QUIK, sensor hubs and the "adjacent possible"

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

no longer a rumor, its official now that these devices exist…
no we don't know yet what is inside of them

Samsung Gear Fit2 confirmed on Samsung's own website
Gear IconX also appears as S Health supported device

Wednesday
May 4, 2016
By Michael Sawh
@michaelsawh
The rumoured Samsung Gear Fit2 and the Gear IconX wireless earbuds have seemingly been officially confirmed; having already popped up on Samsung's own website.

The two new fitness devices are currently listed as supported accessories for the Korean company's S Health platform. There's nothing in the way of specs or pricing but we do get to see our first official pics.

The Gear Fit2 certainly looks more watch like than its predecessor and appears to feature a new textured strap. The image of the Gear IconX (below) appears to pretty much confirm the leaked images we reported on last week were the real deal.

The Gear IconX is tipped to be a fitness tracker and music player in one minus the trailing wires. It's expected to feature touch controls and will come with a dust and water resistant design. There's also going to be 4GB of onboard storage to pile on your music and a charging case to keep them powered on the move.

So it looks like Samsung hasn't abandoned its Gear Fit fitness tracker after all and. Last week, pics that were said to come from someone who's testing the next gen tracker revealed the the same 1.84-inch curved AMOLED touchscreen will still be in tow. It appears the overall design will be tweaked to make it slightly more curved and ergonomic.

Essential reading: How to use your fitness tracker to actually get fit

The biggest new feature addition, according to the insider, will be onboard GPS, so you can track activities like running without piggybacking off your smartphone GPS. That also means it's going to be more of a direct rival for theMicrosoft Band 2, which is one of the few fitness tracker/smartwatch hybrids to pack GPS.

Apart from that, there's not much else we know at the moment. There's a good chance Samsung would switch up to Tizen, simply because it's starting to show it more love with the Gear S2 smartwatch.

The Samsung Gear Fit2 and Gear IconX on the Samsung website

The first Gear Fit launched in 2014 with its curved AMOLED touchscreen and a built in heart rate monitor while Samsung made the odd decision to use a new RT OS (real time operating system). Here's hoping Samsung has addressed some of the biggest issues with its predecessor, which largely revolved around the software and the accuracy of the sensors. The battery life wasn't great either.

Images of the Gear Fit 2 recently leaked

There's no details on how much the Gear Fit2 is going to cost or when it's going to launch. The original device launched in February 2014, so it seems likely that we'll see it some time later this year.

We're also still waiting to hear more about the rumoured Samsung Triathlon budget fitness tracker after images of the device surfaced earlier this year. Clearly Samsung has plenty of wearable tech in development.

jfieb, 11 minutes agoEdit Delete Report

#11 Reply
jfiebActive Member

Shealth?

as supported accessories for the Korean company's S Health platform.

https://shealth.samsung.com

jfieb, 6 minutes agoEdit Delete Report

#12 Reply
jfiebActive Member

New

Bob said…

One product was called an "accessory", while the other was called "device". The first customer was called a "top five", the second a "top-tier". Could this be a case of some creative writing by Mr. Paul McWilliam's in order to discuss both without tying the two together? Seems reasonable to me.

IF so, and IF the tier-one brings the product to market,

currently listed as supported accessories for the Korean company's S Health platform.

So they are calling both of these things accessories in the article…

fitness bands and ear buds are accessories and it will be coming to market as its Samsungs web site and they should know?

time will tell.