Samsung Galaxy Gear update lets you check Gmail, Twitter
The notifications have come to the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch, thanks to an update.
Samsung's Galaxy Gear smart watch was a bit of a letdown. It's chunky, only worked with one handset at launch, and its skills were a little limited, too. Well now Samsung has punted out an update which lets you check your Gmail, Twitter and Facebook accounts on your wrist, Ubergizmo reports.
The update brings notifications from apps stored on your mobile device to the Galaxy Gear, so you can just look at your wrist to see what's new. But it's not without its limitations.
Because of the Galaxy Gear's small screen, it can only display a certain number of characters. So unless the message you've been sent is very short indeed, you'll only be able to read the first part of it on your Gear. To read the whole thing, you'll need to take your mobile device out of your pocket or bag, which isn't ideal
The update adds another couple of improvements, too. Smart Relay -- which brings up the full message on the device you've paired with the Gear as soon as you unlock it -- has been tweaked, so it should be more seamless to go from your smart watch to reading your missives on your mobile. The lift-and-pause gesture movement that activates the clock has been improved as well.
Samsung hasn't said anything about extending the messaging functionality, but in the future the Gear could also stretch to instant messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Samsung is rumoured to be working on another piece of wearable tech, called the Galaxy Band. It's said to have more of a fitness focus than the Gear. Whether it'll be the sequel to the Gear, or if we can expect a Gear 2 as well, we'll have to wait and see.
The South Korean company has also launched a new seasonal advert for the Gear. It seems a bit pointless to me, but I guess when you've got a marketing budget of $14 billion to get rid of, you tend to go all out. And at least it's not as cheesy as this effort.
Have you seen the update on your Galaxy Gear? Would you like IM on your wrist, too? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.