Vehicle manufacturers are implementing more and more technology into their products than ever before and as such it comes as no surprise that partnerships with established technology firms are being created left right and centre.
Only a couple of days ago, Mercedes-Benz announced their partnership with Pebble to provide a smart watch that links in with their vehicles enabling various functions and extras to be enabled.
Now comes the turn of BMW, who have teamed up with Samsung to produce an app for their smart watch, known as the Galaxy Gear. Showcasing the technology at the International CES 2014, in Las Vegas, BMW have demonstrated just what it is capable of.
The way most technology companies talk, it’s a wonder how we ever coped without their latest technological wizardry. However, it is plain to see with millions upon millions of mobile phones and tablet computers that mobile computing is at the fore of what we as consumers seemingly want, but also like and find useful.
It is not surprising then, that computers are getting smaller and smaller – though it should be stated the contrary is a trend in the world of ever increasing screen sizes on mobile phones – and the capabilities are increasing by the day [or app].
Enter wearable computing. In more recent years, Google has been made more famous by their development of Google Glass, a set of stylish glasses with a tiny screen on one side which resembles (very closely it should be said) IBMs attempt at the same thing as far back as 1994. A bit more conventional then, perhaps, are smart watches. So called as they are essentially a very tiny screened tablet computer attached to your wrist. Aside from telling the time, what could they be used for? As is the case with Apple and Google, reliance on other peoples imaginations is the way forward when it comes to working out what to do with the shiny new device.
BMW have created an app for Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch that allows you to control certain aspects of your all electric i3, called the BMW i Remote App. The app includes functions such as telling you the vehicles current state of charge, battery capacity, opening & closing windows, unlocking/locking doors & sunroof and even send a navigation destination to the vehicle. Making good use of the electric heater and air conditioning in the i3, the climate control may also be operated from the Galaxy Gear, for example to heat up the car in advance of a journey or cool it down before entering on a hot day. With the option of spoken commands via S Voice, Samsung’s speech recognition assistant, you can also perform many commands via verbal command.
Source; BMW
