Our correspondent Melissa Perenson is at Google I/O this week, and she got her hands on the first set of Android Wear watches to be shown to the public. Here are her impressions: With the LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live, and Motorola Moto 360, a big challenge became clear: how to differentiate themselves from each other. Price will certainly be an issue, but so will design … [Read more...]
Fleksy Keyboard Comes to Samsung Gear 2
Many devotees of Android devices love the Fleksy keyboard, which seems to be among the best at predictive text entry. Samsung picked the open-source Tizen operating system to drive its Gear 2 wristwear, but Fleksy has now shipped a messaging app that will run on the Gear 2. Our expectation is that it will be available for other Tizen devices as they hit the market. We also … [Read more...]
WSJ Says Samsung Will Ship Wrist Communicator This Summer
The Wall Street Journal is saying that Samsung, which already has several bits of wristware in its product line, will come out this summer with a wrist-worn communicator that will not require a cellphone. Citing "people familiar with the company's plans," the Journal says the device will run the open-source Tizen operating system (like the Gear Fit and Gear 2, but unlike the … [Read more...]
Samsung Backs Away from Android; Will Ship Android Wear Watches This Year Anyway
When you're as big and aggressive as Samsung, you can afford to place big bets on several different things (although that strategy didn't work out so well for Nokia, did it?). Yoon Han-kil, the senior vice president of Samsung's product strategy team, told Reuters that his company will ship wristwear based on the Android Wear operating system later this year -- even though … [Read more...]
Samsung Updates Its Little-Loved Gear to Gear 2
The Samsung Gear was one of the most derided pieces of wearable tech of 2013. So the Korean tech giant went back to the drawing board with the wristwear and revised it to be pretty much more of the same. We need to say this up front: we haven't clapped eyes or even hands on the Gear 2 or the more plastic Gear 2 Neo. It was introduced Sunday in the run-up to Mobile World … [Read more...]