You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
In the Samsung Galaxy Gear, the company has created a device custom-fitted for the Galaxy Note 3. While it may seem that this device is the first in a long line of smartwatches made for the greater world of Android, it would appear here that Samsung started small and marketed big. This device is not […]
While most smartwatches like the Pebble and the Galaxy Gear can’t live up to their true potential without the assistance of a smartphone, the Omate TrueSmart is a full-fledged calling and texting machine right out of the box. We’ve seen a couple of other such smartwatches of course, but the TrueSmart sets itself apart with a design that’s both water- and scratch-resistant, a unique UI that runs full-on Android 4.2 and most intriguing to us, a partnership with Syntellia’s Fleksy keyboard so that you can actually type coherently on such a tiny screen.
We had a brief hands-on with the TrueSmart at the Glazed conference in San Francisco, and we’ll admit to a bit of skepticism that we’d be able to do much with a 1.54-inch screen. However, we did manage to flip through the four-icon menu without too much trouble. The icons were large enough for us to tap, and we simply had to slide our finger to the left to go to the previous screen. It refused to recognize our swipes on occasion, but hopefully that’s just due to it being a pre-production unit.%Gallery-slideshow99594%
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Omate
Smartwatches sure are multiplying faster than rabbits. One of the newest devices hoping to make it to market is the A.I Watch: a companion gadget that’s also a standalone Android phone, similar to a Chinese creation we saw in August. According to its developers, you can use the A.I Watch to make and accept calls — à la Hot Watch — even if it’s not connected to a phone via Bluetooth. That’s because it has its own SIM card slot and supports 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM bands, as well as 3G. They also claim that its unspecified 1.2GHz dual-core processor is powerful enough for downloading apps from Google Play, loading Maps for navigation, streaming videos and accessing social networks, among others. The A.I Watch runs Android 4.0.4, has 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a 1.54-inch 240 x 240 touchscreen display, a 500mAh battery and a 5-megapixel camera.
If the device ever makes it to retail, it’ll sell for $279 each, which is around the price of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. Right now, however, the device’s fate hangs in the balance as its creators work to raise $100,000 on Indiegogo to cover mass production costs. Check out videos of the A.I Watch in action after the break, and enjoy a chuckle over one of its watchfaces that looks undeniably Metro-esque.
Smartwatches sure are multiplying faster than rabbits. One of the newest devices hoping to make it to market is the A.I Watch: a companion gadget that’s also a standalone Android phone, similar to a Chinese creation we saw in August. According to its developers, you can use the A.I Watch to make and accept calls — à la Hot Watch — even if it’s not connected to a phone via Bluetooth. That’s because it has its own SIM card slot and supports 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM bands, as well as 3G. They also claim that its unspecified 1.2GHz dual-core processor is powerful enough for downloading apps from Google Play, loading Maps for navigation, streaming videos and accessing social networks, among others. The A.I Watch runs Android 4.0.4, has 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a 1.54-inch 240 x 240 touchscreen display, a 500mAh battery and a 5-megapixel camera.
If the device ever makes it to retail, it’ll sell for $279 each, which is around the price of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. Right now, however, the device’s fate hangs in the balance as its creators work to raise $100,000 on Indiegogo to cover mass production costs. Check out videos of the A.I Watch in action after the break, and enjoy a chuckle over one of its watchfaces that looks undeniably Metro-esque.
Update (09/30/2013): So, a lot of you have pointed out that the A.I watch is a dead-ringer for Vapirius’ AX2 smartwatch. We don’t know for sure if A.I watch is merely a copy, but we’ve reached out to its developers for comment — we’ll update this post once we hear back. Meanwhile, the AX2 is available in Europe for €299 ($400), so you can probably bypass this Indiegogo campaign and go straight to Vapirius’ website… although seeing as A.I has only raised a miserable $3,677 of its $100,000 goal, it seems like plenty of you weren’t that excited to begin with.
In an unusual bout of frankness, a Samsung official has acknowledged that the Galaxy Gear smartwatch lacks, you know, whatever the Korean is for je ne sais quoi. As reported by the Korea Times, the unnamed official said:
“We’ve acknowledged that our Gear lacks something special. With more investment for user interface and user experience, Samsung devices will be better in terms of customer satisfaction.”
We’re not sure if the source of the quote is Samsung’s VP of strategic marketing, Lee Don-joo, but this exec is quoted in the same Korea Times article as saying that the watch is “definitely receiving a warm response” and that improvements would stem from software tweaks and the hiring of new UI experts, rather than from the development of a whole new device. He described the Gear as part of Samsung’s drive to create new categories of “wow product” and, in virtually the same gasp, he also reiterated that Samsung would launch some sort of heavily curved — or perhaps even partially bendable — smartphone in Korea next month.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Samsung
Via: Unwired View
Source: Korea Times
While the Pebble smartwatch is not a machine that needs any kind of mobile data coverage as such, the folks at AT&T have decided to get onboard with carrying the device as an exclusive across the USA. This device was part of a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year and found itself the subject of a […]
If you’ve been looking to get your hands on Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear, boom, they’re here. The company has kicked off another of its world tours to announce availability of its 5.7-inch smartphone and new smartwatch in 58 countries. In the UK, an unlocked Galaxy Note 3 will set you back £649 but it’s also available on nearly all of the major carriers (we’re still waiting to hear from Three) — starting at around £30 on a traditional contract, or free if you decide to sign up to a new early-upgrader tariff. The Galaxy Gear retails at £299, but Samsung thinks you could use a £100 discount if you bundle it with an unlocked Galaxy Note 3, for a total cost of £848. Customers in the US, Canada and Japan, however, will have to wait ’til October — though pre-orders are already open.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Samsung
Oppo isn’t the only company launching a 5.9-inch smartphone today. Coolpad has just unveiled the Magview 4, which mates a similarly large display with a 1.8GHz Tegra 4 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13-megapixel f/2.0 rear camera and an aluminum chassis. The Android 4.2 handset doesn’t offer as many built-in tricks as its Oppo counterpart, but it’s arriving alongside a trio of clever accessories. The pocketable CoolHub combines a battery with a Bluetooth speaker, a microSD card reader and NFC tag support; the CoolHub 2 extends this with environmental sensors and a pedometer. Coolpad is also launching the cWatch C1, a waterproof smartwatch with alerts for calendars, calls and messages. While the company hasn’t yet priced its add-ons, it will ship the Magview 4 to mainland China in October for ¥3,980 ($650).
Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile
Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)
Source: Coolpad
AT&T pre-orders for the Galaxy Gear, Samsung’s nifty Pebble-competing smartwatch, started earlier this week, and will be available to customers in Canada on October 4. Such information comes from Best Buy and Future Shop, both of which are now taking pre-orders for the smartwatch and list the device as arriving on the aforementioned date. Both […]
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