Samsung Gear S3 Classic, Frontier Launched in India for Rs. 28,500

Samsung belatedly launched its Gear S3 smartwatch, a successor to its Gear S2, in India on Tuesday. The South Korean multinational's smartwatch arrives in two variants - Frontier and Classic. The smartwatch will be available from January 18 across Samsung retail channels and has been priced by the company at Rs. 28,500.

The Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch was initially launched at IFA 2016 by Samsung and runs company's own Tizen OS rather than Google's Android Wear. The Frontier model of Gear S3 sports a rugged design with an MIL-STD-810G rating, while the Classic variant has a more refined look. The cases are made out of high-end watch grade 316L steel, and the company is lauding the rotating bezel that enables users to pick up calls or snooze alarms without even touching the display.

Notably, the Frontier model of Gear S3 comes with a cellular radio chip that allows the smartwatch to connect to high-speed 4G mobile networks. This means that the watch does not require to be tethered to your smartphone in order to connect to the Internet or make calls. This is a feature that is currently not existent even in market-leader Apple's current generation of smartwatches - Apple Watch 2. SOS alerts can be preset to a button, sending alerts to family, friends, and emergency professionals.

The Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch features a 1.3-inch (360x360 pixels) always-on display Super AMOLED tech and Gorilla Glass SR+ protection, IP68 dust and water resistance, built-in GPS, as well as a built-in speaker. It is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor. Apart from 3G/LTE on the Frontier model, the smartwatches sport Bluetooth v4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and NFC/MST. They are powered by a 380mAh battery.

Samsung recently introduced its iOS specific Samsung Gear S app to expand the support of its Gear S2 and Gear S3 smartwatches to iOS.

Manu Sharma, Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India said, "With the Gear S3, we continue to build on our wearables heritage of offering diverse choices to enhance consumers’ unique lifestyles, Gear S2 achieved meaningful progress in the smartwatch category with a personalized watch face and a versatile rotating bezel that provided an intuitive smartwatch experience. Now with the new Gear S3, we expand our Gear collection and introduce not only a great smartwatch, but a great watch. With smart capabilities and sophisticated, elegant design, the Gear S3 marks a significant addition to our smartwatch portfolio."

Source: Samsung India

Follow Me on Twitter>>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1

Fitbit Kills Pebble; Buys Software Assets; Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core Cancelled

Smartwatch maker Pebble announced on Wednesday that it is dead, with tech wearables giant Fitbit acquiring some of its assets including key personnel. While further fulfilment of Pebble 2 orders will cease, the upcoming Pebble hardware, such as the Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core, will also be cancelled. Refunds will be issued to Kickstarter crowdfunding backers.

Pebble, one of the best-known smartwatch brands had sold something over two million devices since launching in 2012, said that "many members of Team Pebble will be joining the Fitbit family to continue their work on wearable software platforms."

"Due to various factors, Pebble is no longer able to operate as an independent entity. We have made the tough decision to shut down the company and no longer manufacture Pebble devices," Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky said on the company's blog.

In its press release, Fitbit said that it had acquired "specific assets of Pebble, including key personnel and intellectual property related to software and firmware development," but not the company's hardware product. Terms of the deal were not announced but certain reports state something at under $40 million (roughly Rs. 270 crores).

"With basic wearables getting smarter and smartwatches adding health and fitness capabilities, we see an opportunity to build on our strengths and extend our leadership position in the wearables category," said Fitbit chief executive James Park. "With this acquisition, we're well positioned to accelerate the expansion of our platform and ecosystem to make Fitbit a vital part of daily life for a wider set of consumers, as well as build the tools healthcare providers, insurers and employers need to more meaningfully integrate wearable technology into preventative and chronic care."

Pebble was among the early developers of smartwatches, raising money on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Its 2015 drive raised a record $20.3 million.

Source: Pebble, Fitbit

Follow Me on Twitter>>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1

Xiaomi unveils AMAZFIT smartwatch

Xiaomi today announced the AMAZFIT watch adding yet another category of smart device to their list. The company has gradually been expanding its product portfolio from smartphones, phablets, tablets, fitness trackers, drones, laptops to now smart watches. The launch comes right after the company launched the latest smartphones in India and launched Mi Band 2 exclusively for the Chinese market. The consumers were waiting for the launch of the Smartwatch which according to a report in April, was slated to launch in the second quarter of the year.

The new smartwatch is launched by Huami, a sub-brand of Xiaomi responsible for the introduction of Mi Band. The smartwatch called 'AMAZFIT' Watch is equipped with the 1.35-inch 300×300 display running on 512MB RAM with 4GB internal storage.

The watch is powered by a single-core SoC clocked at 1.2GHz with 200mAh battery powering the device for 35 hours with GPS tracking while providing 11 days of backup for step tracking.The battery of the wearable will last five days under ideal conditions of normal GPS usage, step tracking and display time. The wearable comes with an IP67 certification for dust and water resistance and is equipped with a heart-rate sensor. The company claims that it will be the first device to be equipped with 22nm GPS sensor.

The smartwatch is priced at 799 Yuan which roughly amounts up to Rs 8032 at the time of writing and will be available starting tomorrow. The watch can also be used to pay for orders using alibaba's AliPay mobile payment service.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO:

Do Subscribe on YouTube!
Follow Me on Twitter>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1

Computex 2016: Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Wear 1100 platform With LTE for Wearables

Qualcomm has announced its latest processor for its Snapdragon Wear platform called the Snapdragon Wear 1100. Unlike the Snapdragon Wear 2100 that was shown off in February, which is meant for multi-purpose devices such as smartwatches, the Snapdragon Wear 1100 is targeted at performing specific functions.

Unlike the Wear 2100 SoC, the Wear 1100 SoC is more focused on simpler devices like fitness trackers. Apart from LTE, it also comes with support for WiFi and Bluetooth. Qualcomm has partnered with several companies like Aricent, Borqs, Infomark, and SurfaceInk providing reference software platforms in order to bring this new tech into the market.

The Snapdragon Wear 1100 SoC also brings slow power mode called Power Save Mode (PSM), a much needed in smartwatches today. Companies like Anda Technologies, inWatch and WeBandz announced plans to bring wearable products targeted for kids and elders using the Qualcomm chipsets alongside the reference platforms available.

Speaking at the keynote, Senior Director and Business Lead of Smart Wearables at Qualcomm, Pankaj Kedia spoke about the bright future of wearables and internet of things (IoT) in general. "We are truly excited about the wearable space by customer category, by OS, by product category," he said. Kedia concentrated on five key factors for the Snapdragon Wear 1100 platform. Small size, low power, smart sensing, always-on connectivity week long LTE standby, hardware based security and next-gen GPS. Snapdragon Wear 1100 is targeted to unleash the Kids smartwatch segment, he said.

The Snapdragon 1100 SoC joins the already existing Qualcomm portfolio available for wearables. Qualcomm has already introduced Snapdragon Wear 2100, CSR102x Bluetooth Smart 4.2 SoC, and Qualcomm SiRFStar location into the wearable market. The company claims that more than 100 wearable products are now available with processors from Qualcomm.

Qualcomm processors are synonymous with flagship smartphone with almost all OEMs across the globe. The IDC reports that wearable shipments increased by 171 percent last year. It grew from 28.8 million to 78.1 million units last year, and Qualcomm understandably wants to make the most of this acceleration.

The Snapdragon Wear 1100 measures 79 square mm, houses an ARM Cortex A7 processor, has a Cat 1 modem, supports Linux and RTOS and supports hardware level security. The chipset will start shipping on 31 May.

Apart from Qualcomm, Asus also unveiled a host of products at Computex. The company took the wraps off the Zenfone 3 (three variants), Zenbook 3, and the Asus Zenbo Household Robot with voice control.

Follow Me on Twitter>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1