Samsung releases Gear S2 SDK, watch ships with Uber, ESPN, Yale, Nike, CNN apps

Samsung’s new Gear S2 smartwatch will ship with Uber, ESPN, Yale, Nike, and CNN apps on board.

Those app developers, and others, were given early access to the Gear S2 software development kit (SDK), which Samsung officially made available to all developers today.

(See our hands-on look at the new watch here.)

Indeed, Samsung said more than a thousand apps will be available when the smartwatch launches. This is in addition to the 5,000 apps already available to Samsung Gear users.

The new watch runs on Samsung’s own Tizen operating system.

The watch offers several things that might be attractive to app developers. Developers can create apps that run natively on the watch, and that can connect to a network via the watch’s 3G cellular radio, without the need for a phone.

Samsung also points out that the Gear S2 can be synced with certain Android phones. A list of supported devices can be found here.

Here are some of the apps that have already been built for the Gear S2:

• The ESPN Watch Face app provides sports scores and photos.
• The CNN app offers 10 sections of news, and can push alerts to the watch face.
• The Bloomberg Business Watch Face app displays market stats, company information, and news.
• The Twitter Trends watch face shows various hot topics on Twitter, cut by locality.
• The TripCase app gives real-time flight and travel information.
• The Groupon Gear S2 app helps users find deals nearby.
• The Alipay app lets users make payments at various offline supermarkets and restaurants.
• The Uber app lets you call a car without the need for a phone.
• The Nike+ Running app lets runners to track their distance, pace, and time.
• The Yale Digital Keys app lets you unlock your home or share keys with friends or family members.
• The FidMe app gives wrist-based access to loyalty cards, coupons, and in-store notifications