to:

  • Former first lady Hillary Clinton
  • Former US president Barack Obama
  • Philanthropist and businessman George Soros
  • Former CIA director John Brennan at CNN's New York bureau
  • Former Attorney General Eric Holder (delivered to former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz)
  • California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (two devices)
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