
Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps - hiraki9
http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/04/samsung-unveils-galaxy-gear/
======
ChuckMcM
And so the 'production' smartwatch era begins. Notionally kicked off by the
InPulse and iPod Nano wrist straps, "proven" by the Pebble kickstarter, now in
jumps Samsung and if rumors are to be believed Apple and possibly Google.

It is a testament to the new sensibility that something like this can be worn
in public and be "cool." I had a CASIO Data bank watch that was really cool
but man the nerd-griefing I got if I wore it outside of the Science Club crowd
was intense.

~~~
green7ea
Don't forget the Qualcomm Toq:

[http://toq.qualcomm.com/#toq-hello](http://toq.qualcomm.com/#toq-hello)

Qualcomm isn't big in the consumer space but mirasol displays seem promising.

~~~
jitl
I was pretty hyped when I saw the product here and instantly wondered, "why
did I get a Pebble if this exists!?".

But then there's not even a release date. This is a concept page, not a
product.

~~~
alok-g
It will be shipping in Q4 per [1], where I also see a video of the product. I
do not see a firm shipping date still as you noted.

[1] [http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/04/qualcomm-toq-
smartwatch/](http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/04/qualcomm-toq-smartwatch/)

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blinkingled
The Gear does not feel like a complete gimmick - not having to take out your
(big screen) SmartPhone out for emails/texts/pics/shares etc. is kinda useful
to the mainstream people.

But the problems are Price, Performance(Battery life, responsivness) and
Limitations that make it work only with Samsung phones. For those reasons I
think the Gen 1 of the Gear will flop. And who knows what kind of apps Samsung
is running on the Gear - if that's something non-standard it makes it even
worse. (If Google released a watch it would hopefully work with all Android
devices and let people build apps using the standard Android SDK.)

So meh on the Gear. With Note 3 and Note 10.1 however Samsung seems to be
mostly doing the right things - extended multitasking, more RAM, Dot, Circle,
Box, great screen res, more battery life etc. Almost makes me hopeful 10 in
Android tablets might go somewhere finally!

~~~
lambersley
> The Gear does not feel like a complete gimmick

I like the design. I could see myself wearing one while actively engaged in
various sports. I'm not so connected to my Note 2 while playing basketball,
but I just might be with Gear.

~~~
blinkingled
You'll have to wait for the Note 2 to get Android 4.3 for that I think.
Qualcomm seems to be coming out with something similar at the same price point
and it seems to work with any Android 4.0.3+ phone -
[http://www.androidcentral.com/qualcomm-announces-toq-
smart-w...](http://www.androidcentral.com/qualcomm-announces-toq-smart-watch)

------
acchow
Galaxy Gear II will see a massive industrial and UI design change sometime
after Apple's smartwatch is released.

Yes, I am saying this thing looks kind of awful.

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plg
prediction 1: we will soon see smartwatches incorporate biometric measurement
full force. After all unlike a mobile phone, a smartwatch is (typically)
always attached to your body, right up against the skin.

prediction 2: once prediction 1 starts to happen, and people realize that (1)
there is a device measuring physiological signals from their body, (2) it also
has a gps tracker, (3) it is also connected to "the cloud" and (4) if it is
android based, it is potentially sending all this info to the google-borg,
there will be (I hope) a new imperative to have an honest discussion about
privacy

or not

~~~
mratzloff
> _there will be (I hope) a new imperative to have an honest discussion about
> privacy_

No, people will be excited that they can have a Fitbit, camera, and phone all
in one.

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ddeck
This really feels like a "because we can" product. Given the specs and
features, it seems to be purely a companion device...and for $300?

After reading the press release, I'm still trying to understand what
legitimately useful functionality is provides beyond your phone. I'm amazed
they didn't at least include some bio measurement capability (beyond
accelerometer). I would have thought it would be a key potential application.

As noted in the PR, a watch and fashion icon apparently:

 _Standalone Watch and Iconic Fashion Accessory_

Yes it's version one, but surely they can do better.

~~~
evilduck
Seems like a landgrab to have _any_ product on the market before Apple's
rumored iWatch to avoid any controversy of who was in the market first,
regardless of how limited and silly v1 is.

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gcatalfamo
Come on! Isn't that watch "fugly"? Or is it just me?? And why should I check
my wrist before my phone when I could just check the latter? And, I must say
it, with the Note 3 Samsung reinforced its throne as the undisputed bloatware
king. I'm so happy I moved to Nexus devices a while ago. Pure Android is just
better. [I swear it's not a fanboy comment, although it looks like one]

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mmanfrin
My reservation with the notion of a smartwatch is battery life. I care to
charge my phone, but I really don't like the idea of also having to charge my
watch for mildly more convenient features than my phone.

~~~
mbreese
I have a Pebble, and charging my watch isn't too bad. I usually charge it in
the morning while I'm in the shower. I've been trying to sleep with it on for
the vibrating alarm. Although, with the Pebble, I can get almost a work week
of usage before it dies. I'm not sure how I'd like charging it daily.

~~~
hisham_hm
How long does that weekly charge take?

~~~
jitl
There's no indication on the watch itself when it's fully charged, and the
battery indicator only appears when the watch has like ~4 hours of battery
remaining. Thus it's hard to get a read on just how long the watch needs to
charge for -- I usually plug it in overnight once I see the low battery
indicator, then wear it for another week or so before the low battery icon
shows up again.

As for things to do with the Pebble during the shower: use it to control your
music!

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sandis
Can't wait for the 4" model.

~~~
gonzo
that's what she didn't say

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clarky07
i saw a video earlier today that suggested perhaps some features of a phone
could be more convenient in watch form just as some things are more pleasant
on phones and tablets than on desktops. that it wasn't a replacement, rather a
supplement

i could maybe get behind that.

but if it can't do anything on it's own, without the phone, it loses like
99.5% of it's appeal. if your phone or tablet had to be tethered to a laptop
or desktop, it would be useless.

i'd think a huge part of the appeal of smart watch would be the fitness stuff.
i know my wife doesn't really like using her phones because it is too big for
running. she likes her garmin watch better. if you have to take a 5.7 inch
phone with you, wtf good is the watch? Sure there is a slight bonus to just
putting phone in pocket instead of on arm and using the watch to check stuff,
but man it feels like this is missing the point.

i'm not convinced i want a smartwatch, but i'm pretty sure i want it to be
able to do "something" on it's own. As it is, this is a dumbwatch second
screen for phone.

~~~
lambersley
>but if it can't do anything on it's own, without the phone, it loses like
99.5% of it's appeal.

Agreed. See PlayBook - BlackBerry Handheld pairing. The biggest appeal in BB
was BBM and the PlayBook alone did not include it. #Fail

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marincounty
Well, I wouldn't trade my Omega Seamaster for it yet. Sometimes, I just want
to wear a watch to tell the time, and I'm used to a certain amount of weight
on my left wrist. I don't even see the need for complicated movements, but I'm
an old man in this tech world--45. My demographic is not very important
anymore.

~~~
jahansafd
I totally get it. It's similar to how I just keep a phone to make and receive
calls. But it does seem a little ludicrous when you think about all the things
you can do with a smart phone. As the number of apps increases, I think smart
watches will be accepted and used in a similar way. A huge plus point for
smart watches is it's accessibility. Compared to the time spent pulling out a
smartphone from your pocket, you'll be able to to instantly check news
updates, emails, weather and etc right on your wrist.

~~~
krrrh
It feels less accessible to me for anything other than pushed notifications
and SMS (Pebble owner here). Given the screen size and limited controls or
touchscreen space, the pain of navigating to the information you want, makes a
smartphone seem like less effort overall.

------
vidoc
Interesting, not sure the battery life of this watch will sound appealing to
the masses.

As a side note, this presentation is one of the most amazing displays of poor
taste I have ever seen. You have to give them kudos for improving on the stage
decoration of last year (remember the red curtains horror?) - now the music,
the acting, and the outfit of the presenters still sound out of this world to
me.

PS: for the golden trophy of inelegance, I'm still unsettled between the
plastic glasses and the grey smoking!

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kamjam
Discussion from the comments:

 _" So how does dialing on this work like? You dial on your watch with phone
in your hand and then talk on your phone or you talk directly by raising your
wrist upto your mouth. How does it work?"_

 _Reply: "I saw an early demo a while back. You just say "go go gadget phone"
and then talk into your pinkie."_

That would be awesome

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jewel
The problem with an LCD screen on a watch is that you have to wake up the
device to see the time. As far as I can tell that is the case with this device
too.

Watch the video here at the 2:00 mark to see it power off:
[http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-
gear/](http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-gear/)

------
Mikeb85
I like the look of this. More industrial and interesting than I was expecting,
will probably be big in Korea and Japan. For myself, I prefer mechanical
watches though...

~~~
rymadas
please give me symbian hack

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sukuriant
My most obvious use case for something like this would be sports. If I can
interface with my phone, it'd be much easier to mess around with something on
my wrist, than something in my pocket, when snowboarding. I keep my phone in a
waterproof pouch in my inner pocket when going down the mountain, and it's a
pain to get out. This'd be much easier.

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hxw
I wonder where they found their inspiration for the design..
[http://forums.watchuseek.com/attachments/f9/60332d1188163636...](http://forums.watchuseek.com/attachments/f9/60332d1188163636-omega-
marine-chronometer-question-imgp1422.jpg)

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Arnor
Hey Samsung, let me know when you get a Hologram projector in this thing[0].

[0][http://cdn.tutsplus.com/ae.tutsplus.com/uploads/2013/06/Aetu...](http://cdn.tutsplus.com/ae.tutsplus.com/uploads/2013/06/Aetuts_Preview_Hologram_Watch.jpg)

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pisarzp
It looks much better then Pebble. It's a pity though that it will work only
with Samsung phones, not all Androids (not mentioning iPhones...).

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taude
Put an Ant+ sensor on it, and I could see the benefits of using it over my
Garmin cycling computers, especially with a small mount for the bike.

~~~
krrrh
This uses Bluetooth 4 LE (low energy) which offers the same advantages as
Ant+. This protocol will probably completely supplant Ant+ in the next year or
two because it's part of the Bluetooth spec and supported natively by most
smartphones released in the last year. Ant+ is proprietary and has only a
handful of phones with onboard chips.

~~~
localhost
The problem today is that if you already own devices that speak ANT+, you're
not likely to be replacing them in the near future as they are generally quite
expensive (eg PowerTap). The only bicycle power meter that speaks BT LE is the
Stages power meter and that _just_ started shipping. In this interim time
period it would be awesome to support both as there is a pretty large
installed base of ANT+ hardware in the exercise / fitness demo.

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alefteris
Is there any info on what OS it is running? Is it a Samsung proprietary one?
Also info on how to develop apps for it?

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gfodor
So this will be the image we use in the png under the "before iWatch" label.
(Actually iBand I bet)

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ankit70
Compatible with Note 3 and Note 10.1. You lost me there!

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cliveowen
Who in their own mind would ever wear a 4-pounds brick on his or her wrist? Am
I having a bad trip or we're headed in a dystopian future where tech companies
are managed by a pack of monkeys designing useless gadgets to strap on the
lesser humans?

~~~
kamjam
4-pounds is about 1.8kg, the weight of most notebooks. I think you have your
weights all mixed up. In comparison, the Samsung S4 weighs 130 grams, iPhone 5
is 112 grams.

I wouldn't expect this to weigh more than 100 grams. In comparison, a Rolex
Sea Dweller weighs 220 grams
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex_Sea_Dweller](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex_Sea_Dweller)).

For me this would be useful when going to the gym, I could listen to music,
see urgent emails and if it had GPS then track bike rides and runs. If it had
a heart rate monitor then perfect. I don't like the fact it has to connect to
your phone, standalone would be preferred.

~~~
cliveowen
As I said, I was joking. Maybe its really light, but that doesn't take away
the fact that it' s a giant piece of hardware that shouldn't even exist. It's
a smartphone that couldn't be shrunken enough to actually achieve some sort of
purpose, it's like a monument to the limits of current technology.

~~~
kamjam
Yeah, sorry, cross post with everyone else. Still, I think it is a valid
gadget, it won't be for everyone, but useful for some.

It's not _that much_ different from using the iPod Nano as a watch -
[http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/ipod-nano-review-as-a-
wat...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/ipod-nano-review-as-a-watch/)

~~~
cliveowen
Yeah, It's not at all different, but I was the first to say that using an iPod
nano as a watch was a stupid idea. I can understand testing the water with
some prototype like Google Glass (those just look ridiculous, we're several
iterations from something approaching a real product) but it's a stretch to go
from prototype to mass product.

~~~
kamjam
If they could incorporate a heart rate monitor and GPS then this would be my
ideal workout companion, and I could use it for bike rides and snowboarding in
the winter - the separate costs of all these would be more than $300. I don't
think it will become mass market, BUT you can only make the watch so small
after which the interface become unusable - esp if you have fat fingers like
me! You do require the the revolution before the evolution though, like with
the Google Glass hopefully.

But regardless of the size of this, have you been to a watch shop recently?
Some of the sizes of the watches are ridiculous and I presume they sell... so
this might do just fine!

