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الخميس، 28 أكتوبر 2021

Samsung Galaxy devices eligible for the Android 12L update

Samsung has singlehandedly been advancing the cause of Android tablets. The best Samsung tablets are also some of the best Android tablets on the market. It’s also the only company that’s selling Android-powered foldable smartphones at scale. Samsung devices stand to benefit from any improvements in software that Google can deliver.

Google is doing just that with Android 12L. It’s not an entirely new version of Android. Android 12L basically delivers an enhanced feature set to foldable smartphones and tablets. Google is itself calling Android 12L a “feature drop for Android 12.”

The entire idea is to make Android 12 better on devices with larger screens. There’s an improved UI that includes a new two-column layout for the notification shade, changes to the lock screen, home screen and more. Multitasking will be more powerful with a new task bar at the bottom that allows for quick and easy app switching.

The Samsung Android 12L update isn’t going to arrive before 2022. Google has confirmed that Android 12L will be launched early next year. Samsung has quite a few devices that will be eligible for this update. It goes without saying that all future foldables and tablets will support it as well.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Tab series will likely be the only ones to get Android 12L. Even though this feature drop is meant for foldables, it won’t be suited to the tall and narrow foldable panel of the Galaxy Z Flip series.

Galaxy devices that should get the Android 12L update

Galaxy Z Fold series

Galaxy Tab series

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Android 12L is here to improve foldable smartphones and tablets

Just days after releasing the stable version of Android 12, Google has revealed a new version of its mobile operating system. Android 12L aims to improve the UI design and productivity features on large-screen devices like foldable smartphones, tablets, and even Chrome OS-based laptops.

Android 12L will automatically scale the UI to fit larger screens better. For example, the notifications shade will be split into two parts. Quick setting toggles will appear on the left, and notifications will appear on the right. Hence, more toggles will appear in a single view, and notifications will show more information. Google had done something similar with Android 3.0 Honeycomb back in 2011. Hopefully, it will work this time.

Google Android 12 Quick Settings Notifications

The home screen, lock screen, and overview screen will take better advantage of larger screens on foldable phones and tablets to show more information.

The multitasking experience has been improved, too. With an optional taskbar, similar to One UI 3.1.1, users can pin frequently used apps and drag and drop them to open two apps side by side. Developers don’t need to update their apps to work in this split-screen multitasking mode as Android 12L will do everything on its own.

Google Android 12L Split Screen Multitasking Taskbar

Google says that it has improved the compatibility mode with Android 12L. It means that apps that haven’t been designed to work in the fullscreen mode on tablets and foldable phones will offer an improved letterboxed view. Google has also revealed ways that developers can use to enhance their apps on bigger screens.

The internet search giant has already released a Developer Preview on its website. Google said that Android 12L would be released in time for the next wave of foldable phones and tablets.

Samsung’s foldable phones and tablets, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Tab S7 series, will benefit a lot from Android 12. You can see the complete list of Galaxy smartphones and tablets eligible to receive the Android 12L update.

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KakaoTalk for Wear OS finally arrives and that’s great for Galaxy Watch 4

The Galaxy Watch 4 is the first Android-powered smartwatch that Samsung has made in many years. It has previously used its own Tizen OS for Galaxy smartwatches. Samsung embraced Wear OS for the Galaxy Watch 4 series.

This was one of the only ways Samsung could fix the app gap on Tizen. Developers are far more willing to make watch-compatible apps for Android. KakaoTalk, South Korea’s most popular messaging app, has only just confirmed that.

KakaoTalk app is now available for the Galaxy Watch 4

There’s no messaging app that’s as popular in Samsung’s home country of South Korea as KakaoTalk. Over 50 million active users rely on this Korean messaging app. With Samsung being Korean as well, you’d think Kakao would do it a solid and make a Tizen-compatible version of its app.

That wasn’t the case. Galaxy Watch owners didn’t have a dedicated KakaoTalk app. The company didn’t make a Tizen version. Galaxy Watch owners in Korea thus either had to switch messaging apps or not enjoy the freedom of being able to shoot quick messages from the wrist.

The KakaoTalk app for Wear OS has finally been launched. Since the Galaxy Watch 4 runs Wear OS, South Korea’s most popular messaging app now works on it. Users who have the KakaoTalk app on their Galaxy phone can get the Wear OS version on their new smartwatch. The app enables users to send messages, stickers, check recent chat histories and do much more from their wrist.

One of the reasons why Samsung switched from Tizen to Wear OS was to provide users with more apps. They’ll be happy to see that vision becoming a reality now.

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Samsung lays out its game plan for crushing the smartphone market

Samsung has had a pretty good year. The company confirmed today that it has posted record quarterly revenue and profits in Q3 2021. Its revenue and profits are up 10% and 26% respectively compared to the same period last year. The profit is actually the second-highest ever in the history of Samsung.

A lot of that was driven by Samsung’s semiconductor division. The performance of its mobile business has been strong as well. Samsung has now laid out the steps that it will take to keep crushing it in the smartphone market.

Samsung wants to remain king of the hill

Samsung’s mobile division brought in higher revenue in Q3 2021 compared to the previous quarter. It sold more smartphones due to incredible demand for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. Samsung’s mid-range devices continue to do very well.

The company has also been focusing on driving more sales of its device ecosystem products. It has received a great response from customers for the Galaxy Watch 4 series and the Galaxy Buds 2. Both new wearable devices were launched in August this year.

Samsung now expects there to be more demand in Q4 2021 largely due to the holiday season. It does caution that supply issues caused by the global chip shortage might impact shipments. It will now push to sell more premium devices in Q4 2021. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition has been launched with this very purpose in mind.

In addition to pushing its Galaxy S series, Samsung will also increase its focus on the mass-market segment with affordable 5G smartphones to target replacement demand. It will also strive to sell more wearable devices and tablets.

For the coming year, Samsung is committed to mainstreaming foldable smartphones. It’s also going to bring 5G to more affordable smartphones in order to increase adoption and achieve solid performance.

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Samsung posts record quarterly revenue in Q3 2021, thanks to chips, foldables, and OLED displays

Earlier this month, Samsung had announced that it is expecting the highest-ever quarterly revenue during Q3 2021. Today, the company revealed its final financial numbers for the quarter. It reported the highest-ever quarterly revenue and the highest operating profit over the past three years, thanks to robust sales of semiconductor chips and foldable phones.

Samsung’s Q3 2021 (ending September) revenue was KRW 73.9 trillion (around $63 billion), a 10% improvement over Q3 2020. The South Korean firm’s operating profit was KRW 15.8 trillion (around $13.4 billion), a 26% jump compared to the same quarter last year. The company’s operating profit in Q3 2021 turned out to be its highest over the past three years and the second-highest in Samsung’s history.

Strong semiconductor chips sales helped Samsung the most

The South Korean tech giant said that its semiconductor chip business did well during the quarter, thanks to a boost from cloud servers and data centers. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, people have been working, collaborating, and learning remotely, and those technologies rely on servers, which use memory and storage chips. Samsung is the world’s biggest memory chip manufacturer.

According to the company, its semiconductor business reported sales of KRW 26.4 trillion ($22.5 billion) during the third quarter, a 16% increase over Q3 2020. The company even benefited from the increasing sales of PCs and laptops used for hybrid work and gaming. Remember, the company is a contract manufacturer for Nvidia’s GPU chips.

Sales of OLED panels for iPhone 13, Nintendo Switch, and other smartphones improved profits

The company’s display manufacturing arm, Samsung Display, also did great, especially in the mobile segment. During Q3 2021, it reported sales of KRW 8.86 trillion (around $7.56 billion), a rise of 21% compared to the same quarter in 2020. Recently launched hit devices like the iPhone 13 and Nintendo Switch OLED use OLED panels from Samsung. Its large-display business suffered, though, due to declining LCD panel prices.

Samsung will soon launch Quantum Dot TVs to compete with LG’s OLED TVs

Samsung’s Visual Display Business, which makes TVs, monitors, and signage displays, started focusing on high-end products. The company said that it will soon launch Quantum Dot-based TVs to compete with LG’s OLED TVs. Despite strong sales of the Bespoke lineup of home appliances, the South Korean firm said that profits have lowered due to the increased cost of materials.

Samsung expects smartphones sales to improve in Q4 2021, but chip crunch could trouble the company

Coming to smartphones, Samsung said that its smartphone business declined 8% to KRW 27.34 trillion (around $23.33 billion) despite solid sales of foldable devices like the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3. However, the company expects strong sales in Q4 2021 due to intense holiday shopping in November and December. There might be a few problems related to the ongoing chip shortage.

The company’s network business, Samsung Networks, improved. Its client list expanded in Japan and North America, and the company is trying to expand its business in Europe and Southwest Asia. Samsung Networks had recently unveiled new 5G network infrastructure equipment.

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الأربعاء، 27 أكتوبر 2021

Bixby Home Platform gets better but Galaxy Home will never grow bigger

Samsung’s making another push into the IoT market, and at SDC 21, the company revealed its latest plans to make SmartThings the go-to IoT platform thanks to additions such as the Matter protocol and SmartThings Build. The company also announced a few improvements to Bixby and the Bixby Home Platform, which Samsung describes as “an intelligent layer between Bixby’s natural language processing and SmartThings.”

But despite these recent announcements, Samsung appears to have given up on its original plans surrounding IoT, Bixby, and smart homes.

What was the initial vision? Well, it was never entirely clear, but Samsung spent a few years developing the Galaxy Home and Galaxy Home Mini smart speakers, which were supposed to become the centerpiece of Samsung’s growing IoT landscape at one point.

The Galaxy Home smart speakers are some of the rarest Samsung consumer devices known to man

In reality, Samsung never got to sell the Galaxy Home and Galaxy Home Mini, but the latter version was offered as a Galaxy S20 pre-order bonus to select customers in South Korea. It received a few firmware updates since, which probably makes it one of Samsung’s rarest consumer devices in existence, next to the original Galaxy Fold.

SDC 21 came and went earlier this week, and although we got some exciting news about the future of IoT and SmartThings, there was no mention of the Galaxy Home / Home Mini speakers or any similar hardware products.

Samsung’s vision to develop a Bixby-powered home hub for SmartThings seems to have been scrapped. Or at the very least, that vision looks very different, in my eyes, compared to a couple of years ago. There are no Samsung smart speakers or smart screens coming for Bixby and SmartThings — not that we know of — but at least the latter platform now supports the Matter protocol, which guarantees cross-compatibility with many more smart home and IoT devices that are planned for release in 2022.

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One UI 4.0 beta program for Galaxy S21 in South Korea has concluded

The third One UI 4.0 beta update was released for the Galaxy S21 series in South Korea a week ago, but Samsung is no longer accepting beta testers. That’s a good sign, too, because it hints that Samsung is now getting ready to release the first polished build to the public.

The Android 12-based One UI 4.0 beta program was open to anyone who uses a Galaxy S21 in one of the participant countries. The sign-up process required the Samsung Members app, and countless Galaxy S21 owners joined the beta program to get a sneak preview of Android 12 and help steer One UI 4.0 in the right direction.

After three One UI 4.0 beta builds and a recent hotfix, Samsung closed the beta program to new participants. A Samsung Community manager confirmed today that the company is no longer accepting beta firmware recruits for One UI 4.0 on the Galaxy S21, which indicates that the beta program is nearing its end.

The beta program could soon reopen for Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 owners, but as far as the Galaxy S21 series is concerned, it looks like it might receive the first stable build soon. How soon? We can never be too sure, but Samsung hinted at a launch before the end of the year — possibly ahead of December.