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Meet Samsung's new smartwatch family: the Gear 2, Neo and Fit
Samsung's new Gear smartwatches are no longer card-carrying members of its Android Galaxy. That's because Tizen, the company's open-sourced OS, has taken over the reins for the line begot by the barely five-month-old Galaxy Gear. And, in typical Samsung fashion, the company hasn't released just one new Gear, but three with very specific areas of focus: the fashionable Gear 2, the functional Gear Neo and fitness-focused Gear Fit. The newly announced trio was on display here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, giving us a chance to get acquainted with their particular quirks and let you know whether or not to free up some space on your wrist.
Samsung acquires MOVL to bolster its multi-screen TV efforts
Samsung's desire for deep integration of TV services was painstakingly obvious when it unveiled the Galaxy S 4's WatchON feature. However, that may prove to be just the tip of the televisual iceberg: it's buying MOVL, the developer of Samsung's own SwipeIt media sharing as well as the MOVL Connect Platform and KontrolTV. We don't know exactly how the two sides will mesh, but MOVL expects to merge its connected TV savvy with the "scale and innovation" of its new overseer, according to a company statement at TechCrunch. The only safe prediction is that existing support for generic Google TVs and iOS will likely take a back seat.
Samsung unveils the Galaxy S 4's software tricks: camera modes, Story Album, S Voice Drive and more
Samsung is revealing what Smart software additions the Galaxy S 4 will bring to the table, and they're well beyond what's been rumored. The camera is one of the biggest focuses, borrowing much from the Galaxy Camera: Cinema Photo captures still images with moving backgrounds, a Drama Shot burst mode that creates animated GIFs, an Eraser mode to remove unwanted background subjects, and a Sound & Shot mode that puts audio in the background of still images. A Story Album automatically creates photo albums (including ones you can print via Blurb) based on common details such as location and time. And did we mention that it can shoot photos and video from both the front and back cameras at the same time? That's just the start. AirView now works with your finger, rather than a pen, and is effective right from the lock screen. Adapt Display and Adapt Sound automatically tune the picture and speakers for varying viewing conditions, and WatchOn uses a built-in IR blaster to tune your TV. S Translator, meanwhile, will take both spoken and written words and translate them through several languages, inside of multiple apps. S Voice has been upgraded to S Voice Drive to let drivers get navigation, find points of interest and otherwise interact with the phone without having to take any hands off the wheel. S Health, which Samsung initially mentioned last year, is around to track calories and steps through accessories such as S band, a body scale and a heart rate monitor. Like to do things that involve more than one person? There's more still. ChatOn has been upgraded to support video chat, and Group Play both allows for sharing songs in a surround mode or playing local multiplayer games -- when it's supported, that is. All told, there's a small deluge of new features that could amount to a lot, even excluding new hands-free elements like Smart Scroll. Check after the break for a quick preview video and the press release. %Gallery-182892% Check out our event hub for all the action from Samsung's Galaxy S 4 event.
