Nexus 5, Nexus 7 Now Compatible With Galaxy Gear Smart Watch

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Nexus 5 smartphone and the Nexus 7 tablet are now compatible with Samsung's Galaxy Gear smart watch.

However, the pairing of these devices has been accomplished in an unofficial way. An XDA member known as pcelli developed a method for making them compatible that involves pulling certain files from the Gear Manager APK and manually installing them on the phone or the tablet.

The only features that don't work with the pairing are S Voice and Weather since they are TouchWiz-dependant. For more information on how to pair the Nexus 7 or Nexus 5 with the Galaxy Gear click here.

The Galaxy Gear reached a milestone by reaching its 800,000 sale mark recently.

Samsung's new device was able to accomplish this in just two months. This actually proves that the public is interested in a Smart Watch contrary to the sales of versions released from other companies.

Samsung invested tens of millions of dollars into the promo for the Galaxy Gear with flashy marketing campaigns, endorsements from sports stars, price cuts and other incentives.

The Galaxy Gear was unveiled alongside the Galaxy Note 3 last year and is only compatible with handsets running Android 4.3 and higher.

The device improves the smartphone experience by becoming a control panel for various tasks. For example, when the phone is being called the call will appear on the watch, allowing users to either take or ignore the call without having to grab their phone out of their pocket.

The Galaxy Gear connects to a smartphone and has the ability to track it down if it has been misplaced or lost. The Find My Device feature allows users to remotely activate sounds and vibrations to make it easier for them to locate their smartphone. It also works vice versa as the connected phone could be used to find the watch.