New details have emerged on what we can expect to see from the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch on its September 4th launch.
Sources have revealed to Gigaocom that Samsung is likely to hold events in both Berlin and New York to launch the device, potentially even offering the devices for sale in Times Square.
On the hardware side of things the South Korean firm is rumoured to have released a range of several watches to developers with all of them featured high resolution OLED screens. The devices are said to include a 2.5″ screen with an overall size of 3″ diagonally with a 320×320 display. The device is also rumoured to be packing a dual core processor, a camera integrated into the strap and a pair of micro-speakers concealed in the clasp. The device is also rumoured to include an accelerometer which would allow it to activate when raised up towards the users eye, making it easy to ‘wake-up’ the device when you want to use it.
Crucially though, Gigaocom have claimed that the Galaxy Gear will still rely on an existing smartphone to function with the watch device being tethered to the handset via bluetooth.
Gigaocom have revealed that the devices seeded to developers are running Android 4.1 or 4.2 and that integration between the phone and the watch with actions on the latter being reflected on the phone (e.g. swiping through emails on your phone and stopping on one will cause that message to open on the handset). It also seems that Facebook and Twitter will be integrated into the device from its launch.
Finally, and perhaps most strangely, the report claims that apps for the device will not be available through the Google Play store but through Samsung’s own dedicated app store and that the device will only function with Samsung phones or tablets. It appears that the Galaxy Gear might be Samsung’s attempt to create an exclusive own-brand range, but whether they have the clout to achieve the same success in that area as Apple remains to be seen.