The idle globe is a quieter colour. It gained filled continents in 1.9.1, wearing the
brightest blue and the most saturated green the watch can draw, which at that size read
as a toy rather than as the world. It is now a deep sea with a sage-green world on it --
the same real coastlines, the same spin, several shades calmer.
It is the screen showing when nothing is happening, so it should not be the loudest thing
on your wrist.
Night is unchanged; it was already dimmed for its own reason. Black-and-white watches are
unchanged too -- they draw the globe as a wireframe and never had the colours.
The globe has proper continents now. 1.9.0 gave it an ocean but drew the land as an
outline on top, which read as scribble on a blue disc rather than as a world. The
continents are filled: green land, blue water.
It is the same real coastline data it always was, projected and spun rather than
played back from an animation, and it still turns properly at the edge -- land goes
round the side of the globe instead of folding back across it.
The globe is green and blue in every theme now, rather than tinted to match the one
you picked. It is a picture of the world, and a world tinted to match the furniture
stops looking like one. Night keeps the same two colours several shades down, because
the point of Night is not to be a headlight on your wrist.
Black-and-white watches are unchanged.
The globe has proper continents now. 1.9.0 gave it an ocean but drew the land as an outline on top, which read as scribble on a blue disc rather than as a world. The continents are filled: green land, blue water.
It is the same real coastline data it always was, projected and spun rather than played back from an animation, and it still turns properly at the edge -- land goes round the side of the globe instead of folding back across it.
The globe is green and blue in every theme now, rather than tinted to match the one you picked. It is a picture of the world, and a world tinted to match the furniture stops looking like one. Night keeps the same two colours several shades down, because the point of Night is not to be a headlight on your wrist.
Black-and-white watches are unchanged.
Needs no phone-app update: the companion stays at 1.8.0.
Two releases in one, since 1.8.0 never made it to the store.
Turn warnings now come earlier -- about twenty seconds before the turn, where it used to be eight. Eight seconds is roughly 350 feet at 30 mph: enough to brake, not enough to look, signal and change lanes. Every timing band moved up, not just the default, so whichever one you picked now warns you sooner. If you liked the old timing, Late is about what Normal used to be.
The time of day now sits across the top of the card, with the arrival time beside it where the screen is wide enough. A watchapp takes over the whole display, so for the length of a drive this one had quietly taken your watch away from you.
Trips longer than an hour show their minutes again. "1 hr 5 min" was being cut short to "1 hr", so everything between one hour and two read the same.
And when Google Maps names a lane -- "use the left 2 lanes to turn left" -- the card now shows which lane, above the arrow.
New in 1.9.0: the default look has colour in it. The arrow, the clock and the lane line are blue against the white card, while the distance and the street stay black, because that is the line you actually read at speed. The idle globe has an ocean, with its real coastlines drawn as green land on a blue sea. Both follow whatever theme you have picked, and black-and-white watches are unchanged.
The timings, the trip figures and the lane need the phone app at 1.8.0.
Roundabouts now show the exit Google Maps actually named.
They were wrong, and confidently so. Maps names the exit in the icon it draws --
"leave to the right", "bear slightly left" -- and this app was throwing that away
and drawing its own circle instead, which always depicted the same exit: nine
o'clock in the US and most of Europe, three o'clock in the UK and Australia. So
a driver told to leave a roundabout at three o'clock was shown an arrow pointing
the other way round it.
The exit is now read from the icon and drawn as the turn it is, with the word
ROUNDABOUT above it so the arrow is not mistaken for an ordinary junction. Where
Maps names no exit -- entering, or leaving -- the circle is still shown, because
that is genuinely all it has said.
This needs the phone app to be 1.7.1 or newer. Older versions discard the exit
before sending it, so the watch cannot recover it.
The turn card now has room for the street name.
The word above the arrow is gone for ordinary turns -- a big left arrow does not
also need "Turn left" written over it -- and that line goes to the instruction
instead, which now wraps to three lines rather than two. The word stays where it
says something the arrow cannot: arriving on the left or right, rerouting, and
when Google Maps does not tell us which way the turn goes.
The distance is no longer printed twice. On some turns the card read
"2.4 mi - 2.4 mi"; it now says it once.
The watch also tells you when the phone app is out of date. Neither half can
check for its own updates -- the companion requests no Android permissions and
cannot make a network request at all -- but this watchapp is updated by the
store automatically, so it is the half that can notice, and it now says so on
the waiting screen. It stays quiet until it has actually heard from a phone, so
a watch out of range never nags you.
The icon and distance text sizes are unchanged.
The watch can now tell you when the phone app is out of date.
Neither half can check for its own updates: the companion requests no Android
permissions and cannot make a network request at all, which is deliberate. This
watchapp, though, is updated by the store automatically -- so it is the half
that can notice, and it now says so on the waiting screen instead of leaving
you wondering why nothing arrives.
Needs companion 1.5.5 or newer, from the download page. It stays quiet until it
has actually heard from a phone, so a watch out of range never nags you.
Fixes a turn that could go unannounced when driving slowly. The buzz is now
guaranteed within 30 m of the turn however slow you are going, which a sweep of
the whole speed range showed was missing below about 5 mph.
The time and distance to the destination is bigger, and now changes with the
Text size setting.
Reopening the app mid-route picks up the current turn instead of sitting on
"waiting for directions", and the app closes itself a few minutes after you
arrive.
The card's text is bigger. The street and distance now draw a size up by
default, and there is a new Text size setting with Small, Normal and Large if
you want to change it.
The buzz now tells you which way to turn: a left ends on a long pulse, a right
opens with one, so you can take the turn without looking down.
Rerouting has its own double-thump, so it can never be mistaken for a turn.
The watch speaks seven languages, picked up from your watch's own setting:
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese.
The backlight can stay lit through the turn instead of a brief flash. Opening
settings mid-route no longer throws you back out. And there is a new opt-in
setting that holds other apps' notifications while you are driving, so a text
does not bury the directions.
Turn direction is now in the buzz itself. A left ends on a long pulse, a right
opens with one, so you can take the turn without looking at your wrist.
Arrivals say which side of the street the destination is on, with an arrow
under the chequered flag, and they get the same countdown a turn does.
New: a REROUTING screen, so a stale arrow is never mistaken for a live one.
The launcher now shows your arrival time. Auto-open can be switched off if you
would rather open the app yourself.
Start navigating in Google Maps and the next maneuver appears on your Pebble: the
arrow, the distance, the street name, and how much of the trip is left. Your wrist
buzzes when a turn is coming up, and again when you are on top of it, so you can leave
your phone in your pocket.
- 17 maneuvers, each with its own arrow: turns, slight and sharp turns, U-turns,
merges, ramps, and roundabouts that know which way they go round
- Time and distance to the destination, and your arrival time
- Two-stage haptics, with how early the first one comes up to you
- Three icon styles and six colour themes, including one you set yourself
- A rotating globe on the idle screen, with real continents on it