Motorola's 360 was the first beautiful round Android Wear, but it's certainly not the last. LG is bringing one to the table as well, the LG G Watch R. Not to be outdone, LG's second Android Wear outing has a few fancy special features of its own: No "flat tire" on its screen and a ring of ticks etched around the outside.
Finally giving rumors a rest, Samsung has unveiled the Gear S smartwatch ahead of IFA 2014. And this is one smartwatch that is sure to take Samsung's and Google's frenemy relationship to a new level, as it has two things that Google would not want to see on a smartwatch: Tizen and independent 3G connectivity.
Ever since the Galaxy Gear, Samsung has been rumored to be working on a smartwatch that can make and take calls on its own. That has finally taken form in the Gear S, where S most likely stands for the "Solo" name rumored in the past. With its own 3G connectivity, the smartwatch doesn't have to rely on a smartphone for both essential and sometimes superfluous tasks. On the Gear S, you can receive and send messages, which of course implies it has a QWERTY keyboard, and take and make calls. But should you choose to do so, you can opt to switch back to the conventional Bluetooth pairing with a smartphone and Samsung promises that data will be seamlessly synced between the two.
Curiously, the hardware for the Gear S hasn't changed at all. Here you have a 1.0 GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB of internal storage. But aside from processor speeds, the most worrying part is the battery, which remains at the same 300 mAh. With the added 3G connectivity and potentially more things you can do with the smartwatch, you'd think it would require at the very least a battery that can last longer in an always connected state. Oversight or conscious design decision? We may never know.
One thing that has indeed change and improved is the display, which is now larger and curved. The 2.0-inch Super AMOLED screen now has a rectangular resolution of 360x480. But the most notable change is, of course, the curved contours. Unlike LG, who just announced the round-faced G Watch R, Samsung has stuck to a conventional smartwatch shape, opting instead to go for comfort. At least according to its official PR statement. This is one of those times when you really have to wear one to experience that change. The straps are still interchangeable, so you can mix and match to your aesthetic tastes.
The Gear S, unfortunately, doesn't run Android Wear, which will most likely irk Google even further. Samsung is sticking to Tizen, which it claims has more than 1,000 apps available, at least for smartwatches. It will be hard to prove or disprove that claim, but at least early adopters are assured that their basic app needs will be met. The Samsung Gear S is scheduled to launch in October, though pricing details have been left out for now. A new Bluetooth headset called Samsung Circle will also be debuting alongside the smartwatch. Expect both to be present at IFA 2014 next week.
SOURCE: Samsung
Beating Motorola to the circular punch, LG has decided to unveil its teased smartwatch even before IFA 2014 formally starts. The G Watch R is pretty much what you have heard it to be, a round-faced Android Wear smartwatch that is designed to be as stylish as it is functional.
In terms of specs, the G Watch R is mostly the same as the first G Watch unveiled at Google I/O 2014. Both run on a 1.2 GHz (dual-core) Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, have 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. There are two key differences in terms of internal components. First is that the battery of the G Watch R is slightly higher at 410 mAh. More interesting, however, is the addition of a photoplethysmography sensor, used for monitoring heartrate, a feature that only the Samsung Gear Live had when it launched.
Of course the real star of the show here is the redesigned watch face, from square (or rectangle if you prefer) to round. The 1.3-inch 320x320 display is noted to use Plastic OLED (P-OLED) technology to make viewable in bright sunlight or from any angle. Android Wear fans shouldn't worry too much about this new display shape since the Moto 360 has proven that the wearable OS is capable of handling that form factor too. One critical thing that makes LG's version special is that the display utilizes the whole area of the watch face, unlike the occluded portion in Motorola's smartwatch.
With a more conventional looking form, the LG G Watch R is clearly design to look premium and stylish. That said, if you prefer something else that fits your own fashion sense, you can swap out the 22 mm leather strap with something more to your taste. For those of more rugged proclivities, the smartwatch boasts of IP67 rating, making it dust proof and water proof, for up to 30 minutes in a meter of water.
The LG G Watch R will be available in the last quarter of the year, no exact date or price given yet. Of course, it will first turn up in LG's space at IFA 2014 in Berlin next week, where it will face off with other new smartwatches, and in particular the Moto 360 that is clearly its chosen rival.
SOURCE: LG
The folks over at ASUS really do love a striptease as the past few days, we’ve seen some teaser ads on their Facebook page about the new smartwatch that they’ll be announcing at the IFA in Berlin next week. And now the wearable has a name! It’s called ZenWatch and a new short video has been released, offering us a glimpse of the gadget but only in silhouette, further wetting our appetites for this smartwatch.
What we see in the 30 second video is the rumoured Android Wear smartwatch, but only showing its parts in shadow. It offers us a glimpse of the corner, clasp and then finally a side view of the device, but all bathed in cloudy grey light, making it impossible to actually see any detail (as they intended of course). Just a few days ago, ASUS tweeted out it will be launching in Berlin and then released on its Facebook page some futuristic-looking teaser ads with the quote, “Time has been transformed and we have changed,” a quote from Khalil Gibran, which also finds its way in the teaser video.
But apart from those glimpses, not much has been leaked about the purported fourth smartwatch using the Android Wear platform. ASUS CEO Jerry Shen did claim that it will be better-looking than the other ones in the market, and that price-wise, it will be cheaper than its competitors. Rumors are saying it will cost somewhere between $99 and $149, which is way cheaper than the current price tag on the LG G Watch ($230) and the Samsung Gear Live ($200). The upcoming Moto 360 still has no pricing details as of yet.
Since no specs are available yet for the ZenWatch, many are hoping that the cheaper price doesn’t mean that the hardware and features are also less than those of the current Android Wear smartwatches. All will be revealed during the September 3 launch at the IFA 2014 in Berlin, as indicated in the teaser video.
When T-Mobile launched its Music Freedom feature two months ago, it made its music-loving subscribers very happy since they could now listen to several music streaming services without it affecting their data quota. Now they’ll be even happier as the uncarrier added six more music streaming services to the package, with one more important one to go and soon to be added due to increasing public demand.
T-Mobile’s Simple Plan subscribers have been enjoying having iHeart Radio, iTunes Radio, Pandora, Rhapsody, Samsung Milk, Slacker, and Spotify not affect their plan’s data output, since these music services are known to use up heavy data bandwidth. Music Freedom has now added six more to their list with AccuRadio, Black Planet, Grooveshark, Radio Paradise, Rdio, and Songza.
Notably missing is Google Play Music. When T-Mobile did a survey on which music service they should add next, this topped the survey which was answered by almost 750,000 people. They assured subscribers that they are working on adding the service to the Music Freedom later this year. President and CEO John Legere said that the goal of this program is still to “set all your music free” since being a "music freak” himself, he knows how important removing the burden of data consumption for the streaming services is.
Since they started Music Freedom two months ago, T-Mobile says there have already been 7,000 terabytes of music streamed through their network. As compared to before when these services were still part of the data plan, there are now 5 million more tracks played each day. If you know of any other music streaming provider that should be part of the program, you can submit it through their open submission process.
SOURCE: T-Mobile
VIA: SlashGear
For many people, their smartphone is the place where they have all their data. Contacts for work and play are in the phone and if the phone was lost or stolen, it would be very bad indeed to lose the data for most people. A new charging cable has turned up on Indiegogo called bleep that not only charges your phone, but it also backs up the data on your phone at the same time.
Using the bleep charge cable smartphone users get automatic data back up using a storage drive inside the cable. Plug and play capability means that the storage inside the cable does its thing with no intervention from you. Storage capacity is available in 16GB to 64GB.
An app running on the Android device allows your data to be saved to the drive as your device charges. Bleep is designed to synchronize new data and contacts to the internal storage each time it is connected to your phone.
Once everything is set up, the backup process starts as soon as you plug the bleep cable into the tablet or smartphone. After using bleep if you lose your device the app allows you to restore your data using the application interface. Data stored on the drive is secured with a password. Bleep seeks $20,000 on Indiegogo and has raised $3,120 with 59 days to go. A pledge of $40 for the first 100 buyers will get you a bleep with delivery date estimated in August 2015.
SOURCE: Indiegogo
Owners of the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone have a new battery case to check out called the PowerSkin Spare Battery Case. The case is available in four colors including black, blue, white, and gold. One of the big features of the Spare Battery case is that it is very thin and adds minimal bulk to your smartphone while significantly increasing the runtime of your device.
Inside the Spare Battery Case is a 2200 mAh battery that provides up to 230 hours of standby time and up to 12.5 hours of additional talk time. While adding significant amounts of talk time, the case weighs only 80 grams.
The case has a custom indent space for the charging port cover of the smartphone, front LED lights to indicate charging, and its own on/off button. TennRich, the company that makes the case, uses XPAL tech inside with short circuit and overcharge protection, heat channels to remove excess heat, and pass-through charging tech.
Pass-through charging means that the device is charged first and then the battery case charges. A flame retardant UV coating is also applied to the case to help reduce the risk of fire if the case overheats. Pricing for the Spare Battery case is £59.99 and it will be on display at IFA 2014 in Berlin. PowerSkin has been making battery cases for years now, we talked about PowerSkin cases for the Samsung Galaxy Tab all the way back in 2010.
SOURCE: TennRich