Good morning folks, today on my Global TV Sunday Morning News Tech Talk segment I showed and talked about smartphone gadgets that make excellent holiday gifts.
The most talked about item is the Samsung GALAXY Gear smartwatch, which at $329 might seem pricey but is not as niche as it looks, when you can take advantage of all its features, including being able make and receive calls (it has a speaker and two noise-cancelling microphones), shoot 1.9 MP pictures and record and share 720p 15 second video snippets.
Its sleek brushed medal finish, 10 watch-face screen options and availability in Jet Black, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige and Mocha Gray colour make it hard to say no to.
The Gear’s smartness comes from being wirelessly connected via Bluetooth to your Note 3 but will also work on the GALAXY S4, GALAXY S4 mini, GALAXY SIII and the GALAXY Note II starting on November 29th, 2013. Without the wireless tethering its actually not very “smart”.
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Its 1.64 inch screen is bright and sharp for using many free and some paid for apps, from weather , recording voice memos, using S Voice for commanding functions and viewing contacts. Third party apps available at Google Play, like Vivino Wine Scanner for takes a snap of a wine label for instant online info. Life 360 lets you see where your invited relatives and friends are on a map or the pedometer counting your steps (the Gear has an accelerometer and gyroscope) make the Gear handier than you think. This means your smartphone has to be within range, best on yourself or car seat next to you. MyFitnessPal tracks your nutrition and exercise for personal health and fitness goals.
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You can even locate your phone or Gear from each other with a touchscreen press and receive quiet notifications on your Gear which summarizes all calls, texts and emails.
I found it useful and fun to use. There are dozens of apps with more to come and other than looking a bit silly having an open speaker phone conversation with your watch, there’s lots of stuff to do with it. I haven’t had it long enough to gage its battery life but it seems to last a few days with regular intermittent use. It comes with an additional shell casing for charging it via micro USB. My biggest beef with the Gear is lacklustre email support and no Twitter or Facebook, an advantage the “simpler” Sony SmartWatch 2 has.
Look for participating retailers giving $50.00 off the retail price of the GALAXY Gear beginning on Black Friday (November 29) through to December 2, 2013.
The Sony QX10 18 MP Smartphone Attachable Camera $249.99, is as unique as it looks. It is just the lens and sensor, without the camera body. It quickly attaches and communicates wirelessly with iPhones and Android phones, using one-touch NFC/WiFi smartphone connectivity. Now you have a large touch screens viewfinder and “camera” for taking quality pictures and full HD videos.
You can zoom 10X optically and shoot in three modes, one taking multiple quick layered pictures, for dark scenes. Exposure is adjustable and you can optionally save the full 18MP or smaller size photos on you smartphone for quick previews and sharing.
The QX10 takes a micro SD card and automatically saves each 18 MP frame, regardless of what the smartphone receives.
Wait, there’s more! You can detach the QX10 from the smartphone and move it around for shooting from hard to get to angles, you see on your smartphone screen. That’s also great for shooting long or slow exposure with no shake when the lens is detached and resting on its own. The QX10 has shutter and zoom controls for manual operation too.
It also uses Steadyshot image stabilization, and the compact Exmor CMOS sensor produces images far superior than your smartphone.
I found it easy to use, but a bit awkward attaching it to a smartphone. The images are impressive, no different from quality point and shoot cameras, but at a fraction of the price. Because of some wireless latency it seemed like the video shooting skipped a few frames with a seemingly uneven zoom but on playback it was fine.
Also available in an even higher quality 1-inch sensor, 20 MP, 3.6x zoom Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T zoom lens with a remarkably fast f/1.8 aperture $549.00
The Sony SW2 SmartWatch 2, $199.99 is less adventurous, with no camera or speaker phone functionality, but it is more affordable with better notification alerts, weather info and live call alerts if that is all you need. It’s smaller than the GEAR and doesn’t have to scream out for attention, but has the same quality craftsmanship and a minimalist design matching the Xperia phone.
One advantage is that it works with all newer Android phones. It vibrates for alerts but its similar sized screen is not as sharp or bright as the Gear. One price you pay for its smaller size is a smaller battery so it needs charging more often but it handles email much better than the Gear, including key social media apps. Despite not being able to answer a phone call you can ignore a call or send out a text message to the caller, if your smartphone doesn’t already do that.
So for hard core notification capabilities, the SmartWatch2 is a better wrist device, sans the fun factour of the Gear.
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