Gear S2: Samsung’s next wearable won’t be powered by Android Wear, and that makes me sad

Posted on by Joe Levi

When I wear a timepiece on my wrist it’s got to do something more than just tell the time. My daily tasks are almost identical and I easily lose track of the day of the week. (Those of you who don’t have that problem don’t know the struggle which those of us who do go through on a day to day basis.) Nonetheless, today’s watches generally solve that problem, displaying not only the time, but the day of the week and the day of the month. Smartwatches, on the other hand, display much, much more than that – if you want them to.In addition to all that, I also get ...

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Bands for Apple Watch may be its killer feature

Posted on by Joe Levi

Ever since junior high school I’ve worn a smartwatch – whatever the definition of “smartwatch” was at the time. Whether it was a calculator watch with a calendar and contacts storage, or a watch with an altimeter, barometer, and moon phases, I tried to wear the latest tech on my wrist. Yeah, I’m a geek, but you already knew that. Most of those watches had plastic bands, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve gravitated to metal or leather bands.One of the first upgrades I performed on my LG G Watch was the installation of

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Samsung pimps its Gear smartwatch lineup with word of over 1,000 apps

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

What makes you choose one wearable over another? Phone compatibility? Price? Hardware design? Just like with smartphones themselves, there are a ton of criteria to keep in mind, and these being smart devices we’re talking about, not the least of those is the variety of software the wearable is able to run. Some platforms are approaching the issue of apps from the phone side, like how Android Wear doesn’t really offer apps that exist independently of your Android handset. Others, like Pebble, are more inclined to

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Google should leave Samsung alone until it can do a better job

Posted on by Joe Levi

Remember back in the days of Android Gingerbread when ambitious OEMs started pumping out Android-powered tablets in an attempt to compete with Apple’s iPad? Google pulled out all the stops to get Android Honeycomb released, and even partnered with Motorola to create the XOOM to show us all how a tablet “should be made”. Honeycomb didn’t last that long, but prior to Honeycomb, Google’s message to OEMs was very clear: don’t make a tablet powered by Android just yet. In retrospect, it’s obvious why Google wanted its partners to wait: Android ...

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Could smartwatches finally make augmented reality attractive?

Posted on by Joe Levi

It seems that every time we hear about “augmented reality” (AR) it’s from someone who has a new product they’re trying to peddle, which usually takes the form of some hideous looking piece of headwear. Recently, however, consumers are turning to smartwatches rather than eyewear. This is evidenced by the number of available apps for Android Wear compared to Google Glass, especially considering the latter has been available for so much longer. That’s what one company is banking on: an augmented reality smartwatch.According to most definitions, “augmented ...

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Original Galaxy Gear update transitions smartwatch to Tizen

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Samsung’s release of its Gear 2 models earlier this year didn’t just signal that Samsung was crazy for wearables, not even waiting six months to launch its second-gen models, but marked a larger milestone: shifting a family that started off running Android over to Tizen. For while that first Galaxy Gear was Android at its core, the Gear 2 and its kin were powered by Samsung’s pet OS. We’ve still yet to see Samsung push Tizen into a ...

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Samsung smartwatch market share rises to 71% following strong first quarter sales

Posted on by Rithvik Rao

Though many of us argue that Pebble tends to make better smartwatches than Samsung, the Korean company’s marketing prowess is doing its thing again. Thanks to Samsung’s incredible marketing of their smartwatches (by means of celebrity endorsement and otherwise), the company has reportedly sold 500,000 wrist-wearables in the first quarter of 2014. ...

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Office for iPad, HTC One M8 Windows Phone, $99 Galaxy Gear & more – Pocketnow Daily

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about the recent deals announced for the first-generation Galaxy Gear. Then we talk about the HTC One (M8) and the possibility of a Windows Phone variant. HTC continues making headlines later as the company is now offering BlinkFeed and Zoe on the Google Play Store. Microsoft is next as the company has finalized Windows Phone 8.1 core and is preparing for its RTM launch soon. We end today’s show talking about both Microsoft and Apple, as Microsoft Office is expected to reach the iPad tomorrow. All this and more after the break. Stories: ...

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First-gen Galaxy Gear comes in a hair under $100 (one day sale)

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Samsung introduced the original Galaxy Gear a scant six months ago. That’s it. In the time since, we’ve not only seen Samsung’s second generation of smartwatches debut, but now this Android Wear news has totally shaken-up the market – we’ve come a long way in a very short time. While newer devices are already waiting for us, and the next big thing is perched on the horizon, the first Galaxy ...

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Samsung has fixed its Gear pricing … sort of

Posted on by Taylor Martin

The wearable space has greatly matured since this time last year. Pebble, for one, grew from the gauche, all-plastic smartwatch behind the most successful Kickstarter campaign of all time, to a finely machined luxury watch made of marine grade stainless steel with a blossoming ecosystem of applications and a dedicated development community and fan base. But that’s hardly the only wearables development of the past year. The idea of wearables and, more specifically, smartwatches became more mainstream; ...

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Pocketnow Weekly 088: Moto 360, Android Wear, and hacking a path to Inbox Zero

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Inbox Zero. It’s become something of a myth in the Pocketnow Weekly recording studio ever since we started actively courting listener feedback all those months ago. Skip a listener-mail section here, another one there, and before you know it you’ve got a mountain of mail it’d take a whole episode to get through. So that’s just what we’re doing. Just like we did on episode 076, we’re devoting an entire podcast to your ...

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Pocketnow Weekly 085: MWC 2014 wrap-up from Team Barcelona

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Anton D. Nagy chasing a taxi on foot. Jaime Rivera almost burning down a building with a power strip. A Honduran drinking palinca and a Romanian doing a Mexican accent. The tales from our leather-clad Barcelona duo are intense – but their intensity is matched by the hot mobile news that burst forth from this week’s Mobile World Congress, the most epic in recent memory. To wit, that news includes an MWC 2014 Samsung Unpacked event that gave the world the latest Galaxy; a Sony unveiling of similar proportions that built on the Xperia legacy; a press conference that saw the ...

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Smartwatches sorely need cross-device app standards

Posted on by Joe Levi

Wearables, especially smartwatches, are the next “big thing” in mobile technology. Exactly what they should do is still being discovered through iterative trial and error. Currently we have the Pebble 1.0 and Pebble 2.0 (referring to the firmware on the watch itself, and not to be confused with Pebble and Pebble Steel) and the Galaxy Gear. There are a few other more minor players, but already we’re seeing the proverbial floodgates open ...

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Is the Gear Fit the cure for the common smart watch?

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Forty-four videos and untold news stories later, MWC 2014 is finally on the cusp of winding down – but there’s still more to “unpack” from Monday’s Samsung event. After yesterday’s editorials on the ups and

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Samsung Gear 2 vs Galaxy Gear: hands-on (Video)

Posted on by Michael Fisher

When a company churns out its first smart watch after less than a year’s development, then follows it up with a sequel less than six months later, there’s something funky going on. So what does it mean when a company releases not one, but two sequels to its half-baked initial offering, announcing them alongside a funky fitness bracelet and the headlining Android smartphone for 2014? It says the company is determined to make a meaningful splash in the wearables ...

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