Samsung's new smartwatch

News report for the Guardian Business section on Samsung's new Gear smart watch.
Samsung springs a watch
Published in the Business News section of the Trinidad Guardian for September 04, 2013
Samsung_Launch_News
A model poses with the new Samsung Gear at Samsung’s Unpacked event in Berlin on Wednesday.
Photograph by Mark Lyndersay.


On Wednesday at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Samsung introduced three new devices, one of which marked a genuine revolution in handheld computing.
Better describe that as wrist clad. The new Samsung Gear is a digital smart watch that works closely with the other two new devices, the Samsung Note 3 and the new Samsung Note 10.1.

Both the new smartphone and tablet are evolutions on their predecessors, offering new screens with greater pixel density and the back of both devices sports an attractive textured pleather like material stitched along its edge in the case. Both devices will be available in a range of colour choices for this material.

The popular Note 3, the largest device that might comfortably be called a smartphone, and is often described as a “phablet,” gains a fraction of an inch on its long side.
Samsung didn’t clarify what the new Gear can do on its own, but it offers some interesting extensions of the phone’s capabilities when it’s paired with the device its designed to work with.

It was inspired, said Pranav Mistry, Head of the Think Tank Team at Samsung, “by an object with simplicity on its face and craftsmanship at its heart.”
The large watch on the screen behind him gave the audience a clear idea what he was talking about.

The tightly orchestrated introduction shed the unfortunate theatrics of Samsung’s last Unpacked event, opening with a performance by dance duo Icona in Times Square in New York that was streamed live to the Berlin event, then formally opened with a symphonic performance by the Grand Art Ensemble string orchestra.

Samsung’s Gear looks like a watch with a 320 x 320 pixel screen and feels much like one too with its solid aluminium good looks, dotted on its four corners with bold screws. It also comes in colours, but changing them won’t be possible because the watchband sports a small camera, which is likely to raise its own concerns in corporations.

The new device works immediately with the new Note devices and will be backward compatible with the S3 and Note 2 with software updates.
Other smart watches are expected over the next few months, but Samsung boldly staked its claim on the market for such devices with its introduction of the Gear.
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