Most of you probably knew this, but just in case you didn’t, the Galaxy Gear runs on Android 4.2 along with an 800MHz Exynos processor and 512MB of RAM. So it should run Android apps, even though Samsung has their own app store for the Galaxy Gear. Well Ron Amadeo, from Ars Technica being the tinkerer that he is, has found a way (without rooting) to sideload apps onto the Galaxy Gear. He was able to get Nova Launcher installed and then play some Candy Crush Sage. Sounds like fun right?
Basically, all you have to do is enable USB debugging, then you can go ahead and hook your Galaxy Gear up to your computer and sideload apps by using a simple command “adb install applicationname.apk”. And using “adb push filename /sdcard” will allow you to push music, and other media to the Galaxy Gear. The Galaxy Gear comes with 4GB of internal storage, so there’s not a whole lot of room there but it’s still cool to be able to use Nova Launcher on the Galaxy Gear and play Candy Crush Saga. Of course you’ll need the Android SDK installed on your computer to utilize this method.
I’m excited to see the Galaxy Gear get rooted. Since it’s a pretty cool device, but it just doesn’t do enough in my opinion to justify the $300 price tag. You can check out the video down below from Ars Technica to see how it all works. I’d like to see what Samsung has in store for the Galaxy Gear with software updates and even the next version of Gear.
How many of you would buy the Galaxy Gear to play Candy Crush Saga or Angry Birds on your wrist? It sounds fun, but not sure how great it would work, especially since it’s a 800MHz processor inside. Imagine if this had a Snapdragon 800 inside….talk about overkill. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.