Your wrist is about to get a serious upgrade. Google announced on Wednesday that a long-overdue Wear OS redesign will be rolling out to all watches over the next month. It's not the first Wear OS refresh we've gotten--Google has quietly been updating the OS formerly known as Android Wear throughout 2018, including bringing a true dark mode that finally takes advantage of the OLED screens on nearly every smartwatch--but this is the first full-scale redesign it's gotten since Android Wear 2.0 landed back in February 2017. And while it's not quite the revolutionary overhaul some want to see, it does bring a nice visual improvement and a few necessary navigational shortcuts to help us spend less time touching the screen. Of note, watches will now use Google's Products Sans font, bringing them in line with the Pixel phones.

Google IO 2018 is just weeks away, with the event happening in early May, and it's sure to be used to unveil a bunch of Android software goodies and potentially even some new hardware. We don't know much about IO 2018 yet, but Google has begun teasing the event, giving us a few clues as to what we might see – and when. We've also come up with a wish list for what we want from Google's annual developer conference, which you'll find at the bottom of this page. Google took to Twitter in January to tease IO 2018, and that tweet led users to the google.com/io That's not particularly surprising, as Google IO is usually held in May, but this would be slightly earlier in the month than usual.

Researchers say the Apple Watch and Android Wear watches can detect early signs of diabetes, according to large study involving more than 14,000 Cardiogram app users. The study, conducted by researchers at UC San Francisco and Cardiogram, was released on Wednesday. Cardiogram, a digital health startup, was founded in 2016 by ex-Googlers Johnson Hsieh and Brandon Ballinger. The Cardiogram app is available for iOS and Android and is compatible with all Apple Watches and Android Wear devices, including the Huawei Watch, LG Watch Sport, Moto 360 and more. The app has more than 250,000 users.

Now that smartwatches are actually useful enough for the general populace, setting them up isn't as pedestrian a task as pairing with your phone and calling it a day. On the surface, customizing your new device may not seem like a complicated task, but people often overlook some of the tools that can potentially make wearables more helpful. From recommended settings to the apps worth downloading, here's a walkthrough of what you should look out for when setting up your new wearable. This part you probably already know. Turn on your watch, pair it with your phone and follow the onscreen instructions.

If your phone runs Android, and you're interested in buying a smartwatch, your journey begins with answering a single fundamental question: Samsung Gear or Android Wear? Sure, there are other smartwatch platforms that work with Android phones, but Gear (perhaps best represented by the Gear S3) and Android Wear (represented by watches too numerous to mention) have the most mature ecosystems and refined hardware. Google's Android Wear platform has strong third-party app support, and if you opt for a Wear watch, you can choose from a wide variety of models in all shapes, sizes and styles. Samsung, meanwhile, has gone its own way with its Gear smartwatch line-up. These watches run Samsung software, and adhere strictly to the Samsung ecosystem, but also offer some benefits that Wear watches do not.

I'm willing to bet you didn't say "an Android Wear watch." What was supposed to be the year of wearables turned into repeated delays and mounting frustrations, as Android Wear 2.0 missed its launch date and manufacturers bailed on anticipated releases. To put it bluntly, Android Wear is in sad shape. But there is hope for salvation. In February, Android Wear 2.0 will finally drop, bringing a host of improvements such as standalone apps, easier typing, and on-watch purchasing to a reasonably long list of compatible models.

Cronologics, the company that developed what it hoped would be an alternative smartwatch OS to Android Wear, has been acquired by Google for an unknown sum. The startup was founded by former Google employees, ironically enough, and recently launched the Alexa-powered and Amazon-blessed CoWatch. The Cronologics OS that powers it is based on Android Lollipop, and can supposedly run almost any Android app, assuming the CoWatch could sideload them (it can't). Google didn't reveal why it bought the company, and Cronologics just said (via a statement on its site) that "we see strong alignment with Android Wear's mission and look forward to working with our new colleagues at Google." It didn't specifiy if it would continue to sell the CoWatch, though that seems unlikely given that Google Home competes directly with Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo products.

The core uses for Wear so far are glanceable information, messaging and fitness. Each of those parts of the OS have been improved, but the changes actually reach far beyond just that. "For the very first time, we've been able to take a holistic pass across the design of the entire system and UI to really hone and tune the interactions around key things that people want to do," Singleton says. Some of the most profound changes to Wear come under messaging, so let's start there. Many of the changes Singleton outlined go far beyond messaging apps, most notably notifications in general.

In one week from now, Google I/O 2016 will have come and gone, and we could very well be revelling in new services, features and if we're lucky, new products. Considering we are only a few days away, there have been very few leaks out of Mountain View, hopefully, that isn't a reflection on the quality of what Google has in store for us all. Our Editor in Chief Dan Tyson will be on the ground again this year, bringing us both hands on coverage as well as seeking out the Australian perspective on everything announced at I/O. No I/O would be complete without just a little speculation on what is coming, however, before we get to that it is important to remember that at its heart I/O is a developer conference, it is intended to let Google inform developers of how to utilise Google's service new and existing, and let developers get up close and personal with Googlers and their knowledge. Now let's get down to guessing speculating on what Google may have in store.