Galaxy Gear Software Update Brings Better Battery Life to Device
Samsung pushed out a software update for the Galaxy Gear smartwatch this week that strengthens battery life and adds better third party notification support.
It will allow Galaxy Gear users to receive full notifications from third-party apps directly through their device, which means Gmail will display message previews on it when a new email arrives.
The Gear was not able to perform these simple tasks when it first shipped as it would only display notifications from apps created by Samsung. This held the device back from being as good of a companion to smartphones as it could have been.
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Other smartwatches in the market such as the Pebble and Sony Smartwatch 2 had this ability, which hindered Samsung from being the top dog in this area.
The update will also improve other features on the device including Smart Relay, which lets users open tasks on their phone from the smartwatch. Users experience with the lift-and-pause gesture that turns the clock on will also be improved.
European users running the update have reported that battery life has been improved significantly. Samsung has not mentioned anything about prolonging a charge on the device so this comes as a bit of a surprise.
The Galaxy Gear smartwatch is compatible with the Galaxy Note 3 out of the box. Android 4.3, JellyBean updates rolling out for the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S3 on various carriers will bring those devices up to date so they can work with the watch.
The Galaxy Gear launched earlier this year and is compatible with devices that run Android 4.3, JellyBean and up. It retails for $299 and can be purchased through Samsung or other retailers.
