The Bixby button is here to stay, as evidenced by Samsung’s latest flip phone

Need more evidence that the Bixby button is here to stay, and even with the software option to render it useless, won’t be removed from Samsung phones anytime soon? Well, you only need to look at the SM-W2018, Samsung’s latest flip phone, which also features a dedicated button for firing up Bixby. Given the limited reach of the company’s flip phones, the SM-W2018 could have done without the Bixby key, and no one would have batted an eyelid. But it’s there, and you can see it clearly in yet another set of leaked images showing the phone in the flesh.

Samsung’s latest flip phone keeps leaking out

The images come from SlashLeaks, and they show what we have already seen in previous leaks. You get two displays (4.2 inches each, with Full HD resolution), a traditional keypad with a circular navigation key setup, and a design that reeks of quality. The SM-W2018 will have high-end specs, including the Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a 12-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front camera, with a 2,300 mAh battery powering the package. It should be running Android 7.1.1 Nougat, and whether it will get Android 8.0 Oreo is something we may never find out given the extremely niche (and almost extinct) segment of the market that the SM-W2018 will target.

The SM-W2018 is set to be unveiled on December 1, but there’s already a hands-on video online that you can watch to check out the phone in action. If you’re a fan of flip phones but aren’t living in China (or South Korea), that video might be the closest you will ever get to the SM-W2018, unless you’re so passionate for the form factor that you end up importing it. Or, well, rich, since the phone is expected to be priced closed to $2,000.

 

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Samsung is getting serious about artificial intelligence

Samsung has already started dropping hints that artificial intelligence might be front and center on its upcoming flagship smartphone. The company is actually getting quite serious about artificial intelligence. Samsung confirmed today that it’s creating a new research center for advancing AI technology.

The company hasn’t said where this artificial intelligence research center will be located. However, it did confirm that it’s going to be a joint research facility under the mobile and consumer electronics divisions. Those are two of the three main divisions of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung’s artificial intelligence research center

The new artificial intelligence research center is going to be led by HS Kim, the chief of the company’s consumer electronics division. Young Sohn, Samsung’s chief strategy officer, will get a “strengthened” role to find new business areas for all business groups.

It’s pertinent to mention here that Sohn was the one who led Samsung’s $8 billion acquisition of Harman International last year.

Like big data, artificial intelligence is a key avenue of future growth that Samsung appears to be keen on exploring. It has also been investing in hardware companies that have experience developing co-processors for AI. Some reports suggest that the Galaxy S9 might actually feature a separate chip for AI functions.

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SamMobile Daily Recap: November 22, 2017 — Android 8.0 Oreo, Galaxy S9 and more!

We publish a lot of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a daily recap.

Here’s what we published today.

Firmware News

Galaxy S8 Android 8.0 Oreo beta 3 could release ‘very, very soon’

Phones

Case renders give us a glimpse of the Galaxy A5 (2018)

Galaxy S9 could be previewed at CES in January, launched in March

Galaxy S9 won’t introduce a drastic new design, tipster says

‘Mostly accurate’ case renders reportedly show Galaxy S9 design

Samsung could release a Galaxy Note 8 Star Wars edition

Tips & Tricks

Galaxy Note 8 Tip: S Pen Translate will make your life easier

Virtual Reality

Samsung’s next mobile VR headset will feature inside-out positional tracking

Wallpapers

Wallpaper Wednesday: Material Landscapes (Part 2)

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Galaxy S9 could be previewed at CES in January, launched in March

Samsung is planning to preview the much-anticipated Galaxy S9 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in January, with a launch event scheduled to take place in March—as it did for the Galaxy S8—reports VentureBeat.

The Galaxy S9, according to reliable tipster Evan Blass, will sport a near-identical design to the Galaxy S8, though it will benefit from a repositioned bottom-mounted fingerprint sensor and a rear-facing, vertically-positioned dual-camera setup.

Related: Galaxy S9 won’t introduce a drastic new design, tipster says

Both the Galaxy S9 (SM-G960) and Galaxy S9+ (SM-G965) are rumored to come with identical Infinity Displays to their predecessors — 5.8- and 6.2-inches, respectively. They’re also expected to feature the same 64GB of expandable storage.

They should, however, pack an improved Exynos9810/Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM as standard, AKG-tuned stereo speakers and at least a 3,500mAh battery, which will, of course, be subjected to Samsung’s 8-Point testing process.

Samsung’s working on a new DeX docking station

VentureBeat also noted that the firm is working on a backwards-compatible DeX docking station that lets you to use the handset’s screen as a touchpad or virtual keyboard when it’s laying flat, eliminating the need to carry a mouse and keyboard.

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Wallpaper Wednesday: Material Landscapes (Part 2)

Welcome to the latest edition of Wallpaper Wednesday. This week we’re highlighting five more Material Design-esque landscape backgrounds. All of the images are available in a suitable resolution for the Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ — and just about any other smartphone on the market.

If any of the following images float your boat and you want to download and set one as your wallpaper, simply tap on the photo to maximise it, then click and hold to save it. Once the picture is stored locally, open up Settings, locate and select Wallpaper, then just press the image to set it as your background.

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Camel

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Forest

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Metropolis

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Pyramid

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Woods

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Download

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Case renders give us a glimpse of the Galaxy A5 (2018)

Samsung’s mid-range lineup will soon be adding the Galaxy A (2018) smartphones to the mix. It’s unclear when the phones will launch, but it may not take much time, as we have received a tip with pictures of cases for the Galaxy A5 (2018).

These renders reiterate that the Galaxy A (2018) smartphones will have an Infinity display and, as a result, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Should these renders be of the final product (and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be at this point), the fingerprint sensor will be placed below the single rear camera, making the Galaxy A5 (2018) and its siblings the first to fix Samsung’s awkward fingerprint sensor placement instead of the Galaxy S9.

Now, these case renders do not necessarily mean an official unveiling of the Galaxy A (2018) series is imminent. Samsung could wait until January to do that, especially since the Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) were also launched in January of this year. Only time will tell, and hopefully, upcoming leaks will also reveal whether there’s a possibility of the Korean giant renaming the new A5 and A7 to Galaxy A8 (2018) and Galaxy A8 Plus (2018).

The post Case renders give us a glimpse of the Galaxy A5 (2018) appeared first on SamMobile.

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Galaxy S8 Android 8.0 Oreo beta 3 could release ‘very, very soon’

Samsung released the first two Android 8.0 Oreo beta builds for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ just eight days apart, but we haven’t seen any sign of the third beta, and that might be because Samsung is focusing on making the next build as stable as possible. This comes from a Samsung UK admin on the Samsung Members community, who has also said that the next beta will come out “very, very soon”, in response to a user’s query about the beta program.

Now, we know that “very, very soon” isn’t a lot to go on, and Samsung’s support reps are clueless about things more often than not, but if the Samsung UK admin is part of the beta team, we should pay attention. It’s good to see Samsung is taking its time with the third beta before making it available, and the state of the third beta should be a good indication of just how far out we are from the final version of Oreo. Hopefully, the third beta release will also coincide with the beta’s second phase, wherein it will be made available to a handful of markets, including Germany, India, and China.

Are you enrolled in the Oreo beta program? Let us know how your experience has been. Not using the beta? Find out what Oreo brings to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 in our roundup post. Also, see if your device is going to be upgraded to Android 8.0 Oreo if you’re not using the Galaxy S8.

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Galaxy Note 8 Tip: S Pen Translate will make your life easier

The Galaxy Note 8 has several features that will make your life easier and S Pen Translate is one of them. As the name suggests, the feature enables you to perform text translations quickly using the handset’s stylus. This feature was also present on the short-lived Galaxy Note 7 and it’s nice to see that it has stuck around for the Galaxy Note 8 as well.

We highlight such features in our extensive coverage of Galaxy Note 8 Tips & Tricks. One cool Galaxy Note 8 feature we recently covered lets you hover S Pen to easily scroll in apps.

Galaxy Note 8 Tip: S Pen Translate

Step 1: The S Pen Translate feature can be accessed by opening Air Command.

Step 2: Tap on Translate.

Step 3: Select the Source language and the Target language.

Step 4: Hover the S Pen over the text that you want to translate.

That’s just how simple this is. It’s also possible to translate an entire sentence. Just tap on the teal button in the translation box and highlight the sentence. The translation feature is powered by Google and it works for webpages and documents.

Bonus Tip

Seamless currency conversion is also built into this feature. Highlight any currency on the screen and it will be converted into your primary currency automatically. The primary currency is determined by the language and country selection.

So if it’s English and the US respectively, your primary currency will be USD. This feature is powered by Oanda. Do keep in mind that it takes a few seconds for the conversion to show up.

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‘Mostly accurate’ case renders reportedly show Galaxy S9 design

The Galaxy S9 is still a ways off from making an official appearance, but case renders leaked by BGR purportedly show the near-final design of Samsung’s 2018 flagship. Based on information “from the factory that is building Samsung’s new flagship phones”, these renders (from case maker Ghostek) are said to be “mostly accurate” and suggest that Samsung will be making a few minor but useful changes to the design that debuted with the Galaxy S8.

Galaxy S9 renders: Fingerprint sensor finally where it should be?

According to BGR’s sources, the back of the S9 is portrayed accurately in the renders, which means Samsung will finally position the fingerprint sensor in the proper place. In fact, the site says the dual cameras on the S9 will be positioned vertically, so the fingerprint sensor will be further down on the phone’s body and, therefore, quite easy to reach. At the front, the bezels above the display will reportedly be narrower on the final version of the S9, and the speaker at the top will look slightly different.

The rest, as expected, will supposedly not change much. There are the usual power and volume buttons and the dreaded (or useful, depending on how you look at it) Bixby button. The headphone jack seems to be included as well, which shouldn’t be surprising considering Samsung only recently made fun of Apple for removing the headphone jack and forcing its consumers into living the dongle life. Popular leakster Evleaks suggested that Samsung won’t make a drastic change with the Galaxy S9’s design, and that certainly seems plausible when paired with what we can see in these renders.

Naturally, these renders may be far from accurate, despite what the source of the renders might say at this time. Yes, we know that Samsung has been rather unsuccessful at keeping its devices a secret ahead of launch. But it’s still better to be skeptical, if only because that will make for less disappointment should Samsung, for example, decide to keep the fingerprint sensor in the awkward place it is on this year’s flagships. The Galaxy S9 is rumored to go into production in December, so we should see more information crop up in the coming weeks to clear things up.

What do you think of the renders? Is that a design you can get behind, or do you think things are fine as they are right now?

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Samsung could release a Galaxy Note 8 Star Wars edition

In less than a month, the next episode in the Star Wars saga, The Last Jedi, will release in theaters around the world, and it looks like Samsung will be launching a special edition of the Galaxy Note 8 based on the highly anticipated movie. Well, at least that’s what we can surmise from an image that has been published on Twitter by a leakster with a good track record.

Galaxy Note 8 to get the Star Wars treatment

The lack of any changes to the design of the phone is a red flag, although it’s possible Samsung isn’t willing to give us a glimpse of the Galaxy Note 8 Star Wars edition just yet. Or, the company will only be adding wallpapers, ringtones and other Star Wars media to differentiate it from the regular Note 8, which would be in line with the Pirates of the Caribbean edition of the Galaxy S8 that launched in China earlier this year. Of course, we would prefer a heavily customized version akin to the Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man edition, but that probably won’t happen.

The image seems to have been captured at the recent event in China where Samsung also announced Bixby for the country and teased a new artificial intelligence-based user interface for the Galaxy S9. Considering the wallpaper shows BB-8, the cutesy droid character introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s possible Samsung was only using it to showcase the aforementioned AI user interface.

For now, there’s no guarantee a Star Wars edition of the Galaxy Note 8 will be released. If it is, here’s hoping Samsung makes it widely available instead of keeping it exclusive to a galaxy far, far away China.

Would you be interested in the Galaxy Note 8 Star Wars edition?

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Samsung’s next mobile VR headset will feature inside-out positional tracking

Taeyong Kim, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, revealed at the firm’s Developer Conference last month that its next mobile VR headset will be equipped with inside-out positional tracking and its Six Degrees of Freedom controllers.

“The question is, how do we combine the benefits of [Gear VR and Odyssey] together for our next VR system?” said Kim at Samsung’s annual Developer Conference in San Francisco. “That’s the question we’re asking at this point.”

Related: Odyssey Windows Mixed Reality headset launched

Announced at the beginning of October, Odyssey is Samsung’s Windows-powered Mixed Reality desktop headset. It sports dual-OLED displays with a 1,400 x 1,600 resolution per eye, a 110-degree field-of-view, and built-in AKG headphones.

Odyssey Mini

It’s unclear, however, if the South Korean company is working on a mobile version of Odyssey—or if it’s attempting to bring inside-out positional tracking and its Six Degrees of Freedom motion sensors to its next-generation Gear VR headset.

All will be revealed in the not-too-distant future, though.

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