Motorola is also making a SmartWatch following Samsung

Well, well, well. Guess who's back in the watch making game? Motorola. Of course, it already did the watch before  but Rick Osterloh, SVP of Product at the firm, has just confirmed that the company is working on another awesome smartwatch, and it will be coming in the next few months. At a press conference at MWC, Osterloh commented that the problem with current watches is that no one wants to wear them (Ohhh! Samsung), and it's a problem the company is tackling head on. It also might not just be another straight-up sports watch this time, with Osterloh asserting "it'll solve some real user problems." Good looks and brains? Surely not.

Samsung introduces new Galaxy Gear 2 and Neo Smartwatches

As rumors regarding the iWatch from Apple continue to bounce about the web, Samsung introduced its second generation smartwatch tonight. The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, and actually includes two separate products: the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo.

Perhaps the most notable difference between these smartwatches and the one Samsung released 6 months ago is that these run the company’s open source operating system called ‘Tizen,’ not Android. Samsung says that the switch in OSes results in easier use and much better battery life…

On the hardware side, both watches are equipped with a 1.63-inch 320 x 320-pixel Super AMOLED display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage and a 1GHz dual-core processor. They also both feature a heart rate sensor and a gyroscope, for monitoring vital signs and tracking movement.

Additionally, the watches have built-in IR-LED sensors, which allow you to control your TV set-top box with Samsung’s pre-installed Watch-ON app. And speaking of apps, a number of Tizen apps will be available at launch including BMW, CNN, Evernote, Feedly, Paypal and Under Armour.

As for differences between the two watches, there appears to only be two of them: camera and colorways. The Gear 2 sports a 2-megapixel camera, with auto-focus, embedded into the watch face, and the Neo is camera-less. Also, the two come in different colors, which we’ll go over in a minute.

The last big thing is battery life, but Samsung hasn’t offered any specifics yet. The first Galaxy Gear was known for only lasting a day/charge, but word has it the move to the low-powered Tizen will push that out 2-3 days. Performance is also questionable, as no one has used one yet.

Finally, the move from Android to Tizen is worth noting. In addition to the disappearance of the Galaxy branding (is this Android-only?), this marks one of Samsung’s largest, non-Google OS rollouts for a mobile product in recent years. It’ll be interesting to see how this experiment plays out.

For those interested, the Gear 2 will come in charcoal black, gold brown and wild orange, and the Gear 2 Neo in charcoal black, mocha grey and wild orange. Both devices, which will each support more than a dozen Samsung devices out-of-the-box, are set to launch in April. No word on pricing yet.

We should get more details later this week.

So, what do you think of Samsung’s new SmartWatches

Galaxy Gear 2 And Galaxy Gear 2 Neo Press Images Leak Ahead Of Launch

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is expected to make its long-awaited appearance at Mobile World Congress next week, but while the Korean outfit’s latest and greatest smartphone may be the main attraction, it’s looking as though there’ll be quite a few other products in tow. The Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which launched alongside the Galaxy Note 3 in September, is considered by many to be a failure, with generally negative reviews reflected by poor sales. But not one to throw in the towel, Samsung looks to be back with not one, but two new wearable gadgets, and courtesy of yet another Evleaks, we may just have our first proper glimpse of both.

The Evleaks Twitter account seems to get the scoop on all the upcoming gadgets, and by and large, its leaks prove legitimate. With less than two days until MWC kicks of in Barcelona, Spain, a new leak via the handle purportedly showcases a Galaxy Gear 2 and Galaxy Gear 2 Neo, both of which are expected to be officially announced at Samsung Unpacked 5.

The Galaxy Gear 2 looks relatively similar in form factor to its predecessor, but while technology world may have baulked at the original Galaxy Gear, it was more the high price and generally poor functionality that let the product down as opposed to the design.

Meanwhile, there also looks to be an alternative in the form of the Galaxy Gear 2 Neo, which packs an alternative design to the standard Galaxy Gear 2. Considering the recently-released Galaxy Note 3 Neo is somewhat cheaper and less powerful by comparison to the main device, one would expect, for the sake of keeping things as easy-to-understand as possible, that the Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch range will follow a similar pattern.

As such, we expect the decidedly cheaper-looking of these two smartwatches to tone things down when it comes to specifications, but still maintain enough bite to (finally) give consumers the performance they’re looking for.

Whatever the case is, we will be live updating our website from the latest in the Mobile World Congress on Monday, so stay tuned to iTechnoBlog.