The Google Now app which comes pre-installed on every Android device has received a rather hefty update that allows the service to provide information for the Winter Olympics, in addition to new capabilities that allows the service to call or send an SMS message to one of your contacts.

The first successful personal computer didn’t have a screen — not even a command-line screen. It communicated with the user through blinking lights. It was called the MITS Altair 8800. This blinking-light box was such a revolution, a kid named Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to write software for it.

I have the feeling that the first successful wearable computer will also show nothing more than blinking lights.

I’m going to tell you why the high-rez wearables may not go mainstream over next couple of years, but why blinking-lights devices might. But first, let’s check out two interesting blinking light wearable devices.

Mozilla’s Linux based open-source operating system — Firefox OS — has met with relatively lukewarm response from the community. Initial Firefox OS running handsets have been released by relatively unknown OEMs and the immature nature of the OS has not helped much.

The open-nature of the OS makes it perfect for porting it to existing Android devices as evident from the ports for the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and the HTC One. 

While most of us would prefer a stock Android experience given the choice, HTC’s Sense user interface has gotten really good in recent years. Not only does it look great, but features like BlinkFeed actually make it really useful. Unfortunately, it’s only available on HTC’s own devices… at least officially.

Do Launcher aims to provide the Sense 5 experience on other Android-powered smartphones. It has Sense 5 icons and animations, its own BlinkFeed alternative with support for custom RSS feeds, and more.

The CyanogenMod team have this week released CyanogenMod 11 builds for the Sony Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Editions. Based on Android 4.4 KitKat, the ROMs include everything you’d expect from Google latest operating system, coupled with all the tweaks and add-ons that come with CyanogenMod.