Google I/O Attendees Gifted Brand-New Android Wear Smartwatches

Get ready to be jealous, Google fans. Google I/O attendees will walk away from this week’s annual developer conference with some brand-new Android Wear-powered smartwatches. They’ll be able to choose between one of the new Android Wear watches introduced earlier today, including the Samsung Gear Live or LG G3 Android Wear. In addition, they’ll also receive the forthcoming Moto 360, when it becomes available in a few months.

That’s right: not one, but two smartwatches. Because there was no Chromebook underneath their seats, and Google felt badly? Maybe that’s why they also handed out cardboard (yes, actual cardboard – a poor man’s virtual reality device) as the attendees left the venue. More on that in a bit.

It may be interesting to see which of the two smartwatches attendees initially select: the LG or the Samsung.

Android Wear, which was previously introduced, was shown off during the keynote this morning, where its various features, including a card-like design and integrations with Google’s smart assistant technology Google Now, were on display.

The company also introduced a new Android Wear SDK for developers, allowing them to build custom user interfaces, control sensors, tie into voice actions, and send data back and forth between watches, tablets and phones.

The new smartwatches, which go on sale today to the general public, will also have a few new functions, including swiping to dismiss messages and displaying contextual information to the wearer.