galaxygear
Latest
Samsung's Gear S2 is a classy Tizen watch with a rotating bezel
Remember that time Samsung teased a new smartwatch after unveiling some phones we knew were coming? You should! This was seriously only two weeks ago, guys. Anyway, Samsung is finally talking specifics about the watch -- known as the Gear S2 -- ahead of the murky mobile maelstrom brewing in Berlin right now. First off, it's actually even smaller than we thought it would be. Earlier leaks pointed to a round smartwatch with a 1.65-inch screen running at 360 x 360 -- turns out the resolution was right, but the Gear S2's screen is only 1.2 inches across.
Samsung confirmed its next Gear smartwatch has a rotating bezel
If everything we've heard so far is true, Samsung's next Gear smartwatch could be far more interesting than any of its current products. Following news that the wearable comes with a round design, the company has reportedly confirmed it's also going to feature a rotating, functional bezel ring. The Gear A, as the device is said to be called, plans to let people take advantage of this attribute by letting them use it to zoom in and out across the OS, as well as play games. According to SamMobile, the Tizen-powered smartwatch sports an Exynos 3472 dual-core processor with 4GB of onboard storage, a 250mAh battery and a 360 x 360 display that'll rely on the rotating bezel for some features. We'll likely know for sure on August 13th, when Samsung's scheduled to host its Unpacked 2015 event.
Six models in a year: Samsung's struggle to perfect the smartwatch
Can you name them all? It's been merely a year since Samsung revealed its first smartwatch to the tech press crowds in IFA, Berlin. Then, roughly six months later, the company switched software -- and, ugh, gear -- with three new wearable models, the Gear 2, the (possibly most forgotten) Gear Neo and the fitness-oriented Gear Fit wearable. Now Apple's shown off its (already divisive) offering, the race towards the definitive wearable is on. To its credit, Samsung continues to tweak, bend and experiment on each subsequent smartwatch, and appears to be taking on customer (and reviewer) feedback along the way. However, you're likely still pissed if you were one of the few to plunk down cash for the company's first attempt. Let's start there. `
What the Galaxy Gear taught Samsung about smartwatches
With countless (well, a lot of) Gear 2 watch straps and just under eight wearables -- a mix of Gear 2s, Gear 2 Neos and Gear Fits -- on the table in front of us during our interview with Samsung designers, the impression is that the company taking its wearables very seriously. There were just six months between it announcing the original Galaxy Gear and its sequel; that's a pretty short lifespan. To make matters more... interesting, Android announced its own wearable platform, months after Samsung's Gear announcements. (For those not keeping notes, these Gears run on Tizen, a new mobile OS that hasn't yet appeared on a mobile.) Min Cho, Samsung's marketing director, explained that its wearables wouldn't be limited to the green OS. "We'll continue to work on the best solutions for our customers, including collaborating with Google and Android," he says. He slows his voice and looks at me: "We are working on it." Samsung already confirmed that it's got plans for Android Wear, but what about the current crop of wearables? What did Samsung learn after half a year of the Galaxy Gear?
Samsung's Galaxy S5 doubles as a baby monitor, if you have a Gear watch
The Galaxy S5: powerhouse smartphone, fitness guru... baby monitor? Yes, you read that right. SoyaCincau has learned that Samsung's jack-of-all-trades Android flagship includes a "baby crying detector" mode that uses the phone as a listening station. If your child is upset, the GS5 sends a vibrating alert to your Gear watch (needed for the feature) that urges you to come to Junior's aid. You probably wouldn't want to lean on the detector too often -- Samsung certainly doesn't think it's a wise idea, as you can see from the massive legal disclaimer pictured here. Still, it could come in handy if you don't have a dedicated monitor and occasionally want to keep tabs on your tyke while you run around the home.
Samsung's new Galaxy Gear wearable will come in two models, according to fuzzy leaked images
It definitely looks like a new Galaxy Gear. There's definitely two of them and... that's most of what we can discern from what appear to be some cannily sniffed-out thumbnails from, well, somewhere. According to @evleaks, they'll be known as the Galaxy Gear 2 and the Galaxy Gear Neo. Samsung's branched off its Galaxy phone range in a similar way, and if that's any indicator, the Neo smartwatch will be a cheaper model with presumably some hardware drawbacks to go alongside that discount price tag. If you squint extra hard, you should be able to make out a physical button below the screen, with the one on the left (presumably Gear version two), getting more of the metallic design love than its stablemate. Are they really running on Tizen? Has Samsung solved the battery gripes of its first smartwatch launch? These important answers (alongside some higher res images, please) should be mere days away.
Smartwatches are dumb, but they don't have to be
If recent trends are any indication, there are two roads that lie ahead for smartwatches and the companies foisting them upon us: the all-you-can-eat, tracker + smartphone approach and the single-minded focus on health and wellness bands. One meanders off to a fuzzy horizon laden with disregarded Dead End signs, a jumble of features and an overload of quantified-self data. And the other... well, that narrowly focused path to wellness simply falls off a cliff. It's not because dedicated health and wellness devices have no place in the wearables market -- right now, they do. It's because that area of lifestyle tracking will inevitably be consumed by the smartwatch borg as a subset of ancillary features. And yet, here we are -- about to enter into the irrevocable phase of mobile technologies as wrist-worn wearables with questionable (for now) benefits. A future we'll preview more intensely at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as some big-name manufacturers unveil their in-development takes on what can currently be described as redundant lifestyle tech.
Samsung's new Galaxy Gear might run Tizen instead of Android
Sure, the Tizen Association just welcomed new members, but the mobile platform is still having a tough start overall -- a Japanese carrier even canceled a Tizen smartphone release in January. So, Samsung (the platform's biggest backer) is reportedly taking matters into its own hands and loading Tizen on one of its upcoming devices: Galaxy Gear 2.0. According to USA Today's sources, the South Korean company is slated to launch an updated smartwatch running the HTML 5-based Tizen OS at the Mobile World Congress a few days from now. Samsung is reportedly dropping Android in favor of the fledgling platform due to a number of reasons, including its hopes to gain greater control (and revenue) from associated software and services. Also, the company's apparently concerned that the Android flavor Google's developing for wearables may not be as open as the other versions. Whatever Samsung's reasons are, we just hope the new Gear has a longer list of compatible devices than its predecessor does.
Wearable tech deals of the week: 2.14.14
If you've been considering a wearable purchase, but are unsure about parting with the requisite funds, today's gaggle of discounted tech may finally urge you to commit. There are activity trackers and the Galaxy Gear that's currently marked at 50 percent off waiting on the other side of the break. With a price drop that like, you'll want to decide quickly as the offer won't last long. Just window-shopping? No worries. Join us and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your Want list; every time there's a price cut in the future, you'll get an email alert!
Fleksy keyboard brings predictive touch typing to the Galaxy Gear (video)
Fleksy has already shown that you could use its intuitive touch keyboard on a smartwatch with the Omate TrueSmart, so it only makes sense that someone saw fit to put it on Samsung's Galaxy Gear. By default, the only way to enter text into the Gear is through voice dictation, which might not be your thing, especially in a crowded environment. As it turns out however, you can choose to sideload software keyboards like Fleksy, which is available through the regular Google Play store, into the Gear. Fleksy COO Ioannis Verdelis found out about this a few weeks ago from the XDA Developer forums, so he installed Fleksy on his Gear and brought it here to CES for us to see. From a brief hands-on, it seems very similar to the version we used on the TrueSmart. Simply tap in your desired words as best you can, and the tiny predictive keyboard will turn your mangled letters into coherent sentences. We took a brief video of it in action, which you can check out below.
Samsung promises a 'back to basics' rethink for the Galaxy S 5
Samsung has admitted that the public didn't see much difference between the Galaxy S III and S4 smartphones and said the S5 would likely pack a substantially different design. Exec Lee Young Hee told Bloomberg that the new flagship will go "back to basics," adding that "mostly, it's about the display and the feel of the cover." It'll also arrive with a brand-new version of the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which itself will have "more advanced functions" and an improvement to what she called "the bulky design." Other revelations include a possible eye-scanner in the handset for greater security, though that's still being studied. Farther down the road, Samsung said that it's looking at significant changes for the Galaxy Note 3's successor in order to target it at professionals who are "willing to pay more for handsets." As such, it may pack a three-sided display, like the so-called Youm prototype we saw last year at CES 2013, allowing users to read messages from oblique angles. Finally, Lee revealed that the Galaxy S 5 would arrive in March or April after Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Considering we saw the Galaxy S III and S4 around the same period in previous years, however, that's not a big shocker.
BMW unveils prototype self-driving car platform, i Remote app for Samsung Galaxy Gear and driver assistance technology
Automobile manufacturers, long laggard in the ways of technology, have been making a push in recent years to catch up with consumer expectations. BMW is one such car maker, and it's rolling out a suite of new technologies to improve its cars at CES 2014. First up is an improvement to its suite of driver-assistance technology -- ActiveAssist -- that's been built into a new prototype car. Generally speaking, it's a series of control systems that allow the car to react "to fluctuating grip levels" like during hydroplaning to react and bring the car back under control precisely, automatically and without driver input. It accomplishes this by both braking individual wheels (like existing systems) and adjusting steering input in response to its active monitoring of road conditions using lidar, radar, ultrasound and optical cameras.
IRL: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Well, this is a fitting idea for an end-of-the-year column: let's revisit one of our favorite gadgets of 2013 (the Galaxy Note 3) along with one of the most disappointing (that'd be the Galaxy Gear). Does Jon like the Note 3 as much as our reviewer James did? And might he be a little more forgiving of the smartwatch?
Samsung Galaxy Gear notification update reaches the US three weeks late
Remember how Samsung promised American Galaxy Gear owners an update that significantly improves third-party notification support? That update is at last rolling out -- three weeks behind schedule. Early stateside adopters can now read the basic content of Facebook Messenger conversations, Gmail messages, Hangouts messages and Twitter mentions from their smartwatches. The upgrade should also improve battery life, connection quality and S Voice search performance. While we'd prefer to receive upgrades in a more timely fashion, it's good to know that the Galaxy Gear is now much more useful to US wearers.
Samsung updating Galaxy Gear this week with enhanced notifications and gestures (updated)
When we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, we were concerned about the lack of third-party notification support. If we received a notification from any app that wasn't officially made by Samsung, we wouldn't actually get to read it on the watch; instead, we'd get alerted to the fact that something was waiting on the phone for us, and we'd be given the option to press a button and have that app open up on the phone itself. Fortunately, Samsung has heard our feedback and will be pushing out an update sometime this week that now allows third-party app notifications to show up in full; you'll now be able to read your incoming Gmail messages, Facebook Messenger pings, Twitter mentions and Google Hangout messages, to name a few. Samsung is also adding a couple more enhancements to the new update as well: it's confirmed that the Gear will also receive enhanced Smart Relay functionality which it says will help users "perform actions seamlessly" from their Gear to their phone, as well as an improvement to the lift-and-pause gesture that activates the clock. We imagine there will probably be a few random bug fixes thrown in there as well. Overall, this is a pleasant update to some of the most frustrating aspects of the Gear. Update: This firmware update has already been available in Europe, and it appears that this new update is for US versions of the device.
ZTE's first smartwatch will only work with its own phones when it launches next year
Though smartwatches may or may not be selling well, such market conditions aren't stopping newcomers like Qualcomm and others from entering the game. Now, China's ZTE has told the WSJ that it'll launch its own model in the second quarter of 2014 with features similar to Samsung's Galaxy Gear, but at a lower price. Before you get too excited, the yet-unnamed device will just launch in China at first, and it'll only be compatible with the company's own smartphones -- like the Nubia Z5 shown above. However, ZTE said it may roll out in Europe and the US later and might also launch future smartwatches that work with any Android device. Though the market for wrist-borne wearables in China is tiny compared to the smartphone segment, ZTE's mobile marketing chief Lu Qianhao said that launching such a product may give his company's smartphones a competitive advantage. That may be an unusual marketing ploy, but it could get stranger -- the company's also considering smart glasses and yes, smart shoes.
Almost all of your notifications can now display on Samsung's Galaxy Gear
Another day, another phone gets update post. But this time, it's a smartwatch -- Samsung's Galaxy Gear -- that's party to a software refresh and it's going to bring you closer to that Go! Go! Gadget dream. According to Sammobile, an update to the Gear Manager app now lets you add nearly every type of notification for display on your wrist. So, you won't need to trawl forums any longer for an unofficial workaround. There's even an option to open a particular notification on your associated smartphone. In all, it's really nothing revolutionary and it in no way makes the case for a smartwatch purchase. But if you took the plunge and bought a Gear, it's just one more thing you can do for $300.
Verizon's Galaxy S 4 can now surf more LTE bands after Android 4.3 update
In a particularly punctual effort from Verizon, the carrier has begun feeding its Galaxy S 4 variant with Android 4.3 via an OTA update, after Samsung gave it the nod earlier this month. As the Korean company has been keen to iterate, this update adds Galaxy Gear compatibility to the flagship, as well as support for Sammy's Knox security platform and some other, minor software tweaks. Most importantly for Big Red customers, the software activates Band 4 as previously promised, meaning the handset is now able to cruise LTE over AWS frequencies where that new slice of spectrum is active. Those unburdened airwaves are currently offering some tantalizing speeds, which are now just an update away.
Samsung begins rolling out Galaxy Gear support to more smartphones in the US
Right on schedule, Samsung has announced the rolling out of a key software update that will bring Galaxy Gear smartwatch support to more of its phones in the United States, beyond just the Galaxy Note 3. Owners of the Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note II and GS3 will get their refresh as early as today, or "over the coming weeks" depending on their exact model and how energetic their carrier is. The same update will also upgrade the OS to Android 4.3 and add compatibility with the manufacturer's KNOX software for businesses. As expected, owners of Galaxy Mega and the GS4 Mini handsets will have to wait a little longer for these features, but should expect their update in the "coming months."
This week on gdgt: Surface Pro 2, Nintendo 2DS, and software updates
Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
