With Samsung’s second round of wearables coming out of the gate with Tizen onboard, some thought that it was only a matter of time before the original Galaxy Gear would be given a Tizen refresh to bring it in line with the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo. It was stated that some time ago the Galaxy Gear would be migrating platforms, but now it seems that Sammobile has acquired actual proof of the Tizen powered Galaxy Gear, which they have gotten an early preview of, or rather more of a test build of the software. It’s in the early stages at this point so unfortunately no build leaks could be put out for now, Galaxy Gear owners will just have to make do with a preview video instead.
The build this particular Galaxy Gear smartwatche is on is called Tizen 2.0.0(magnolia), but we’re not sure if magnolia will be the reference name for the build once it’s ready for the public or if Samsung will change it out. The first few things to note are some of the new features. Sleep Mode for the original Galaxy Gear will measure your sleep patterns, as well as provide a standalone music app. Another new feature for the fitness buffs, is Exercise Mode. Exercise Mode will measure your track runs, walks, runs, and hikes. The new features also include new clock faces and wallpapers that are built in, as well an overhaul to the settings menu, and a control app that lets you manage device brightness and volume quickly.
There are a good number of other new features and changes included with the Tizen update, but we’ll let you watch the video for that as we don’t want to spoil all the fun. Some things we did pick up during the viewing though are that with the update the Galaxy Gear seems to be officially be getting a re-branding to simply “Samsung Gear” which we saw during the restart that was given to it alongside the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. We also noticed that the Galaxy Gear seemed to have a significantly longer boot time than the other two devices which, was sort of expected with older hardware and software that is in the early stages. So far there hasn’t been any mentions of when this update will begin to make its way to Galaxy Gear owners, but keep your eyes peeled and we’ll update you when the software begins to hit.
http://youtu.be/f9zplGtH-wA