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Samsung's refined Gear IconX earbuds now talk to Bixby
The Gear Fit 2 Pro and Gear Sport aren't the only products Samsung is unveiling at IFA 2017. Today, the company also introduced a revamped version of its Gear IconX wireless earbuds, which feature better battery life (up to five hours of streaming) and support for its virtual assistant, Bixby. That means you can now use your voice to control your music or paired phone, all by simply tapping and holding the side of the IconX earbud. And because runners may be into these, Samsung added a Running Coach mode that gives you real-time, in-ear status updates as you're working out.
Samsung says it's building an Echo-like smart speaker
Samsung is spilling the beans on more than just its smartwatch plans in the wake of its Galaxy Note 8 event. In an interview with CNBC, mobile division chief DJ Koh has confirmed that his company is working on a smart speaker. He's shy on details, as is usually the case with teases like this, but he hints that Samsung might announce it "soon." That doesn't necessarily mean a debut at next week's IFA show, but it's not some distant prospect.
One week with Samsung Bixby
Nobody wants an assistant they can't trust. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't put my faith in Samsung's Bixby. It's the newest entry in the crowded field of virtual assistants, and its youthful inexperience shows. After living with Bixby on the Galaxy S8 for a week, I couldn't wait to kick it to the curb. To its credit, Bixby has some intriguing features that make it potentially more functional than the competition. But it's simply too early for it to compete with more established assistants like Siri and Alexa.
Samsung's Bixby assistant is finally available worldwide
Samsung has faced a tough slog getting Bixby to the masses, but now its voice assistant is accessible in more than 200 countries including the UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa. It's been available in South Korea and the US since July, when it launched after months of delays. Part of Bixby's appeal is its positioning beyond that of a simple voice assistant. Samsung claims it learns over time, recognizing "natural language" to make interacting with your phone easier and more intuitive. It understands cross-application commands and thanks to deep integration it can be accessed without any interruptions to what you're already doing on-screen. So you can turn down screen brightness while scrolling through Facebook, for example. Users can also create custom voice commands. Instead of setting an alarm and turning on do-not-disturb mode individually, you could simply use "good night" as a shortcut.
Samsung's Bixby voice assistant is ready to help in the US
The voice component of Samsung's Bixby assistant has been a long time in coming. The company was quick to boast about its AI helper at the Galaxy S8 launch, but revealed that the signature voice feature wouldn't arrive until later in the spring... and even then, it only had a full launch in South Korea. Americans had to make do with a preview. At last, though, it's becoming widely available: Samsung is officially rolling out Bixby's voice assistance to S8 and S8 Plus owners in the US. Every American with one of the flagship phones will get to talk to Bixby once an update arrives "tonight." There have been a few tweaks to this official release, too.
Life with Bixby is equal parts futuristic and frustrating
In the future, the voice of Bixby -- Samsung's virtual assistant -- will ring forth from refrigerators and smart speakers and who knows what else. No wonder the company is taking its time with it. For those who really can't wait, Bixby's voice interface is available as a preview you can access now. I spent the last few days chatting with Bixby as often as possible. Our time together has been ... eye-opening, to say the least. It's definitely not ready for the wild, but despite the bad news surrounding it, Samsung's virtual assistant is starting to feel pretty capable. Emphasis on "starting to."
Samsung’s latest acquisition could give Bixby its voice
Despite unveiling Bixby in March, Samsung's digital assistant remains an elusive beast. An ETA was predicted for June, but we're now in the throes of summer and Bixby is still in hiding. However, the Korean manufacturer's latest acquisition sounds like it's tailor-made for the voice assistant -- and any other Bixby-powered devices it may have in the pipeline.
Bixby, where are you?
There's plenty to love about the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, Samsung's latest mobile darlings. The near edge-to-edge displays and luscious design give them a fit and finish few other flagships can match. And the performance and battery life are nothing to sneeze at, either. Yet, nearly three months after their initial launch, the phones are still missing a key feature: Bixby.
Samsung needs data before Bixby is ready for English speakers
Wondering why Samsung still hasn't enabled Bixby voice features in English despite promising a launch in the spring? Apparently, it's down to a lack of info. A spokesperson tells the Korea Herald that the company just doesn't have enough "big data" to make its AI-powered voice assistant available in languages besides Korean. It needs that extra knowledge to train Bixby's deep learning system, the Herald says. That's borne out by US beta testing: Samsung says there have been some 'unsatisfactory' responses so far.
Surprise: Samsung is building a Bixby-powered AI speaker
Samsung is developing its own voice-activated smart speaker incorporating its Bixby virtual assistant, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Codenamed 'Vega', the AI-powered speaker will be Samsung's offering in a market already crowded by the likes of Amazon and Google, with Apple and Microsoft recently announcing their plans to get in on the action too, through HomePod and Invoke.
Bixby's voice features aren't finished, but US users can test them
Samsung's virtual assistant Bixby generated untold levels of hype before the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus launched, but the version we actually got to use still feels half-baked. While the company still hasn't locked down when Bixby's voice search and control features will go live, it just confirmed that brave users in the US can enroll in an "early preview test" to get a taste of what's coming down the pipeline.
WSJ: Bixby Voice won't debut on Galaxy S8 until late June
To hear Samsung's Galaxy S8 ad campaign tell it, the company's Bixby digital assistant was already fully featured and ready to go at the handset's launch. The reality is quite a bit different, however. Bixby Voice, the would-be competitor to Siri and Google Assistant apparently won't be available until late next month, somewhat narrowing the "later this spring" timeframe from April. Wall Street Journal reports that the cause for tardiness has to do with how the assistant comprehends English syntax and grammar. To be fair, that's a sore spot for pretty much every artificial intelligence system at the moment.
Samsung's virtual assistant might live in your fridge
Whatever you think of the Bixby assistant in Samsung's Galaxy S8, you're about to see a lot more of it. According to Pulse, the company is outfitting its Family Hub 2.0 refrigerators with the AI helper, including both newly shipping fridges and existing units through an update. And while Bixby's voice control is still largely unavailable on the S8, it'll reportedly be a staple feature here -- you could ask about the weather, search for a recipe or play music while you're prepping your next meal.
Verizon's Galaxy S8 won't help you shop on Amazon
Samsung already gave a heads-up that Bixby wouldn't be complete when the Galaxy S8 launched, but Verizon customers will have to make do with less than most... for a while, anyway. The American carrier has confirmed to CNET that its version of the S8 doesn't currently let you use Bixby Vision to find products on Amazon just by pointing your camera. You can find images of that book you're looking for, but you can't shop for it. A Verizon spokesperson didn't explain why the feature wasn't available right away (Amazon and Samsung didn't say either), but did promise that the network was "working with Amazon" to provide it in the future.
Samsung's Galaxy S8 launch will happen without Bixby Voice
We're just days away from the launch of Samsung's latest flagship phones, but now the company says we'll have to wait for one of the highlight features of the Galaxy S8 / S8 Plus. While some features of its Bixby AI assistant, like Vision, Home and Reminder will be ready on April 21st, the company said in a statement that Bixby Voice will launch in the US "later this spring."
Assign other apps to the Galaxy S8's Bixby button, if you dare
One of the Galaxy S8's standout features is Samsung's Bixby assistant. It not only organizes your schedule and talks to you, but also helps translate and identify items around you via the phone's camera. It even talks to your SmartThings-compatible home appliances, and can quickly be summoned with a dedicated physical button on the S8's left edge. But if you don't plan on using Bixby very much, that piece of hardware becomes mostly redundant. Luckily for you rebels, the internet's inventive community has found a way to assign that physical button to any app you wish.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 34: Intergalactic
On this special all Samsung edition of the Engadget Podcast host Terrence O'Brien is joined by executive editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Chris Velazco. First all three will debate some of the most burning questions surrounding South Korea's biggest phone manufacturer. Should Samsung be using resources to build yet another virtual assistant? Is there anyone who wants to use their phone as a desktop? And, most importantly, can the Galaxy S8 save Samsung from itself? Then Chris Velazco will paint a picture of the event on the ground, before the crew dives deep on the finer point of the S8's design, interface and audio pedigree. Then, on The Wind Down, we discover that Dana failed to do her homework and Chris is contemplating picking up Dungeons & Dragons.
Samsung's Bixby AI assistant can see as well as talk
With its latest Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones, Samsung also launched its very own AI assistant, Bixby. We know what you're thinking: Do I really need yet another Android helper bot like Google Assistant or even Cortana vying for my attention? Actually, Bixby might prove to be more useful for Galaxy S8 owners than we expected, thanks to its tight integration with the smartphones' hardware.
Samsung unveils Bixby, its Siri competitor
It was only a matter of time until Samsung launched a full-fledged virtual assistant of its very own -- "S Voice" just never quite cut it. Today the company unveiled Bixby, a new assistant that'll debut with the Galaxy S8 on March 29th. Naturally, it's meant to help Samsung differentiate itself from Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant. Bixby seems different on a conceptual level: It's meant to serve as a new voice-based interface for controlling your apps, rather than just something that you can ask a few questions.
Samsung's Galaxy S8 reportedly uses AI across all its apps
Samsung has been eager to drum up attention for the Galaxy S8's AI assistant, but just how is it going to work, exactly? We still don't have the clearest picture, but some details might be coming to light. A SamMobile source claims that the Viv-based, voice-guided helper (reportedly named Bixby) will have a presence in all the of the phone's included Samsung-made apps. You could use it in the Gallery app to show you photos of the beach, for example. This isn't a radical development when both Google Photos and iOS 10 can accomplish similar feats, but remember that Bixby is likely replacing S Voice, Samsung's aging in-house software -- the point is to offer software smart enough that you don't need to turn to another assistant.