2014 continues to be the year for wearable technology, as proven by all the things we saw at CES like the Razer Nabu and Sony Smart Wear. For Samsung though, a major manufacturer of Android smartphones and tablets and the one of the first companies to introduce the Smart watch, the focus is on making their already released Galaxy Gear more compatible and functional in as many ways as possible. They have a lot of different plans for the product this year, including but not limited to the release of the Galaxy Gear SDK. The release of the SDK could open up the doors for more possible apps for the smart watch, although currently the only place which you can grab apps to install on the tiny wearable device is the Samsung App store itself. This isn’t surprising in the slightest as Samsung likes to keep things a little proprietary, and it probably makes support for the Galaxy Gear a little easier if their is only one place to grab the Apps from officially.
Samsung also showcased some potential uses for the Galaxy Gear in partnership with BMW at CES, displaying the uses for control of the connected car. Think about the possibility of controlling your car stereo from the watch, along with rolling the power windows up and down as well as manage the climate(heat and AC) and door locks. All this was showcased with BMW’s Electric i3 compact car, but with things already working in one vehicle, there’s nothing stopping Samsung from making the Gear compatible with other vehicles as well. Vehicles weren’t the only things getting some treatment from the Galaxy Gear at CES, Samsung also showed it could be used to control certain connected appliances and electronics around the home. Much like controlling everything in your home with an expensive remote, the gear was being displayed to control smart TVs, and lights via the Svoice feature.
Perhaps the biggest announcement from Samsung out of all Galaxy Gear related issues, is making the smart watch more compatible with other devices. Currently it only supports four. The Galaxy S3, the Galaxy S4, the Note 2, and the Note 3. Although Samsung plans to open up device compatibility this year, including it’s entire 2014 roster of devices, it still has no major plans to make the Galaxy Gear compatible with any device that isn’t Samsung. If they really wanted to expand on the wearable market, perhaps it might be a good move to make the gear play nice with non-Samsung phones. Do you own a Galaxy Gear? If so, what are you looking forward to most about some of these new changes to come?
Source: Mobile Syrup