Samsung Unveils Line of Gear 2 Smart Watches Featuring 'Tizen' Mobile Operating System

[Piggie]

I'm being serious here, why does everyone hate on the watch so much? I've been using a Galaxy Gear watch for months and I love it...

Because it's not made by Apple.
I think you knew that

 

[vomhorizon]

Because it's not made by Apple.
I think you knew that

Yup, that was the only reason why the gear family received poor reviews from a lot of sources..and did light the sales chart on fire !

 

[shanson27]

Confirmed: Samsung copies Apple product rumors! #

 

[lilo777]

Yup, that was the only reason why the gear family received poor reviews from a lot of sources..and did light the sales chart on fire !

First Galaxy Note received very bad reviews too and then went on to become a huge success. Also for all its shortcomings Samsung Gear is a best selling smart watch on the planet,is not it?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

First Galaxy Note received very bad reviews too and then went on to become a huge success. Also for all its shortcomings Samsung Gear is a best selling smart watch on the planet,is not it?

IDK, I've never heard the sales numbers before, but I would think the Pebble, not the Gear, is the best selling smart watch.

Edit: Samsung has sold 1M Gears in the months since it was released. Pebble had 275K preorders a few years ago. Neither of these numbers really suggest that it's a very successful product category right now.

 

[philips]

Wow, switched to Tizen... So does this mean even Samsung admits Android sucks? I say yes.

Google sets pretty strict set of requirements for Android devices.

The lax requirements is the major differentiation of the Tizen. (Also developers say that Tizen has much better power management and also better native SDK for better performance. That makes it more suitable for smaller devices like the Gear. Or the Samsung NX cameras.)

As far as the Google Android suckiness... After playing with the pure Google devices (Moto G and Nexus 4) I have to say that I dislike much of what Google does to Android. Samsung and HTC variants have much better usability and all. The larger problem is that though OEMs can tweak the OS - they can't tweak Google Apps. And larger chunk of suckiness comes from the Google Apps themselves. (OMG, 10+ years of Google Mail, and we still have neither reliable search nor folders.)

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I'm being serious here, why does everyone hate on the watch so much? I've been using a Galaxy Gear watch for months and I love it...

Can you elaborate how/what for you are using it?

Colleague of mine commutes with a car a lot and says he finds it quite useful as remote control for the Note.

That's bit too weak for me. That's why I want to hear more about what is possible with the Gear/iWatch.

 

[Nevaborn]

The IR blaster is presumably there so you can use it as a remote for TVs and other infrared-controlled devices.

Like a 90's Casio. A feature that when it rarely worked was only good for school to annoy teachers until they confiscated the watch. Not exactly forward thinking.

 

[kis]

Considerably smaller?

This is my home cordless phone. Now I agree that if you include the base, it may be bigger then the Galaxy Note 3. Just the handset with out the base, not even close.

I have not tried them but I have seen people using them.

Remember those? And yes, it was possible to talk on them for hours (unless the battery went dead before that).

 

[brogwalkerh]

The original Samsung Galaxy Gear also had a camera (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Gear#Hardware)

Well the article says "built-in camera" and remember the previous model had a camera on the band. I think this is what they mean.

 

[ghettochris]

My issue is that they only target Samsung rumors. I have a Note 3 and have been following Android for years. This is just a fraction of the Android news. LG announced 2 phones last week and just yesterday Lenovo said that they will announce a tablet on Monday. During mobile congress this week we could see maybe 10 other smart watches from other Android OEM'S yet Macrumors only cherry pick Samsung.
And I rarely see any Windows Phones on Macrumors. I bet over 90% of you guys didn't even know that Nokia just released the Nokia Icon on Verizon. Most of you are only Apple lovers but I'm a gadget lover. Sucks to see news being targeted for click responses. Stick with Apple rumors or become a site like Engadget.

I like the amount of tech coverage, apple stuff and things related to it. I don't care about the Nokia Icon, but I do care about samsung's preemptive attempts to compete with the iWatch.

 

[krravi]

We are on iPad version.. What is it again? 5, 6 or 8?

And fanbois are throwing fits over the second iteration of their watch?

Hilarious!

 

[ghettochris]

It needs to look good before it becomes acceptable as a wearable piece of tech. This is not.

There is a word for people who care more about looks than function. Vain.

That's like caring what the outside of your car looks like, the only time you see it is when you approach it, it's invisible to you while you drive or are inside anywhere.

 

[BvizioN]

Remember those? And yes, it was possible to talk on them for hours (unless the battery went dead before that).

Image

No, I dont... but I am sure my grandma does.

 

[ghettochris]

It's great coming here everyday and seeing all the cool stuff come out from other companies. Apple just keeps coming out with the same crap anymore and it's become so boring. They need to come out with a new product or something bad. At the least, they could increase the size of the iPhone's screen. 4" is like so 4 years ago.

Increasing size is easy, what would impress me is an iphone mini the size of the nano. if you want a big screen, get a tablet anyways, 7">5".

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Makes the watch pretty pointless for fitness if you've still got to carry your phone around to get GPS.

And there are plenty of cheaper and better looking watches around, which monitor heart rate.

How many of those have GPS built in?

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Like many companies around the world at least they are trying to offer consumers items they may wish to purchase if they feel they would like them.

I fail to see what is so horrific with this as a concept.

Perhaps you would like to see one car for sale, on brand of food, one normal watch, one bath soap?

At least, like millions of other companies all around the world they are actually bringing items out for sale, and offering them to people who may like them.

Sure, you personally don't like them, fueled unfortunately be some ANTI SAMSUNG brainwashing that's only fit for the school playground.

Do you do into furniture stores and tell people that brand of furniture is rubbish, or they they have bought the wrong car, of they clothing is the wrong brand?

What you don't like, matters only to one person on this planet... YOU

To not like something simply down to what logo is stamped on the side is even sadder. I can assure you, without ANY question, if this was made by Apple, exactly the same product, that just worked with iPhones, you would have a totally different opinion of the product.

I won't be buying one. I can't see mysef buying an Apple one also.

But at least Samsung are offering something for sale.

And why we have Samsung stories, Flappy bird stories and other stories, here, because sadly there is no Apple news.

Personally, I, and I'm sure others would like the now lumbering monolith Apple has become to try some ideas out for sale, and not just take the safe, lets tweek what we have and take no risks approach they have these days.

It will be their long term undoing if they don't get some fresh, new exciting life into them, and just stick with same old same old, but we have made it a bit better this year, and if you hold the last 3 years versions side by side you should just be able to see some difference.

That's not what I, and I guess others are looking for, from one of the top worlds companies.

Apple has released some fops like the cube, but for the most part they are good about knowing what the people want before they know they want it themselves, like the iphone. I'd rather that type of foresight than just releasing tons of flops with the occasional non-flop.

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Fair enough! Me to would like a larger screen iPhone but I wouldn't want anything that goes over 5"! I have seen some of these galaxy notes but mostly I have seen people consuming media on them or surfing the web! They do look nice but for my taste that would be really to large to hold it on a traditional style for audio calls.

I want iphone mini (about 2.5-3") for calls and occasional lookups on the go, as the iphone is too big to carry with me everywhere all the time, and a tablet for consumption or browsing.

 

[aristotle]

Remember that Android is very successful: more than "Android sucks" I guess the rationale was "Android is in the hands of a competitor". Samsung most likely wants to build his own complete ecosystem and become less dependent from Google.

Keep on telling yourself that buddy and maybe even you will believe it. The reason why they switched to Tzien is because Android a bloated and they needed to dramatically improve the battery life of a "watch" type device. That is something they just could not accomplish with Android.

 

[512ke]

We can deride this phone as being clunky. The first version of Android was clunky. The first version of Windows was clunky. But both Google and MS kept upgrading and improving their products once they got a toehold in the market. So, too, Samsung will keep upgrading and improving their Gear.

Where is Apple's watch? Where is Apple's TV? Where is Apple's social media play?

Right now Samsung is miles ahead in the smart watch market along with Nike and Pebble.

Will Apple catch up? Will Apple even release a product? It remains to be seen.

I am an Apple fanatic but I see this as Samsung 2, Apple 0 so far.

 

[ghettochris]

We are on iPad version.. What is it again? 5, 6 or 8?

And fanbois are throwing fits over the second iteration of their watch?

Hilarious!

If ipad 1 sucked as hard and got so many returns as the gear, then they came out with ipad 2 5 months later, fainbois would throw fits.

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We can deride this phone as being clunky. The first version of Android was clunky. The first version of Windows was clunky. But both Google and MS kept upgrading and improving their products once they got a toehold in the market. So, too, Samsung will keep upgrading and improving their Gear.

Where is Apple's watch? Where is Apple's TV? Where is Apple's social media play?

Right now Samsung is miles ahead in the smart watch market along with Nike and Pebble.

Will Apple catch up? Will Apple even release a product? It remains to be seen.

I am an Apple fanatic but I see this as Samsung 2, Apple 0 so far.

You must have seen it as rest of world 100, apple 0 when they came out with the ipod and iphone. Release something good when the tech is ready, if you try and jump the gun before the tech is ready, you just make a piece of crap nobody wants.

 

[bushman4]

Back to topic

Samsung Smart-watch doesn't seem to be anything special. Then again Samsung didn't have Apple to copy from. Bigger question is why Samsung is going to their Tizen system

 

[APlotdevice]

*redundant post*

 

[smirking]

Wow, only 5 months after Gear 1!
Good luck with this one Samsung, but I am still not gonna buy one

The point of early products like these rarely ever is to feed the bottom line. They're trying to establish themselves as market leaders. They're still second fiddle, but I'm sure some people view them as having overtaken Apple. It'll be interesting to see how their products are perceived as more and more people start to feel that Samsung is actually the top dog now.

And the main reason why I wouldn't consider them in the lead is because they keep referring Apple in their ads. The market leader rarely does that.

 

[APlotdevice]

so? does it become less interesting because of that?
i remember how apple-fans pissed themself like exited dogs because the 5s had a fingerprint sensor. was a fingerprint sensor something new? of course not, but apple has been doing it, so its something magical.

the heart rate sensor will a neat function to a device that many people have been waiting for and will make another piece of accessory redundant. we just have to see if it delivers as well.

All I was saying is that the technology for sensing pulse without a separate belt was developed a while ago. But thank you for taking my post completely out of context.

 

[Todd B.]

Samsung smartwatch? Zzzzzzzz.

When was the last time they made anything worthwhile..... who cares.

We can deride this phone as being clunky. The first version of Android was clunky. The first version of Windows was clunky. But both Google and MS kept upgrading and improving their products once they got a toehold in the market. So, too, Samsung will keep upgrading and improving their Gear.

I hate to break it to you but the CURRENT version of Android is clunky; nothing has changed. It's still hideously ugly and works about as well as a 1970 Yugo.

I am an Apple fanatic but I see this as Samsung 2, Apple 0 so far.

lol? The difference is Apple releases something that WORKS and that people want while Samsung just releases garbage and then waits for Apple to release something so they can copy it.

 

[lilo777]

Samsung smartwatch? Zzzzzzzz.

When was the last time they made anything worthwhile..... who cares.

Way more people care about Samsung products than Apple products (is it 2 to 1 in smart phones and a millions to zero in TVs?) Does that answer your question?

 

[Dave.UK]

Some very ill informed users in this thread. I fond it amazing the amount of posters saying Samsung have rushed out a smartwatch just because there are rumours of Apple releasing on.

Samsung released the first WatchPhone back in 1999 called the SPH-WP10

Samsung also released a WatchPhone in France during 2009, called the S9110

The sleek S9110 is a mere 11.98mm thick thanks to the company’s advanced surface mounting technology, making it the slimmest watchphone device in the market. Featuring a 1.76” full touch screen customized for the wrist-watch form factor, the S9110 aims to attract mobile phone users who want a unique fashion item that keeps them connected on the go. The device also enables the users to check their e-mail seamlessly through Outlook.

In 1999, Samsung introduced the world’s first watch phone, the SPH-WP10, which became a landmark product in the mobile industry. The S9110 will be available in France this month for around 450 Euros.

Bet lets not let facts get in the way eh?!

 

[Dave.UK]

Like a 90's Casio. A feature that when it rarely worked was only good for school to annoy teachers until they confiscated the watch. Not exactly forward thinking.

Oh behave!

Times have changed since then.

I have a TV, Surround Sound, Tivo, DVD Player, Xbox 360 - All that I can control using the IR blaster on my LG G2.

Im sure your attitude would be different if Apple had included an IR blaster in any of their devices.