Beyond the Book
I offer some extra content that you won’t find in this book. To find some tips and tricks for making life easier with the Gear S2, check out the this book’s Cheat Sheet, which you can find by going to www.dummies.com and typing “Samsung Gear S2 For Dummies Cheat Sheet” into the Search box.
You may also find updates to this book, if I have any, at www.dummies.com/extras/gears2. Also keep in mind that Google continually updates the Gear S2 hardware and software, so you can keep your book up-to-date by checking for updates.
Where to Go from Here
This book is yours, so you can annotate and augment the text in any way you want – with a highlighter pen, by writing notes in the margins, or by placing bookmarks at several strategic locations throughout the book so that you can return to those places quickly.
If you’ve just purchased the Gear S2 and want to get grounded in what your new smartwatch is all about, flip to Chapter 1. But if you can’t wait to get the Gear S2 out of the box and start playing with it, flip the pages to Chapter 2 so that you can set up the Gear S2, put it on your wrist, and start exploring your new smartwatch.
Part 1
Getting to Know You, Gear S2
Learning what the Samsung Gear S2 is and what you can do with it
Getting familiar with the Gear S2, including how to fit the smartwatch on your wrist properly
Finding out how to charge the Gear S2 when the battery runs low
Changing Gear S2 settings and the watch face
Setting up the Gear Manager app on your Android smartphone and using Gear Manager with your Gear S2
Chapter 1
Introducing Your Gear S2
IN THIS CHAPTER
Introducing the Samsung Gear S2
Understanding smartwatch history and the Internet of Things
Learning what you can do with the Gear S2
Reviewing the two Gear S2 model similarities and differences
Discovering what’s in the Gear S2 box
Congratulations on your purchase of the Samsung Gear S2. How does it feel to be on the cutting edge?
The fact that you possess a Gear S2 means that you don’t think smartwatches are a fad or just plain unnecessary. You know that the Gear S2 is an easy way for you to get information you need quickly, such as the time and place of your next appointment, by looking at the Gear S2 on your wrist instead of fumbling for the smartphone in your pocket.
In this chapter, I start by giving you a (very) brief history of smartwatch development. Next, you learn about how the Gear S2 fits into the larger ecosystem of connected devices better known as the Internet of Things. You also get an overview of the two Gear S2 models and how they compare.
Then I tell you about the issues involved with pairing your Gear S2 with your Android smartphone. Next, you get to know the Gear S2 apps that are preinstalled on the smartwatch. You also learn how to shop for Gear S2 accessories. Finally, this chapter shows you all the good stuff that’s in your Gear S2 box.
Presenting a Brief History of Time … on Smartwatches
Smartwatches aren’t a new phenomenon. In January 1946, newspaper readers first saw popular comic strip detective Dick Tracy use his new “wrist radio,” and later a “wrist TV,” to fight crime. (You remember newspapers: those large rectangular sheets of paper with writing on them.) You may have seen smartwatches used in such cartoons as The Jetsons and Inspector Gadget growing up.
What’s more, Samsung was an early developer of watch phones with the bulky but still impressive looking SPH-WP10 watch phone the company introduced way back in 1999. (You can read more about this watch at http://www.phonearena.com/news/Did-you-know-that-Samsung-announced-a-watch-phone-in-1999_id69376.) As with many early versions of hardware and software that later changed our lives, the 1999 Samsung smartwatch didn’t click with consumers. (There’s no word on how popular it was with secret agents.)
Today’s kids don’t have to read newspapers (not that they do, anyway) or watch cartoons to get an idea of what smartwatches are all about – nowadays, smartwatches really do exist and are maturing fast. I say maturing because despite the fact that there isn’t a “killer app” as of this writing that would cause people to buy a smartwatch just for that app, today’s smartwatches do useful things.
Modern smartwatches also look like watches – that is, they’re either round or square in shape and are similar in thickness to what you find in analog or digital watches.
Connecting Thing 1 to Thing 2
Smartwatches have also benefited from the growth of a network of physical objects including devices, buildings, vehicles, appliances, and even clothes that can exchange data with one another. You may have heard the name of this network bandied about in the media: The Internet of Things, also known by its acronym IoT. Technology companies are working fast to connect all your devices together so that they can communicate with each other and (ostensibly) make our lives easier. It makes sense that you’ll want to see messages from IoT devices both on your smartphone and by holding up your wrist and looking at your smartwatch.
Samsung is a conglomerate that produces a number of consumer electronics including TVs, refrigerators, and even washers and dryers. You see where I’m going: Samsung wants to give you not only the complete experience of pairing its Galaxy smartphones, Galaxy Tab tablets, and Gear smartwatches, but it also wants to use the Gear S2 to entice you to buy Samsung everything.
As part of this “Samsung, Samsung everywhere!” strategy, Samsung has taken a page out of Apple’s playbook and decided to support its own smartwatch operating system … sort of. Samsung is a lead developer in the open-source Tizen operating system (OS) and uses Tizen in its TVs, in a few smartphone models, and, most important, on the Gear S2.
Getting to Know the Gear S2 Models
The Gear S2 comes in two models: the “standard” Gear S2, which is just called the Gear S2, and the Gear S2 Classic. Both models have many of the same features:
❯❯ The watch itself is 1.2 inches in diameter and the screen resolution is 360 x 360 pixels. The watch case is made of stainless steel.
❯❯ Both watches have a bezel, or a ring, around the watch face.
❯❯ A 1.0 GHz dual-core processor powers the Gear S2.
❯❯ The Gear S2 has 512MB of memory.
❯❯ The watch possesses a maximum of 4GB of internal storage, but Samsung takes pains to note that the actual amount of memory you have available on the watch to store data is lower because the Gear S2 has the Tizen OS and important apps preinstalled.
❯❯ Both models provide you with a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection that connects to 802.11 b/g/n/e standards.
❯❯ You can connect to other devices using Bluetooth v4.1.
❯❯ Both models have Near Field Communication (NFC) support so that you can connect with other devices within two inches of each other. Samsung