Samsung jumps on smartwatch bandwagon with Galaxy Gear

Samsung officially announced its Galaxy Gear smartwatch Wednesday, revealing a slick slab of wearable computing that will initially work only with the company’s just-announced Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition tablet.

Limiting the Gear’s compatibility to just two niche devices is a curious move on Samsung’s part, and suggests that the company either wants to goose sales of its Note products or simply couldn’t offer compatibility with its much more mainstream mobile gear at launch. Samsung says that Note II, Galaxy S III, and Galaxy S4 users will get a software upgrade after launch that will allow them to use the Gear.

At first, the Gear is compatible only with the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition, both announced Wednesday.

“I believe it will become a new fashion icon around the world,” said JK Shin, Samsung’s president and CEO, at a launch event in Berlin Wednesday.

In terms of raw hardware, the Galaxy Gear is a 1.5-by-2.2-inch rectangular slab that’s constructed from stainless steel, measures 0.43 inch thick, and weighs 2.6 ounces.

You can control the Gear by voice or by swipe and tap gestures on its 1.63-inch touchscreen.

All data and notifications appear on a full-color, 1.63-inch touchscreen. The Super AMOLED screen boasts a 320-by-320-pixel resolution, and the battery is estimated to last through 25 hours of moderate use before needing a charge. The Gear is powered by a custom 800MHz single-core processor, and includes a gyroscope and accelerometer for physical gesturing and pedometer functions.

The Gear also manages to cram in both a 1.9-megapixel camera and speakers—the camera is integrated into the wrist strap, while the speakers are tucked into the clasp. The Gear features a solitary button, which when pressed takes you to the home screen. You control all other commands and functions via the touchscreen by a series of swipes (up to launch the camera, sideways to access apps and functions, down to go back).

Pranav Mistry demonstrates the gesture for making a phone call. Yes, it looks like you're talking on an invisible phone.

Raising your Gear-clad hand to your ear enables the call feature. Although you can place (and answer) calls using the Gear’s on-screen dialer, wrist-strap speaker, and two noise-canceling microphones, you can’t use it to read or respond to email—the watch will display notifications, but you must view the messages themselves on a Note 3.

The Gear can, however, understand S Voice commands to call your friends, send texts, set an alarm, and check on the weather. It also offers a Find My Device feature, which in conjunction with an Auto Lock enhancement will lock your smartphone any time the Gear is more than 5 feet away. It can also make a lost smartphone beep, illuminate, and vibrate so that you can locate it quickly.

The Gear will run a variety of apps, including some with augmented-reality features.

On the software side, the Galaxy Gear runs a modified version of Android and syncs to compatible Android devices via a Galaxy Gear Manager interface. The Galaxy Gear will come preloaded with a number of apps, including Evernote, Glympse (location sharing), Line (a messaging service), Path (a social network), Pocket (a “save for later” service), and two fitness apps—MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper. Samsung announced that users can download more apps through the Gear app store, confirming rumors that the company would be eschewing the Google Play store.

To take photos with the Gear, you simply aim and swipe the screen. While 1.9 megapixels won’t get you as far as “real” photography, they will facilitate what Samsung is calling “memography”—quick, spur-of-the-moment image capture. And, hey, who are we to turn our noses up at a camera inside a watch strap, let alone one that captures images in a single gesture?

You can take photos with the Gear's wrist-strap-mounted 1.9-megapixel camera.

Pictures can transfer automatically to a smartphone with Bluetooth 4.0 BLE. The Gear itself also offers an image browser, so you can see some of the pictures you’ve taken (as well as any you’ve transferred to the watch from the smartphone). And the camera doesn’t just take pictures—it also has augmented-reality functions that can translate foreign languages into your mother tongue, and provide more detailed information about a product you’re looking at.

“We want the possibilities of what you do with your Gear to be endless,” said Pranav Mistry, Samsung’s director of research, at the Berlin event.

There isn’t nearly as much fitness integration as was rumored. Still, the Gear does include a built-in pedometer to provide data to compatible fitness apps. Samsung has already dipped its toe into the fit-tech waters with S Health, so it’s surprising that the company didn’t announce any compatibility with that feature.

Image: Martyn WilliamsThe Gear will come in six colors at launch: jet black, mocha gray, wild orange (shown), oatmeal beige, rose gold, and lime green.

The Gear will be available in six colors, but it’s not as durable as you’d expect for a device that sits on your wrist. It’s rated IP55, which means that it can withstand dust and water jets for a few minutes. Sony’s recently announced SmartWatch 2 is rated IP57, meaning that it can withstand submersion in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes.

In all, the Galaxy Gear looks to be a great companion for a crazy-large, 5.3-inch, phone-tablet hybrid. The smartwatch itself is launching in the United States in October, and compatibility with other Samsung devices is also scheduled for that month. But the extended support can’t come soon enough: The Note line has been a surprising success for Samsung, but the Galaxy S III and S4 smartphones are the company’s mainstays, and they give the Gear its best chance of becoming a legitimate smartwatch “thing.”

Amber covers lifestyle and mobile tech, including fit tech, mHealth, travel, home automation and more. In her non-tech time she takes too many pictures of her cats, watches zombie movies, crochets, and plans out her next tattoos.
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Go go gadget: Hands-on with Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Samsung’s smartwatch sounds amazing and looks amazing—on paper. In the flesh, the Galaxy Gear is a seriously limited gadget that’s tethered to a phone and/or tablet that no one owns yet. So much for innovation.

I donned the $299 watch, which hits U.S. shelves in October (and launches in 149 other countries on September 25), and played with its features for a few minutes in a crowded pressroom under less-than-optimal conditions. Based on that, I don’t see myself ever owning a Galaxy Gear.

The 1.6-inch Super AMOLED screen is beautiful. I felt like Inspector Gadget when I glanced at my wrist. But the display and plastic strap are massive. Wearable tech continues to struggle to appeal to all types of people, because it has to be comfortable, stylish, and small. If you have tiny wrists, the Galaxy Gear is not for you.

The Gear might be a tad large for ladies, or men with slender wrists.

Several people commented on the fact that the Galaxy Gear looks like those iPod nano watchbands that were in vogue a few years back. It’s a fair comparison. The Samsung watch’s display is definitely more rectangular than the Nano watch, but the glossy black display just feels like you’re wearing a mini-smartphone.

The watch responds like a smartphone, too. Swipe to the left or right to access different screens, like your notifications, clock, apps, and more. Swipe down to return to the previous screen. The Gear is quick, like a phone. But it’s an accessory. That much is obvious.

Samsung is tying the Gear to the Note 3: “Better together” is the duo’s tagline. But hundreds of millions of people own Samsung devices that aren’t the Note 3, and they can’t use the Galaxy Gear. That exclusivity severely hinders Gear’s potential. The company said it plans to widen the Gear’s compatibility with other Samsung devices, specifically the Galaxy SIII, Galaxy S4, and Note II, but reps couldn’t provide a timeline for that rollout.

Samsung teased the launch lineup of apps at the event, but must-haves like Facebook and Twitter were conspicuously absent.

The watch has apps galore: Path, Runtastic, Glympse, Line, Vivino, and more. But none of the majors are there. Instagram? Nope. Vine? Nuh-uh. Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and news apps for browsing the latest headlines are all missing. Anything I would want immediate access to—you know, without digging my phone out of my bag—I can’t get to on the Gear. It seems like it would work well as a pedometer tied to Samsung’s S Health tracking features, but $299 is an awful lot to pay for a glorified health tracker.

You can answer calls with the Gear—it has a speaker—but you have to hold the watch up to your ear to hear the person you’re calling, thereby irritating everyone around you. You can also respond to messages, but only in the form of a voice-to-text memo. I didn’t get to test that feature, but voice-to-text is notoriously poor. I can’t even trust Siri to understand my clearly enunciated dictations.

Listening to calls in any kind of noisy environment is tough. Just ask Evan. (If he can hear you.)

The Gear has a few cool features. The 1.9-megapixel camera, located on the north side of the watch strap, allows you to take undercover photos. It just feels awesome. The camera also shoots videos—neither camera nor video quality is very good compared to the smartphone, but that’s to be expected.

The Note 3 pairing also lets you find the Gear if you ever lose it, which seems inevitable. (Watches, like sunglasses, tend to disappear into the Bermuda Triangle.)

Pebble proved a smartwatch is possible. Sony paved the way. Samsung has thrown down the gauntlet. It’s your move now, Apple.

Caitlin writes about all things social media. She is addicted to the 24-hour news cycle and Mission burritos.
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10 features the Samsung Gear smartwatch must offer to preempt the iWatch

Your wrist may become the next great mobile battleground.

Rather than play catch-up after Apple releases its much-speculated iWatch, Samsung is set to announce a smartwatch of its own on Wednesday. Although other smartwatches are currently on the market, the now-confirmed Galaxy Gear would be the first smartwatch from an elite mobile-hardware manufacturer with a proven ability to create bleeding-edge devices with mass appeal.

On Sunday, VentureBeat posted images and details of what it described as a prototype of the Galaxy Gear, but the hardware is missing a number of features that Samsung will need in order to steal the smartwatch market before Apple can even enter it.

Johan Loekito / www.behance.net/jloekito

The above is a beautiful (but quite unofficial) 2009 design concept of what a Samsung smartwatch might look like.

The Pebble smartwatch, with its low-powered LCD screen, can last about a week without recharging. And Sony says its upcoming Android-powered SmartWatch 2 will run for three to four days under normal usage. Not bad.

According to a recent unsubstantiated report, Samsung’s Gear will offer 10 hours of battery life, though no one is sure whether that claim refers to continuous, always-on use or to mixed use, including standby. It had better be the former, because any smartwatch that requires midday charging is a smartwatch bound for failure.

The device’s rumored 3-inch-ish OLED screen would probably be the biggest battery drain. One possible solution to help conserve power is a display that would activate only when needed. For example, the screens on Motorola’s new Moto X and Droid phones remain dormant until the user picks up the phone, all thanks to a battery-saving function that Motorola calls Active Display. Using an accelerometer or other sensors, the Samsung watch’s display might activate when you twist your arm to look at it.

The Galaxy Gear would be wise to distinguish itself from existing Android-powered smartwatches such as the Sony SmartWatch 2 by having the ability to pair with iOS devices as well. Unfortunately, nothing in the latest unsubstantiated report suggests the Gear will support anything but Android.

Due to its unique placement on the body, a smartwatch would be the ideal device for gesture controls. For example, a flick of the wrist would let you ignore a notification, while lifting the watch to your face might prompt it to open S Voice (Samsung’s proprietary, Siri-like digital-assistant app).

Since their inception, mobile phones have bzzz bzzz bzzz’d with alerts for incoming calls, new voicemail, and social media notifications. However, a device that’s touching your skin at all times would have the opportunity to use vibrations far more dynamically.

The Gear would get bonus points for using vibrations at different locations around the wrist to signify different things. For example, a new email message might prompt a buzzing on the bottom of the strap. Or perhaps when someone mentions you in a tweet, you would feel a circle of vibration around your wrist.

The Gear should let you pay for your morning coffee simply by holding your wrist out to the counter clerk for a quick, easy transaction. A recent round of rumors suggests that the Gear will come equipped with NFC connectivity, indicating that mobile-payment functionality should at least be possible. Let’s hope the device uses its NFC radio to do some tricks we haven’t seen before.

@evleaksA screenshot of the Gear’s phone interface leaked to the press last week suggests that the device will have both NFC and Bluetooth connectivity, and will access both Samsung-branded apps and regular Android apps.

The smartwatch will be the newest screen to join our multiscreen lifestyles. As such, it would be great if you could, say, begin to read an email message on your Samsung smartwatch and then continue reading it on your tablet or laptop.

Due to a smartwatch’s diminutive size, a mega-spec camera is unlikely to fit. Still, we’d like to see a camera with at least some brawn to it (VentureBeat says the watch will pack a 4-megapixel sensor). How many times have you missed a great photo because you had to dig out a phone from your pocket, unlock it, and open the camera app?

A Samsung smartwatch with concise one-step camera access could solve that problem.

Because of where the device lives, a smartwatch is subject to more elements of nature than a pocket-based phone. Therefore, we’d like to see a Galaxy-branded smartwatch that’s at least as waterproof as the Galaxy S4 Active smartphone, which Samsung claims can survive being submerged for up to 30 minutes under 1 meter of water.

As a highly visible accessory, the Gear will need to come in a variety of styles for men and women. One-size-fits-all is not the right answer.

A smartwatch is a far more visible accessory than a smartphone, so people are going to want design options to express their unique personalities. The Gear should not be a one-size-fits-all proposition.

Also, Samsung should keep in mind that men and women wear watches differently: Women tend to favor the smaller wrist ornamentation, while men don’t mind sporting a big ol’ behemoth. Samsung’s designers would be wise to consider the wants and needs of female users, whom they have tended to disregard in the past.

Home security and control systems such as those from AT&T and Comcast commonly use smartphone apps to control devices and appliances inside the house. But a smartwatch might be an even better device for that. A couple of quick screen taps or gestures performed at the front door might be a good way to unlock the door, deactivate the security system, and turn on the lights—all without having to fish around for a smartphone.

Back in July, Samsung submitted a U.S. trademark filing for “Samsung Galaxy Gear.” The trademark is associated with “wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band, or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls, electronic mails and messages.”

The filing goes on to describe a device that could be used for “the wireless receipt, storage and/or transmission of data and messages and for keeping track of or managing personal information; smart phones; tablet computers; portable computers.”

Last week, Lee Young-Hee, Samsung’s executive vice president, confirmed to the Korea Times that the company will indeed introduce “a new wearable concept device called Galaxy Gear at our own event in Berlin on Sept. 4.” She went on to say: “The new device will enhance and enrich the current smart mobile experience in many ways. It will lead a new trend in smart mobile communications.” She added that the Gear will not have a flexible display.

Keep tuned to this space tomorrow for our coverage of Samsung’s formal announcement of the Gear.

Evan lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys writing about what future may hold and taking long romantic walks on the beach.
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Screenshots of Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch leaked

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Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch could bring further separation from Google

As the likely launch date for Samsung's smartwatch draws closer, details on the wearable gadget are coming into focus.

GigaOm is now reporting hardware specs and software details for the smartwatch, citing “sources who are familiar with Samsung's plans.” This follows a report by Bloomberg that said the so-called Galaxy Gear smartwatch will debut on September 4.

The specs, if accurate, seem more powerful than other smartwatches, with a dual-core processor, a built-in camera, NFC capabilities and small speakers on the clasp of the watch. A built-in accelerometer may allow users to turn on the screen by moving their wrists toward their eyes.

The OLED touch screen will reportedly be square-shaped and measure roughly 2.5 inches diagonally, and the entire frame will measure 3 inches diagonally. If true, this would make Samsung's smartwatch larger than the Pebble. Despite the more powerful specs and large color display, GigaOm says battery life should be “pretty decent.”

The cost of entry for the Galaxy Gear smartwatch?

The most interesting tidbit, perhaps, is the claim that Samsung will use its own app store to take advantage of the watch hardware. “That likely means if you want a Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, you’ll need a Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet,” Om Malik writes.

Samsung has dabbled in its own Galaxy-specific services before. With Samsung Wallet, for example, the company basically cloned Apple's Passbook service instead of relying on Google Wallet. The company's S Voice assistant competes with Google's own voice search for users' attention on Galaxy phones.

But until now, Samsung's phones and tablets have worked in peace and harmony with other Android devices. Although Samsung has its own app store already, it's not very popular compared to Google Play. The unified ecosystem for Android apps allows users to easily move between phones and tablets regardless of brand.

If Samsung does require the use of its own app store for the Galaxy Gear, it'll be the company's biggest attempt yet to take control of Android. And that's something only Samsung can pull off, as the largest Android device maker by far. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Samsung is holding its own developer conference in October.

Note: Main image is an unofficial concept design by Johan Loekito from 2009

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September 4 could be the time for Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Samsung looks likely expand its successful Galaxy brand of smartphones next month to include a smartwatch known as Galaxy Gear. According to a report from Bloomberg, Samsung will unveil the Android-powered smartwatch on September 4.

Earlier this month, Samsung sent out an invitation for a September 4 press event to be held in Berlin, two days before the IFA consumer electronics show (basically, the European version of CES). Most signs signal that the event dubbed “Unpacked Episode 2” would be used to unveil the next incarnation of the Galaxy Note phablet. And this is most certainly still the case considering that 1) Samsung debuted the Note II last year at an event called “Unpacked” that took place in the run-up to the IFA, and 2) the invitation to this year’s Unpacked Episode 2 event slyly includes the language: “Note the Date.”

It’s doubtful that Samsung would hold two major press events on the same day, so it’s likely the event will also be used to introduce the world to Galaxy Gear.

Some possible leaked mock-ups of the Galaxy Gear interface found on a South Korean message board.

We’ve known that Samsung has had its attention on the smartwatch space for a while. While Sony is already two generations deep into smartwatches and mobile archrival Apple continues to play coy in the face of a torrent of “iWatch” rumors, Samsung has been rather upfront with its smartwatch plans. Earlier this year, a Samsung executive vice president told the press outright: “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

In late July, Samsung filed an application for a U.S. trademark for the name “Samsung Galaxy Gear” that would be used for “wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band, or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls, electronic mails and messages.”

Additionally, the application states that the devices could also be used for “the wireless receipt, storage and/or transmission of data and messages and for keeping track of or managing personal information; smart phones; tablet computers; portable computers.”

If all these rumors turn out to be true, it would be an odd choice for Samsung to eclipse the debut of the Note III with a whole new form factor such as Galaxy Gear. Whatever the company’s rational, be sure to brace yourself for a slew of Dick Tracy puns and references come early September.

Main image is an unofficial conept design from 2009

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Evan lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys writing about what future may hold and taking long romantic walks on the beach.
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September 4 could be the time for Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch

Samsung looks likely expand its successful Galaxy brand of smartphones next month to include a smartwatch known as Galaxy Gear. According to a report from Bloomberg, Samsung will unveil the Android-powered smartwatch on September 4.

Earlier this month, Samsung sent out an invitation for a September 4 press event to be held in Berlin, two days before the IFA consumer electronics show (basically, the European version of CES). Most signs signal that the event dubbed “Unpacked Episode 2” would be used to unveil the next incarnation of the Galaxy Note phablet. And this is most certainly still the case considering that 1) Samsung debuted the Note II last year at an event called “Unpacked” that took place in the run-up to the IFA, and 2) the invitation to this year’s Unpacked Episode 2 event slyly includes the language: “Note the Date.”

It’s doubtful that Samsung would hold two major press events on the same day, so it’s likely the event will also be used to introduce the world to Galaxy Gear.

Some possible leaked mock-ups of the Galaxy Gear interface found on a South Korean message board.

We’ve known that Samsung has had its attention on the smartwatch space for a while. While Sony is already two generations deep into smartwatches and mobile archrival Apple continues to play coy in the face of a torrent of “iWatch” rumors, Samsung has been rather upfront with its smartwatch plans. Earlier this year, a Samsung executive vice president told the press outright: “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

In late July, Samsung filed an application for a U.S. trademark for the name “Samsung Galaxy Gear” that would be used for “wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band, or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls, electronic mails and messages.”

Additionally, the application states that the devices could also be used for “the wireless receipt, storage and/or transmission of data and messages and for keeping track of or managing personal information; smart phones; tablet computers; portable computers.”

If all these rumors turn out to be true, it would be an odd choice for Samsung to eclipse the debut of the Note III with a whole new form factor such as Galaxy Gear. Whatever the company’s rational, be sure to brace yourself for a slew of Dick Tracy puns and references come early September.

Main image is an unofficial conept design from 2009

Follow TechHive on Tumblr today.

Evan lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys writing about what future may hold and taking long romantic walks on the beach.
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Pebble Smartwatch

Pros Simple, understated design. Easy setup. Instantaneous notifications. Customizable watch faces. Syncs with Android or iOS.

Cons Currently no Pebble-specific apps. Greater iOS app compatibility than Android. Some bugs. Bottom Line The smart-looking Pebble smartwatch delivers on its promise of wireless notifications right on your wrist, and while there are still some bugs that need to be ironed out, if developers can get behind the platform, the potential is huge.

By Eugene Kim

After a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over $10 million, and nearly a year spent working out the kinks of a grass-roots effort to bring a consumer product to market, the Pebble Smartwatch ($150 direct) finally arrived earlier this year. We had some reservations at first, but nearly half a year later, with a number of updates under its belt, we've decided to revisit the Pebble and see how far it's come.

The physical design remains identical, while the primary features are largely unchanged. But what's new and most exciting is the burgeoning developer community surrounding the Pebble platform. It's still not the most consumer friendly device out there. But for those who are willing to tinker, the Pebble is now the most well-rounded smartwatch available, and it's good enough to be our first-ever Editors' Choice for this kind of product.

Physical Design
There's a certain elegance to the Pebble's simple and understated design. I think it's far better looking than, say, the squat and thick Martian Passport smartwatch. The plastic casing feels hollow, though, and the buttons along both sides of the watch face feel a bit mushy, preventing the watch from having a rock-solid feel. The included polyurethane band is decidedly understated, but you can swap in any standard 22mm watchband.

The Pebble is available in black, white, red, orange, or gray. On the left side is a single button that brings you to the Menu page, while the right side houses Up, Down, and Select buttons for navigation. Tapping any of the buttons activates the Pebble's backlight, and quick flicks of your wrist also light up the display, which is a nice touch. The watch face is customizable, and at the time of testing there were nine choices that ranged from a standard analog look to a futuristic dot matrix.

The 1.26-inch 144-by-168-pixel e-paper display isn't the clearest or sharpest, but it gets the job done. The e-paper should not be confused with E Ink displays you'll find on ebook readers like the Kindle Paperwhite. It doesn't have the same printed look as E Ink displays; instead it's more of a monochrome LCD. As such, viewing angle isn't a full 180 degrees and it becomes hard to read the watch when you look from an angle. The screen is also pretty reflective, and even with the backlight on it can be hard to read in bright outdoor light, unlike E Ink.

On the left side are three contact points that connect to the included charging cable magnetically. It's reminiscent of Apple's MagSafe connector, but the magnetic hold is a bit weaker—I could detach it simply by picking the watch up.

The Pebble has a waterproof rating of 5 ATM, which means it can be submerged up to 165 feet and has been tested in both fresh and salt water, so you can shower or swim with the watch. The battery is rated for more than seven days of use, and in my several days of testing, the battery never ran out, despite only charging once for about an hour. You can plug the included USB cable into a computer or a wall charger from a smartphone. The only things included in the box are the watch itself and the charging cable.

Android and iOS Experience
The primary purpose of the Pebble is to make push notifications accessible on your wrist, and the watch is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. You get the same basic functions on both platforms, but setup, notification settings, and features like music playback work differently on Android and iOS. For my tests, I used an Apple iPhone 5 and an Android-based HTC One X+.

When we first tested the Pebble, notifications were hit or miss on both platforms, especially if you rely on third-party apps. Now, thanks to enthusiastic third-party development, there are apps that work with your Pebble to push virtually any notification you can think of to your wrist. On top of that, third-party apps enable features like weather updates or sending canned text message replies right from your Pebble.

For both platforms, you must first download the Pebble app and pair your phone to the Pebble using Bluetooth. From there, however, the experiences diverge. On initial setup with Android, you need to enable Accessibility Services on your phone to get notifications pushed to the Pebble. During this process, you'll see a somewhat disconcerting message that reads: "Pebble can collect all of the text you type, except passwords. This includes personal data such as credit card numbers. It can also collect data about your interactions with the phone."

On Android the Pebble app now supports a wider array of third-party apps, but not all of them work right out of the box. For example, GoSMS Pro disables the default text messaging app's notifications to eliminate redundant notifications, and its own notifications are not supported in the Pebble app. Luckily, thanks to third-party developers, an app like Pebble Notifier can forward pretty much any notification to the smartwatch. Then there are third-party apps like Glance for Pebble, which can push weather updates to your wrist and allow you to send pre-set text replies to your most recent contacts. And for Tasker fans out there, there's even a PebbleTasker app that lets the Pebble trigger automated tasks on your smartphone.

On iOS, all Pebble notifications are set up through the system notification menu, not the Pebble app. That means, in theory, Pebble supports all apps that can push notifications. In the Notification area of iOS, you have to enable the Show Preview option and also set alert styles to Alerts, and not Banners. This must be done for every app you want notifications from. Much like on Android, there are now third-party apps that let you do more with your Pebble than simply push notifications.

In my tests, notifications were nearly instantaneous on both platforms and trigger a visual alert and a vibration on the watch itself. Pressing the middle button clears the notification, while the top and bottom buttons scroll through the notification. Call notifications show contact information, text messages show contact information and a preview of the message, and emails show sender, subject, and the first few lines of the body. The Martian Passport, to compare, only shows basic caller ID notifications on its tiny OLED screen. On the Pebble, though, there's no way to look back at a notification once you clear it from the watch face, and you can't control the length of time the message remains displayed.

Many of the bugs we encountered in our original review have been ironed out. Music control works far more smoothly now, and notifications are speedy and reliable. It's still not entirely perfect, though, and you'll have to be willing to deal with lost connections, crashing apps, and trial and error to really eke the most out of the Pebble.  

Conclusion
As a category, the smartwatch is still in its infancy and despite its many improvements, the Pebble is still more for the avid geek than for the everyday consumer. The growing collection of third-party apps separates the Pebble from its smartwatch competitors and proves that the developer backing is there. Smartwatches can be useful for some, but they aren't for everyone—at least not yet. For now, though, if you're set on hopping on the smartwatch bandwagon, the Pebble is your best bet for its simplicity and growing feature set.

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