Samsung Galaxy Gear final product

The picture from venturebeat.com was near by the final product. It seems that these guys been well informed.

Every possible question answered in the t3.com article: http://www.t3.com/news/samsung-galaxy-gear-smart-watch-price-release-date-and-specs

http://www.t3.com/news/samsung-galaxy-gear-smart-watch-price-release-date-and-specs
http://www.t3.com/news/samsung-galaxy-gear-smart-watch-price-release-date-and-specs

In my opinion the less important fact is the availability in six different strap colours, but maybe this fact is the essential argument for someone to buy one.

It’s not a stand alone device, although the hardware specifications (1.63-inch Super AMOLED display, custom built 800 Mhz processor, 1.9 megapixel camera, 4GB of built-in storage.) would provide enough power to do so.

The Galaxy Gear needs a connection to a Note 3 or Note 10, because that are the only devices that been supported at the moment.

The Android 4.3 update for Samsung mobiles enables the S4 to work with the Galaxy Gear.

The price will be about £200 which will be approximately 236,67 € (05.09.2013) when launched at the end of september.

CNETTV released a first look video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkn_PCIoBhQ

Picture of the Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Samsung is set to reveal its Galaxy Gear smartwatch next Wednesday, Sept. 4, in Berlin. But this weekend, we got a first look at the watch.“ But venturebeat.com had the opportunity to have a first look this weekend.

Maybe the watch on the picture is of a developer edition or pre-series.

Anyway, hopefully the final product will be not be so chunky.

samsungs-galaxy-gear-smartwatch-a-blocky-health-tracker-with-a-camera
(c) ventureBeat.com

Note, next week in Berlin the IFA takes place from 6th to 11th of september.

(c) http://b2b.ifa-berlin.com/en

http://b2b.ifa-berlin.com/en/

Even compared with the early date huge PDA Palm Wrist smartwatch from Fossil the Galaxy Gear is a massive piece of hardware.

 

726px-Fossil_Wrist_PDA_on_wrist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Wrist_PDA

Make a slim watch with ARM Cortex-M3 EFM32

Hack-a-Gecko project by Anders and Adam 

How to make a very slim watch and keep battery life long? In this Hack-a-Gecko project, they tried to catch two birds with one stone.

The Idea
We thought it would be cool to utilize the extremely low power EFM32 in combination with an extremely low power display to create a wrist watch demo application. And usually, the smaller and thinner something is, the cooler it is. (Admittedly, wrist watches do not necessarily follow this trend… big watches.)

Anyway, we wanted it slim. The starting point was the memory LCD display from Sharp (link). It is truly a Nano ampere display technology. And it is also thin, only 0.75 mm. A watch also needs a battery, cool new technologies exist such as the Thinergy battery, but the voltage of 4.1 V is a bit awkward. We decided to use a standard 3.0V CR1616 cell as it can power the EFM32 and display directly. Thickness of battery + display is 2.35 mm, is it possible to design the electronics as well within this thickness limit…? Challenge accepted!“

http://blog.energymicro.com/2012/12/12/make-a-slim-watch-with-arm-cortex-m3-efm32/

found via http://hackaday.com/2012/12/12/super-slim-wristwatch-build/

MetaWatch iOS compatible – now I’m in the game

Still thinking about getting one of the first generation MetaWatches since there lunch. My experiences with the eZ430-Chronos-433 convincing to get the metawatch. Today offered on TIDeals the digital and analog Watches for a very interessting price. But I seen that a new generation was lunched with still iOS compatibility. Sine my actual mobile phone is from Apple and I own two iPads the new Watch seems peferable. It’s 199 $ for the programmable smartwatch with Bluetooth 4.0 – ordered directly on MetaWatch.org.

“ Dallas, TX and Espoo, Finland May 22, 2012 – Today, Meta Watch launches its new smartwatch development system featuring Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology for connectivity and compatibility with Apple’s iPhone® 4S, iPad 3, and Android platforms. It is available for purchase immediately from the Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) e-Store and the Metawatch.org web site. Initial customer shipments will commence before the end of May.

Leveraging TI’s CC2564 “dual mode” solution, the Meta Watch development system supports both Bluetooth low energy technology and ‘classic’ Bluetooth wireless technology enabling it to function in many new applications.

“We are delighted to be the first company to ship a Bluetooth 4.0 smartwatch compatible with both iPhone and Android platforms” said Bill Geiser, CEO and co-founder of Meta Watch. “While our new development system will greatly expand opportunities for Meta Watch, our goal remains unchanged – to make it simple and profitable for developers to create smartwatch applications. To this end we offer a broad range of customization options for our customers. Embedded system developers can leverage our open source firmware, embedded SDK, and a free embedded programming IDE that runs on most Windows and Linux Operating Systems. Our remote protocol and API’s enable smart phone application developers to leverage their existing iOS or Android code base eliminating the need to create a new code base for a new platform. Last, but certainly not least, our supply chain and production infrastructure was created from the very beginning to scale and allow our ODM/OEM customers to get to market fast.”

Features of the Meta Watch Bluetooth 4.0 development include:

  • Case / strap: 3 ATM water resistant stainless steel leather strap (in black or white)
  • Colors: black or white
  • Display: Mirror polymer network LCD; 96×96. Fully reflective for direct sunlight
  • Lens: scratch-resistant mineral glass
  • I/O: 6 fully programmable buttons, 3 axis accelerometer, vibrating motor & an ambient light sensor
  • MCU: TI’s ultra-low-power MSP430™ microcontroller
  • Radio: CC2564 Bluetooth 4.0 transceiver; with profile support for SPP and BLE-GATT

Pricing, availability, and more

  • Availability date: May 2012
  • Unit Cost of Meta Watch Development Platform: USD $199
  • Regions shipped to: US & Europe.
  • Where to buy: https://estore.ti.com/ and http://www.metawatch.org/
  • Available Styles: Stainless steel case with black mask & black leather strap; stainless steel case with white mask and white leather strap
  • Latest information: www.metawatch.org

About Meta Watch
Meta Watch is a privately-held company focusing on reinventing the watch as a stylish and relevant mobile accessory. Meta Watch allows developers to quickly and easily extend the interfaces of devices and applications to the wrist. Target markets and applications include: quantified self & mobile health, messaging, alerts and notifications, carrier value added services, navigation and location-based services, mobile, and music lifestyle enhancement. Meta Watch is based in Dallas, Texas and has a R&D facility in Espoo, Finland.

Trademarks
Meta Watch is a trademark of Meta Watch Ltd. The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Meta Watch Ltd. is under license. Other trademarks and trade names are those of their respective owners.“