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.<p>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.
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.<p>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.)<p>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!
Galaxy Gear II will see a massive industrial and UI design change sometime after Apple's smartwatch is released.<p>Yes, I am saying this thing looks kind of awful.
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.<p>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<p>or not
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?<p>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.<p>As noted in the PR, a watch and fashion icon apparently:<p><i>Standalone Watch and Iconic Fashion Accessory</i><p>Yes it's version one, but surely they can do better.
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]
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.
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<p>i could maybe get behind that.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
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.
Interesting, not sure the battery life of this watch will sound appealing to the masses.<p>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.<p>PS: for the golden trophy of inelegance, I'm still unsettled between the plastic glasses and the grey smoking!
Discussion from the comments:<p><i>"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?"</i><p><i>Reply: "I saw an early demo a while back. You just say "go go gadget phone" and then talk into your pinkie."</i><p>That would be awesome
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.<p>Watch the video here at the 2:00 mark to see it power off:
<a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-gear/" rel="nofollow">http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-gear/</a>
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...
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.
I wonder where they found their inspiration for the design.. <a href="http://forums.watchuseek.com/attachments/f9/60332d1188163636-omega-marine-chronometer-question-imgp1422.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://forums.watchuseek.com/attachments/f9/60332d1188163636...</a>
Hey Samsung, let me know when you get a Hologram projector in this thing[0].<p>[0]<a href="http://cdn.tutsplus.com/ae.tutsplus.com/uploads/2013/06/Aetuts_Preview_Hologram_Watch.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://cdn.tutsplus.com/ae.tutsplus.com/uploads/2013/06/Aetu...</a>
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?