Samsung just fed its two-month old Gear S2 smartwatch a new firmware update, but it only rolled out in Korea. However, someone has shared what that update included and has given a sneak peak of what's in store for users when it hits other regions.
Senior XDA Forums user under the name supersoulfly noticed there were no patch notes for the smartwatch's latest firmware update. So, that user took notes and shared them with the forum site.
Here's a rundown of what's new in the firmware update:
• Auto Open Apps option added to the Settings' menu's Device section. The quick-access feature launches whatever app the user stops on after scrolling through the listing of the smartwatch's software.
• Added Option to Settings Menu's Connections section that'll notified wearers when the connection to a phone is disconnected.
• Screen time-out options -- 15 seconds, 30 second, one minute and five minutes -- have been added to the display settings.
• New apps added: world clock, Starbucks, navigation app and the Flipboard app.
• New watch faces added.
• New notification indicator added as an option, available when the watch is set to allow notifications to wake it up. The indicator, an orange circle, will appear until the notification has been noticed.
• Double tapping increases the size of notification text.
• The + sign to the far right of the interface now says "Add Widget."
• Trash can icon added to "swipe to dismiss" action.
• New smiley face has replaced the emoji on notification replies
• "Add Template" option added to the right side of the watch faces menu.
The Gear S2 and S2 Classic aim to give wearers more independence from their smartphones and the 3G versions of the smartwatches does just that.
The 3G versions of the smartwatches can take and make calls, so long as an associated Galaxy device is powered on and is in contact with a cellular network. The watches are each powered by a 1 GHZ, dual-core processor. They're fitted with half a gig of RAM and 4 GB of storage space.While they'll support Android devices, they use a mix of Android and Samsung's Tizen micro-OS.
"The Samsung Gear S2 reflects Samsung's most progressive innovation," said JK Shin, CEO and head of Samsung's IT & Mobile groups. "It is the perfect complement for any occasion, easily taking you from day to night, from work to workout–and ensuring that you get more out of every moment in your day, by making it smarter and ultimately more personal and fun."
