Mobiles @ NCSU

Now that Samsung has finally announced the Galaxy Gear, you've probably made up your mind on whether it's beautiful or hideous. What you probably don't have a great grasp of is what apps will be available on the smartphone, and how they'll work. We had a brief preview of Pocket for Galaxy Gear yesterday; it offers a complimentary experience to the Android app, effectively functioning as a remote control for the phone version. You can ask your phone to read an article aloud to you, favorite articles, or archive them, and that's about it. Other Gear apps are a little more ambitious.

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We’re at Qualcomm’s Uplinq 2013 conference where Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs has announced Qualcomm Toq, a smartwatch with a Mirasol color screen that can still be viewed outdoors in bright sunlight with touch capabilities, and wireless charging capabilities through WiPower LE.

The Toq shows notifications and looks like it has a few applications of its own, can control music playback and play locally to wireless headsets, and looks like it can do things like screening calls and show a variety of different watchfaces. Qualcomm is trying to leverage its mobile silicon leadership, Mirasol display, and enable partners to deliver better wearable products. The Mirasol display stays on all the time, never turns off, but still lets the Toq last multiple days between charges.

Later this month Qualcomm will make a limited number of Toqs available and continue to release more details about availability. There still are a lot of unknowns but we're hopefully going to find a lot more about Toq shortly.