The Galaxy Gear, by Samsung, is the first legitimate foray into the Smartwatch world by a major Android OEM. Which entered the market with mixed reception. While showing good potential and a clear effort to make an opening for that side of the market, the device isn’t exactly selling like crazy. The software isn’t exactly robust, and issues like certain notifications not displaying information correctly and the like. However, that could be about to change with the help of the Developers over at XDA.
The first official ROM for the Galaxy Gear has been released by Developer fOmey, and it packs a slew of really cool features that take advantage of this watch’s abilities as an android device. Based on the M7 stock rom, a lot of the normal, actual Android features are present!
Take a look at the official list of features:
- MK7 BASE
- ROOTED
- SUPERUSER
- COMPLETELY DEODEXED
- NOVALAUNCHER INCLUDED
- HOMEBUTTON FIX / POWER BUTTON LOCKS SCREEN WHEN USING CUSTOM LAUNCHERS.
- NO WIPE BASE
- WEATHER WIDGET / REMOVED STATIC “WEATHER” TEXT
- DISABLED SAMSUNG SIGNATURE VERIFICATION
- NATIVE APK INSTALLATION
- INCREASED VIDEO RECORDING LIMIT TO 60 SECONDS
- VPN ENABLED
- CM10.2 BROWSER
- WALLPAPER SUPPORT
- LIVE WALLPAPER SUPPORT
- CM10.2 GALLERY
- THIRD PARTY CONTACT WIDGET & APP CRASH FIX
- SETTINGS / FULL SETTINGS DIALOG
- MTP SUPPORT / ENABLED IN STORAGE SETTINGS
- BLUETOOTH TETHERING
- MULTIPLE BLUETOOTH DEVICE PAIRING
- NATIVE EMAIL CLIENT
- NAVIGATION BAR
That’s a whole lot of stuff for such a small device, but it goes to show what the developer community is capable of when they put their minds to it. Personally, I’m very excited to see full-ish versions of Android running on these devices. Hopefully this might also make them a little bit more appealing to those who are a bit more tech savvy out there. The ROM is almost entirely bug free as well.
Installing the ROM might get a little hard, since it’s not your typical device, but rest assured, fOmey has included a number of helpful guidelines and tips to completing the installation successfully. We’ll have a Youtube video linked below about how to get the watch into Downloader mode, which some comments noted was one of the harder parts of the installation. Check out his full post on XDA here, and take a look at some of the screen shots below as well!
Interested in something like this for your Galaxy Gear? Is this something that would make you consider buying one? Let us know below in the comments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LeAPsN8-mc
