Microsoft does have there own line of ‘watches’ although they are more exercise bands then watches, but so far they have not gone full-in on the smartwatch market.  They may at some point, but that is not why I think Microsoft is going to try to get on the Pebble.  They want Microsoft everywhere. And right now, the Pebble watch works on the two major OS’s, iOS, and Android.  If Microsoft wants to be considered a major OS in the mobile market, its a bit of an embarrassment that they are not considered important enough that Pebble, maintaining its position as a major watch brand, is not included.  As such it would make sense for Microsoft phones to be able to use the Pebble watch as well showing they are a major player.

So for now, you can downloaded from a link provided by windowscentral.com from their post. I have not tried it so proceed with cation.

Photo credits: techloob.com

It was announce through Forbes that Microsoft is planning on releasing a watch in the next few weeks.  No solid news on what it will look like yet, but my bet is that it will look somewhat like the LG; clean, simple square.  It is reported that it will have bio metric tracking as is now considered default for all higher end watches (don’t know why) but the big news is that it is expected to have 2 days battery life.  This is a big deal since all but the Pebble, including the yet released Apple watch, are only good for 24 hours. Also big news is that this watch is suppose to work with iOS, Android and Windows phones. This is not a surprise since Microsoft only has  ~2.5% of the smartwatch market. A good move for a first major project launch with Satya Nadella as CEO.  Something Ballmer may or may have not done.

However, this is something Microsoft HAD to do.  I do not think Microsoft is giving up on the smartphone market and to have a device out there that does not have ANY smartwatches that work with it make Microsoft phone users feel a bit second class.  The Microsoft watch does not have to be amazing, or beat out Apple in design, or Samsung in functionality, it just has to performs the basics that we come to expect from advanced smart watches. Apps, voice control and not look ugly.  If Microsoft can hit these performance markers, then they have seceded.

Is it too little to late?  Google and Samsung are first the market with color smart-watches with Samsung the current market leader and Apple fanboys will of course only buy Apple.  Pebble, surprisingly is holding on approaching 400,000 units to Samsung’s near 1m.

No word on the price of a Microsoft watch but I would expect to fall in the 299 to 399 range to be competitive with other watches on the market.

Cant wait to see what happens.  This should be good.

Image Courtesy NN Group

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Well they finally did.  And I think they got it mostly right this time.

Source: www.slashgear.com

The Gear 2 S is still too big and heavy for my tastes.  The fact that this watch comes with 3G and wifi tells me they could still thin this out a bit more.  However, this is the best looking watch to date mostly because of the curved form factor and the refined minimalist design for the watch case.  Cannot say the same for the band, its too large and still has the metal clasp that I really never liked.  However what is gone are the camera, the IRLED sensor and other sensors in the band.  And did I mention the screen is big? 360 x 480 pixels big.  But because the screen is curved, it does not look as bulky as some of the smaller flat watch faces.  The face is big enough that you ‘could’ type on this, however, using swipe and word suggest is going to be the only way you will really be able to type if at all.  Check that out on the video below.  Although you do have wifi and 3G on this watch, you still need a companion device, i.e. a Samsung phone to make this work.  More on that later.

I do give Samsung credit for fast innovation.  This is their sixth watch and each watch seems to be dialing in better and better based on feedback, sometimes harsh, that has been coming in from all sides in the media.  But the fact Samsung ‘seems’ to be listening shows me that they are completely committed to owning the smart watch market.  But here is where things get sticky.

The New Gear, like the Gear before it is not using Android but instead running on Tizen, a custom OS from Samsung.  Although Samsung claims they will have 1000 apps ready by the release, apps running on Tizen is not the biggest limitation, but instead that they are only working with other newer Samsung phones.  As I said in a previous post, the desire on Samsung’s side is to create and control a complete eco system as Apple does.  The problem is Samsung is not Apple.  They do not have the rabid loyal following that Apple has.  And perhaps that is why they are iterating at a blinding speed, knowing that Apple has been dragging its feet on the iWatch, and this is their one best chance to really differentiate themselves in the market and perhaps make a name for themselves that is greater than the sum of its current parts.  With this current release they are on the right track, but will it be enough to convince people to not only leave iOS, but Android as well and live in a Samsung only world?  Time will tell.

image from phonedog.com

Recently there has been rumors that Samsung will release the new gear and a new set of phones running on the little known Tizen OS.  Which seen a bit odd given the experience they had with Bada.  Remember Bada?  Do not blame you if you do not.  Bada was actually a good OS, and the interface you are seeing with all Samsung phones was there with Bada.  The issue was, no one wanted to write apps for the Bada OS.  So what makes Samsung think that suddenly there will be a wave of people writing apps for Tizen?  Because Samsung thinks they have a good market share of the mobile phone and tablet market, the first major player out the door with a smart watch and finally with their curved and other advanced screen technology, can produce nitch phones that will not have any direct competitors.  But these reasons are not enough to take a chance on a OS that few app makers will write for.   Or are they?

What Samsung wants is what Microsoft wants, what Blackberry tried for, and to some extent, what Google is working on.  They want what Apple has.  An eco system where they collect a VAT (value added tax) on all transactions within the eco system. Apple is making amazing profits as every app is created and bought within the system.  Samsung wants this so much so, that they are willing to take a chance on relying on app developers to develop a version of their app for yet another OS. If they were to do this right now, they will have a bad time.

But I do not think they plan on leaving Android that fast.  Yes, they have given the first warning bell when the Samsung Gear was restricted to only work with Samsung devices. They already have been hiding some elements of the Android UI with their own Touchwiz UX and will bury Android even further with the new version of Magazine UX for tablets. Many Samsung users are so locked into the touchwiz system they would be a bit lost using a pure Android for the first time. In fact, if you were to take an old Bada phone and give it to a Samsung user, they would have no problems using it at the basic level.  And that is the plan.  To create an interface so removed from Android that you could be using any OS and you would still feel like you were using a Samsung device, just as you feel you are using an Apple device when you pick up an iphone. But still, you need apps when you get a phone and right now, there are not many Tizen apps out there.

And this is the problem.  Samsung cannot just abandon Android and strike out on there own. We have seen with Bada, MicroSoft, Intel’s Meego and BlackBerry that app makers do not have all the time in the world, and normally they will build for Apple first, Android second, and perhaps Microsoft third if they get around to it or someone pays them to do it.  So what makes Samsung think this is going to work?

Lets go back to what I said in the beginning.  They have a good chunk of the phone market.  A lead with watches (if you think that matters) and other tech that gives them a lead.  They are hoping this is enough to attract programmers to create for what they gamble will be a maintained if not grown market share.  I think they are taking a big chance that in the short term, will not pay off.   Yet…

In the long term, it may not matter.  With HTML5 apps getting better and better, a ‘set’ of apps that seems to be common among most consumer smart phone users getting integrated into the OS directly and tools that are making it easier to migrate code from one OS to another will remove much of the ‘yet-another-OS’ barrier.  By Samsung having a large number of diverse devices that work with each other, phones, watches, tv’s, laptops, etc.., a unified UI and a name to back them up, they could capture a part of the market that views smartphones as utility devices as most Apple users do and not mini computers as many hardcore Android users do.  And this brings up another point.  iOS user are far more likely to pay for their apps then Android users are.  These people are normally consumers, not first adapters, and want a simple unified eco system not something they have to hack.  And this is what Samsung is building.

So although in the short term, they could backfire, in the long term it may not matter.  The question is; how long?

What we do know is the soon to be announced Note III will have the Gear app pre-installed.  I have already seen the App on the Galaxy S III, so odds are you will be able to install the app going back to most Galaxy devices with an updated Android OS.

Samsung has put a lot of work into the S pen.  I would not be surprised to find out you can use the S pen on the watch. Also, Samsung has been working on promoting its Chord APIs.  These APIs allow networked devices to pass information back and forth allowing a fluid experience from one device to another.  So one can imagine taking down a short note on the watch and flick it to your phone or tablet. And just the reverse as well.  You can be looking at something on your tablet and flick it to the Gear. Based on the leaked images, the watch face is pretty large, so very simple pen strokes could be possible.

Although there have been plenty of ‘smart’ watches released in the past 4 years, none of them seem to capture what The Pebble was able to do.  Create a watch that is highly flexible allowing developers to create new and innovative ideas for the device without being locked into one device.  And this will be key to the success of Gear.  Can you use it on other phones?  Most likely yes.

One of the reasons I supported the kickstarter for the Pebble was the fact I could use on any device.  Now that has not proven to be completely true since Apple’s Bluetooth connectivity code is less the stellar. Something that should be addressed when iOS7 comes out. From what I have seen it looked like it can work on any Android device with the proper hardware.  This would also make sense from a product point of view.  To lock it to Samsung devices would be a very poor move. If you can get as many of these watches into as many hands as possible, the odds of a person choosing a Samsung phone would be higher.

This is the first day so perhaps the news needs to spread out a bit more or perhaps a few more phone users need to run into this road block. We’ll see.  What I really hope is that consumers will start to realize the reason their cell phones service costs so much is because so many customers get locked into two year deals thus killing competition.  Sigh.  I think that hope is about as high as this petition getting signed.

If this is really important to you, you may want to run out and buy a phone right now because starting tmmw, its illegal. Now does that mean the phone police are going to come knocking on your door tomorrow? Not likely, but that will give them yet one more way to ‘not’ support your phone if something goes wrong. Also if you unlock phones as a business or worse, steal phones, them might find things getting a little more hot down the line.

The good thing is you can buy unlocked phones if you really need to be able to switch carriers and hate dealing with unlocking your phone. Also, there is not currently a software unlock for the latest iphone, so its not like its going to matter in the short term. That being said, there are services out there can unlock the phone for you be getting the unlock code, however I have never tried it on the current iphone 5.

Jailbreaking, most commonly referenced on iPhones, is where you modify the phone’s software/firmware to allow it to run programs other then Approved by the creator of the phones operating system. For example, you can go to the Apple App store on your iPhone and download a number of apps for free or at a price.  The key is Apple controls the App store and thus decides what can and cannot be made available to you.  However, if you employ a software tool like ‘PwnageTool‘ you can download any app you want. There is even an app store just for jailbroken apps called Cydia. This is still legal although frowned upon by Apple and of course not at all supported.

Unlocking your iphone is where you use a software tool, normally created by the same people that created the jailbreaking tools, will allow you to use whatever phone service that is supported by your phone type.  So if you have a phone that takes a sim card, odd are you can use a sim card from another carrion in your country. Some phones are called ‘international’ phones and can support a number of broadbands, so if you unlock your phone, you can take it overseas and use it there.

THIS is what is going to be illegal tomorrow in the US for all new phones.  Now is this a big deal?  Not likely. If you buy say a sprint phone and need to use it overseas, odds are they will unlock the phone for you as a service for free. Also, if you unlocked an AT$T phone, would the phone police come after you?  Doubt it.  Not really worth their time.  However, they may go after people who provide this as a service or those that steal phones and unlock it so that it can be sold?  These guys may want to watch there backs.

Okay so their Youtube channel is a trip to the future, but back to the point. An impressive display of a detailed interactive 3D scene on a mobile device via a browser on open and standards based web technologies. Well done team IGD.