14 DAY TRIAL // As you might be aware Google is expected to roll out an Android SDK for wearables as soon as this month, but apparently Samsung has made it to the finish line before the search giant.
This week, Samsung announced the Tizen Software Development Kit (SDK) for Wearables, so developers interested in building apps for the new Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo can go ahead and download the SDK.
The two new smartwatches saw the light of day, last month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where Samsung announced it was renouncing the “Galaxy” brand for its line of wearables, in order to highlight it has dropped Android in favor of its own platform, Tizen.
With the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Samsung created its own apps, but with the rolling out of its the SDK, the tech giant hopes to see a wider range of apps being available for its new Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.
Samsung said it had already allied itself with more than 100 partners and made an announcement regarding some of the apps to be seen on the smartwatches. The list of apps is pretty long, but here’s what we found more interesting.
Feedly: The web-based reader delivers RSS news and information to the smartwatches, allowing users to receive the latest news right one their wrists.
Glympse: Smartphone users might be familiar with this particular app that offers real-time location sharing with family and friends.
Runtastic: This is a health-centric app that helps fitness users track distance, speed, elevation, heart rate, pace or calories burned during a workout or running session.
Sleep Genius: A software capable of monitoring when and how much you sleep and to provide tips on how much extra rest you need. The app can be used to set the Gear 2 to wake you up at the most favorable time in your sleep cycle.
Vivino: This interesting app will certainly appeal to wine lovers. By taking advantage of the Gear 2 camera, the Vivino will snap a quick shot of a wine label and, so you can receive ratings and a pricing lists right there on your wrist.
CNN: Will offer headlines and breaking news throughout the day, keeping users connected to what’s going on in the real world.
Certainly, one can notice there’s a lot of fitness-centric apps to choose from, but as we highlighted not all of them are dedicated towards that end. And with the SDK out we can expect more good things in terms of apps to be made available soon.