compatible devices

Two 'compatible devices' stories August 2013 - April 2014

Samsung confirms 20 Galaxy devices now compatible w/ new Gear wearables

While some of us have been able to get Samsung’s new Gear fitness tracking wearables working with non-Samsung Galaxy devices, Samsung is still only officially supporting 20 Galaxy devices after first launching the wearables with only compatibility for its flagship devices. Samsung today provided details on the exact lineup of compatible devices, which as of yesterday includes 12 Galaxy smartphones and 8 tablets.

As of yesterday, the devices you see in the images above are all compatible with the Samsung Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit. Those are the devices that are officially supported through the ‘Gear Manager’ or ‘Gear Fit Manager’ apps, but we managed to get the Gear Fit working with the new HTC One M8.

Samsung Wallet app hits Google Play for select devices

Up until now Samsung’s Wallet app had been in beta only for select users in the US, but today the app is officially available through Google Play. Before you get too excited, we should mention that it is still US-only, and as of right now you’ll need one of few select Samsung devices in order to take advantage. For those of you unfamiliar, the app stores boarding passes, coupons, tickets, etc, but doesn’t actually do NFC payments like Google Wallet or other solutions. It might not be as widely supported as something like Apple’s Passbook app yet, but the MLB, Booking.com and many others have signed to support the service. To take advantage you’ll need either a Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 1, or Galaxy Note 2.

On a side note, Google announced it’s ending NFC redemption for gift and loyalty cards through Google Wallet, but hinted other options for storing these types of cards might return to the app.