Samsung s gear; Today we'll be doing an unboxing and initial setup of the Samsung S Gear, which was just released in the United States today and I was lucky enough to get my hands on the only one within a 20-mile radius of where I lived.
So I'm pretty excited because I got this at AT&T for $300 without a contract, but I could have gotten it for $200 with a two-year contract, but I'm not sure if I want to keep this for two years and keep paying that monthly rate, so I decided to just buy it outright and not have to worry about that at all.
Samsung s gear unboxing
It will pull the top cover off, and we will be met with a quick guide from AT&T that will go over how to set it up and turn on all of the basic features.
Let's open this box up so we have a little tool to help you get the SIM card out, the charging cradle, the wall adapter, and a little booklet here that goes over the health, safety, and warranty information.
So that's the unboxing aspect of it now let's take a closer look at the gear s we see that it has a plastic cover around it just pull this tab here and the front comes off then pull the tab on the back side and you're done there's also one more sticker here to pull off to release the clasp simply pull out then it just snaps back on like this pretty simple.
To get into the nano SIM slot, you'll need the nano SIM tool. You could use your fingernail, but the covers are pretty tight, so I recommend using this. There's a lip on the tool; simply insert that lip into the slot for the nano SIM card and pry it open gently. The cover will come loose, and you can just take it off the rest of the way with your fingers.
Let me try this on now and see how it fits just pull the clasp out slide it on I press the clasp back into place don't press directly downward on your wrist instead press almost at an angle towards the bottom of the gears s if the watch is too big or too small take the watch off and locate this silver pin just pull this pin out and you'll be able to slide the metal clasp up or down the band as needed then press the pin back into place when you're finished making your adjustments before we get into the initial setup.
let's take a look at the charging cradle this is not just a dock that allows you to use a micro USB cable to charge your gear s this is also a standalone 350 million power battery pack that can be used to charge your gear s on-the-go to connect it to your gear s just line up the contacts and snap it into place a blue LED will turn on for a few seconds letting.
You know that it is properly connected and charging there are three colors of the charging cradle LED can be red green and blue red means that the charging cradle isn't fully charged blue either means that the charging cradle is fully charged or that you've connected your gear s to it.
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It has started charging the gear s, but I'm not sure what green means. I tried charging the gear s 200 percent to see if the LED would turn green, but it never did, so the green LED could just be used for diagnostics or to provide data transfer information when the gear s is plugged into your computer.
It's also worth noting that the charging cradle can be charged independently of the gears, so you can charge it while sleeping with a watch on to track your sleep, then use it to charge your watch in your bag on the way to class or work.
When you turn it on for the first time, you're greeted with a gr s logo, followed by the same Samsung logo found on the note 4, then a welcome screen, and finally the setup screen. I tried a few things to set up this watch without pairing it to a phone, but I was unsuccessful.
So, in order to set this up for the first time, you must have a Samsung phone. I didn't have a non-Samsung phone to test with, but once I get one, I'll let you know if there's a way to pair it with the Gear S.
To get started, download the Samsung Gear Manager app from the Samsung App Store. Check that the app's logo on the phone matches the logo on the watch, as there are some similarly named apps that will not assist with the setup process.
Once downloaded, launch the app. If your Samsung s gear is turned on, it should appear in the available devices section; simply tap the name to pair the devices. The phone will send a pairing request to the Samsung s gear; simply tap OK on the Gear S and then again on the Samsung smartphone.
To complete pairing, your phone will begin installing any additional software required to communicate properly with your gear. You will then be presented with a few user agreements and legal notices to accept.
Once you've signed your life away, you'll finally get to the fun stuff; at this point, your Samsung s gear is ready to play with, and the rest of the setup process can be skipped if you prefer; if you want to continue, this is where you get to choose which notifications to receive.
You'll be able to get on the Samsung s gear The list here is extensive, and from what I can tell, any app that can send you a notification on your phone can also send you a notification on your gear.
Once you've selected your notifications, you can set up call forwarding. The interesting part is that the s gear requires a separate phone number from your current phone number.
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This means that if you do not enable call forwarding, the person you are calling will see the gear s's phone number rather than your own.
By enabling call forwarding, you essentially keep your normal phone number for both the gear s and the phone. At the next screen, you will need to set your gear as this phone number.
After you set your Samsung s gear phone number, just tap turn on to finish the process the phone will send a call forwarding request to your carrier and you'll get an update on your gear s when the process is finished once you get that notification you can back out of the call forwarding menu when you do that you'll get another pop up this time.
This update adds auto call forwarding, which means your Samsung s gear will automatically switch from handling calls via bluetooth to handling calls via a carrier network when you disconnect the Gear S from your phone or if you walk too far away and the Bluetooth signal can't reach far enough.
Some other nice features that you can read at the bottom of the phone screen when you're ready to upgrade your Samsung s gear just tap the install button on the bottom a warning will appear that your gear s will restart and start updating To begin the installation, tap OK.
I tap the home button here, but you don't have to; the download began by chance. This update takes over five minutes to download right when I press the button.
I recommend either walking away and doing something else or keeping the s gear on your wrist and periodically looking at it to see how far along the install is. Remember not to shut off your phone while the gear s is downloading the update.
It may take some time for the Samsung s gear to reconnect to your phone after this update, but if you have any problems, simply reopen the gear manager app and reconnect the gear s to your phone manually.
Once your Samsung s gear is paired with your phone again, you'll see a slew of new options in the s gear manager app to customize the gear s. If you have any questions about the gear, please leave them in the comments section below.
How To Use a Samsung s gear with NON Samsung phones.
I'll show you how to use a new Samsung Gear S without a Samsung phone. If you already have your gear s set up, you'll need to do a factory reset by going to settings reset gear. This will erase everything on your Samsung s gear. so make a backup of anything important before you do this
Now reboot your gear S and click Next to go to the pairing screen when you get to this screen tap on the watch symbol 25 to 35 times until you get a message about pressing a Bluetooth address.
Once that pop-up goes away press and hold the watch icon for about five seconds when the screen pops up you have successfully set up your gear s without using a Samsung phone.
Bluetooth connections are now visible in settings, but their functionality is limited. I don't have a non-Samsung smartphone to test this with right now, but once I do, I'll let you know what you can and can't do with non-Samsung smartphones.
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Top five hidden features on the Samsung s gear.
- Five, we have text size adjustment. To do this, simply double tap the screen or pinch in or out. These gestures cycle between three different text sizes, making it easier to read content in different apps. This does not work in all apps, only in messages and news briefing. In news briefing, you are limited to double tapping; if you pinch in and out, you will simply scroll up and down through the article.
- Double tapping with two fingers to get to your quick settings where you can adjust your brightness and sound level works on any screen in any app down.
- Three, long press with both fingers to open your recent apps menu. This is far more convenient than pressing the home button, swiping to your apps, and then tapping the recent apps text coming up.
- The second option is to customize your double-press home button function, which is hidden in the settings. Scroll down and tap on double press. From here, you can change the double press action to open any app on your Gear S.
- Finally, the ability to use your Gear S with any smart phone is the number one hidden feature on the Samsung s gear.
I have a few extra features for you that didn't make the top 5 list. First, you can change the app order by long pressing and dragging. Second, swiping up on your contacts widget allows you to add more contacts.
Third, swiping up on your music widget displays all of the songs you've downloaded to your Samsung s gear, and fourth, you can use Gmail as well as social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Use samsung s gear with iPhone 6 Plus or any other non samsung smartphone.
I'm going to show you how to use the Samsung s gear with an iPhone 6, but the functionality will be the same regardless of which non-Samsung smartphone you connect to.
If you have already connected your Gear S to a Samsung smartphone, you will need to perform a factory reset on your gear s. To do this, go to settings reset gear. This will delete all of your apps, music, photos, and anything else you have saved on your Samsung s gear.
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So make a backup before resetting the Gear S, and if you just tried to pair your Gear S with a phone other than the one you set it up with, you will be prompted to do a factory reset before pairing with the new phone.
Once the factory reset is complete, your gear S will return to the original setup screen you saw the first time you turned it on. At this point, you will need to unlock your gear S, which is fairly well hidden.
Once your Samsung s gear is unlocked, go to settings Bluetooth and enable it. Now, go to your iPhone and navigate to settings. Bluetooth and ensure that your Bluetooth is turned on, then tap the gear icon.
When it appears, your Gear S will receive a notification asking it to connect to your iPhone; simply tap OK to connect your Gear S to your iPhone. Remember that you will have limited functionality.
First and foremost, you can receive phone calls when connected to a non-Samsung smartphone. The cool thing about this is that even if you have a custom ringtone on your iPhone, the Gear S will use it.
You can also make phone calls from the Samsung s gear. When you receive or make a call, you will be able to use the Gear S speaker and microphone to carry on the conversation. This is useful if your phone is zipped up in a bag or somewhere else that is difficult to get to right away.
If you're talking on the Gear S and want to switch the call back to the iPhone speaker and microphone, simply tap the phone icon on the watch. To send the call from the iPhone back to the Gear S, simply tap here.
You can also send text messages, but they will be sent to your Gear S's phone number rather than your iPhone's phone number. All of the independent features on the Samsung s gear will work as well, including the Maps app's health weather, gallery, and alarm.
The music player will also work for any music you have saved on your gear s, but you should be aware that the music controllers do not work for any music you have playing on your iPhone right now. For things that don't work, you will not receive any notifications on the gear s other than incoming or missed calls.
You can't use the contacts app to add or save contacts, and even if someone calls you, you can't add that contact to the gear. Other features that don't work include the calendar's voice recognition. Nike's app locate my device the news application email and the milk app.
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You also won't be able to install any additional apps on your Gear S, and in case it wasn't clear, you can't set up your Gear S with a Samsung phone and then use it with a non-Samsung phone because the Gear S will force a factory reset and delete any apps or contacts you set up with the Samsung phone.
Also, if you connect the Gear S to a Samsung smartphone after setting it up with a non-Samsung smartphone, it will force a factory reset and you will lose the connection with the non Samsung smartphone, so there are no loopholes here.
While it is possible to use the Samsung s gear with any smartphone, it is not very practical and your money would be better spent buying a SmartWatch that is meant to work with your device.
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