Customizable homescreen Samsung today officially fired its first salvo in the wearable tech wars, unveiling its smartwatch at the IFA show in Berlin Germany. The product will be released around the world on 25 September at the same time as the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 -- except for customers in the US and Japan, who will need to wait until October.
The Samsung Galaxy Gear is one of those gadgets that you have to have in your hands to like. Before and even after I'd seen it, I was plagued with questions Samsung has yet to answer: Will it be really expensive? How long will the battery really last? Are there enough apps? Is it, in fact, entirely pointless?
But when I actually strapped the Gear on my wrist, I was won over. The Gear is a smartwatch, a wrist-worn touch-screen timepiece that talks to your phone, so you don't have to be forever fetching your phone from purse or pocket. It sits on your wrist and happily controls your music, tracks your exercise, installs your favourite apps -- it even makes phone calls.
Unveiled at technology extravaganza IFA 2013 alongside the Note 3, the Android-powered Gear is intended to lead what is expected to be a new generation of smartwatches and wearable gadgets. (Significantly, though, the Gear will only be compatible with the Note 3 at launch.) Smartwatches are designed to cut through the noise of your phone, with its apps and games and notifications and social networks and alerts and alarms and little red numbers shouting for your attention -- and the Gear manages that with a playful elegance. This isn't about high-spec or high-def or high-anything else; so in this First Take, let's see what it's like to strap one of these things to your wrist.
Read the full story here
Source by Cnet Editor | September 03, 2013 | via Cnet
The Samsung Galaxy Gear is one of those gadgets that you have to have in your hands to like. Before and even after I'd seen it, I was plagued with questions Samsung has yet to answer: Will it be really expensive? How long will the battery really last? Are there enough apps? Is it, in fact, entirely pointless?
But when I actually strapped the Gear on my wrist, I was won over. The Gear is a smartwatch, a wrist-worn touch-screen timepiece that talks to your phone, so you don't have to be forever fetching your phone from purse or pocket. It sits on your wrist and happily controls your music, tracks your exercise, installs your favourite apps -- it even makes phone calls.
Unveiled at technology extravaganza IFA 2013 alongside the Note 3, the Android-powered Gear is intended to lead what is expected to be a new generation of smartwatches and wearable gadgets. (Significantly, though, the Gear will only be compatible with the Note 3 at launch.) Smartwatches are designed to cut through the noise of your phone, with its apps and games and notifications and social networks and alerts and alarms and little red numbers shouting for your attention -- and the Gear manages that with a playful elegance. This isn't about high-spec or high-def or high-anything else; so in this First Take, let's see what it's like to strap one of these things to your wrist.
Read the full story here
Source by Cnet Editor | September 03, 2013 | via Cnet
