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Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

engadget.com

21–30 of 90 posts

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#22
post #18

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?

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 ). For me this would be useful when going to the gym, I could listen to music, see urgent emails…

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.

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#24
post #9

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 app…

Yes, it is an accessory. Compatible only with Samsung products, and not all of them apparently [1].

[1]-https://twitter.com/androidpolice/status/375317526755827712

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#25
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

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#26
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]

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#27
post #3

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…

You left out Metawatch, Sony, etc.

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#28
post #9

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 app…

For $300 I'd expect it to be a complete stand-alone phone device, to be used with a Google Glass or a bluetooth headset or a wifi-only tablet as a client.

Re: Samsung unveils Galaxy Gear smartwatch with built-in camera, 70 apps

#29
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!

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