Sprint gets the Galaxy S5 and Gear smartwatches April 11th, pre-orders go live today

Sprint's getting the Galaxy S5, too. And like fellow underdog T-Mobile, the carrier plans to offer Samsung's flagship handset for no dinero upfront on its Easy Pay plan. Which means, you still have to pay, but just in 24 monthly increments. Those pre-orders begin today for folks visiting Sprint's retail stores -- that is if you can still find one that isn't shuttered -- and begin shipping on April 11th. And to sweeten the pot a little for those that aren't entirely sold on the GS5, Sprint's even tossing in zippy 4G LTE for subs that live in Spark markets, as well as a "free" Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 for qualifying Framily (ugh, that word!) members. Though note you'll have to open a separate two-year agreement to get it.

But there's even more Samsung gadgetry on the way. On the same day the GS5 becomes available, Sprint will also add Samsung's new line of Gear smartwatches -- the Gear 2/Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit -- to its portfolio. As a relatively low-end impulse buy, you'll be able to get the Neo and Fit for $200, while the more "luxe" Gear 2 will go for $300.

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Tags: galaxys5, gear2, gear2neo, gearfit, GS5, mobilepostcross, preorder, samsung, spark, sprint Next: Sony shows (and tells) us why 4K on a phone isn't crazy
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This music service wants to be the first on Samsung's smartwatches

7digital really wants to put its music store on Samsung's new Gear smartwatches. Really badly. Need proof? The company has announced plans to release a hybrid shopping and streaming app for Tizen devices in the second quarter of the year, and it's eagerly highlighting the app's support for wearables -- at last check, Samsung is the only major firm producing wearable Tizen gadgets. The music provider isn't being subtle about its intentions, then, even though it's not making any official connection between its software and the Gear line. If nothing else, 7digital would be a logical fit for the hardware. The company has a history of being the first to offer music services on young platforms, and it was the backbone for Samsung's Music Hub. Don't be surprised if you can buy a hot new song from the Gear 2 on your wrist this spring.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: 7digital

Tags: 7digital, music, samsung, smartphone, smartwatch, tizen, wearable Next: Dell's Precision M2800 workstation is for prosumers who need performance on the cheap
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Archos will debut multiple 'pebble-like' smartwatches at CES, starting at less than $50

There's one more interesting nugget in today's jam-packed Archos press release. Alongside the home tablet, scale, weather system, activity monitor, et al. is a very brief mention of a smartwatch -- a "selection of" smartwatches, actually. There's not much info here, save for the fact that at least one of the wearables will hit an under-$50 price point. The company is also apparently comparing the iOS/Android-compatible line to a familiar wearable, referring to it as "pebble-like" in the included press material (lower case, mind). If we had to venture a guess, we'd say the similarity comes from what looks to be an e-ink or e-ink-like display, but it looks like we're going to have to jump on a plane to Vegas to find out for sure.

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Tags: archos, ces2014, smartwatch, watch Next: FAA selects six sites for drone testing because flying robots are our future .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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Pebble Seeds Engineering Schools With 4K Free Smartwatches In A Bid To Drive Developer Interest

Pebble today revealed a new project aimed at education in which it will donate over 4,000 smartwatches to higher ed schools including Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, Virginia Tech and many more. The donation is worth over $600,000, according to Pebble’s own estimates, but it’s clearly designed to make sure Pebble and the Pebble SDK are in the hands of the next generation of top-tier developers before they ever even hit the job market.

Now that Pebble has released its official app creation SDK, and unlocked many of the dormant features of the platform, it needs developers to get on board and start pumping out creations that really show off the potential of wrist-worn computing to push the Pebble’s appeal beyond the early adopter and gadget loving crowd who’ve already purchased one, and into the mainstream. Software sells hardware, and developers build software. In school, they’re often more willing and able to experiment with platforms that don’t necessarily have a proven ability to pay the bills, hence why it’s a good idea to give these things away to engineering students as development hardware.

Pebble only recently hit the tipping point in terms of having stock on hand in stores and online, but current inventory levels seems strong, and there’s also a sale on right now offering a $10 discount on new units. As 9to5Mac’s Seth Weintraub noted on Twitter, this sale and education donation could be taken as evidence that the company is looking to offload stock ahead of some kind of refresh.

Pebble donating watches blog.getpebble.com/2013/12/16/peb

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