Wearable computers that range from Google Glass to smartwatches are the newest thing to hit the tech industry. The smartwatch buisness is about to expand dramatically in the fall and coming year. Pebble has their watch that is now available at Best Buy while Sony’s smartwatch 2 is to be announced this fall. There are also tons of kickstarter smartwaches that are getting funding. Not fall behind Samsung has just announced their Galaxy Gear smartwatch that is a companion to their phones and tablets at IFA 2013 today.
The Samsung Galaxy Gear watch is a companion to the Samsung phones and tablets. It will currently work with the new Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy Note 10.1 with compatibility for the S3 and Note II coming in October. So unfortunately this won’t be a general watch that will work with any Android phone unless the Android hacking community comes to the rescue.
The watch is has a high quality design and comes in 6 different colors. You can use swipe motions to easily move through screens and there is also S-Voice for voice commands. There is actually a camera that faces out that you can use to easily take pictures. It even has a speaker and microphone on the bottom. This means you can take calls and initiate calls all from the watch without taking out your phone. The watch has access to apps from Samsung with many standard apps already available and more to come. It will be available in September worldwide and in U.S. by October.
Overall I like the design and the watch looks great. I’ve been looking for a smartwatch to buy and the Galaxy Gear looks to be a good competitor. I don’t like the fact that it only works with Samsung devices despite the fact that I own an S3. Personally I would like a more general watch that works with any Android device. So I’ll wait and see how the new Sony watch and others turn out before taking the plunge. Let us know what you think about the Galaxy Gear watch.
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