Report: Samsung’s Next Wearable is the Galaxy Band, A Fitness Tracker

While smartwatches have already managed to have a profound impact on some users, they have largely been something of a disappointment thus far. And to be frank, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear might be the worst among them, at least where big-brand offerings are concerned. In our review we said that the device itself was probably among the best designs Samsung has ever released, but the product was obviously rushed and the user experience suffered tremendously as a result. A recent report suggested that Samsung knew it had some serious missteps with the first Gear and is rushing out a sequel in the first quarter next year as a result, but a new report suggests that Samsung’s upcoming new wearable computer might be a smartwatch at all. A new report from Korean-language Digital News Daily late last week states that Samsung’s next swing at the emerging wearables market will be a fitness tracking band called the Galaxy Band.

Read the full story at Boy Genius Report.

Pebble Smartwatch Now Available to Purchase on Amazon

After making its retail debut earlier this year, the Pebble smartwatch is coming to Amazon. The company made the announcement Thursday night, and the watch is now available for US buyers in black, gray, orange, red, and white for $148.99, its arrival coinciding with the effective start of the holiday shopping season. It’s been a little over a year and a half since the Pebble’s Kickstarter campaign launched in April of 2012, and nearly five months since it started shipping at Best Buy in July; it’s also being sold through AT&T. Around retail launch, the company said it had taken 275,000 total orders for the Pebble, and in early November, it announced that 190,000 had been successfully shipped. Anybody who’s buying a Pebble now will be able to take advantage of the recently released SDK 2.0, which natively supports the iOS 7 notification center, allows for easier cross-platform app development, and lets developers tap into the watch’s accelerometer.

Read the full story at The Verge.