Samsung has launched a Tizen Software Developer Kit (SDK) for its wearable devices the Gear 2 and Gear Neo to help develops build apps for its smartwatches.
The SDK is available for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu, and comes in at just 5MB. The kit allows users to develop the three types of Gear applications: Linked, Integrated and Standalone.
Applications for Linked and Integrated type consist of a host-side application package (APK) and a wearable-side widget, while gear applications for Standalone type are only wearable-side widgets.
The devices are the first smartwatches to use the Samsung-backed Tizen OS. The previous version of the Gear series used Android.
Samsung also pointed to some of the apps already included with the new Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo thanks to more than 100 partnerships covering everything from health to music to social media.
The devices, which were released last month at MWC, come with RSS aggregator Feedly and iHeartRadio’s music streaming service.
They are also packed with specialised apps from CNN, Condé Nast, eBay and Expedia, which can send flight information directly to the user’s wrist.
Earlier this month, Google said it was prepping an SDK for wearable devices such as Google Glass.
It is expected to be launched by the end of March. Google is widely rumoured to follow Samsung into the smartwatch space with its own device expected later this year.
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