Samsung preparing for new wearable: Galaxy Band

It must be hard to accept for Samsung think tanks the defeat of Samsung Galaxy Gear. It had so many expectations but has a little to offer in return. But Samsung is determined to right its wrongs, and although it already announced that a second watch is on its way, this one could come with a completely new identity in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Band. Korean site Digital Daily (via Ubergizmo) claims Samsung's next wearable gadget will be called the Galaxy Band, and will focus more on health and fitness than the Gear did. If the news has any credibility than its alarming for rivals like the Nike FuelBand and the FitBit.

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Band at Mobile World Congress in February, with the device going on sale sometime before the end of March. These are just rumors at the moment, so take it all with a pinch of salt. But it's certainly intriguing. The source claims that the Galaxy Band will be packed with load of sensors for capturing data on motion, pressure and temperature, and that it will link to Samsung's Galaxy devices via Bluetooth LE.

Possible Samsung Galaxy Band Design Render

The Galaxy Band will be worn on the upper arm, rather than being a traditional smart watch, according to Digital Daily. Fitness tracking tools like a pedometer are said to be on board. Like the Galaxy Gear, the Band should connect to your mobile device over Bluetooth.

Another interesting part of the news is the attachment of Apple! Luc Julia, VP of Samsung's innovation lab and former Apple engineer who oversaw the development of Siri, is said to be overseeing the project. Julia formerly worked on Siri, Apple's robot butler that lives in your iPhone. Julia joined Samsung in 2012 and has been heading up its Internet of Things project, SAMI (Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions).

Though Samsung fail to impress us with Galaxy Gear but still they manage to sell 800,000 of them. Which is pretty impressive, for an accessory that costs £300. Nevertheless, Samsung admitted the device lacks something special, and promised a sequel is coming soon. So galaxy gear 2 is on the way for sure!
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Samsung Galaxy Gear software update enhances battery life and expanded notifications

Samsung is rolling out a software update to its Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The newest firmware takes it to version MK7 and brings a couple of new features alongside enhancements to improve the overall performance of the gadget. The new firmware is only online in US so far and we are hoping that Samsung will treat other regions before the Christmas.

The new update brings better battery life so that the watch no longer runs out in just a day, improved range and connection, faster S Voice, and overall performance enhancements. You now have better notifications from non-Samsung apps.



The update is available over the air already, though if you haven’t received a notification for it yet, you can try connecting your watch to a computer and upgrade via Kies. You’ll also need to upgrade the Gear Manager app on the phone you’ve paired your Gear with to the latest version, and once all that is done, you’ll have a much better smartwatch on your wrist going forward.

Here's the full changelog of MK7 update:

• Improved range and connection: Samsung says the Gear can now stray a little farther from the phone before losing its connection. That's good — it felt pretty short before. The automatic connection feature has been improved as well.
• Improved battery life. Again, that addresses one of the chief complaints about the Gear. We'll have to see how much longer it lasts.
• S Voice search should be faster.
• Your Gear's performance has been improved and its features have been enhanced.

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The Smarter Cog! Samsung Galaxy Gear vs. Sony Smartwatch 2

It’s still early days in the Smart Watch world. After last year Sony released their first Smart Watch without any real competition from others this year is different. With Sony SmartWatch 2 in the shop, users can now compare it with the Samsung Galaxy Gear which is a strong contender too, running a specially tweaked version of Android powered by an 800MHz processor. Samsung designs the Galaxy Gear to do more than help you get fit. So, how does it compare to its Sony rival? We take a look at the specs and brought you all the information you need to see which watch we'd give the time of day, and which we'll soon consign to the back of a drawer.

Image Courtesy by: Gizmag

Displays
Sony SmartWatch 2 has a 1.6-inch screen with a Mirasol transflective display. Transflective displays are a combination of eInk and LCD making it one of the most powerful and efficient display technologies in the market. It uses both ambient light and backlight for a brighter color intensity and better performance with less power consumption.

Samsung's Galaxy Gear exhibits a Super AMOLED display, which is more powerful and proficient than a regular LCD screen. This device focuses on the highest resolution as compared to the similar line of gadgets. efficient than a regular LCD, especially if the UI is heavy on dark colors because it only lights up pixels that are in use, and full black means the pixel isn't used at all. It has a resolution of 320x320 pixels, and Sony SmartWatch 2 has a resolution of 220x176.

Samsung Galaxy Gear takes a point here.

Design
The Smartwatch 2 comes with dimensions of 9mm x 42mm x 41mm and the Samsung Galaxy Gear with 11mm x 37mm x 57mm which means the SmartWatch 2 is quite smaller than the Galaxy Gear, but it loses point at the weight difference. The Smartwatch 2 weighs 122 gram whereas Samsung galaxy gear weighs on 74 grams.


Software and features
Both Galaxy Gear and SmartWatch 2 run customized Android software.

Samsung gifts its users with 70 apps on the watch but this is nothing in comparison to what Sony has to give in. It has about 400 apps available for its SmartWatch.

Sony's SmartWatch allocates for deeper reading of Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook messages than Galaxy Gear.

Galaxy Gear also has superfluous features like a built-in pedometer app, and Smart Relay, which helps transferring your activities from Gear to your Smartphone. The Gear is much more functional that the Smartwatch as it is capable of taking calls, initiating calls, taking photos and videos and majorly you can use S voice for sending voice messages across various applications.


Compatibility
Samsung Gear is compatible with the Galaxy Note 3 at launch, and if the Samsung Galaxy S III, S4, and Note II are upgraded to the latest software even they are compatible with this device.

On the other hand, the Sony SmartWatch 2 will work with any Android device running 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher


Battery life
Samsung Gear can provide up to 25 hours straight up on the functionality front. On the other side, Sony can survive for three or four days in normal use.

Conclusion
Besides from the reasonable price tag, options for changeable wrist straps, better battery life, the Sony SmartWatch 2 has the benefit of being the only device that isn't a first generation product making it unique and experienced in its own way.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear has the most number of features with a great potential to perform wonderfully well only with a Samsung Smartphone it is not worth without a Samsung Smartphone. So make a purchase considering this factor in account too. The battery life of Samsung Gear is far inferior as compared to Smartwatch 2, with the limited options of compatibility devices.

About Author:
Piya Gogia takes interest in latest gadget updates and loves to explore gizmos. Being an instinctive gadget nerd, she has already reviewed Watch Mobile, Karbonn tablet, Acer Tablet and many other popular devices. The more she discovers, the more she writes.

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