Samsung is reportedly working on its very first iOS app, called Gear Manager, that will permit iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners to use the South Korean firm's latest Gear S2 lineup of smartwatches, SamMobile learned from its sources last week.
While the Gear S2 works with all Android smartphones, not just the ones made by Samsung, it doesn't play well with iOS. Like Apple's own Watch companion app, the Gear Manager is said to include features to set up and customize the device for use.
Pebble today announced a new messaging feature for iOS users designed to make it possible to send text messages through a carrier.
Dubbed Text Reply for iOS, this feature is in beta and available on the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel and Pebble Time Round family of smartwatches.
In addition, Text Reply for iOS is currently an AT&T exclusive though Pebble says it's working on bringing this capability to Pebble fans on other carriers.
The Apple Watch may have been met with a muted response from critics (and it's still being rolled out around the world), but that's not stopping Tim Cook & Co. from working on a next-generation model.
According to an Apple supplier, a second-generation Apple Watch is already in the works.
It's said to be released late in the second quarter of next year, a little more than a year after the original model’s debut. As reported by Taiwanese media, Barry Lam, the chairman of Quanta Computer, the company that assembles the Apple Watch, said during an investor meeting that the Apple Watch 2 is being developed, shockingly, as we speak.
Tag Heuer, a Swiss watch maker, announced at today's event in New York City a brand new smartwatch that its outspoken CEO Jean-Claude Biver claims has “almost the same features as an Apple Watch”. Marketed under the Connected moniker, the $1,500 titanium-clad 46mm device is powered by Google's Android Wear software for smartwatches, delivering “micro apps” to your wrist.
It has a classic design and Tag Heuer is offering a selection of six colorful bands (black, white, green, blue, orange, yellow and red). The watch is priced at $1,500.
Pebble on Wednesday announced a new addition to its smartwatch lineup called the Pebble Time Round. As the name suggests, the device sports a round face, and the company is billing it as "the world's lightest and thinnest smartwatch."
At 7.5mm thin, with a weight of just 28 grams, this may very well be true, but the size reduction comes at a steep cost: battery life. While Pebble watches are typically known for near-week-long battery life, the Round only lasts about 2 days.
Runtastic on Friday announced the Moment, an analog watch with fitness tracking features. The maker of popular mobile fitness apps, which was recently acquired by Adidas, says the device has the potential to disrupt the wearables market because of its unique blend of traditional timekeeping and technology.
Like most fitness-focused wearables, the Moment is capable of tracking steps, distance, active minutes, calories burned, sleep cycles and goals. But unlike other trackers, it's waterproof up to 300 feet, so it can be used to track swimming, and it runs on a standard watch battery, so it doesn't need to be recharged.
Two days ago, Samsung officially unveiled its new smartwatch lineup: the Gear S2, Gear S2 classic and the Gear S2 with 3G connectivity.
The new lineup from Samsung appears to stack up surprisingly well against the Apple Watch: both smartwatches are premium built and feature easily changeable bands, sleek software, fitness and heart rate tracking and more.
But whereas the Apple Watch uses the Digital Crown for navigating its user interface, Samsung has opted for a rotating bezel that “gets better with every turn,” a feature seen on some traditional watches.
Coupled with “the revolutionary circular user interface,” as they're calling the Gear S2's Tizen operating system, the rotating bezel appears to be just as precise, novel and interesting as the Apple Watch's rotating crown.
After teasing its new Gear smartwatch ahead of Apple's upcoming media event, South Korea-based Samsung last evening formally announced a second-generation Gear S family. The Galaxy Gear S2, as it's called, augments the round display of its predecessor with a rotating bezel for navigating the user interface.
The internals have been refreshed, too, so the Gear S2 has NFC. While it has less storage space than the Apple Watch's 8GB, the Gear S2 uses a stronger battery that Samsung claims runs up to three days on a single charge.
It pays to keep tabs on competition. Just as Google released Android Wear for iPhone earlier today and LG announced a gold-plated limited-edition of its Urbane watches, noted gadget leaker Upleaks published some interesting tidbits and press renderings for Motorola's upcoming smartwatches and phones. According to these leaks, a second-generation Moto360 smartwatch is allegedly coming in September.
A Sport variant of the current-generation Moto 360 smartwatch should be due a month later, Upleaks claims. In addition, the Lenovo-owned company is purportedly working on a high-end smartphone that should be shatterproof.
LG on Monday announced the Urbane Watch Luxe, a special version of its Urbane lineup that it hopes will appeal to folks in the market for an Apple Watch Edition.
Featuring a 23-karat gold case and available with a new alligator strap, the Urbane Watch Luxe was created in partnership with US-based REEDS Jewelers which will handle sales of LG's Android Wear device in the United States. The limited-edition smartwatch costs $1,200 a pop and will go on sale beginning October.
During its big Galaxy Note 5/S6 Edge+ event last week, Samsung showed off a video teaser of its upcoming Apple Watch competitor, the Gear S2. For folks who missed the keynote, the clip is now available on the company's Mobile YouTube channel.
We can glean quite a bit from the video. The Gear S2 will have a round watch face, similar to the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R, with round icons and other UI elements to match. It also looks like it will feature heart rate and fitness tracking capabilities.
Clothing and accessory giant Fossil took the stage at Intel's Developer Forum (IDF) on Tuesday to unveil new wearable products. Among them was a connected band, a connected watch, and a new smartwatch based on the Android Wear platform.
The watch bears a circular face, similar to that of the popular Moto 360, which sits upon a classic leather band. Other than that, however, and the fact that it features an Intel processor, Fossil is being fairly coy regarding specs and other device details.