Items tagged with bixby
Samsung is in the smart assistant business with Bixby, which has so far been integrated into its smartphones, like the Galaxy S10. Samsung had hoped to integrated Bixby into a smart speaker which was dubbed Galaxy Home and was announced a year ago (and has still not been released). Samsung has a second model that is rumored to be coming soon called the Galaxy Home Mini, and a beta test is set to start. Galaxy Home Mini Samsung fans in South Korea will be the first to get their hands on the Galaxy Home Mini device with a beta test said to be underway there right now. As the name implies, the Home Mini is a smaller version of the Galaxy Home that announced along with the Galaxy Note 9. As of today,...
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Galaxy Home, where are you? Samsung first announced its Galaxy Home smart speaker a year ago today, and it still hasn't not been released to the public. Back in February 2019, Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh said that the Galaxy Home would launch in April. Then in June, Samsung revised its forecast and said that it would launch some time in Q3 2019. Now that at year has passed and we're well into Q3, many of us in the tech industry have some questions about the Bixby-based smart speaker. According to The Verge, which reached out to Samsung, the company still has plans to bring the product to market. We’re continuing to refine and enhance the Galaxy Home prior to launch,...
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Samsung has not hidden the fact that it plans to launch a smart speaker with Bixby integration called the Galaxy Home, and according to its product page, it is "coming soon." How soon, you ask? Samsung's mobile boss DJ Koh indicated it will launch by April, though he did not give an exact release date. There was no mention of the Galaxy Home during yesterday's Unpacked event, in which Samsung unveiled a bunch of Galaxy S10 handsets, the Galaxy Fold, a few new smartwatches, and wireless Galaxy Buds. It was a pretty robust event even without the Galaxy Home being a part of the product bonanza. After the event, however, CNET said it spoke with DJ Koh, who indicated that the Galaxy Home is headed...
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Samsung's Galaxy Home smart speaker hasn't even hit the retail market yet, but there's already talk about a cheaper sibling that is potentially in the works. But before we talk about this entry-level model, let's first give a recap on the Galaxy Home. The Galaxy Home is a smart speaker similar to the Amazon Echo or Google Home. However, instead of being powered by Alexa or the Google Assistant, this device uses Samsung's homegrown Bixby AI assistant. The speaker has a rather chic look to it with three chrome legs sprouting out from its base. It features six built-in AKG-tuned speakers, eight far-field microphones, and a subwoofer. You'll find a number of controls on the top of the device...
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Last week we revealed that Samsung's upcoming flagship smartwatch release could ditch the homegrown Tizen operating system in favor or Google's Wear OS. Today, we're learning about what the device will actually be called, and according to a fresh report, it will fall under the "Galaxy" umbrella like the company's popular smartphones and tablets. Samsung registered Galaxy Watch branding with the Korean Intellectual Property Office and has taken similar action with the USPTO. While aligning its smartwatches with the Galaxy branding isn't exactly a foreign concept, the idea that Samsung is adopting Wear OS for its smartwatches is somewhat surprising. Samsung Gear S3 Frontier (Left), Gear...
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It should not surprise anyone that Samsung is planning to enter the smart speaker market with a product of its own, one that is powered by its Bixby digital assistant. Smart speakers are in high demand, thanks in large part to Amazon and what it has been able to do with its Alexa-powered Echo products. Others have followed suit, including Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Samsung will join the fray within the next few months. People briefed on Samsung's plans told Bloomberg that Samsung is aiming to launch a smart speaker powered by Bixby in the first half of 2018. Samsung will be going up against an increasingly crowded field of competitors, but that has not stopped the company from doing its own...
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Samsung has announced the next major version of its Bixby voice assistant at Samsung Developer conference (SDC) 2017. The new voice assistant is Bixby 2.0 and Samsung promises that the intelligent assistant platform will bring a connected experience that is "ubiquitous, personal, and open." Samsung says that it sees a larger role for digital assistants in our lives, other than answering mundane questions, setting reminders, and setting timers. Samsung sees a world where digital assistants are intertwined with everything from phones, to kitchen appliances, to the sprinkler system keeping your grass green. Being able to preheat the oven to 425-degrees for your pizza without stopping your movie...
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It appears that Samsung is finally caving to the wishes of its customers and giving Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners to ability to disable the button that summons Bixby, the company's own digital assistant. Now all Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners are seeing seeing the new toggle, however, so it is not clear if Samsung staggering the roll out or if perhaps (less likely) this is an experimental feature that unintentionally went out. Either way, some users are seeing a toggle to disable Bixby after downloading the latest update. The toggle lets users decide whether or not Bixby should be launched when pressing the dedicated the button. Alternately, users can find the same option from within the Bixby...
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Samsung is finally bring voice control for its Bixby digital assistant to a wide audience. The South Korean electronics maker announced today that Bixby's voice capabilities have expanded to more than 200 countries and territories, which effectively unlocks the feature for millions of consumers who previously were not able to bark out commands like they could with competing assistants, such as Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and even Alexa. Bixby's roll out has not exactly been smooth. It debuted without voice capabilities even though two supported devices—the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+—brought a dedicated Bixby button to the table. But without voice control added to the mix, many users opted to remap...
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At long last, Samsung feels comfortable enough its in-house Bixby smart digital assistant to roll out voice control in the United States for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. With voice control in hand, Bixby can finally be taken seriously as a competing digital assistant, a somewhat crowded field that also includes Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana, and Amazon Alexa. This was a long time coming for Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ handset owners, and also a point of contention between users and Samsung. Without voice control, Bixby's functionality could be viewed as half-baked and not ready for prime time. This led some users to seek alternative users for the dedicated Bixby button. Third-party...
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Much to Samsung's chagrin, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners can once again configure the Bixby button on their handsets to perform alternative actions, such as taking a screenshot, launching the built-in camera app, silencing the phone, or whatever else. The latest app update to bxActions - Bixby Button Remapper (just bxActions from here on out) in Google Play restores the remapping functionality that was recently thwarted through an over-the-air update delivered on T-Mobile's network. Samsung has been taking a stubborn approach to the Bixby button, which is supposed to serve as a shortcut to its new digital personal assistant. However, there are two problems with Samsung's insistence that the...
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If you have a Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ smartphone on T-Mobile and have remapped the Bixby button to perform other tasks, we have some bad news to give you. T-Mobile’s latest over-the-air (OTA) update for Samsung’s latest flagships once again disables the ability for users to remap the button. That means that workaround apps like bxActions can’t be used for remapping purposes. bxActions, for example, lets you repurpose the Bixby button to launch the Google Assistant, take a screenshot, toggle the flashlight, launch your camera app, or countless other actions. But what makes this move so infuriating to Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners is that Bixby isn’t even fully functional in its current...
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Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones are some of the best Android models available right now (read our review), but despite that, many of their users haven't been using them to their full potential. While Bixby Voice was revealed alongside the phone, it still hasn't made it to the United States in stable form. If you're keen on trying Bixby Voice and don't mind that it's not in stable form, Samsung has the hook-up. At its website, the company is allowing S8 owners to sign up for an early access program that will ensure they get the latest Bixby features before anyone else. Note that this early access program is only for the Bixby solution. Bixby Voice is going to prove to be one of...
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We’ve seen Buy One Get One Free offers on the Samsung Galaxy S8 over the past two months, but they usually came with plenty of strings attached, require you to adhere to special rate plans, or make you wait up to two months to get your money back for the “free” phone. Luckily, Samsung is spearheading a new BOGO offer that cuts through the BS and give you a freebie Samsung S8 with hardly any strings attached. The biggest “gotcha” here is that you have to be a T-Mobile customer. Given that T-Mobile is the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier, that stipulation isn’t exactly a death sentence. From there, it couldn’t be any simpler to get your free Galaxy S8. The first step is to buy both...
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Samsung really wants Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners to embrace its home grown Bixby digital assistant. So much, in fact, that it recently pushed out an update blocking people from remapping the Bixby button back to Google Now. That bit of software strong-arming did not sit well with some users, particularly since Bixby is not a matured AI at this point—it does not respond to voice commands, for example. Well, a frustrated developer at Reddit decided to push back with an app that gives users the ability to once again map the Bixby button to Google Now. "I was really determined to find a new way to launch Google now when I pressed the Bixby button. So I threw together a quick app in 20 minutes...
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Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ flagships are highly anticipated, and will officially begin shipping on April 21st (if you’re a T-Mobile customer, you might be receiving your smartphone any day now). Today, we’re learning from a new report that Samsung wants to ensure that Galaxy S8 owners have quick and easy access to a hardware button to enable the Bixby digital AI assistant. In fact, Samsung has gone so far as to make sure that the button cannot be remapped. This is according to a post found over at XDA Developers, which indicates that an over-the-air (OTA) update has been pushed out to devices that disables button remapping for Bixby. Considering that this remapping behavior was...
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Samsung has already begun taking preorders for its forthcoming Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ handsets, both of which will be available at the end of the next week. On paper, the company's new flagships bring the boom. However, one of its most hyped features, its Bixby AI voice assistant (Samsung's own version of Siri, Cortana, and Google Now) will not be fully functional at launch. More specifically, it seems as though you won't be able to bark commands at Bixby, not initially anyway. Samsung has been telling media outlets that Bixby Voice will not roll out until "later this spring." In the meantime, Bixby will intelligently perform other tasks, such as providing reminders to events and serving up...
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The time has finally come for the official unveil of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. After months of photos and specifications leaks, we now are able to lay our eyes on the real deal. Samsung Galaxy S8 And Galaxy S8+ - Live from NYC - Hands-On Coming Soon! As expected, the Galaxy S8 has a 5.8-inch display, while the Galaxy S8+ pushes the screen size to 6.2 inches. The screen takes up nearly the entire front of the smartphones, something that Samsung calls an “Infinity Display”. Although the bezels aren’t completely gone, it is still a rather breathtaking design. Both displays are Quad HD+ Super AMOLED with a resolution of 2960x1440. On the Galaxy S8, that means 570 pixels per inch (PPI),...
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We’ve been hearing about Samsung’s upcoming Bixby virtual assistant for a quite a while, but the South Korean company is now ready to talk about what exactly how smartphone users will interact with it when the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ launch globally next month. Samsung’s entry into the world of virtual assistants comes late in the game following successful entries from Apple (Siri), Google (Google Assistant), Microsoft (Cortana) and of course Amazon (Alexa). Instead of being a copycat of virtual assistants that have come before it, Bixby instead tries to chart its own course. “Instead of humans learning how the machine interacts with the world (a reflection of the abilities of designers), it...
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We are inching closer to the launch of Samsung's next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, which is expected to official sometime after Mobile World Congress (Samsung pushed back the launch so that it could put the phone's battery through a new and more rigorous testing protocol to avoid another Galaxy Note 7 scenario). However, there might not be all that much left to reveal. The latest leak surrounding the Galaxy S8 is of another alleged case showing a bezel-free design.The newest images trace back to Weibo, a Chinese-language microblogging website that is a sort of hybrid of Twitter and Facebook. What we see in the shots is consistent with previous leaks indicating that Samsung will ditch the...
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