Category: Smartwatches
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AT&T will be the exclusive US carrier to offer the Pebble Smartwatch

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AT&T announced that it will be the exclusive wireless carrier to offer the popular Pebble Smartwatch in the United States. The gadget will be available online and in over 500 AT&T stores this Friday, on September 27.

AT&T will be charging $150 for the Pebble Smartwatch. The device is currently in the record books as the most successful KickStarter campaign to date. It works with both iOS and Android devices. Read more »

Intel unveils its smallest chipset dubbed Quark

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After showing its 14nm silicon running laptop, Intel’s CEO Brain Krzanich has officially announced a new chipset series, dubbed as Quark, which is the smallest Intel has built to date.

The Quark chipsets are said to be one-fifth the size of an Atom SoC and the newest addition is built on an open architecture that is designed to be used in integrated systems. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Gear vs. Qualcomm Toq vs. Sony Smartwatch 2: Put your finger on it

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Smartwatches are the talk of the street right now and for a very good reason. They are cool, capable and understated. At the IFA 2013 expo, both Samsung and Qualcomm announced their smartwatch representatives: the Galaxy Gear and Toq. Naturally, we had to compare them to the Sony Smartwatch 2, which was announced a couple of months ago.

You may be thinking that smartwatches aren’t really our scope, but remember that while we are professional phone reviewers, we are also geeks. This puts the smartwatch product category right in our alley. Read more »

Samsung outs an official, extra long hands-on video of the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear

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One of the headlines that has come out of IFA 2013 so far is the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It sports a plethora of new software features and awesome integration options with the just announced Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

So, in order to familiarize potential Note 3 owners with some of its new software tricks, Samsung has made a lengthy hands-on video of the phablet. Read more »

Qualcomm announces new Toq smartwatch for Android smartphones

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While Samsung was announcing its Galaxy Gear smartwatch yesterday, Qualcomm was busy announcing its own smartwatch, called the Toq. Pronounced as “talk”, the Qualcomm Toq pairs with your existing Android smartphone and brings all your notifications where you can see them at a glance.

The main feature of the Qualcomm Toq is the unique Mirasol display. Developed by Qualcomm, Mirasol is a type of interferometric modulator display that works without the need of a backlight. Just like e-paper displays, Mirasol displays can stay on constantly without requiring power and are perfectly visible even under bright sunlight. But Mirasol goes one step ahead of current e-paper displays and is capable of displaying full color and it also uses the ambient light as a backlight, thus significantly reducing the power consumption. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Gear goes official, works only with the top end of the Galaxy line

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Samsung jumped head first into the smartwatch field with the Galaxy Gear. It’s made out of stainless steel for the body and futuristic material for the strap. The heart of Gear is a 1.63″ Super AMOLED touch screen with 320 x 320 resolution (that’s 277ppi pixel density).

In a throwback to the S9110 watch phone, the Galaxy Gear features a speaker and mic, so it can handle calls (with a noise cancellation mic), but also understand voice commands with S Voice. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Gear app leaked through screenshots

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We all know Samsung is working on a smartwatch that would be announced at the IFA event in Berlin next month along with the Galaxy Note III. Samsung themselves have confirmed both devices. But we are yet to get a glimpse of what either devices will look like.

While we haven’t made much progress on that front, we do have what looks like legit screenshots of the Galaxy Gear application that would control the smartwatch. The app is supposedly responsible for letting you pair your smartphone with the watch using NFC, personalize it using different clock faces and even send compatible applications over. Read more »

Analyst: Apple iWatch coming in late 2014, to be priced around $149-229

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Apple’s iWatch is one of the most hotly anticipated gadgets, especially after reports that Samsung will be launching its Galaxy Gear smartwatch next week. However, according to the latest gossip, Apple’s iWatch is not coming anytime soon and is expected to launch only in the second half of 2014.

According to an analyst at CIMB Group, 60% of Apple’s iWatch orders are expected to be manufactured by Invetec, the Taiwan-based ODM. The deal is expected to generate about 19% of Invetec’s profits in the coming year. Read more »

Samsung Mobile EVP confirms the Galaxy Gear smartwatch for IFA, says screen not bendable

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The rumor mill has been pretty confident that he Unpacked 2 event on September 4 on IFA grounds will bring the new Galaxy Note III phablet and the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, but now there’s official confirmation straight from the EVP of Samsung Mobile.

The EVP, Lee Young-hee, calls it a “concept wearable device” and says it’s aimed at young trend-setters. Samsung is confident that the Galaxy Gear will shake things up in the mobile industry. Read more »