Samsung’s first Galaxy Gear was never all that useful to begin with but Samsung has just come up with a way to make it even less so. SamMobile reports that Samsung is now upgrading the first-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatch to its own homemade Tizen platform — yes, you read that correctly, it’s issuing an update that will completely replace the watch’s entire operating system. But that’s not all — SamMobile found that upgrading to Tizen through Samsung’s Kies upgrade hub will wipe out all data that you have on your device, although thankfully Samsung warns you about this beforehand and gives you an opportunity to back up your data.
SamMobile also says you’ll have to pair your Gear with your Samsung phone or tablet again after the upgrade and that some third-party apps you’ve installed will no longer work on the device. So the dozens of Galaxy Gear owners out there who have critical applications on their watches might want to hold off on switching from Android to Tizen, at least until Samsung addresses this issue.
