Here’s the Samsung Galaxy Home Mini in the flesh

It’s been over a year since Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Home. The company’s Bixby-powered smart speaker has still not been released. While we’ve all been waiting for it, Samsung went ahead and made another smart speaker, which we had exclusively revealed to be the Galaxy Home Mini.

Samsung hasn’t even released the Galaxy Home Mini to the public but it did start a beta testing program for the device in South Korea two months ago. The company has the mini speaker on display at the Samsung Developer Conference 2019 that’s currently underway in San Jose, California.

Samsung shows off the Galaxy Home Mini at SDC 2019

Samsung gave users in South Korea the opportunity to sign up for the speaker’s beta program until September 1. Once they’re approved, they will receive the speaker ahead of its planned release. The idea here is that Samsung would test the device in a real-world environment with a select group of users before releasing the device.

No such beta program was announced for any other country or for the Galaxy Home for that matter. So even though the speaker has shown up in California, there’s little to suggest that a beta program might be opened Stateside as well.

Samsung still hasn’t confirmed when it plans on launching these products. It has certainly been a long wait for those who have been waiting to pick one up. The last we heard from the company about this was that a release was likely in the mid second-half of 2019. Whether or not Samsung releases the Galaxy Home speakers before the end of this year remains to be seen. Unfortunately, the company didn’t talk about its long-awaited smart speaker during its SDC keynote today.

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Samsung Pay users can now earn Rewards points when paying for Lyft

Samsung and San Francisco-based ridesharing company Lyft are partnering to offer Samsung Rewards to Lyft customers and Samsung Pay users in the United States.

Starting today, October 29, Samsung Pay users who link their Rewards and Lyft accounts can earn 1,000 Rewards points. As usual, these points can be used to purchase Samsung products at discounted prices.

Earn Samsung Rewards points with Lyft, win $2,500 Lyft credit

It’s important to note that only the first 60,000 Samsung Pay users who link their Lyft and Samsung Rewards accounts will be eligible for the aforementioned 1,000 points, so if you want a chance to win them, you’d better act fast. But even if you won’t make the cut, you’ll still be able to earn one Samsung Reward point for each dollar spent on Lyft rides after linking your accounts.

In addition to the Samsung Rewards points, every eligible Lyft customer in the US will also automatically enter a raffle for a chance to “win Lyft for a year.” More specifically, the grand prize consists of 500,000 Samsung Rewards points. They can be either deposited into the winner’s account and used for discounts on Samsung products or exchanged for a Lyft coupon code valued at $2,500.

Terms and conditions apply, of course, so make sure you check Samsung’s official announcement and consult the pdf documents explaining the rules. Do you pay for your Lyft rides using Samsung Pay often? Are you excited about this new collaboration? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Breaking: Samsung may have just confirmed its clamshell Galaxy Fold

It was reported a few months ago that among the new form factors being considered for Samsung’s second foldable smartphone, the company had created a clamshell prototype. The report also mentioned that Samsung had begun fine-tuning the design.

Additional reports have also hinted at the possibility that the next Galaxy Fold will have a clamshell or flip phone-like design. Samsung has now dropped what might be the biggest hint about its next foldable smartphone.

The next Galaxy Fold is likely to have a clamshell form factor

The company has posted a video on YouTube titled “A New Form Factor for Foldable Smartphones.” It starts off by providing a refresher about how the user interface looks on the existing Galaxy Fold. It then changes slightly to show what the UI would look like on a device that folds around a horizontal axis.

A side angle is also provided to drive the point home that the UI will work just as well on a vertically folding device. A side-by-side comparison is also provided between the two form factors which shows how the UI will resize elements if the clamshell device is partially folded. It’s evident that Samsung has a clear idea of what the UI should be like on a vertically folding smartphone.

As per earlier reports, the next foldable smartphone from Samsung is codenamed “Bloom” and has the model number SM-F700F. We reported earlier today that newly obtained battery info also suggests that this device is going to have a clamshell form factor.

Samsung’s second foldable smartphone is expected to be cheaper than the $2,000 Galaxy Fold. There aren’t a lot of details available about the device just yet. However, it is believed to feature a 6.7-inch foldable display and a 1-inch cover display which would only be used to show simple information when the device is closed.

This is certainly an exciting development as it provides a glimpse of what the future might hold for the Galaxy Fold series. Do you like what you see? Let us know in the comments below.

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Samsung launches Galaxy Book Flex and Ion with QLED display, Wireless PowerShare

Samsung has unveiled a pair of new laptops at SDC 2019 today. The Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion are the world’s first laptops with a QLED display. That’s the display technology Samsung uses in its premium television.

It has even added the Wireless PowerShare feature to these laptops. First introduced with the Galaxy S10 this year, Wireless PowerShare allows users to charge other devices that support wireless charging. The new Galaxy Book laptops can charge Qi-compatible smartphones, Galaxy Buds and wearable devices through the touchpad.

Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion feature QLED displays

Samsung has co-engineered the Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion with Intel as part of the latter’s Project Athena program. Intel created this program to work with some of the industry’s biggest names to bring out a new era in laptop innovation. These are thus premium products with 10th Gen Intel Core processors, Thunderbolt 3 and Intel Wi-Fi 6 support.

One of the primary differences between these two laptops is that of the hinge. As the name suggests, the Galaxy Book Flex has a 360 degree hinge which allows for 2-in-1 use, both as a laptop and as a tablet. It sports an aluminum body with a head-turning “Royal Blue” finish. It has support for the S Pen’s new gesture controls as well. Optimized S Pen apps open up powerful new experiences on the laptop, including PENUP, which is available for the first time ever on a laptop.

The Galaxy Book Ion retains the conventional laptop design and is made with ultralight magnesium. Samsung has made it with portability in mind and it measures just 12.9/14.9mm thick while weighing under a kilogram. An additional SSD and DDR4 slot is present in the 15.6 inch version.

Samsung will offer the Galaxy Book Flex and the Galaxy Book Ion in both 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch sizes with a FHD resolution QLED display. The Galaxy Book Flex can be configured with up to 16GB RAM, 1TB SD and NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics. It features an integrated S Pen, AKG stereo speakers, fingerprint sensor with a 69.7Wh battery.

The Galaxy Book Ion will have similar configuration options but it doesn’t feature an S Pen. Samsung is yet to confirm pricing but the company says the Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion will go on sale in select markets from December.

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Samsung highlights Bixby, One UI 2.0 and foldables at SDC 2019

The annual Samsung Developer Conference is underway in San Jose, California. The conference is all about software and Samsung has highlighted new ways for developers to bring enhanced experiences. Bixby and One UI 2.0 improvements were among the things it talked about in addition to foldable smartphones.

The Bixby Marketplace was launched earlier this year to allow developers to bring their Bixby capsules to millions of Bixby users. Samsung says that the size of the Bixby developer community has doubled in the past six months. Starting next year, the Bixby Marketplace is going to expand so that developers can offer third-party integrations on more Samsung devices.

Samsung’s annual developer conference is underway

It has also made some improvements to the Bixby Developer Studio. The new Bixby Templates allow developers to create capsules using pre-existing forms. This means that they don’t have to start from scratch. With improved Bixby Views, developers can build experiences with a consistent design across mobile devices, smart watches, TVs and even refrigerators.

Samsung has already provided users a taste of One UI 2.0 with the Android 10 beta program for the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy Note 10 series. The idea behind One UI 2.0 is to enable users to focus on what matters most to them. In the interest of consistency, Samsung is expanding the use of One UI 2.0 to tablets, wearables and foldables as well.

Speaking of foldables, Samsung reiterated its commitment to exploring a variety of new form factors in the foldable smartphone category. It’s obviously not giving away any specifics at this point in time. However, it’s believed to be considering a clamshell-like form factor for its next foldable smartphone.

We’re on the ground in San Jose to attend the Samsung Developer Conference 2019. We’ll be sure to bring you all of the latest developments so keep it locked to SamMobile.

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2100 euros, but don’t expect Samsung to care much about your Galaxy Fold

Some of you might be surprised by reading that title. It’s not something you would normally expect to read on SamMobile. It may even be considered rude on some level but we feel that this reaction is justified now. We are sounding the alarm for the Galaxy Fold, the most expensive device that Samsung has ever made.

We have purchased four Galaxy Fold units here at SamMobile. They were bought from Germany since Samsung hasn’t started selling them in the Netherlands. This post is not about any hardware problems. All of our units have been working exactly as they’re supposed to. We genuinely feel that the Galaxy Fold is a great device.

Our issue here is the lackluster software support. Until today, our Galaxy Fold was running the August 2019 security patch. All of our units are the 5G variant (SM-F907B) and Samsung hasn’t shown enough haste in rolling out updates for this variant compared to the LTE-only SM-F900F. The October 2019 security patch was released for the 5G variant earlier today and it has only rolled out in the United Kingdom so far. This is the first firmware update for the 5G variant since it went on sale with the August patch pre-installed.

This meant that our devices, the pinnacle of Samsung’s achievements in mobile technology so far, was on a security patch that wasn’t as up to date as the one on your Galaxy S10 or even the Galaxy S9. Normally, we’re not too concerned if Samsung takes a couple of weeks to release an update for all of the variants of a device. In this case, the SM-F907B didn’t receive any updates at all until today.

Now we don’t know the reason why Samsung took its sweet time to release this update for the 5G Galaxy Fold, which finally brought some new features that owners of the LTE variant have enjoyed for a few weeks now. What I can personally tell you is that this is a very strange user experience for someone who paid top dollar for the most premium device in Samsung’s lineup.

Yes, us early adopters have taken a chance on the Galaxy Fold and this is kind of a long and protracted “beta” experiment. However, the way Samsung has been indifferent about the software experience for Galaxy Fold users is really confusing. Software is what most Galaxy Fold owners care about now and Samsung should do better in this department because we have all paid a hefty chunk to essentially test its first foldable smartphone.

It should also engage this most loyal of customer bases by giving them the opportunity to test new features. The Galaxy Fold experience can be seriously elevated even further if new software features are released frequently. Why make them wait until One UI 2.0 and Android 10? I’ve said it before as well, Samsung should offer more useful camera features on this device to fully take advantage of its six cameras. Yet, it is still not possible to activate the cover display when using the foldable display as a viewfinder. It’s a missed opportunity.

I’m sure that many who are in the same situation will appreciate if Samsung brought some consistency to the software experience for the Galaxy Fold. Nevermind the fact that some even think an exception should be made for a device that costs this much and that it should be supported for three major Android OS updates. That’s never going to happen but at least Samsung can do its part and not make us wait terribly long for these minor updates.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and let’s get a conversation going.

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Samsung Blockchain Platform SDK announced, opens new doors for devs

Samsung revealed its latest plans for mobile blockchain technology at SDC 2019, detailing how its new Samsung Blockchain Platform SDK is going to help developers in overcoming the security and complexity issues surrounding the development of DApp (Decentralized App).

Bringing blockchain technology to mobile has been a challenge because the majority of blockchain apps are web or PC-based for security reasons. It’s virtually impossible for a hacker to access a blockchain without having the blockchain’s public and private keys, but the mobile platform doesn’t offer a lot in terms of secure key storage. Samsung launched its Blockchain Keystore earlier this year to tackle these problems and make mobile devices a secure platform for cryptocurrency. Here’s what’s next on Samsung’s agenda.

Samsung Blockchain Platform SDK announced

The Korean tech giant announced that it’s going to complement its Blockchain Keystore with a new Blockchain Platform SDK (Software Development Kit). The company claims this is a comprehensive solution designed to tackle two of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of expanding the DApp ecosystem, namely security and complexity.

Samsung claims that its new Blockchain Platform SDK will allow developers to create web-based DApps and seamlessly integrate them into the mobile platform. The SDK includes a dedicated mobile DApp browser that allows web-based blockchain apps to run on mobile. The SDK also allows developers to integrate blockchain features such as crypto payment methods in legacy apps. Additionally, the new SDK is integrated with Ledger, offering more private key storing options and improved security.

Samsung didn’t reveal any details as to when the Samsung Blockchain Platform SDK will be available for third-party developers, but more details should be announced at SDC 2019 in San Jose. Check out our previous story on how you can watch Samsung’s SDC 2019 conference live.

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