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Unity Distribution Portal (UDP) lets you distribute your games to multiple app stores through a single hub. UDP repacks your Android build with each store’s dedicated In-App Purchase SDK to make your game compatible with the separate app stores (Android alternative app stores). In this tutorial, you will learn the procedure for publishing a game on Galaxy Store using the UDP console. All you need to do is implement in-app purchases (IAP) using UDP. UDP then automatically repacks your game into store-specific builds. Follow the tutorial to integrate UDP into your game and publish it on Galaxy Store. Before you start We recommend that you implement UDP in your game towards the end of the development cycle. It is easier to implement UDP at this stage as you have already decided what your game’s IAP items are. Make sure you have completed your game before diving into the UDP implementation. We have developed a sample coin collecting game (see Figure 1) in Unity and we’ll show you how we implemented UDP into this game. Figure 1: Preview of the sample game developed in Unity. Note that there are three types of Samsung IAP items: consumable (single use, re-purchasable), non-consumable (unlimited use, not re-purchasable), and subscription (unlimited use while active). Since UDP does not support subscriptions, there is no guidance for implementing subscription items in this post. Now that you know when to implement UDP and which Samsung IAP items are supported, we’re ready to begin with the development procedure. Create a game in the UDP console After signing in to UDP, please follow the steps below: Go to My Games -> ADD GAME, enter the game title, and click on CREATE. After that, you are automatically moved to the Game Info tab. In the Game Description tab, provide some basic information (metadata, description, visual assets, and ratings). Click on SAVE. You are not required to complete all sections at this time. Integrate UDP in Unity and link it to the UDP console There are two ways to integrate UDP in Unity: using the UDP package or Unity IAP. We used the UDP package for this blog. To do this, follow the steps below: In the Unity editor, go to Window -> Package Manager, select All packages -> Unity Distribution Portal -> Install. To enable UDP in your project, access Window -> Unity Distribution Portal -> Settings. Create a new Unity project ID (if required, or else use an existing one) in the Services Window. To do this, click on Go to the Services Window, select your organization, and then click Create. Obtain the client ID from the UDP console: go to the Game Info tab of the UDP console, scroll down to Integration Information, and copy your Client ID using the COPY button. Now, go back to Window -> Unity Distribution Portal -> Settings, paste the client ID into the relevant field, and finally click on Link Project to this UDP game. Now you have successfully linked your Unity project to the game created on the UDP console. If you’re having problems, go here to try some troubleshooting methods before jumping into the next section. Register IAP items in UDP There are two IAP products in our sample game: “Super Jump” (consumable) and “Upgraded Player” (non-consumable). We need to add these products in the UDP console so they can be purchased inside the game. We can register the items directly either on the UDP console or in the Unity editor. Follow the steps below for the UDP console: Go to the Game Info tab of the UDP console, scroll down to In-App Purchases, and select Add Item. Do not forget to click on EDIT INFO, if required. Provide a valid product ID, product name, price (USD), and description. Select if the item is consumable or non-consumable, then click SAVE. You can add as many products as you have in your game. For our sample game, we have added a consumable and a non-consumable item with the product IDs “superjump1” and “upgradeplayer1” respectively. Please remember the IDs you choose as these are required while initiating purchases. You can manage the prices in different currencies for each product individually by clicking on Manage amounts and currencies. You can also automatically convert your base price (USD) to different currencies for all your products at once by clicking Convert. Select SAVE in the top right corner to save your changes. In Unity, go to Window -> Unity Distribution Portal -> Settings, and click on Pull to retrieve your saved IAP items from the UDP server. Now, you can see all the items are added to the IAP Catalog. You can also add IAP items in Unity directly in the IAP Catalog by clicking on Add New IAP Product, and then selecting Push to save your products to the UDP server (see Figure 2). In addition, there are many manipulation processes for adding IAP items (for example, bulk import and CSV template). Click here to learn more. Figure 2: IAP Catalog under UDP Settings in Unity. Initialize the UDP SDK in Unity To access the UDP SDK, we need to declare the UDP namespace inside the game manager script. Please note that “player.cs” is the manager script in our sample project and is attached to the main player game object in the editor as a component. Hence, from now on we continue editing the codes into this script to enable all the UDP functionalities. Follow the steps below: Add the following line at the beginning to access the UDP libraries. using UnityEngine.UDP; Make the manager code (player.cs) inherit from the IInitListener interface. public class player : MonoBehaviour, IInitListener In the Start() function of the manager (player.cs) class, call the Initialize() method. StoreService.Initialize(this); The IInitListener then returns a success or failure message to inform your game if the initialization was successful. Implement the following methods in the same class to obtain this message: if it is successfully initialized, the OnInitialized() method is invoked with the user information; if it was not initialized, the OnInitializeFailed() is called with an error message. public void OnInitialized(UserInfo userInfo){ Debug.Log("Initialization succeeded"); // You can call the QueryInventory method here to check whether there are purchases that haven’t been consumed. } public void OnInitializeFailed(string message){ Debug.Log("Initialization failed: " + message); } If you’d like more guidance, check out Initialize the UDP SDK in the Unity documentation for more detailed information. Otherwise, continue to the next section. Query the purchased IAP items After the initialization is successful, we need to retrieve the previously purchased non-consumable and unconsumed products when the user launches the game. Call the QueryInventory() method of the UDP SDK to get the product information (product name, ID, description) for non-consumable purchases and consumable purchases that have not yet been consumed. Follow the steps below: It is necessary for the manager script (player.cs) to inherit the IPurchaseListener interface along with the IInitListener to implement the QueryInventory() method. public class player : MonoBehaviour, IInitListener, IPurchaseListener After that, we need to override all the required methods for the IPurchaseListener interface in our class. Although we show only the OnQueryInventory() and OnQueryInventoryFailed() methods here, we gradually complete the others in subsequent sections. public void OnQueryInventory(Inventory inventory){ //Query inventory succeeded Debug.Log("Query inventory succeeded"); IList<ProductInfo> productList = inventory.GetProductList(); if(productList != null){ for(int i=0; i<productList.Count;i++){ if(productList[i].ProductId=="upgradeplayer1"){ playerMaterial = Resources.Load<Material>("UDPMaterial"); MeshRenderer meshRenderer = GetComponent<MeshRenderer>(); meshRenderer.material = playerMaterial; } } } } public void OnQueryInventoryFailed(string message){ Debug.Log("Query Inventory failed"); } As you can see, a few actions have been taken inside the method depending on the product ID. Similarly, you can build some logic here (for example, check for unconsumed products and purchased products that have not been delivered) based on your game design. Finally, call the QueryInventory() method on a successful initialization inside the OnInitialized() method that was implemented in the previous section. public void OnInitialized(UserInfo userInfo){ Debug.Log("Initialization succeeded"); // You can call the QueryInventory method here to check if there are purchases that haven’t been consumed. StoreService.QueryInventory(this); } For further information about query inventory in UDP, go here. Purchase IAP products In our sample game, there are two UI buttons (see Figure 1), the “Buy Super Jump” and the “Upgrade Player.” These buttons allow users to purchase consumable and non-consumable items respectively inside the game. Please follow the steps below to accomplish these button actions: Declare two button variables in the beginning of the player class (player.cs). public Button buySuperJumpButton; public Button upgradePlayerButton; Add two listener methods, OnBuySuperJumpButton and OnUpgradePlayerButton, at the end of the Start() method of the player class (player.cs). buySuperJumpButton.onClick.AddListener(OnBuySuperJumpButton); upgradePlayerButton.onClick.AddListener(OnUpgradePlayerButton); Implement two listener methods in the same class for the button listeners in the previous section. These enable the “Buy Super Jump” and “Upgrade Player” buttons to initiate purchasing the respective IAP items through invoking the Purchase() method of the UDP SDK. Please note, we have used the item IDs we registered in the “Register IAP items in UDP” section. void OnBuySuperJumpButton(){ //initiate purchasing a super jump item StoreService.Purchase("superjump1", "", this); } void OnUpgradePlayerButton(){ //initiate purchasing an upgraded player item StoreService.Purchase("upgradeplayer1", "", this); } The overriding method OnPurchase() is triggered if the purchase is successful. In other cases, the OnPurchaseFailed() method is invoked with an error message. If the item is consumable, consume the product here. Otherwise, deliver the product. public void OnPurchase(PurchaseInfo purchaseInfo){ // The purchase has succeeded. // If the purchased product is consumable, you should consume it here. // Otherwise, deliver the product. if (purchaseInfo.ProductId == "upgradeplayer1"){ playerMaterial = Resources.Load<Material>("UDPMaterial"); MeshRenderer meshRenderer = GetComponent<MeshRenderer>(); meshRenderer.material = playerMaterial; } else if(purchaseInfo.ProductId == "superjump1"){ StoreService.ConsumePurchase(purchaseInfo, this); } } public void OnPurchaseFailed(string message, PurchaseInfo purchaseInfo){ Debug.Log("Purchase Failed: " + message); } Save the script and go back to the Unity editor to add references for the UI buttons to the variables of the “player.cs” script that we declared in step 1. We have completed purchasing IAP items inside our game. However, notice that in step 4, we only delivered the non-consumable item and invoked the ConsumePurchase() method for the consumable item. Consume IAP products We need to implement the overriding OnPurchaseConsume() and the OnPurchaseConsumeFailed() methods in the IPurchaseListener interface to consume and deliver the consumable IAP items. See the implementation below: public void OnPurchaseConsume(PurchaseInfo purchaseInfo){ // The consumption succeeded. // You should deliver the product here. if (purchaseInfo.ProductId == "superjump1"){ superJump++; } } public void OnPurchaseConsumeFailed(string message, PurchaseInfo purchaseInfo){ // The consumption failed. } We have delivered the “Super Jump” item by increasing the counting value. You can implement your game logic here according to your game design. Look here to find out more about consuming IAP products. Validate in-app purchases UDP performs client-side validation automatically. When a user purchases an IAP product, Galaxy Store returns the payload and signature. The UDP SDK then validates the signature. If validation fails, the purchase fails accordingly. You can also validate purchases on the server-side. See validating purchases on the server side to implement this functionality. Build and test your game Before building your game, add a UDP sandbox tester to verify that your IAP implementation is working. Go to Window -> Unity Distribution Portal -> Settings -> UDP Sandbox Test Accounts -> Add new test account, provide a tester’s email and password, and finally, don’t forget to click Push to save the update to the UDP server. Now build an APK by going to File -> Build Settings -> Android -> Build and providing all the necessary basic information in Player Settings (File -> Build Settings -> Player Settings). For more information on building for Android, see Building apps for Android. After successfully building the APK, deploy it to the tester’s Galaxy device and assess the IAP functionality. Next, check the test status in the UDP console by going to the Game Info tab and then scrolling down to Sandbox Testing. Publish your game on the UDP console Once you have finished building and testing your game, upload the binary to the UDP console (Game Info -> Binary). Finalize all the game information (Game Description, Ads, Premium Price, App Signature) and then release the game by clicking RELEASE before publishing. Go to the Publish tab on the UDP console, sign in to Galaxy Store with your commercial account, and then publish your game after UDP has successfully repacked it. You can later check the submission status in the Status tab of the UDP console. See details about publishing games on the UDP console here. Conclusion This tutorial demonstrates the entire process of publishing a game on Galaxy Store through the UDP console. It also uses the UDP package instead of Samsung IAP for integrating IAP into the game for Galaxy Store. UDP then repacks the game with the Samsung IAP automatically before it is submitted to Galaxy Store. Therefore, we hope this tutorial encourages you to develop games in Unity and publish on Galaxy Store easily through UDP Console. Additional resources on the Samsung Developers site This site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with Samsung devices and services. Stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. Visit the Marketing Resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. Finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the Galaxy ecosystem. View the full blog at its source

Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash As promised in my last post about dark mode, I bring you a dark mode tutorial . If you just want to see the code, a refactored version lives on Glitch. Let’s get straight into it. Prerequisites This tutorial is beginner friendly but not if you’ve done absolutely no HTML, CSS, JavaScript. You’ll also need a small HTML and CSS site that you’d like to add dark mode to. I’ll be using my own personal site. System Preferences Many operating systems now have dark and light mode settings which we should respect. A safe assumption to make is that if someone has their operating settings set to “dark” then they probably also want to view your site in dark mode too. We can do this with the CSS media query [prefers-color-scheme](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-color-scheme), this media query allows us to recognise the operating system’s colour scheme and define some CSS rules within it. So, just to make sure things are working let’s set the background to black if the operating system is set to dark: @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { body { background-color: black; } } This is my result. The media query can read what the operating system has as its colour scheme and applies the appropriate rules. You can test this by toggling the colour scheme settings on your computer. Toggle colours Okay, but what if the visitor wants to view your site in a different colour scheme than what the operating system is? We should give them that choice and we can do so by adding a toggle button and using JavaScript to switch between light and dark colour schemes. HTML First, let’s add a meta tag the head of our HTML: <meta name="color-scheme" content="dark light"> This will act as a fallback for the browser should it not have prefers-colour-scheme since it can act as an indicator for browser to know that the content supports colour schemes. Then we want to add the button to our body. <button id="colourModeBtn">Toggle Dark Mode</button> Finally on the body, we want to add a specific class (which will be important later on): <body class="`systemDarkPreference"> `<button id="colourModeBtn">Toggle Dark Mode</button> `</body>` CSS Next, we want to set some CSS rules for a light theme within our prefers-color-scheme: dark block. We’re doing this so that if someone has set their operating system to “dark” everything that happens is within a dark OS context since we can’t override that setting. Now, we need to switch gears in how we’ve been thinking about our colour scheming. Sure, it’s light vs dark but it’s also system settings vs overridden, and this is important. It‘s helpful to think of @ media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) as the system dark context within which we also want some rules for that media query and also when we want to override the system setting. It may be complicated but hopefully the code sheds some light: @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { body.systemDarkPreference { background-color: black; } } So within our dark context, we’ve added a systemDarkPreference to the body class as a way to apply our dark theme within the system dark context. We don’t need a class for our light theme because we’re going to be toggling the systemDarkPreference. So if the body is in our dark context but doesn’t have the systemDarkPreference class, then it will fall back to what rule it finds for the body element. So, what happens if a visitor switches off the dark theme? Or their operating system colour scheme is set to light and they want to switch to dark? Or what if the visitor’s operating system doesn’t allow users to change their colour themes? To ensure these visitors are properly served, we’ll want to add some rules outside of the media query. /* Default */ body{ background-color: white; } /* Dark */ body.dark { background-color: black; } We want to define the body element’s ruleset without any classes as the default behaviour for anyone who visits the site. Then a .dark class for those who want to toggle to a dark theme. There is a bit of repetition here since all the dark rules will have to be defined both inside and outside of the prefers-color-scheme media query but the default theme only needs to be defined once. JavaScript Remember to ensure your JavaScript is within <script></script> tag in your HTML or, if you prefer, is in a JavaScript file which is being called from your HTML like so: <script src="your_file.js"></script>. Without the JavaScript the visitor won’t be able to interact with the page. So next, we’ll add an event listener to the button we created earlier. Let’s get the button element: const ***toggleColourModeBtn ***= ***document***.getElementById("colourModeBtn"); Then we can add the event listener to the button: ***toggleColourModeBtn***.addEventListener("click", function () {}); At the moment this won’t have any functionality since we’re not asking it to do anything in the listener. Within the listener, first we want to make a few checks : ***toggleColourModeBtn***.addEventListener("click", function () { const hasSysDarkClass = ***document***.body.classList.contains('systemDarkPreference'); const currentSysIsDark = ***window***.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches; const isDark = (hasSysDarkClass && currentSysIsDark) || ***document***.body.classList.contains('dark'); }); Let’s see what each variable is checking: hasSysDarkClass checks that the body has the systemDarkPreference class on it. currentSysIsDark checks if the operating system is set to dark using the prefers-color-scheme similar to what we’re doing in our CSS. isDark checks that the first two variables ( hasSysDarkClass and currentSysIsDark ) are both true at the same time *or *that the body has the .dark class. This could have been one variable but it’s far easier to read split up like this. Before we apply the correct styles to our body, we need to remove the hard coded systemDarkPreference since as soon as someone presses our button, they are indicating they want to override the system settings. ***toggleColourModeBtn***.addEventListener("click", function () { const hasSysDarkClass = ***document***.body.classList.contains('systemDarkPreference'); const currentSysIsDark = ***window***.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches; const isDark = (hasSysDarkClass && currentSysIsDark) || ***document***.body.classList.contains('dark'); *** document***.body.classList.remove('systemDarkPreference'); }); Then we want to finally apply the correct CSS rules by toggling the body’s class list to include the .dark class if isDark is false. ***toggleColourModeBtn***.addEventListener("click", function () { const hasSysDarkClass = ***document***.body.classList.contains('systemDarkPreference'); const currentSysIsDark = ***window***.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches; const isDark = (hasSysDarkClass && currentSysIsDark) || ***document***.body.classList.contains('dark'); *** document***.body.classList.remove('systemDarkPreference'); ***document***.body.classList.toggle('dark', !isDark); }); The end result should look like this. Storing Settings So that our visitors don’t have to keep readjusting the settings, we should store their preferences. In my last post I spoke about different methods to do this including localStorage and Cookies. Since my personal site is small and doesn’t collect data to be stored on the server, I’ve decided to go with localStorage. When we make any colour scheme change, we want to save it to the browser’s localStorage which we can do in the event listener we just added. ***toggleColourModeBtn***.addEventListener("click", function () { ... let colourMode; if (***document***.body.classList.contains("dark")) { colourMode = "dark"; } else { colourMode = "light"; } ***localStorage***.setItem("colourMode", colourMode); ***localStorage***.setItem("overRideSysColour", "true") }); For this first section there are a few moving parts. First we initiate colourMode so that we can dynamically set it later. Next we check if the .dark class is applied to the body element, if it is then we can set colourMode to dark and if it isn’t then we can set it to light. Then we can save this value in the localStorage. Finally, we also want to keep track of the fact that we’ve overridden the system’s settings in the localStorage. The second section to this is to use what’s in the localStorage to set the page’s colour scheme when the visitor visits the page again. So somewhere outside of and above the event listener, we want to get the colourMode we saved previously and present the correct colour scheme depending on the value. if (***localStorage***.getItem("overRideSysColour") == "true") { const ***currentColourMode ***= ***localStorage***.getItem("colourMode"); ***document***.body.classList.remove('systemDarkPreference'); ***document***.body.classList.add(***currentColourMode***); } So we’re checking that the system colour scheme has been overridden and if it is, then we remove that hard coded system class then add the value that’s in the localStorage. Something to note here is that this value can either be "light" or "dark" however, we don’t have any rules for the .light class so nothing will be applied to this and it will use the default rules as defined in our CSS. If you have rules for .light this will cause issues, so you may want to use a different name or an empty string when you’re setting the value in localStorage. Choosing colours Now, arguably the most important factor of dark themes. Choosing the correct colours. Many sites go for an off-black background and lighter white or off-white text. You want to be careful not to have contrast that’s too sharp but you also need to meet the minimum colour contrast of 4.5:1 for normal text for accessibility purposes. It’s important to make your user experience as comfortable to all visitors as possible. However, you don’t have to be confined to black and white, feel free to be creative. Coolors is a tool that allows you to view colour combinations and ensure they meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. I went for a dark blue, light blue and pink combo. Finished Page Play with the finished thing. Last Words Samsung Internet is starting to support prefers-color-scheme as a Labs menu item, so web developers can start working with it, and exploring how it helps them to build better UI. In the meantime, Samsung Internet will support force dark mode for the sake of users how expect dark web page when they set the device as dark. So if you want to experiment with prefers-color-scheme on Samsung Internet, make sure to turn it on via the Labs menu for now. As I mentioned in my last post, there are many ways to implement dark mode and it’s up to you to analyse what the sacrifices for each method is. For example, if a visitor to my website has JavaScript turned off on their browser, then this solution won’t work. However, it’s overkill for me to store the theming data in a database (another method) because I don’t collect user data and don’t need to. The method I went with, while not perfect, is a nice middle ground. There are also other factors you may need to consider, such as the typography and icons which I didn’t have to think about. Check out the final glitch project to see how I refactored the code and managed the state of the button. If this tutorial is useful to you, feel free to share it and show off your new dark mode sites! View the full blog at its source

Making your web app adaptive following responsive design techniques can improve your performance score, here is how. The benefits of applying responsive design include boosting your SEO, having a better user experience on different devices, and making your website more accessible, but did you know that making your web app adaptive to different viewports can also improve your web performance score? In previous articles, we explained the current status of responsive design including dark mode and responsive design for foldables, and we even share some insights about its future, now let’s deep dive into how web performance is related to an optimized look and feel. Web Performance Metrics The first step to improving something is to measure it! Being aware of what metrics that we should collect to later compare results that will show us which aspects of our web app needs more work. When it’s about web performance, we can use any of our favourite browser devtools, in this case, I will be using Lighthouse. There are many metrics to consider but when it’s about responsive design, Cumulative Layout Shift and CSS Optimization play an important role. Cumulative Layout Shift The first metric that we will use to achieve a responsive design is Cumulative Layout Shift, this is really important because is a user-centric metric and measures visual stability. How many times have you been on a website and suddenly you experience some changes in the layout? It's like the page moves by itself! This can lead to click on the wrong thing or lose your place whilst reading. Annoying right? We don’t want to offer that bad user experience! Let me show you an example and how we fixed it. Last year we build the first prototype of Samsung Global Goals PWA in collaboration with the United Nations, our mission was to bring the native app to other platforms because we believe in the power of the outreach of the World Wide Web. This web app basically loads dynamic content like cards with images and text. One of our main goals was to deliver a fast app even if the connection was not reliable, then we tested the web app using a low bandwidth connection to see how it goes. The results were not bad but as we had dynamic images loading, our cards changed the size while it completes the download of the resources. This looks really bad, therefore it deserves a fix (and an apology to the user). Cards while loading with a low connection. How do we fix this? It’s pretty simple, if you have the same problem using images, always set up height and width. Width and height attribute added to img element If you have dynamic content like us on your web app or let’s say that you will show ads later, make sure to use placeholders specifically for this content. This is what we did, we used a placeholder with a background colour that matches the card and image, so images will load and cards won't move at all. Websites should strive to have a CLS score of 0.1 or less, by doing this we went from 0.33 to 0! Besides that, remember if your image is in a container you can use CSS to adjust the image to it by using height: auto and width: 100% CSS Optimization We usually rely on external CSS libraries to achieve a responsive design, there are a few things that we have to keep in mind to don’t mess up our performance if we do this. The techniques related to CSS optimization include reducing render-blocking CSS, eliminating unused CSS rules, and minify CSS. I will focus on removing unused CSS since it’s one of the most common issues that we need to improve when using external resources. Actually, you can check if you have unused CSS on Lighthouse, for example, here is telling us that we are not using around 95% of our CSS, this is a lot! Unused CSS metric on lighthouse How to detect unused CSS and remove it If you are using an external library check if you have the option to export just the components that you will use instead. Another option is taking a look at how your web app is using the resources. You can try this on Chrome Dev tools, press CTRL + SHIFT +Pto open the command line, and type coverage. A new tab will appear where you will find how much percentage of your resources are being used. For example, the following CSS library has almost 40% of unused lines, same with other resources. If you click on a particular one you can even see which lines are used or unused indicated by different colors. There are several libraries that can detect unused CSS and reduced your CSS file size, like Purify CSS, which is a JS library that you can install with npm or directly use purify CSS online. It will not only show you the amount of unused code it will also create a new CSS file with just the code that you currently need. Performance and Responsive Design are correlated Just in case that you were not clear about the multiple benefits of responsive design, now you can add one more to this list: making your web app faster and more performant. Which are your favorite performance tools? View the full blog at its source

Samsung Electronics today announced that its Neo QLED TVs1 became the first in the industry to receive certification of Spatial Sound Optimization from Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker(VDE). Different watching environments — for example, a living room, a bedroom, or a terrace — create different sound experiences. The VDE’s Spatial Sound Optimization certification is given to products that offer a consistent sound experience regardless of the surrounding environment. To reduce such variation in sound, Samsung has added the SpaceFit Sound feature to its Neo QLED TVs, enabling its products to provide a sound experience consistent to a standard listening environment. Built-in microphones are utilized to recognize the surrounding environment like curtains, carpets, and walls, which can affect the sound. For example, when the TV recognizes that the carpet in the living room is absorbing the mid-range and treble sound, it calibrates its sound to surroundings by boosting the mid and the treble. When the TV is placed close to the wall, the bass sound can be distorted since there is little space between the wall and the TV. ‘SpaceFit Sound’ can recognize the issue and reinforce the bass to provide a clearer sound. As more and more customers seek to personalize their space according to their lifestyles, TVs are being watched not only from living rooms and bedrooms, but also in workrooms, and even in kitchens. The sounds reflected off the surrounding walls, ceilings, and floors are much louder than the sound we directly hear. This means users can feel the sounds from the same product differently depending on the unique size and shape of the place and wall materials. While users were previously required to configure the audio manually, ‘SpaceFit Sound’ automatically recognizes the users’ environment so no additional setups are required. “SpaceFit Sound optimizes the sound from content by analyzing user’s surrounding environment,” said Younghun Choi, EVP and Head of R&D Team of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “What we want is for our customers to just enjoy their TV without any hassle.” 1 Certified models: Q70A, Q80A, Q90A, Q700A, Q800A, Q900A TVs View the full article

In this episode of POW, Tony Morelan is joined by all five members of the Samsung Internet Developer Advocacy Team. During our chat we’ll talk about building responsive web experiences for foldable devices, privacy and security on the web and exciting new technologies related to WebXR and the Samsung Internet browser. Topics Covered: The Benefits of Samsung Internet Browser Web Standards and User Experiences Foldables and Responsive Design Privacy and Security AR/VR (Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality) Android Developers Immersive Web Weekly 5G Tours W3C To hear all the Samsung Developer Podcasts, please visit samsungdev.buzzsprout.com. View the full blog at its source

As users around the world spend more and more time at home, being able to enjoy top-quality home entertainment has become an absolute must. Understanding that users need to do more these days with their TVs, the Samsung Smart TV lets users enjoy their favorite video content, game on their own terms and even undertake personalized at-home workouts. The hidden secret behind the multifaceted offering of the Samsung Smart TV is Samsung Electronics’ smart operating system (OS) Tizen. Tizen is a Linux-based, open-sourced web OS that is open to everyone, and supports a range of devices including TVs, mobile devices, home appliances and even signage. As of now, over 190 million people in 197 countries around the world are enjoying Tizen OS through their Samsung Smart TVs – though given the TV’s communal role in the family space, the number of actual users is expected to be much more. Tizen is a platform that truly encompasses Samsung’s user-driven values of “Screens Everywhere” and “Screens for All”, and the company is set to further expand the Tizen experience through collaboration across various fields including those of video, art and gaming. Take a look six advantages of Tizen OS on the Samsung Smart TV in the infographic below to learn more. View the full article

Every year, around 15 billion batteries are used worldwide – but only 2% of these end up being recycled. In order to find a way to help mitigate this growing environmental issue, Samsung Electronics has developed the innovative solar cell-powered remote control for its TV products. As part of Samsung’s efforts towards creating eco-conscious products and services across all areas of its business operations, the Samsung TV’s solar cell-powered remote control is powered by lighting instead of conventional disposable batteries and can be recharged using sunlight, indoor lighting or USB. Take a look at the video below to learn more about the sustainable – yet high-performing – Samsung’s SolarCell Remote.  Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics strives to incorporate environmental sustainability into everything we do. Our products are thoughtfully designed to minimize the impact on the environment during their entire lifecycle – from planning and manufacturing to consumption and recycling. View the full article

This blog is the fourth in a series of posts about Remote Test Lab (RTL). In previous blogs, we covered what is Remote Test Lab, its new features, and Auto Repeat. In this blog, we show you how to connect RTL to Android Studio and how to deploy and debug your app on the remote device. In an upcoming blog, we are going to take a deep dive into some additional features of Remote Test Lab. Remote Test Lab allows you to run and debug your application on real devices remotely. In this blog, we will connect a Remote Test Lab device with a local development machine’s ADB (Android Debug Bridge) using Remote Debug Bridge. The Remote Debug Bridge tool enables you to run and debug your app to check compatibility with the latest Samsung mobile devices, which solves the problem of not having your own physical devices. Connect your Remote Test Lab device to Android Studio To get started, launch a Remote Test Lab client, then go to Remote Test Lab and reserve one of the available mobile devices. The operating system version, device location, and desired time can be selected on the Remote Test Lab page. A JNLP file is downloaded to your computer when you click the Start button. If you run this file, the Remote Test Lab client is launched and a live image of the device is shown in the client. Step 1. When the live image is shown, right-click on the device's screen and select ‘Test > Remote Debug Bridge.’ Step 2. In the pop-up window, view the required command and port number to connect your Android Studio to the Remote Test Lab device. Step 3. Open a Command Prompt window and run the ADB command with the given port number. In this example, the command is: adb connect localhost:50964 Note: You must accept the RSA key prompt by allowing USB debugging when you run the ADB connect command for the first time on a Remote Test Lab device. Deploy and debug apps from Android Studio Step 1. The device is now ready to deploy your app from Android Studio. Build and run your app from Android Studio. In the following screenshot, an app is being deployed on a Remote Test Lab device from Android Studio. Step 2. The app is deployed and launched successfully on the Remote Test Lab device Step 3. Debug your app from Android Studio just like on a real device. In conclusion, Remote Test Lab offers a convenient and effective way to check the compatibility of your app and use debug facilities. Finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem. Remote Test Lab article series Get Started with Remote Test Lab for Mobile App Testing What's New in Remote Test Lab Testing Your App with Auto Repeat Using Remote Test Lab with Android Studio Web-Based client preview (coming soon) .rtl-blue-btn, .rtl-blue-btn:link, .rtl-blue-btn:visited { border: 2px solid; display: inline-block; padding: 8px 16px; vertical-align: middle; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; color: #1428A0; background-color: inherit; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; white-space: nowrap; background-color: #FFFFFF; border-color: #1428A0; transition: background-color .5s; border-radius: 6px; } .rtl-blue-btn:hover { border-radius: 6px; color: #fff!important; background-color: #1428A0!important; } Go to Remote Test Lab View the full blog at its source

One of the best ways we as individuals can protect the environment and take care of the Earth is to engage in such sustainable practices as upcycling – which is why Samsung has developed their Eco Packaging to allow users to craft helpful pieces of furniture and other decor with their product packaging once they’ve finished unboxing. One such use of the upcycling-friendly Eco Packaging is to craft pet homes with, a process that is made easy thanks to the packaging’s dot design for simple measurement taking and the user manual available via a quick scan of the QR code inside the packaging. In order to see this process in action, watch veterinarian and animal trainer Sul Chae Hyun construct an eco-friendly new sleeping spot for his beloved rescue dog in the video below. View the full article

This is how Morfologico turned Samsung’s Eco-Package into a mansion for its kitty Samanta. To celebrate the World Environment Day, Samsung Electronics Mexico invited Mexican content creator and influencer Morfologico to be part of the change towards a greener world by giving a second life to their television packaging. Samsung’s Eco-Package was born to create sustainable packaging, first by reducing oil-based ink printing and then with a dot-matrix design so that anyone can create a functional piece for home by giving a second use to the packaging of their TV. Morfologico’s Neo QLED box had the instructions and guide to create a cat house. With that, he decided to take this activity to a new level, by building a new home for his pet cat Samanta with a very innovative design. The result was breathtaking: first with exterior decorations and then with spectacular lighting inside the house. To make the mansion cozier, Morfologico placed a rug made with Samanta’s favorite blanket, a portrait and even a miniature Samsung “screen” for her to watch mouse videos. Undoubtedly the most surprised with the level of luxury and detail was Samanta, but Morfo shared his work on social networks and mesmerized his followers with his creativity. Samsung foresees that, if each Eco-Package is used as accessories in homes, it could reduce up to 10,000 tons of greenhouse gases in 2021. In this respect, Samsung promotes accessibility, sustainability, and innovation in all its products and technologies to help redefine the role of television in consumers’ homes. The company has embarked on a sustainability journey that puts the environment first in all business operations with several long-term sustainable programs, including eco-friendly packaging design across its 2021 display lineup, solar cell-powered remote controls, and carbon footprint reduction through the use of recycled materials. Thus, to mark World Environment Day, Morfologico demonstrated that a new and fun way to recycle is possible thanks to the Eco-Package of Samsung TVs. View the full article

Anti-Aliasing is an important addition to any game to improve visual quality by smoothing out the jagged edges of a scene. MSAA (Multisample Anti-Aliasing) is one of the oldest methods to achieve this and is still the preferred solution for mobile. However it is only suitable for forward rendering and, with mobile performance improving year over year, deferred rendering is becoming more common, necessitating the use of post-process AA. This leaves slim pickings as such algorithms tend to be too expensive for mobile GPUs with FXAA (Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing) being the only ‘cheap’ option among them. FXAA may be performant enough but it only has simple colour discontinuity shape detection, leading to an often unwanted softening of the image. Its kernel is also limited in size, so it struggles to anti-alias longer edges effectively. Space Module scene with CMAA applied. Conservative Morphological Anti-Aliasing Conservative Morphological Anti-Aliasing (CMAA) is a post-process AA solution originally developed by Intel for their low power integrated GPUs 1. Its design goals are to be a better alternative to FXAA by: Being minimally invasive so it can be acceptable as a replacement in a wide range of applications, including worst case scenarios such as text, repeating patterns, certain geometries (power lines, mesh fences, foliage), and moving images. Running efficiently on low-medium range GPU hardware, such as integrated GPUs (or, in our case, mobile GPUs). We have repurposed this desktop-developed algorithm and come up with a hybrid between the original 1.3 version and the updated 2.0 version 2 to make the best use of mobile hardware. A demo app was created using Khronos’ Vulkan Samples as a framework (which could also be done with GLES) to implement this experiment. The sample has a drop down menu for easy switching between the different AA solutions and presents a frametime and bandwidth overlay. CMAA has four basic logical steps: Image analysis for colour discontinuities (afterwards stored in a local compressed 'edge' buffer). The method used is not unique to CMAA. Extracting locally dominant edges with a small kernel. (Unique variation of existing algorithms.) Handling of simple shapes. Handling of symmetrical long edge shapes. (Unique take on the original MLAA shape handling algorithm.) Pass 1 Edge detection result captured in Renderdoc. A full screen edge detection pass is done in a fragment shader and the resulting colour discontinuity values are written into a colour attachment. Our implementation uses the pixels’ luminance values to find edge discontinuities for speed and simplicity. An edge exists if the contrast between neighbouring pixels is above an empirically determined threshold. Pass 2 Neighbouring edges considered for local contrast adaptation. A local contrast adaptation is performed for each detected edge by comparing the value of the previous pass against the values of its closest neighbours by creating a threshold from the average and largest of these, as described by the formula below. Any that pass the threshold are written into an image as a confirmed edge. threshold = (avg+avgXY) * (1.0 - NonDominantEdgeRemovalAmount) + maxE * (NonDominantEdgeRemovalAmount); NonDominantEdgeRemovalAmount is another empirically determined variable. Pass 3 This pass collects all the edges for each pixel from the previous pass and packs them into a new image for the final pass. This pass also does the first part of edge blending. The detected edges are used to look for 2, 3 and 4 edges in a pixel and then blend in the colours from the adjacent pixels. This helps avoid the unnecessary blending of straight edges. Pass 4 The final pass does long edge blending by identifying Z-shapes in the detected edges. For each detected Z-shape, the length of the edge is traced in both directions until it reaches the end or until it runs into a perpendicular edge. Pixel blending is then performed along the traced edges proportional to their distance from the centre. Before and after of Z-shape detection. Results Image comparison shows a typical scenario for AA. CMAA manages high quality anti-aliasing while retaining sharpness on straight edges. CMAA demonstrates itself as a superior solution to aliasing than FXAA by avoiding the latter’s limitations. It maintains a crisper look to the overall image and won’t smudge thin lines, all while still providing effective anti-aliasing to curved edges. It also provides a significant performance advantage to Qualcomm devices and only a small penalty to ARM. Image comparison shows a weakness of FXAA where it smudges thin lined geometry into the background. CMAA shows no such weakness and retains the colour of the railing while adding anti-aliasing effectively. MSAA is still a clear winner and our recommended solution if your game allows for it to be resolved within a single render pass. For any case where that is impractical, CMAA is overall a better alternative than FXAA and should be strongly considered. Graph shows the increase in frametime for each AA method across a range of Samsung devices. References Filip Strugar and Leigh Davies: Conservative Morphological Anti-Aliasing (CMAA) – March 2014. Filip Strugar and Adam T Lake: Conservative Morphological Anti-Aliasing 2.0 – April 2018. View the full blog at its source

The Galaxy Store Seller Portal team has brought forth new enhancements for May. Don’t miss out on valuable information about Galaxy Store Seller Portal In the past, important changes and the latest news about Seller Portal were shared through announcements posted on the Seller Portal system. Now, you can receive these announcements directly through email notifications. Email notifications contain valuable insights and information about Seller Portal. You will still continue to receive important announcements about the latest updates to Seller Portal, but now you can opt in and subscribe to receive benefits, tips, and news focusing on you, the seller. Change your email notification preferences at any time from your Seller Portal user profile. Subscribe now and don't miss any of the valuable information from the Galaxy Store Seller Portal team. Import beta app After beta testing your app, if no updates are required, you don’t need to upload the binary again. Instead, you can import the existing binary you used for beta testing to quickly register it for commercial distribution. From the Binary tab, click Import Beta App. App groups An app and its beta test apps are organized and displayed together as a group in your list of apps. You can easily identify which app is on sale in Galaxy Store or is being registered and if any apps were added as beta test apps. The group can be expanded or collapsed. Watch face keywords A new field for watch face keywords has been added for watch face apps (when "Watch faces" is selected as the category). Previously, we asked you to add keywords used on your watch faces in the Description field. This information is used to help us more quickly review your designs and identify any possible IP infringement. In the App Information tab of your watch face app, the Watch Face Keywords field is used for you to identify all words (such as your brand name) that appear on your watch face design. Text for commonplace terms, such as the names of days or months, do not need to be included. Promotional opportunities for Galaxy Store While discovering apps, a user may download an app based on various factors such as the app name, icon, screenshots, or description. Screenshots are one of the most important assets and can be used to make a big impact and visual impression. Did you know that your uploaded screenshots may be used for a banner in Galaxy Store? If you upload an image with a 16:9 ratio, the Galaxy Store team can immediately consider it for their promotions. Have you tried out last month’s updates to beta testing? Last month, enhancements to beta testing included testing any app at any time and running open and closed beta tests simultaneously, improving your ability to find and fix issues with your app before publishing in Galaxy Store. Read more about these added features in Enhancements for Beta Testing Apps in Seller Portal. Additional resources on the Samsung Developers site This site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with Samsung devices and services. Stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. Visit the Marketing Resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. Finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the Galaxy ecosystem. View the full blog at its source

▲ (From left to right) Ji Man Kim, Jun Hee Woo, Jason Park, and David Jung, engineers at Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business behind the development of the EZCal app. Ever since the beginning of the global pandemic, we have been choosing our living room sofa over our seat at the local movie theater, our QLED TV over a mega screen, and the convenience of enjoying a film at home over the excitement of a screening in a movie theater. At CES 2021, which was held in January of this year, Samsung Electronics premiered its EZCal app, which enables you to calibrate the picture quality of your TV to a quality comparable to that of a movie theater for those who want to enjoy that true cinema experience at home. Samsung Newsroom sat down with the developers of the EZCal app to hear more about the story behind how this upcoming app, which helps customers quickly and easily enjoy optimal viewing qualities, came to be. EZCal: For Cinematic Viewing Quality in the Comfort of Your Home In August 2019, Hollywood film directors including Christopher Nolan and James Cameron emphasized the need for a ‘film maker’ mode on user’s personal TVs, a mode that would portray a film in the quality that the creator had in mind when they originally produced the content. Such a particular picture quality is favored not only by Hollywood filmmakers but also by experts across a range of fields, including professional engineers of picture quality for TVs, experts from institutions concerning international picture quality standards, and developers of picture quality-calibrating solutions. This ‘film maker’ mode is also known in the industry as ‘creator-intended picture quality’ or ‘picture quality in accordance with international broadcasting video standards.’ However, in practice, this ‘film maker’ mode has often not been able to provide all users with the flexibility they require when looking to enjoy cinematic viewing experiences in the comfort of their own homes. In order to find ways to make it easier for users to enjoy cinema-level picture quality at home, Samsung Electronics developed a way to connect TVs and smartphones using compatible apps that then easily calibrates picture quality using the color data exchanged between the two devices: EZCal. “The fact that this app need be used only by those who want to use it helped ease the burden in terms of research costs,” noted Engineer Ji Man Kim. “What’s more, the app is easy to operate, meaning that users can seamlessly enjoy the picture quality they desire.” EZCal stands for ‘Easy Calibration,’ and upon its unveiling at CES 2021 this January, the upcoming app quickly garnered attention for its ability to showcase a creator’s intended picture quality through the app format, and even won the Best of CES Award at the AVS Forum, a forum comprised of industry experts. High-End Picture Quality: From Measurement to Calibration Prior to the development of the EZCal, calibrating the picture quality of a TV required a light-blocked room as dark as a darkroom along with a suite of high-end devices. The pattern generator and the optical instrument would first have to be connected to a PC equipped with a picture quality software solution, and the optical instrument would then be placed close to the TV screen so that it could recognize the pattern produced by the pattern generator. The picture quality would then be calibrated using the PC – all in all, this process was a cumbersome one and could take up to two hours if carried out manually. This process also required basic knowledge in picture quality, thereby preventing regular users from even attempting calibration. “We had to grapple with how to move past the existing picture quality-calibrating framework and integrate it into the users’ experience,” said Engineer Jun Hee Woo of overcoming initial concerns that arose during the development process. “The solution was to simplify each step of the picture quality calibration process and to think of ways to replicate the functionality of high-end calibration devices.” In order to replace the instruments that would measure the optical data of the TV screen, smartphone cameras were harnessed for the EZCal app. But even then, one problem still remained: the picture quality of TVs could not be calibrated under the RGB spectrum, i.e., a color value acquired using smartphones. “Picture quality for TVs should be based on the colors that people perceive with their eyes,” noted Engineer Jason Park. “This is why we needed the XYZ coordination data prescribed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). Developing an algorithm that could transform RGB data to XYZ coordination data was key to picture quality calibration.” The video pattern generator was then changed to incorporate a method of sharing video patterns directly from the TV, and the connection between the picture quality software solution and the PC was replaced by the connectivity of a smartphone to a TV linked via Wi-Fi. “It was through the process of verifying whether the hardware and software of the QLED TV and a Galaxy Smartphone were suitable for the development of EZCal that we became convinced that the complex picture quality-calibration process could be condensed within a single app,” said Engineer Ji Man Kim. Three Modes for Easy Calibration – to Your Tastes The greatest advantage offered by EZCal is that you can easily and quickly calibrate the picture quality of your TV to whatever degree you desire. Once you launch the EZCal app on your smartphone, the Tizen app built into your television will begin operating in the background. Then, depending on the detail of calibration you desire, you can select from the following three options: Quick Mode, Basic Mode, and Professional Mode. As its name indicates, Quick Mode is an option that enables easy calibration within a short period of time. Once you have selected this mode and brought your smartphone to your TV, the camera in your smartphone captures the on-screen video pattern and transforms the acquired RGB spectrum data into XYZ coordination data. “It only takes 15 to 30 seconds to calibrate the picture quality in Quick Mode,” explained Engineer David Jung. “Our focus when developing this mode was on enabling calibration in a quick yet effective manner.” Basic Mode, a functionality that is one step more advanced than Quick Mode, offers users a wider range of calibrations. While in Quick Mode you can calibrate a content’s white balance within two points, in Basic Mode you can calibrate this aspect within 20 points, and also calibrate the Gamma – which governs the brightness of video signals – and the greyscale linearity – the aspect responsible for the consistency of colors by signal strength – resulting in a more optimized picture quality. Whereas Quick Mode is an option designed to make the movie-watching experience more pleasant for regular users, the Basic Mode has been optimized for movie fans that enjoy being particular about their film’s picture quality,” explained Engineer Jason Park. Thirdly, Professional Mode is an advanced setup mode tailored for those that enjoy curating sophisticated picture quality experiences. Although Professional Mode requires the longest time for calibration to complete – between 12 and 15 minutes – this longer calibration period allows for color and brightness calibration to be undertaken in even greater detail. “Professional Mode can be used for a variety of situations, whether you are watching movies or playing games,” noted Engineer David Jung. “We recommend that you turn your room’s lights off and use tripods for even greater calibration measurement accuracy.” Reflecting the TV’s ability to provide the best picture quality possible, Samsung’s QLED TV lineup has consistently received support and praise from its users. Over 20,000 units of the 2021 QLED TV have been sold in Korea in just under two months since its release, a figure that mirrors the efforts of the company to provide users with high-quality viewing experiences at home. Samsung’s ongoing efforts to provide optimal picture quality experiences to users are what have led to the development of EZCal, which is set to bring about cinema-like picture quality to QLED users that would satisfy even the films’ creators themselves. The team who worked on developing EZCal is proud of the range of calibration options offered by the app; “In the near future, we will see EZCal be used across even more diverse areas,” shared Engineer David Jung. “There is no doubt that its emphasis on genuine media appreciation will expand to serve other purposes, too.” * Please note that all product and service features, characteristics, uses, benefits, design, price, components, performance, availability, capacity, and other relevant information may be subject to change. View the full article

Samsung Electronics today announced the global availability of its newly expanded Smart Monitor lineup, providing more display sizes and design options, along with new and enhanced smart features. The lineup now includes a larger 43-inch M7 (UHD resolution) model, delivering enhanced productivity and an immersive entertainment experience. The M5 (FHD resolution) models are now available in 24-inch, 27-inch and 32-inch displays, featuring a sleek design and a stylish new white color option. The Samsung Smart Monitor series was launched in November 2020 as the world’s first do-it-all screen designed for today’s businesses, academia and consumers who are working, learning and staying entertained at home. The Smart Monitor offers integrated media and productivity apps, versatile connectivity, built-in speakers and a solar cell-powered remote control. “As time spent working, learning and playing from home increases for people around the world, homes are being transformed into multi-functional environments,” said Hyesung Ha, Senior Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our expanded Smart Monitor lineup will continue to provide users with even more convenient and flexible ways to accomplish everyday activities through technology, enabling them to truly ‘do it all’ through powerful mobile and PC connectivity on the smartest monitor available on the market today.” The latest additions to Samsung’s Smart Monitor series include: Smart Monitor M7 43” (Model: M70A) – As the flagship model, the Smart Monitor M7 now comes in a larger 43-inch size that maximizes productivity and enhances entertainment, wrapped in a borderless design that delivers an immersive experience whether working, learning or playing. Featuring a 4K Ultra-High Definition (UHD) display, the 43-inch M7 can seamlessly switch functionalities, moving from a reliable work device to an instant 4K entertainment hub with built-in content streaming apps, speakers and HDR10 capabilities to optimize every detail of 4K content. Smart Monitor M5 27” and 32” in White (Model: M50A) – The popular M5 model now comes in a sleek and stylish white design for both its 27- and 32-inch models. The new color blends in perfectly with minimalist-inspired designs and adds a finishing touch to any interior aesthetic, making it ideal to complement a design-conscious user’s home. Smart Monitor M5 24” (Model: M50A) – The M5 range now also comes in a new 24-inch Full HD form factor, making it the most accessible Smart Monitor in terms of size and pricing. The Smart Monitor’s compact sizing makes it ideal for those who may not have the desk space for a larger monitor or for customers simply looking for a good value multi-functional monitor. Alongside the new size and design options, Samsung is unveiling a range of new features. TV Plus1 provides a variety of 100% free live and on-demand content with no downloads or sign-up required. Meanwhile, Universal Guide2 offers content recommendations based on an analysis of the user’s preferences and viewing patterns, ensuring fully personalized suggestions on popular apps such as Netflix, Prime Video and more. The voice assistant has been upgraded from previous models to enable not only Bixby, but also other voice assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The Remote Access feature will also be updated to ‘PC on Screen’ in June, enabling simple and secure connectivity between the Smart Monitor and external PCs for improved usability. As part of Samsung’s long-term sustainability program, the M7 43-inch includes an all-in-one solar-powered remote made from recycled plastic, delivering eco-friendly efficiency with charging from indoor sunlight, lightbulbs, or a USB-C connection. In addition, the remote for other models has been partially crafted from recycled plastic for reduced carbon footprint and enhanced sustainability. Utilizing the same features as the first-generation lineup, the Samsung Smart Monitor lineup provides numerous connectivity options for both PCs and smartphones. Users can connect their personal mobile devices with just a quick tap using Tap View,3 Mirroring or with Apple AirPlay 2. In addition, Samsung DeX allows users to enjoy a complete desktop experience by connecting their monitor with their mobile device. The display also supports Microsoft 365 applications,4 enabling users to view and edit documents and conveniently save them on the cloud even without PC connection, thanks to embedded Wi-Fi. For a clean workplace setup, the Smart Monitor offers plenty of ports, including a USB Type-C port,5 USB ports and Bluetooth 4.2 capabilities. The display can also transform into a complete entertainment hub with the ability for users to access OTT content and stream their favorite movies and shows on Netflix, HBO and YouTube even without a connection to a PC or mobile device.6 The Samsung Smart Monitor expanded lineup is available in a variety of models, sizes and specifications. For more information, please visit: https://displaysolutions.samsung.com/monitor/detail/1803/43M70A. 1 Availability depends on countries. 2 Availability depends on countries. 3 Tap view is compatible with Galaxy devices running Android 8.1 or higher, and version 5.1 in the SmartThings app. 4 Microsoft 365 Account required. 5 Available on only M7 model. 6 Streaming service availability may vary by country. Subscription required. View the full article

▲ (From left) Taejin Hong and Woomin Lee of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display TV Product Planning CX Team Every day, Samsung Electronics’ engineers and product planners work together to the end of creating products that are as fresh as they are innovative and groundbreaking. Their mission is no simple one: to introduce new ideas and advancements in technology while raising the bar, year after year. Since the first introduction of the flagship QLED TV in 2017, Samsung’s product planners have been responsible for the introduction of countless innovations, ideas and partnerships with the goal of bringing users the tailored, true-to-life viewing experiences they expect. As Samsung celebrates its 15th year as the number one global TV leader, no product better demonstrates cutting-edge product innovation of the company’s teams quite like the 2021 Neo QLED. In order to learn more about the development of the 2021 Neo QLED lineup, Samsung Global Newsroom sat down with two members of Samsung Visual Display’s TV Product Planning CX team, Taejin Hong and Woomin Lee. Innovation That Understands the User “Consumers expect new and exciting products every year, but there is a lot of competition out there,” noted Hong. “Many brands have TVs that are of the same size as Samsung’s, and also claim to have many of the same features and resolution, so central to our product development is breaking through the competition by really focusing on providing the most optimized user experiences for our Neo QLED lineup,” he added. Central, then, to the teams’ QLED strategy direction is the user. “Recently, we have seen a dramatic shift in what consumers are looking and asking for,” highlighted Hong. “Users are moving away from specs and feeds to upgrades that are centered around personalized viewing experiences, design, and true-to-life picture quality.” In order to realize this, both Hong and Lee stressed that timely feedback from real users as well as the market at large is critical. “It is so important for us to receive timely input and feedback from our customers, retailers, and behavioral experts in order for us to fully understand the most up-to-date TV trends,” noted Lee. “For our 2021 lineup, we focused on developing a new viewing experience that reflects the challenging and unprecedented times of late, one that is centered around hyper-personalized screens.” Incorporating the New Normal Into TV Development Not only has the recent global situation completely transformed the way users are interacting with their TVs, but it has also had an effect on the way TV product planning is carried out. “Traditionally, large trade shows such as CES and IFA serve as perfect opportunities for us to gather industry feedback, while in-person sales provide on-site consumer feedback,” explained Hong. “Since both of these opportunities have been off the table since early last year, we had to create a new internal meeting system that is both timely and agile enough to provide us with feedback from various regional offices regarding their local situations. This system incorporates touchpoints with vendors, partners, retailers, and customers, and allows us to easily communicate with all those on-site and helps us respond effectively to the changing landscape.” Since its launch in 2017, the QLED lineup has taken the premium TV market by the storm. Last year, QLED sales reached 7.79 million units, accounting for 35.5% of total Samsung TV sales. The company’s 2021 Neo QLED lineup, recently launched across various regions throughout March and April, has also provided valuable insight for the planning teams. “In Korea alone, our Neo QLED TV sales have reached 20,000 units in under two months since product launch,” said Lee. “This speaks volumes to the importance of market research and timely consumer feedback.” This new way of working, of course, comes with as many challenges as it does opportunities. “The number of meetings and calls we have held with regional product managers, retailers, and engineers around the world has more than doubled in the past year,” highlighted Hong. “Further to this, we have been actively carrying out surveys and research into our consumers and their ever-changing TV usage habits.” But this hard work has paid off, as noted by Hong: “The pandemic has been a challenge for all, but it has also provided us with a valuable opportunity to look back at what truly matters for both us and our users.” Harnessing Teamwork to Adapt to the Latest Trends There is no denying that mainstream consumer TVs are becoming larger in size and that the standards for picture quality are becoming higher than ever before. However, the recent shifts in TV and behavioral trends have seen Samsung’s product planners lean towards developing hyper-personalized screens able to fit into individual consumer lifestyles. “The past few years have been a period of introspection for a lot of people and self-improvement has become the force driving many purchases around the world,” said Lee. “According to a Salesforce report, 5 out of 10 consumers responded that they would consider swapping out a product for a different brand if it doesn’t deliver a truly personalized experience.” But this change in behavioral trends has not resulted in a complete transformation of the team’s strategy planning. “Picture quality and design have been our top priorities since the launch of our first TV, and changing consumer usage patterns, along with the increased need to provide a one-of-a-kind experience, are what ultimately led to the creation of this year’s Neo QLED lineup,” explained Lee. Samsung’s Neo QLED 43-inch model was also created through this multifaceted way of thinking. “Initially, we had not considered developing any sizes below 55 inches for the QLED lineup given the industry trend that saw consumers embracing larger screen models,” noted Hong. “However, following a study we undertook, we learned that there is also a growing demand for ‘second’ screens and more personalized screens used within office settings as well as family and gaming settings.” According to the study undertaken by Samsung, the advent of the ‘new normal’ that has seen consumers spending more and more time at home has seemed to accelerate different consumer TV use cases and there has been an uptick in interest in smaller screens. “We have seen an increased demand for smaller and medium-sized screens,” said Lee. “But when it comes to developing these smaller TVs, it is not just a question of simply shrinking the size. Every piece of engineering must be adjusted for a differently-shaped model, and everything from the supply chain to the production line must be customized for each product.” In the end, teamwork brought it all together: “We quickly got together with the engineering team and started developing the smaller flagship models for release this year – teamwork at its finest!” Developing Neo QLED to Be the Ultimate Entertainment Hub “Another exciting trend we have noticed since the beginning of 2020 is that a lot of people are playing more games, be it on their mobile, computer or on their TV,” noted Hong. According to a recent report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), there are approximately 214 million gamers in the U.S. alone, with 75% of households having at least one member actively playing games on a regular basis. “Gaming has become a fun group activity during the pandemic, particularly for those looking to connect with others,” highlighted Hong. “Naturally, we incorporated this trend into our latest products to provide a one-of-a-kind gaming experience. Such dedicated features on the 2021 Neo QLED include Super Ultra-wide Game View and the all-new Game Bar gaming interface – all while maintaining one of the lowest input lags in each TV category.” Hong, in particular, is a fan of these game-centric additions to the QLED lineup. “Personally, I enjoy the Super Ultra-wide Game View feature, which enables gamers to experience ultra-wide gaming. It is a feature completely new to TVs with its 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios, and this expanded field of view is great for finding hidden items or discovering enemies lurking in the corner while gaming.” Maintaining the Samsung Legacy of Superior Picture Quality and Design Both Hong and Lee agree that the latest Neo QLED lineup would be nothing without the past 15 years of display innovation. “At the end of the day, the QLED’s new features and product differentiation strategy wouldn’t lead to much without our solid foundation in picture quality and design,” highlighted Hong. Lee, who has led QLED usage studies in global markets, agreed that this was a universal trend that continues to guide consumer choice. “The Neo QLED lineup is a product that reflects a meticulous study of user behaviors and priorities,” he noted. “We realize that there are many factors to consider when looking to purchase a new TV, but at the end of the day, it is the superb image quality and sleek design offered by Samsung TVs that provide the most satisfaction to our customers.” The Neo QLED line represents the very latest iteration of this foundational excellence. “In particular, our Neo QLED TVs are equipped with Quantum Matrix Technology and Neo Quantum Processors, which enhance the picture quality through cutting-edge upscaling technology that harness Quantum Mini LEDs that are 1/40 the size of conventional LEDs,” explained Lee. “These technologies are a culmination of the industry’s peak technological advancements all working together to bring unrivaled picture quality to users in any viewing environment.” The innovative Quantum Mini LEDs featured in the 2021 Neo QLED lineup in fact played a very important role in design upgrades. “It is only fitting that, with such stunning picture quality and immersive audio experiences, we would also look to enhance the TV’s design,” explained Hong. “Due to the size of the Quantum Mini LEDs, we were able to modify the TV’s form factor to possess a slim and minimalistic design. It is a modern accent piece suited for any interior, all thanks to Samsung’s engineering mastery.” Looking to 2022 – and Beyond “I think the fact that we have been able to win over consumers for the past 15 years is a testament to Samsung’s dedication and commitment to developing products that are in line with consumers’ needs,” noted Lee. “In particular, ever since the introduction of our QLED lineup in 2017, we have seen a rapid increase in market share in the premium TV segment, which we are very proud of.” Based on the success of Neo QLED, Samsung’s TV product planning team is in the midst of developing yet another impressive and groundbreaking product lineup for 2022. “There is truly never a dull moment during the development cycle,” noted Lee. “We are already very excited for our 2022 lineup, and we hope that it will see us extend our No. 1 title in the global TV market through 2022 for a 16-year streak.” View the full article

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Spring is here and it’s a good time to clean house in your digital world. From your design process to Galaxy Store presence, it’s important to revisit past work to make sure it’s in top shape. To help you get started, members of the Samsung Developers community have been sharing advice on how they’ve successfully refined their processes and maintained a strong Galaxy Store presence. We conclude our ‘Refresh for Success’ series with Olga Gabay from Zeru Studio, known for their beautiful themes, wallpapers and Always-On Displays. Read on to find out how Olga maintains design quality in her portfolio. When and why did you start designing themes? I started designing themes over three years ago, without any prior experience in this field. However, being a Graphic Designer for 26 years, I already had a process that could take me from an initial inspiration to an end product. First, I make a quick sketch with my tablet, search for the matching stock material, then create a series of 3-4 quick drafts that will represent the home screen, lock screen, messenger and dial pad backgrounds. These images may vary from modified stock photos to complex digital art that may take many hours to complete. Once I’m satisfied with my design, I finalize it in Galaxy Themes Studio. In my first year, I was trying to figure out the market demand and create various seasonal products. Then I discovered promotional events are better for building demand than following popular topics. So, in my second year I put a lot of effort into chasing the upcoming events calendar. It wasn’t until the middle of my third year that I gave up following common requests. I decided to come up with designs based on my current mood and whatever comes to mind. Also, I stopped thinking about how many sales this or that theme can make. Theme Designs by Zeru Studio How often do you revisit your old designs and update them? From time to time, as long as refreshing the given binary is still available. Whenever I need to update a theme for a new Samsung device, I run through all the major screens and give them a fresh look. I almost always end up fixing at least a few colors, addressing visibility issues, and updating keyboard buttons or some other UI graphic elements. It might take a tremendous amount of time, but there is still value in prioritizing these updates over creating brand new themes during the active updating season, typically at the end/start of a year. If there is a new feature being rolled out with a scheduled One UI update, I will go through all my old themes and decide which ones to update. Recently, I added video call screen backgrounds to over 25 of my existing themes, despite it not having any sales or promotional value. It's my way of showing appreciation to those who still use my products and it gives me a sense of professional satisfaction. When new platforms are released, do you check to make sure all designs are working? It's way too time consuming and not even possible on the newer devices to re-check all old binaries. Instead, I prefer reacting to user feedback. Sometimes, I will check for certain issues (most often contrast or icon/text visibility) to make sure everything is okay after the latest One UI updates. I rely on the Remote Test Lab (RTL) on a regular basis to check designs, because I don’t keep old Galaxy devices. Are there any specific files you would recommend to always keep handy? Keep literally everything! Extra disk or cloud space is not that expensive nowadays. It's very important to keep all source files like vector formats, PSDs, hi-resolution images and videos. Image fonts, icons, buttons and backgrounds tend to change in size and proportion with every new device, and that's when old files become handy. Also, source files are often needed to create promotional materials. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give a designer about organizing their work to keep it fresh? It’s difficult to give advice that’s helpful to every type of designer. Some bigger companies who are producing thousands of designs might want to be very organized, but smaller operations might be more comfortable in a system that looks a bit chaotic from the outside. The best advice I can give is to find what works for you so organizing is easy and doesn’t feel like a chore. Thanks to Olga for sharing helpful advice on improving the design process and refreshing old themes to maintain their quality. You can connect with Olga and Zeru Studio on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also check out Zeru Studio’s full collection of themes in Galaxy Store. We hope you found our ‘Refresh for Success’ series helpful in getting your digital refresh started. Remember, making Galaxy Store updates is key to keeping your seller account active. You need two activities every three months that trigger an app review by the seller portal team. An activity takes many forms, and can be anything from uploading a new app, to updating a current app, hanging the description or adding/updating photos. However, changing the price of an app does not count. Follow us on Twitter at @samsung_dev for more developer interviews and tips for designing Themes, Watch Faces, and more for Galaxy Store. View the full blog at its source

Samsung Electronics has unveiled the first look trailer for the independent film “Two Yellow Lines” at retailers around the globe from mid-March. The film was shot exclusively in 8K, allowing the trailer to be displayed natively on Samsung’s new line of 8K Neo QLED TVs. Created by four close friends – filmmakers Billy Zeb Smith, Jake Olson, and Zac Titus, and director Derek Bauer – this project saw the team put their all into crafting this beautiful film, which is shot against the dramatic backdrop of Montana’s Northern Rockies. “Two Yellow Lines” tells the story of a PTSD-ravaged smokejumper who is suddenly and unexpectedly reunited with his estranged teenage daughter. Forced to travel cross country with her on the back of his thirty-year-old Harley, a battle that starts off face-to-face soon becomes more surreptitious. The two leads are played by a real-life father-daughter duo, Zac and Alexis Titus, and the cast is rounded out by Grant Show, Grant Harvey, Bre Blair, and Frank Collison. Consumers can watch the trailer on Samsung 8K TVs at selected retailers around the world. View the full article

The Samsung Developers team works with many companies in the mobile and gaming ecosystems. We're excited to support our friends, Arm, as they bring timely and relevant content to developers looking to build games and high-performance experiences. This Best Practices series will help developers get the most out of the 3D hardware on Samsung mobile devices. Developing games is a true cross-disciplinary experience for developers, requiring both technical and creative skills to bring their gaming project to life. But all too often, the performance and visual needs of a project can be at odds. Leading technology provider of processor IP, Arm has developed artists’ best practices for mobile game development where game developers learn tips on creating performance-focused 3D assets, 2D assets, and scenes for mobile applications. Before you cut those stunning visuals, get maximum benefit from Arm's best practices by reviewing these four topics: geometry, texturing, materials and shaders, and lighting. Geometry To get a project performing well on as many devices as possible, the geometry consideration of a game should be taken seriously and optimized as much as possible. This section identifies what you need to know about using geometry properly on mobile devices. On mobile, how you use vertices matters more then almost any other platform. Tips around how to avoid micro triangles and long thin triangles are great first steps in gaining performance. The next big step is to use Level of Details (LOD). An LOD system uses a lower-poly version of the model as an object moves further away from the camera. This helps keep the vertex count down and gives control over how objects look far away to the artist. This otherwise would be left to the GPU, trying its best to render a high number of vertices in only a few pixels, costing the performance of the project. To learn more, check Real-time 3D Art Best Practices: Geometry. Texturing Textures make up 2D UI and are also mapped to the surface of 3D objects. Learning about texturing best practices can bring big benefits to your game! Even a straightforward technique such as texture aliasing, where you build multiple smaller textures into one larger texture, can bring a major performance gain for a project. You should understand what happens to a texture when the application runs. When the texture is exported, the common texture format is a PNG, JPG, or TGA file. However, when the application is running, each texture is converted to specific compression formats that are designed to be read faster on the GPU. Using the ASTC texture compression option not only helps your project’s performance, but also lets your textures look better. To learn other texturing best practices, such as texture filtering and channel packing, check Real-time 3D Art Best Practices: Texturing. Materials and shaders Materials and shaders determine how 3D objects and visual effects appear on the screen. Become familiar with what they do and how to optimize them. Pair materials with texture atlas’s, allowing multiple objects in the same scene to share textures and materials. The game engine batches this object when drawing them to screen, saving bandwidth and increasing performance. When choosing shaders, use the simplest shader possible (like unlit) and avoid using unnecessary features. If you are authoring shaders, avoid complicated match operations (like sin, pow, cos, and noise). If you are in doubt about your shaders’ performance, Arm provides tools to perform profiling on your shaders with the Mali Offline Shader Compiler. There is a lot more to learn, so check out Real-time 3D Art Best Practices: Materials and Shaders for more information. Lighting In most games, lighting can be one of the most critical parts of a visual style. Lighting can set the mood, lead game play, and identify threats and objectives. This can make or break the visuals of a game. But lighting can quickly be at odds with the performance needs of the project. To help avoid this hard choice, learn about the difference between static and dynamic light, optimization of light, how to fake lighting, and the benefits of the different type and settings of lights. Often on mobile, it is worth faking as much as possible when it comes to shadows. Real time shadows are expensive! Dynamic objects often try using a 3D mesh, plane, or quad with a dark shadow texture for a shadow rather than resorting to dynamic lights. For dynamic game objects, where you cannot fake lighting, use light probes. These have the same benefits of light maps and can be calculated offline. A light probe stores the light that passes through empty space in your scene. This data can then be used to light dynamic objects, which helps integrate them visually with lightmapped objects throughout your scene. Lighting is a large topic with lots of possible optimizations. Read more at Real-Time 3D Art Best Practices in Unity: Lighting. Arm and Samsung devices Arm’s Cortex-A CPUs and Mali GPUs power the world’s smartphones, with Mali GPUs powering mobile graphics. This means you can find Arm GPUs in an extensive list of popular Samsung devices, including the Samsung Galaxy A51 and Galaxy S21. Arm provides practical tips and advice for teams developing real time 3D or 2D content for Arm-based devices. Mobile game performance analysis has never been more important Every year mobile gaming grows! It is now worth 77.2 billion US dollars in revenue in 2020. Growth in this sector is expected to continue in 2021 and beyond. With more mobile devices coming out each year, it is important for your content to be able to run on as many devices as possible, while providing players with the best possible experience. The Artist Best Practices is just one part of the educational materials from Arm. Alongside these best practices, you can explore the Unity Learn Course, Arm & Unity Presents: 3D Art Optimization for Mobile Applications. This course includes a downloadable project that shows off the many benefits of using the best practices. For more advanced users, check out Arm’s Mali GPU Best Practices Guide and learn about performance analysis with Arm Mobile Studio. Follow Up Thanks to Joe Rozek and the team at Arm for bringing these great ideas to the Samsung Developers community. We hope you put these best practices into effect on your upcoming mobile games. The Samsung Developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with Samsung devices and services. Stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. Visit the Marketing Resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps and games. Finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the Galaxy ecosystem. View the full blog at its source

On a rainy night, a family gathers in their living room to watch a horror movie. Snuggling up together under a big blanket, they push the sofa closer to the TV to maximize the spooky vibes. What else could they do to take their immersion to the next level? Samsung Electronics exquisitely refined its Neo QLED 8K lineup’s sound system to allow users to take full advantage of their large TV’s audio quality. The flagship displays were designed to analyze both the size of the space where they sit and how they’ve been installed in order to calibrate sound to its optimal settings. The TVs use that information to pump out realistic, object-tracking sound through their eight total speakers. When applied to our ‘family movie night’ scenario above, the TV’s speakers would compensate for when the family’s thick blanket absorbed the tones of mid-to-high registers, and evenly distribute three-dimensional sound from the corners to the center when the family sat closer to the screen. To learn more about how Samsung’s newest TVs customize sound based on where users place their screen, and how sound has evolved as tool for fostering immersive home entertainment, Samsung Newsroom sat down with some of the developers behind the displays. ▲ (From left) Engineers Jongbae Kim, Sungjoo Kim and Sunmin Kim of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business. SpaceFit Does Spatial Analysis Daily to Optimize Sound Settings Today, with more users watching TV in more places, including living rooms, workrooms, bedrooms, terraces and more, both sitting up and lying down, and at different times of the day, our viewing habits are changing. Now, more users are customizing their viewing experience based on their living environment. With this in mind, the developers focused on creating technology that would automatically analyze users’ viewing environments to ensure that they’re always enjoying the best possible sound. The result is SpaceFit, a feature that automatically checks for changes in your living space once a day and calibrates sound settings accordingly. Here’s how it works. First, a built-in microphone identifies elements that can affect sound, such as curtains, carpets and walls. Suppose the TV is placed in a user’s living room, which features a carpet that we can assume absorbs mid-to-high range sound. In this case, SpaceFit would optimize sound settings to raise the mid-to-high range sound accordingly and automatically. It works the same regardless of whether stands, wall hangings and other elements are changed. If the TV were to be moved closer to the wall, then the space behind it would become narrower, which could affect low frequency sounds. SpaceFit allows the TV to notice this change and adjust its settings in advance to produce clearer sound. The key point to remember is that all of these processes occur automatically. As Engineer Sunmin Kim explained, “SpaceFit is an automated function that does not require that users press a button, and the device won’t send out a ‘testing’ sound. By simply turning it on or off, the TV will analyze the environment based on the sound of the content that the user actually consumes. So all you need to do is just enjoying what is being played on screen.” This industry-first technology was made possible thanks to innovations that were based on a myriad of data and AI technologies. From sound-absorbing areas, such as what are referred to in sound engineering as ‘dead rooms,’ to acoustically reflective spaces, the team considered both extremes in terms of viewing environments. “Since there were so many variables to consider, we built up a sufficiently wide learning database and analyzed it using machine learning technology. That’s where the AI technologies that Samsung developed kicked in,” said Sunmin Kim, who also noted that the feature “can cover almost any typical space in which a TV may be placed.” OTS Pro Uses Eight Speakers to Produce 3D Sound From All Corners of the Screen Content is beginning to make use of a wider range of sound channels, and users’ preferred ways of enjoying that content are also changing. As home entertainment expands and both wide screens and multi-channel sources with immersive formats like films become more popular, it’s becoming commonplace for multiple people to enjoy the same content together. The key here is to widen the ‘sweet spot’ – the location from which users can enjoy optimal sound even at the outside edges of the screen. As content grows more varied and screens become bigger, sound, too, must evolve in a way that enhances users’ enjoyment. Object Tracking Sound (OTS) technology, a feature that tracks the movement of objects onscreen using the TV’s multi-channel speakers, is allowing Samsung to take users’ enjoyment to the next level. Neo QLED 8K includes an enhanced version of the technology, OTS Pro, and adds two center speakers to previous models’ six-speaker setup, for a total of eight. When an object onscreen moves, the speaker located in the optimal spot for expressing the movement produces sound, matching what the viewer sees on their screen. The immersive sound setup enriches the left and right stereo experience and the 3D effect, taking the viewing experience to new heights by making the user feel as if they were standing in the middle of the action. “Often, when consuming content on a large screen, viewers watching the TV from both sides notice that sound produced at the center of the screen seems like it’s being produced in only one side,” said Engineer Jongbae Kim. “That’s why we added a center speaker between the left and right sides. The combination of the newly added center speaker and OTS Pro gathers sound in the middle of the screen, makes voices clearer, and expresses sound’s position more accurately, without distortion.” If a speaker were to actually be placed at the center of a TV, it could clash with the overall design concept. The developers solved this issue by attaching a tweeter applied with a wave guide to the rear of the device. “If a speaker were to be placed on the back, sound would disperse in all directions and bounce off the walls, reducing clarity,” said Engineer Sungjoo Kim. “We needed a technology that drew sound toward viewers when they were in front of their TV. Employing a hole array technique enabled us to ensure that sound would travel well from a tweeter to the front of the display.” The team’s efforts to balance sound also extend to Samsung’s next-generation MICRO LED display. Because the bottom of this large screen can almost reach the floor of users’ living rooms, if users connect their display to a multi-component home theater setup, there may not be space to place a center speaker. “The 110-inch MICRO LED lineup features a μ-Symphony function, which allows you to use the built-in speaker as the center speaker,” said Jongbae Kim. “This means that you do not have to use a separate center speaker for your home entertainment system because MICRO LED’s multi-channel speaker fills that role. Because sound comes from the center of the screen, there is no sound-image mismatching, and the user enjoys a cinema-like experience.” Making Use of Each and Every Piece of a Ultra-Slim Design The Infinity Screen, a unique aspect of Samsung’s TV design, maximizes immersion by making bezels nearly invisible. It also posed a unique challenge for the developers, requiring them to explore how to best mount multiple speakers within the device’s slim form. “In the past, a duct structure was used to draw the low frequency sound from the inside of the woofer speaker to the outside,” said Sungjoo Kim. “This type of design is capable of generating unwanted noise resulting from air turbulence. So, for the 8K models, we decided to take a ‘passive radiator’ approach that allowed us to produce rich, low-pitched sound. This not only enabled us to use the limited space inside the slim TV more efficiently, but it also allowed us to create rich and pure sound.” “By exposing the diaphragm of the woofer and the passive radiator on the back of the TV,” he added, “it became possible to visualize Neo QLED’s sound performance in an interesting and intuitive way.” It’s just one of Neo QLED TVs’ many innovative, out-of-the-box design elements. To help accommodate for panels becoming thinner and thinner, components that used to serve basic functions have been given new roles. “We used part of the rear cover of the TV as an acoustic component that guides the direction of sound to the sides,” said Jongbae Kim. “We also reinvented the design of the ‘slit vent,’ a component inside the rear cover that extends from the center tweeter to the bottom and was previously used to emit heat, to improve acoustic performance by controlling directivity. We utilized each and every part as much as possible, which means that no element of the design is without purpose.” Delivering Rich, Realistic Sound The developers have also gone to great lengths to gain a deeper understanding of the content users enjoy as part of an effort to provide better sound performance. For example, when analyzing sports content, they focus on reproducing the sound of the crowd, while for music, they try to create a stable sound stage. For movies, they conduct constant analysis to ensure that dialogue comes from the center of the screen. “With speaker form factors changing, upmixing is becoming more important,” said Sunmin Kim. “Input channels are becoming varied, and the average number of speakers is increasing to six to eight, which adds up to countless combinations of inputs and outputs. “Let’s say you’re enjoying two-channel content. Here, instead of sending signals blindly through eight speakers, it is important to understand the mixing characteristics of the content and send each signal separately. Samsung’s unique technology makes this possible using an optimized algorithm that’s based on AI.” Samsung TVs have led the global market for 15 years running, and the user data that the company has accumulated thus far has been an invaluable asset. As countless families across the world use Samsung TVs, the ubiquity of the company’s displays offers an opportunity to think about what’s next. Sungjoo Kim hinted at what Samsung has in store. “We are systematically building a deep learning network that is based on numerous data,” said Kim. “In addition, we are going to firmly establish our position as a global leader by discussing technologies needed in the mid-to-long term with Samsung Electronics’ overseas AI research centers.” In response to an ever-growing flood of content, the developers are committed to helping Samsung TVs deliver a sound experience that’s as close to reality as possible. Screens are getting bigger, designs are getting slimmer, and content is becoming more varied. Keeping pace with trends, increasing speaker channels and doing so in three dimensions, and advancing our AI technologies to allow channels to better correspond to one another will bring us closer to delivering realistic sound. This may ultimately lead us into an era where you do not need a remote control to adjust sound settings. Look forward to more Samsung TV innovations designed to maximize users’ viewing experiences. View the full article

Photo by Julissa Capdevilla on Unsplash An Introduction to Cookies Internet users are becoming cognisant of the ways we’re being followed and tracked online, the ways our behaviour is being analysed and data sold on to line the pockets of a the ad industry. Over the last few years, the news has been filled with debate about who truly owns our data, who can use it and how can they use it. While the law is typically quite behind on tech matters, there have been a few laws that have arisen that aim to protect users (e.g GDPR, LGPD, CCPA, etc) however, some are really complicated to understand, and others only really deal with internet users in the context of capitalism (as consumers or advertiser/seller). Ultimately though, these laws are hindered by national boarders, GDPR is only relevant for users in the European Union, CCPA only applicable to Californian users, etc. Tech workers aren’t ignorant to these issues, tracking has been happening for decades and as it becomes more egregious, there is pressure for tech workers to do something. In October 2020, the Technical Architecture Group at W3C (the main international standards organisation for the web) published the Ethical Web Principles. Standards play a big role in dictating how the web and associated web technologies are used and implemented and the list acts as a bare minimum requirement for web standards to meet, the list includes: Security and privacy are essential We will write specs and build platforms in line with our responsibility to our users, knowing that we are making decisions that change their ability to protect their personal data. This data includes their conversations, their financial transactions and how they live their lives. We will start by creating web technologies that create as few risks as possible, and will make sure our users understand what they are risking in using our services. This is the most pertinent to online tracking technology (although so many more points in the list are applicable) and will be crucial for any new standards to meet. In this series I want to delve into some of the standards which are being discussed for proposals in the W3C Privacy Community Group and demystify a lot of what’s being discussed. My hope is that we will all be more informed and encouraged to participate in the broader discussion. HTTP Cookies Before I go into detail about the new standards, it’s good to understand the current landscape and the foundation for a lot of the discussion, and cookies make up a considerable amount of that foundation. What is a Cookie? Over the last few years, we’ve seen an influx of cookie notices on websites and web apps. Some request permission to use cookies (usually if they’re using third part cookies) while others just inform the user that cookies are being used, and while we all know they’re not the edible kind, we may not all know exactly what they are. the inkey list and uber eats websites both with cookie notices HTTP Cookies are a type of data store on the browser, to put it succinctly. They allow websites to collect almost any data they want about the user so that they can tailor the user experience &/or analyse data about who is using their site. For example, here is some of the information Twitter is collecting about me in a cookie: "dnt=1; remember_checked_on=1; lang=en; eu_cn=1; night_mode=2; ads_prefs="******"; twid=********;" Twitter are storing my advertising preference, my twitter ID, what theme I’m using (night mode), my language, if I have Do Not Track enabled, and if I set remember me when I signed in. These are pretty harmless and are used to make my user experience as seamless as possible. It’d be pretty annoying to have to set dark mode every time I logged in or to sign in after I’ve asked to be remembered. You can clear cookies in your browser settings but even if you don’t all cookies (with the exception of Session Cookies — more on those later) have an expiration date, although they tend to be very far into the future. As seen above, cookies are a collection of key-value pairs. So setting a cookie means assigning a key and a value in a HTTP header: Set-Cookie: `darkmode=1; Expires="Wed,12 May,2021 00:00:00 UTC"` Session Cookies As I mentioned earlier, session cookies don’t have expiration dates, this is how they’re distinguished from other cookies and also what makes them temporary. They last for as long as the browser is active, once the user quits the browser, session cookies will be deleted. Third Party Cookies These are the cookies that are responsible for a lot of the tracking complaints we have especially those related to ads. Typically cookies are first party, which means the domain key on the cookie matches the domain in the browser’s address bar. Going back to the Twitter example, when I inspect the cookies, I see the following output: List of cookie domains for twitter.com As you can see, the only domain listed is https://twitter.com, and since this is the same as the domain in the address bar, this cookie is a first-party cookie. A third-party cookie would have a different domain to what is in the address bar, which is how ads can do cross-site tracking. Doing the same thing on a popular gossip site produces a very different result: List of cookie domains for mtonews.com In this case, the first domain mtonews.com is a first-party cookie since that’s the domain in the address bar. However, there are a list of other domains which all have cookies on mtonews.com, they’re all third-party cookies. These cookies work by building a (sort-of) profile of you based on the sites you visit, in this case we’ve visited mtonews.com which has cookies belonging to ads.pubmatic.com. If we went to anothergossipsite.com which also had a cookie from ads.pubmatic.com both of the cookies from mtonews & anothergossipsite would be sent to ads.pubmatic.com’s servers which would allow them to create a browsing history of the site’s we’ve been to with an ads.pubmatic.com cookie on them. This is typically how cookies are used to track user behaviour. Final Thoughts There are other types of cookie, such as the Zombie cookie ♀ which gets regenerated after it’s been deleted or the Http-only cookie which can only be accessed via JavaScript, but for this series I wanted to give a brief explainer. The privacy web landscape is changing (for example third-party cookies are being retired) and in order to understand the direction we’re moving in, we should understand a little of where we’re coming from. This post is the first in a series of explainers that will cover what’s happening in the web standards world when it comes to web privacy. Feel free to follow what’s happening by checking out what’s on the table in the W3C Privacy Community Group on their GitHub or by having a look through the meeting minutes. Further Reading https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Cookies https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Set-Cookie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie View the full blog at its source

Galaxy Store is one of the top app stores to sell your Android games in many different countries. You can also sell various in-app purchase (IAP) items inside your games using the Samsung IAP SDK. As many of you now use the Unity engine to develop your games, Samsung has introduced a Unity plugin for the Samsung IAP SDK that enables you to implement IAP features. Follow the steps outlined in this blog to easily implement the Unity plugin into your project and utilize the Samsung IAP functionalities. Prerequisites It is assumed you are already familiar with the Samsung IAP procedure. If not, please read the IAP Helper programming guide carefully before proceeding further. After that, download the Samsung IAP Unity plugin package and go through its documentation. To avoid compatibility issues, make sure you meet the system requirements. There are three types of IAP items: Consumable: can be used only one time and re-purchasable Non-consumable: can be used any number of times and not re-purchasable Subscription: can be used any number of times while it is active For this example, we have developed a basic coin collecting game in Unity for Android and added UI buttons that allow users to buy IAP items (consumable and non-consumable) and a subscription. The “Buy Super Jump” button initiates purchasing a super jump item from Galaxy Store using the Samsung IAP SDK. Super jump is a consumable item which enables the player to jump higher than normal. Similarly, the “Upgrade Player” button initiates purchasing a player upgrade, which is a non-consumable item. This blog only covers consumable and non-consumable purchases, we’ll discuss subscriptions in a future blog. Figure 1: Preview of the sample game developed in Unity. Note: You are required to develop your game/application in Unity beforehand to integrate the IAP Unity plugin into it. Integrate the Samsung IAP Unity plugin After creating the game in Unity, you need to enable Samsung IAP functionalities in your project. Follow the steps below: Import the Samsung IAP Unity plugin package into the project. In Unity, click Assets -> Import Package -> Custom Package and select the downloaded plugin package. You can now see the Plugins folder under your Assets folder and the “SamsungIAP.cs” script at Assets/Plugins/Script. Copy or move the “SamsungIAP.cs” script into the default scripts folder of your project (where all the scripts are kept together) so that other scripts can access it easily. If you don’t already have a scripts folder, create a new one and keep all your project scripts together along with “SamsungIAP.cs.” Create an empty game object in the Hierarchy tab and drag-and-drop the “SamsungIAP.cs” script onto it. In our sample project, we have renamed the game object as “SamsungIAP.” Click on the “SamsungIAP” game object and check if the IAP functionality is enabled in the Inspector, as shown below: Figure 2: Samsung IAP is enabled for the project. Set the IAP operation mode IAP supports three operational modes. The production mode is for enabling billing for item purchases and the other two are for testing IAP functions without billing the game users for item purchases. The default operation mode is set to OPERATION_MODE_TEST with the return value as Success, but you can set the return value to Failure instead, or switch to OPERATION_MODE_PRODUCTION by checking (√) the Production Build checkbox in the Inspector as shown in figure 2. You can learn more about the IAP operation modes and how they work from here. Register the game and IAP items in Seller Portal To process/test the Samsung IAP operations, both your game and any IAP items need to be registered in Seller Portal. Follow the steps below: Ensure you have switched the platform of your game to Android and the package name is different from the apps registered in other app stores. You can rename the package name of your project from Player Settings -> Other Settings. Save your Unity project and build the APK file. In Unity, go to File -> Build Settings and then click the Build button. Follow the steps listed in Register an app and in-app items in Seller Portal and complete the registration of your game and IAP items accordingly. For our sample game, we have registered a consumable and a non-consumable item with the IDs “BuySuperJump” and “BuyUpgradedPlayer” respectively. Keep the item IDs in mind as they will be required when initiating the purchases. You can add testers (non-licensed and licensed) in the Binary tab of Seller Portal while registering your game in the manner covered in the previous step. Licensed testers are not charged for purchasing any IAP items. You can register the licensed testers in your Seller Portal profile. See IAP Testing for more information. Get previously purchased items Make sure to retrieve any previously purchased non-consumable and unconsumed items every time the user starts the game. Use the GetOwnedList() method of the IAP plugin to get information about the items the user has already purchased. However, please note there is a script called “player.cs” in our project which is added to the main player game object as a component. From now on we will be editing the code in “player.cs” to enable all the Samsung IAP functions for this project. Follow the steps below: Add the following line at the beginning to access the Samsung IAP libraries in this script. using Samsung; Call the GetOwnedList() method whenever the game launches by adding the following line at the beginning of the Start() method. Learn more about the GetOwnedList() method here. SamsungIAP.Instance.GetOwnedList(ItemType.all, OnGetOwnedList); After the processing of the GetOwnedList() method is completed, the OnGetOwnedList callback is triggered, which receives information about the specified purchased items and API call processing. We need to implement this callback method under the same class as in the following; void OnGetOwnedList(OwnedProductList _ownedProductList){ if(_ownedProductList.errorInfo != null){ if(_ownedProductList.errorInfo.errorCode == 0){// 0 means no error if(_ownedProductList.results != null){ foreach(OwnedProductVo item in _ownedProductList.results){ if(item.mConsumableYN == "Y"){ //consume the consumable items and OnConsume callback is triggered afterwards SamsungIAP.Instance.ConsumePurchasedItems(item.mPurchaseId, OnConsume); } if(item.mItemId == "BuySuperJump"){ superJump++; } else if(item.mItemId == "BuyUpgradedPlayer"){ playerMaterial = Resources.Load<Material>("playerMaterial"); MeshRenderer meshRenderer = GetComponent<MeshRenderer>(); meshRenderer.material = playerMaterial; } } } } } As you can see, some actions have been taken inside the game depending on the respective item IDs. For example, the super jump counter has been increased and the material of the player gets changed. If there is any consumable item which has not been reported as consumed, then the ConsumePurchasedItems() method is invoked. We describe this method in the next section. Consume purchased consumable items Use the ConsumePurchasedItems() method to report the purchased consumable item as consumed, which enables the item to be purchased again. See Acknowledge a purchased consumable item to understand this process better. When the process of the ConsumePurchasedItems() method in the previous section is finished, the item data and processing results are returned to the OnConsume callback method. We need to implement this method in the same way under the same class as we implemented the OnGetOwnedList method earlier. void OnConsume(ConsumedList _consumedList){ if(_consumedList.errorInfo != null){ if(_consumedList.errorInfo.errorCode == 0){ if(_consumedList.results != null){ foreach(ConsumeVo item in _consumedList.results){ if(item.mStatusCode == 0){ //successfully consumed and ready to be purchased again. } } } } } } Get purchasable IAP items The users may want to see details of the available IAP items in the store for the game. The GetProductsDetails() method helps to retrieve detailed information (for example, item name, price, or ID) about the IAP items registered in your game that are available for users to purchase. There is a UI button “Available Items” in our sample game for querying the purchasable items. After clicking this button, brief information for each item is presented in a simple dropdown list next to the button (see figure 3). To get the list of available items: Declare a button variable and a dropdown variable in the beginning of the “player.cs” script. public Button getProductsButton; public Dropdown itemList; Add a listener method for the “Available Items” button at the end of the Start() method. getProductsButton.onClick.AddListener(OnGetProductsButton); To initiate the GetProductsDetails() method, we need to implement the listener OnGetProductsButton() method. void OnGetProductsButton(){ //get all the product details SamsungIAP.Instance.GetProductsDetails("", OnGetProductsDetails); } After the processing is completed on the server side, the OnGetProductsDetails callback is triggered, which contains information about the available IAP items. Implement this callback method and add information of each item to the dropdown method so that the users can see them easily. In the example, we show only the item name and price. void OnGetProductsDetails(ProductInfoList _productList){ if (_productList.errorInfo != null){ if (_productList.errorInfo.errorCode == 0){// 0 means no error if (_productList.results != null){ itemList.ClearOptions(); List<string> optionItems = new List<string>(); int i = 1; foreach (ProductVo item in _productList.results){ string temp = i+ ". " + item.mItemName + ": $ " + item.mItemPrice; optionItems.Add(temp); i++; } itemList.AddOptions(optionItems); } } } } Figure 3: Showing the available IAP items in the game. The information about all IAP items is shown in the dropdown menu as a list. You can show only one specific item or more items by specifying their IDs in the GetProductsDetails() method if you want. Learn more about the method here. Purchase IAP items There are two UI buttons (see figures 1 and 3) in our sample game, namely “Buy Super Jump” and “Upgrade Player,” for purchasing consumable and non-consumable items, respectively. The variables for these two buttons are declared in the beginning of the Start() method and two listener methods: OnBuySuperJumpButton() and OnUpgradePlayerButton() are added at the end of the Start() method of “player.cs” script. Consequently, tapping on these buttons invokes the corresponding methods in the script. Follow the steps below to complete in-app purchasing: To enable the “Buy Super Jump” and the “Upgrade Player” buttons purchasing a super jump and a player upgrade, we need to instantiate the StartPayment() method inside the button listeners with the corresponding item IDs.void OnBuySuperJumpButton(){ //purchase a consumable item SamsungIAP.Instance.StartPayment("BuySuperJump", "", OnPayment); } void OnUpgradePlayerButton(){ //purchase a non-consumable item SamsungIAP.Instance.StartPayment("BuyUpgradedPlayer", "", OnPayment); } After the payment processing is completed, the OnPayment callback is triggered, which contains information about the purchased item, the transaction, and API call processing. We need to implement this callback method and act according to the item IDs as in the following:void OnPayment(PurchasedInfo _purchaseInfo){ if(_purchaseInfo.errorInfo != null){ if(_purchaseInfo.errorInfo.errorCode == 0){ if(_purchaseInfo.results != null){ //your purchase is successful if(_purchaseInfo.results.mConsumableYN == "Y"){ //consume the consumable items SamsungIAP.Instance.ConsumePurchasedItems(_purchaseInfo.results.mPurchaseId, OnConsume); } if(_purchaseInfo.results.mItemId == "BuySuperJump"){ superJump++; } else if(_purchaseInfo.results.mItemId == "BuyUpgradedPlayer"){ playerMaterial = Resources.Load<Material>("playerMaterial"); MeshRenderer meshRenderer = GetComponent<MeshRenderer>(); meshRenderer.material = playerMaterial; } } } } } For the ConsumePurchasedItems() method, we have already implemented the OnConsume listener method. In this way, in-app purchasing is fully implemented for both consumable and non-consumable items. Next, build the project, run it on your Galaxy device, and check that the IAP works flawlessly. In addition, you may update the APK of your game in Seller Portal and submit a beta version for more IAP testing. See the Test Guide to learn more about testing. Do not forget to switch the IAP operation mode to OPERATION_MODE_PRODUCTION before submitting the game to be published. Conclusion This tutorial explains the entire procedure of integrating the Samsung IAP Unity plugin and using the IAP functionalities for a sample game. Therefore, we hope that you can make use of this tutorial and develop an in-app purchase enabled game for Galaxy Store using Unity and sell your game items successfully to generate revenue. Follow Up This site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with Samsung devices and services. Stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. Visit the Marketing Resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. Finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the Galaxy ecosystem. View the full blog at its source

Spring is here and it’s a good time to clean house in your digital world. From your design process to Galaxy Store presence, it’s important to think about changes that could make things more efficient. To help you get started, members of the Samsung Developers community have been sharing advice on how they’ve successfully refined their processes and their Galaxy Store presence. We continue our series with Tan Nguyen from butterfly-effected, GmbH. A themes and watch faces designer, butterfly-effected has a long history with Samsung, having provided content for our first mobile content store, the Samsung Funclub. Read on to learn about Tan’s process for quality control that allows him to grow, while keeping their designs fresh. How did you get into designing themes and watch faces? Since 2006, we’ve been working with Samsung in different areas. For the UEFA Euro 2016 Football Championship, Samsung planned a promotion and asked us if we could create some themes for them. We were amazed at the number of downloads and created more. After seeing amazing results again, we continued designing more. That´s basically how everything started. Has your design approach evolved over time? Our process begins with collecting ideas, sketching and then selecting the best ones for production. Then we do extensive Q&A on the design and the technical part (e.g. are the colors visible in all combinations?). If everything passes, we send them to our partners for their approval before we upload them to the store. In the past, we spent a lot of time on the technical part, because everything was new. Now we have more experience and the tools have matured, so we can focus more on the creative part and design. The Samsung Galaxy Themes Studio editor has an integrated visibility check that is a helpful tool when finalizing designs. Geometric Perspective by butterfly-effected, GmbH Do you have a system in place to organize your designs and the way you present them? We created our own system to keep track of all the designs, designers, tasks, sales and revenue share for our brands. In addition to Galaxy Store, we use social media, mainly Facebook, to present new products to customers and fans. How often do you revisit your old designs and update them? We take the most downloaded designs (even the free ones) and update them on a regular basis. Time is allocated for that, and we update as many as possible without affecting the production of new themes. Some themes have more sales after the update, others do not. But in general, there is an increase, so it makes sense to revisit older designs — especially since products without an update tend to experience a drop in sales. Black Fiber by butterfly-effected, GmbH When new platforms are released, do you check to make sure all designs are working? When a new platform is released, there are usually many different firmware versions. This can make the creation and the Q&A process quite complex if the tester’s firmware, Remote Test Lab (RTL) and our phones show different things. We always prioritize checking on products with higher downloads. We use RTL when new issues arise (e.g. color combinations) that we can´t reproduce or fix in Galaxy Themes Studio. What advice would you give a designer about organizing and maintaining their work? Backup all source files and keep a file with all the layers. Also, it is helpful to use version control software to not lose track of supported devices and firmware. Thanks to Tan for sharing helpful advice on improving the Q&A process and prioritizing updates to keep designs fresh. You can connect with Tan and butterfly-effected, GmbH on their Facebook Themes Page and Facebook Watch Faces Page. You can also check out butterfly-effected’s full collection of designs in Galaxy Store. We hope this post helps you start your spring refresh for success. Remember, making Galaxy Store updates is key to keeping your seller account active. You need two activities every three months that trigger an app review by the seller portal team. An activity takes many forms, and can be anything from uploading a new app, to updating a current app, or changing the description or adding/updating photos. However, changing the price of an app does not count. Stay tuned next week for the final installment in our ‘Refresh for Success’ series and follow us on Twitter at @samsung_dev for our latest updates. View the full blog at its source

The user’s enjoyment of their viewing experience is one of the key drivers in the advancement of display technologies. While many developers work simply for the ‘ideal’ picture quality, Samsung’s Neo QLED TV developers have also put in the utmost efforts to develop optimized displays for users that go above and beyond ideas of what a display can be. In order to understand more about how those innovative features of the Neo QLED transcend technological hurdles to meet user’s growing demands for next-level quality displays, Samsung Global Newsroom sat down with the next-generation TV’s developers to find out more. ▲(From left to right) Engineers Bonggeun Lee, Kyehoon Lee, and Minhoon Lee from the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics The Beginning of QLED: the Quantum Mini LED The culmination of a range of leading innovations, the journey to developing the Neo QLED began with the creation of the Quantum Mini LED, a light source just 1/40th the height of conventional LEDs. Samsung’s engineers managed to reduce the size of the LED down to almost that of dust, and applied a micro layer that softly disperses light into the LED itself, allowing the chip to emit and disperse light on its own. The resulting self-emitting LED removes the noise possessed by previous technologies and enables the era of natural, smooth display presentation. “In those TVs that utilize the typical LEDs, there is an additional lens that has to sit on top of the LED so that the light can be dispersed, so our focus for our new LED product was on allowing it to disperse light independently,” noted Engineer Minhoon Lee. “Not only is the Quantum Mini LED smaller and more space-effective than its predecessors, but it also does not require the extra lens layer, allowing us to align more LEDs together in a more compact manner.” As the Quantum Mini LED is just 1/40th the height of previous LEDs, the engineers encountered many hurdles in the production process. There was not enough equipment available to work with these new LEDs that were of such a minute size, and the production process was inevitably intricate and tricky. “Not only is the Quantum Mini LED small, but we also needed to ascertain the accurate location of where electricity enters the LED in order to align the tens of thousands of elements around it,” said Engineer Kyehoon Lee. “This meant that expertise and advanced technologies became key. Samsung already has the know-how when it comes to developing next-generation displays, including micro LED products, so we could address this issue by applying existing Samsung processes that deal specifically with microfine elements.” Presenting Fine Details Through Precise Control: the Quantum Matrix Local dimming is a technology that enables better picture quality by optimizing the brightness appropriately and dimming or brightening parts of the screen that respectively need to be adjusted through distinguishing the screen backlights into multiple zones. Increasing the on-screen contrast not only provides life-like watching experiences, but it also significantly reduces the amount of electricity used. Samsung has championed local dimming technology for a long time, and has been able to improve and advance this technology through dedicated research and development efforts. As a result, the Neo QLEDs feature an evolved and optimized local dimming technology – Quantum Matrix. However, if the lens that is used to disperse the light on top of an LED is removed and the backlights are exposed, wouldn’t this result in users being able to notice the changes in brightness and contrast happening? The engineers had already considered this, and tackled this obstacle by including even more precise adjustment into the Quantum Matrix’s processes. Previously 10 bits, the Neo QLED features 12 bits brightness so that the light can be adjusted within a total of 4,096 levels. When the light level on-screen is not detailed enough, it can result in an impression of lag or freezing, and the light could be absorbed by nearby local blocks. However, Quantum Matrix technology is able to express a color at dozens of different levels without any glitching and presents them with no blooming. If you enjoy playing games on your TV, for example, you will be able to easily distinguish a foe in a dark cave with your own eyes. “The range of brightness that the human eye can see is called the dynamic range,” noted Minhoon Lee. “When it comes to Quantum Matrix, the light can be adjusted within a 4,096 level range, meaning that this dynamic range has also been maximized.” “The human eye is very sensitive, so we are helping each color to play its own role and show itself as it is instead of getting mixed up with other ones,” continued Minhoon Lee. “In addition, Quantum Matrix technology brings the extra electricity that isn’t being used in darker parts of the screen to the brighter parts so that the concentration is maximized. With this technology, we’ve achieved brightness of up to 2,000 nits with the Neo QLED.” Quantum Matrix technology not only precisely controls all those Quantum Mini LEDs, but it also controls the light source for each individual content. “This technology works by analyzing the content source being played so that users can enjoy even more vivid, realistic experiences,” noted Engineer Bonggeun Lee. “For instance, if there is a scene on-screen that requires a maximized sense of dimension, the technology will provide a sense of depth by focusing the light on the object that is at the front while darkening the background. It is a completely different technology from something as simple as lights that just turn on and off.” More Detailed AI Upscaling: the Neo Quantum Processor When it comes to enjoying the best possible viewing experiences, content picture quality is just as important as a next-level display. In order to ensure that users can enjoy high-quality content even if the original source is of a lower resolution, and regardless of local internet speed, Samsung’s engineers developed a picture quality engine to automatically convert any content to an optimized picture quality – the advanced AI-powered Neo Quantum Processor. The innovation key to the Neo Quantum Processor’s high performance is that its neural network has been increased from 1 to 16. This allows the processor to map different contents by their type, significantly enhancing its upscaling capability. “The Neo Quantum Processor works like this: the selected video’s attributes will be analyzed in real-time by the processor, and then the most optimized neural network out of the 16 available will be applied for the best possible upscaling result,” explained Bonggeun Lee. “This means that each one of the 16 neural networks is capable of playing a different role so that the processor can perform even more detailed upscaling.” The processor’s method of filling the gaps between low resolution and high resolution contents has also become more precise. If the gap between the pixels is widened, then simply copying and pasting the same pixel repeatedly will make the video unclear and blurry. With the Neo Quantum Processor, the correlation is constantly analyzed through neural network learning and the change between pixels is estimated to fill in the gap between pixels in a way that is as close to reality as possible. This allows for a pattern to be analyzed in real-time and the best possible upscaling solution can be applied to the content, no matter what resolution the input video has (be it SD, HD, FHD or 4K). The Epitome of Samsung’s Display Innovation: 2021 Neo QLED Samsung’s TVs have been number one in the global market for 15 consecutive years. This achievement illustrates the synergy between the different innovations the company develops for each of its products, and how they work together to consistently provide the viewing experiences that users expect. The Neo QLED, a TV in a whole new league of its own, was made possible only due to the company’s existing work into developing advanced display technologies. “Neo QLED isn’t simply a display made out of small LEDs,” highlighted Engineer Kyehoon Lee. “From including small yet effective elements to developing precise screen control, there are so many different technologies that have converged in the Neo QLED to bring beautiful display screen experiences to users. We’re very excited to see how our team’s efforts in research and development over the years have finally led to such an achievement in display technology.” Each year, the trends within the display business change without fail. When developing the Neo QLED, all the engineers agreed that the trend they paid the most attention to was “the bigger, the better”. Out of the many factors that users consider when purchasing a TV, size is always at the top of the list. The engineers expect that the market is set to move forward with this mindset, too. “In the past, some people felt uncomfortable with large-screen TVs, as they wouldn’t be able to so vividly see all the pixels on-screen and this lead to visual discomfort,” noted Bonggeun Lee. “However, Neo QLED is a TV that has reached the technological level that allows for satisfying viewing experiences across the board. In line with the leading trends within the TV market that prioritize ultra-large screens, we will continue to work towards realizing the perfect picture quality on a large screen.” Samsung’s Neo QLED, which presents its contents to users as if it were actually right there in front of their eyes, has been realized with the aim of opening up a new era for displays. Following this, it won’t be too long until we can all enjoy next-level viewing experiences right in our own living rooms. View the full article

The Samsung Developers team works with many companies in the mobile and gaming ecosystems. We're excited to support our friends Arm as they bring timely and relevant content to developers looking to build games and high-performance experiences. This free training series will help developers get the most out of the hardware on Samsung mobile devices. Webinars explore Android hardware and game optimization Mobile technology architect, Arm, is offering free mobile graphics optimization training for game developers everywhere from May 2021. The training includes three detailed webinars, run by the Arm performance analysis team, each including a live Q&A session with profiling experts. Game developers can sign up to the webinars to learn best practice advice for building graphics, investigating bottlenecks and interrogating all areas of performance using free tools. To get maximum benefit from the training, game developers should attend all three sessions in sequence to cover the following topics: Webinar 1: Mobile graphics processing fundamentals Webinar 2: Best practice principles for mobile game development Webinar 3: Performance analysis with Arm Mobile Studio Driving graphics performance in Android computing If you don’t already know, Arm is a top provider of leading-edge IP for over 95% of smartphones, with the Arm Cortex CPU and Arm Mali GPU powering mobile graphics across the globe. This means you can find Arm GPUs in an extensive list of popular Samsung devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S-Series (after Galaxy S7) and the Galaxy A-Series (after Galaxy A10). The new webinar series will provide practical training and advice for anyone developing for Arm-based platforms, covering everything from fundamentals of underlying GPU hardware to API best practices. Taking graphics advice out to the broadest audience Arm regularly offers bespoke training to game studios around the use of its free suite of game performance analysis tools, called Arm Mobile Studio, as well as broader graphics fundamentals. The training has been particularly helpful for improving game efficiency for several studios, including at King, for optimizing its ‘Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!’ game and at Wargaming, for profiling ‘World of Tanks Blitz’. Technical Director for Arm Mobile Studio, Peter Harris, says: The webinars are based on some of the most widely applicable aspects of what we offer in our bespoke training. Before getting into the very specific performance problems a game might encounter, we share some of the basics around what the GPU is doing, what sort of workloads cause it to stress and how you might prevent that. We have had great feedback on our bespoke courses from participants and found this aspect of discussion a real eye-opener for studios. We are delighted at the opportunity to share this material with a wider online audience and empower the industry when tackling performance optimization for Arm Mali. Mobile game performance analysis has never been more important Across game studios, mobile game performance is of increasing importance in every genre as mobile gaming has elevated to one of the highest performing industries globally, worth in the region of 77.2 billion US dollars in revenue in 2020. Growth in this sector is expected to continue in 2021 and beyond, increasing the rewards for studios who can deliver a console-like experience for players on mobile and compelling games that people can play for longer, without battery strain. The new training webinars are just the latest addition to a body of graphics education from Arm, which includes a helpful library of support for dealing with common issues such as high overdraw and fragment bound code. You can use the link here to sign up to all of the Arm game developer training webinars. View the full blog at its source