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Galaxy Book Flex and Ion hands-on: Gorgeous QLED laptops
It might be time to take Samsung seriously as a PC maker again. After releasing a slew of underwhelming laptops, the company charmed me with the Galaxy Book S it revealed in August. Today, Samsung is launching two new laptops that once again have me intrigued. The Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion are thin, light notebooks packing bright, beautiful QLED screens.
Google accused of stealing the idea for Project Loon
Did Google engineers steal the idea of Project Loon from a company that was already testing weather balloons to distribute the internet? That's what Space Data Corporation alleges, having filed a lawsuit against the search engine in California this Monday. According to the complaint, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Google X representatives met with SDC way back in 2007. At the time, it looked as if Google might invest in SDC, and as part of the negotiations, both parties signed an NDA. Space Data then shared its top-secret research on how to make the system work in reality -- thinking that its ideas were protected by the agreement.
Otto is Samsung's cute personal assistant robot
Samsung unveiled a big new push into Internet of Things at its developer conference today, and it's using a cute little robot to demonstrate it. It's called the Otto, a reference design for what is essentially an Amazon Echo clone. It has microphones and speakers so it can answer questions like "What's the weather?," plus you can use it to control various connected gadgets in your home like light switches and refrigerators.
Samsung's 'Flow' ties devices together like Apple's Continuity
Samsung makes a lot of products, from wearables to phones to large-screen televisions. So why not try to tie everything together? That's the idea behind Samsung's Flow, which could be seen as the company's answer to Apple's Continuity. Announced today at Samsung's Developer's Conference, Flow lets you move tasks from one device to another and even do things like view incoming calls and messages on your Samsung TV. There are essentially three components: Transfer, Defer and Notify. Transfer lets you do things like read a shared article on your tablet or move a video call from your laptop to your phone. Defer lets you put off a task until you're ready, so you can fix that PowerPoint slide when you get to work, or pick up that movie on your phone when you're in the subway. Last but not least is Notify, which as we mentioned, lets you view notifications on any screen, be it your watch or your computer. You'll even get device status updates on your television, for example, so you can see if your phone is running low on battery. The Flow SDK was just released to developers today, so don't expect to see this feature on your Galaxy-branded device just yet.
Samsung releases SIMBAND fitness wearable for developers
Remember that SIMBAND wearable platform Samsung unveiled six months ago? Well, the Korean company has just announced at the Samsung Developer's Conference that the open reference version of it will be available to be ordered by developers today. We don't know too much about it just yet, but the wrist-worn device looks a lot like the Gear S, except with all of those additional sensors worked into the band. Those sensors, as was announced back in May, are modular, and can be reconfigured as the developer sees fit. Samsung says that the SIMBAND is "capable of integrating the most advanced sensing technologies in the world," which should work well with the new bio processor that the company announced today as well. The processor will apparently help developers incorporate more advanced health monitoring in their wearables.
Samsung unveils Project Beyond, a 3D-capturing camera for Gear VR
Samsung has just unveiled a sneak preview of a new camera called Project Beyond, which is a 3D-capturing 360-degree camera designed to capture videos and stream them on the Gear VR. Pranav Mistry, Samsung's VP of Research, says that Beyond is a "new kind of camera that gives a new kind of immersive experience." The camera (which apparently houses 16 full HD cameras) shows a 360-degree panoramic view and captures everything in 3D, collecting a gigapixel of 3D data every second. It promises high-speed connectivity, adaptive stitching, ultra wide-angle optics and stereoscopic depth. And, this isn't just a concept. It's actually a fully working device. This, Mistry says, is really important for Gear VR, as you can feel as if you're "literally there." You can also have it set up so that every Gear VR user that's connected will be able to see the video stream, with "no lag whatsoever." Samsung says that it's "the world's first true 3D 360 degree camera" and captures and streams "omniview videos in stunning high-resolution 3D." We're still finding out more about this, but until then, here's the product page for more info.
Samsung's new dev tools bring multiscreen capabilities to TV and mobile
Samsung has just announced several new and improved software development kits (SDK) at its first ever developers conference in San Francisco that could mean lots more features to your existing Samsung hardware. The biggest news is a new multiscreen SDK that would allow users to share content across various Samsung devices, be it smartphones or their television set, thanks to a new cloud-based publishing system. Especially exciting for gamers, Samsung has also partnered with Unity technologies to create a multiscreen gaming engine that allows for gaming on any TV -- as long as you use a Samsung phone or tablet of course. It also showed off the Gamepad attachment that was revealed at IFA this year. "We take the very best of what Unity is, and combine it with the best of what Samsung has to offer," said David Helgason, CEO of Unity, on stage. Speaking of smartphones and tablets, Samsung has also released a fresh mobile SDK that would lead to a number of improvements to current handsets. There's a lot to dig through here, but a few notable ones include more precise S-Pen controls, new visual animations, seamless handwriting recognition, and a multi-window capability that lets you run multiple resizable apps simultaneously. An example of this was shown at the conference using the new Twitter app, where you can tweet and browse the web at the same time. What especially delighted us is something called Samsung Chord, which essentially promises peer to peer connections across devices. A stage demonstration showed how you could use Chord to "pinch" the screens of two side-by-side tablets to instantly connect them and start playing a joint game of air hockey. Going back to televisions, the company also unveiled a revised Smart TV 5.0 SDK that plays well with the multiscreen SDK mentioned earlier. This allows content partners like Pandora to incorporate Samsung Connect so that you can broadcast music from your phone to your home entertainment system. Smart TV 5.0 also now supports close captioning for video apps and just better search overall. Last but not least, the Korean firm also revealed the Knox SDK that lets corporate workers bring their own Galaxy device into their work environment without compromising security. We've barely scratched the surface of what Samsung has released to the developer community today, and we're sure devs are chomping at the bit to get at the new tools. David Eun, Executive VP and head of Samsung's Open Innovation Center, said on stage that he hopes all this development will result in better convergence between devices, stating that "we are well on our way to the connected home." While we can't say that'll actually happen, we do admit we're excited to see what consumers will get out of today's announcements. Interested parties can check out the press release after the break to find out more. Update: Courtesy of Android Central, we've embedded the stream of Samsung's keynote presentation, right after the break.
TWC now shipping tuning adapters in Rochester, NY -- do you have yours?
The headline pretty much says it all, but if you really have to know the details, we've heard from two different Rochester-based tipsters that Time Warner Cable has informed them that their tuning adapter has shipped. This marks the second major market in the nation to receive these splendid boxes from the carrier, and it got us to wondering about everyone else. Has your local carrier come forward with tuning adapter availability? If not, what's the estimated wait time? [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family][Thanks, Gabe and Victor]
BigBand Networks heads up first ever international SDV deployment
BigBand Networks knows a thing or two about making the transition to switched digital video, and now it can say that it helped flipped the first ever SDV switch overseas. The company, in conjunction with interactive TV middleware provider Alticast, has "added functionality to its switched digital video solution in preparation for deployments by Korean cable operators." Obviously, the opportunities for SDV outside of North America is significant, with many markets gasping for bandwidth just to get a handful of high-def channels out to the people. Research firm In-Stat actually asserts that "Asian deployments of SDV will grow at an average rate of 85% for the next four years, reaching $212M by 2012," and we can only hope that this is one method for greatly boosting the amount of HD content available outside of the US.
E-Ink introduces new segmented display cell screens -- kind of like old school LCD
E-Ink has a new display made available last week, based on segmented display cell (SDC) technology. Apparently the new screens are 40% thinner and have increased flexibility over E Ink's previous displays, and can now be formed in "organic non-rectangular unique shapes, including holes, curves, and other non-standard designs". Delphi's already picking up use of the display for future keyfob products -- always good to know there are consumer applications right around the corner.[Thanks, Pat]
