Regular Security and Feature updates and more apps support
-
Similar Topics
-
By BGR
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series started shipping last week and appears to be a winner already. The phones are as fast as possible for 2023 Android flagships. The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera and battery life are impressive. More importantly, the Galaxy S23 phones aren’t more expensive than their predecessors, despite offering much better performance. Still, the phones are quite expensive. Samsung fans on a budget might want to wait for the price to drop — or for the cheaper Galaxy S23 FE to arrive.
What’s great about Galaxy S23 performance so far is that we’re not seeing any of the issues that hurt the Galaxy S22 series last year. There’s no Exynos version of the handset, and Samsung isn’t throttling the phone. Nor is it cheating in benchmarks.
If anything, the Galaxy S23 phones feature an even faster variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that will power most 2023 Android flagships. And the same chip is available in all regions.
Had Samsung followed Apple’s strategy, it could have easily turned the Galaxy S22 into a great budget alternative to the Galaxy S23. And Samsung did say during the Galaxy S23 event that it’ll continue selling the Galaxy S22. But those phones still rock the Snapdragon/Exynos combos of chips.
Galaxy S23 price structure announced at Unpacked 2023. Image source: Samsung That’s to say the Galaxy S22 might have been a decent Galaxy S23 FE alternative. Samsung wouldn’t have needed to bring the Fan Edition back. As a reminder, there was no S22 FE variant last year.
A Korean leaker (via SamMobile) claims that Samsung is making a Galaxy S23 FE this year. The phone should be more affordable than the $799 Galaxy S23, though the price hasn’t leaked. But the leaker says the phone will use the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor so Samsung can cut costs.
As a reminder, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is a better variant of the regular Snapdragon chip that powers the Galaxy S22 phones. It’s the chip that Samsung used last year in all its Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 foldables. It’s faster and less likely to overheat.
Put differently, the Galaxy S23 FE won’t match the Galaxy S23’s performance, but it’ll still be a great smartphone that’s on par with last year’s flagships. Presumably. We still need to figure out what sort of specs the handset will offer and how much Samsung will charge for it.
Don't Miss: $1,200 Galaxy S23 Ultra has a screen defect that Samsung calls normalThe post Cheaper Galaxy S23 FE set to feature Z Fold 4’s powerful processor appeared first on BGR.
View the full article
-
By BGR
If you have a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 or Note 20 Ultra, you are the lucky recipient of Android’s February security update.
As reported by XDA Developers, Android has officially rolled out its security update for the month of February. Google usually rolls security updates for the platform out on a monthly basis, and February is no exception. While some phone makers can take a while to implement the update for their devices, Samsung tends to be pretty quick about it.
That reputation holds up with the February update, with Samsung already rolling it out to the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Both phones are already able to download and install the security patch. The report specifically notes that “both the global and US carrier unlocked variants are receiving the new update.”
So, what’s in the update? Being a security update, there likely aren’t any new features for the phones to be seen, and that tracks based on the release notes that Samsung has made available. The update addresses a number of security vulnerabilities for Android, some of them considered “critical” or “high” in terms of their importance. So, if you have a compatible phone, make sure you install that update!
Samsung’s security update comes a week after the company hosted its Galaxy Unpacked event, its first in-person event since the pandemic began. At the event, the company announced the Galaxy S23 series with starting price of $799.99 and a 200MP camera system — a move aimed at taking on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro lineup. It also unveiled a new lineup of Galaxy Book laptops with one primed to go after the market Apple has been recently dominating with the Apple silicon-powered MacBook Pro models.
At the event, Samsung also announced that it would be teaming up with Google and Qualcomm on mixed-reality, another potential threat to Apple and, of course, Meta.
The post Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 is the first phone to get Android’s February security update appeared first on BGR.
View the full article
-
By STF News
As it continues to innovate for users, Samsung Electronics is gearing up to present its latest developments at the Samsung Developer Conference 2022 (SDC22). At the conference, Samsung showcased the updates to its software, services and more, aiming to improve the overall user experience. To learn more about some of the ideas behind these developments, Samsung Newsroom sat down with four SDC22 speakers to hear more.
As people become increasingly more health-focused, tech industry realized the value in pursuing projects that help individuals monitor their health and fitness. Principal Engineer Jinwoo Song from Samsung Research’s Data Research Team explained how Samsung Health Stack project helps developers and engineers optimize app development and more.
Q1. What does Samsung Health Stack do and what benefits does it ultimately provide?
Samsung Health Stack is an open source project that provides help in conducting research related to digital health using wearable devices, developing applications needed and creating tools for backend server and analysis in Android and Wear OS environment. By utilizing Samsung Health Stack, IT developers and engineers can save time and cost needed for developing the right environment, and researchers can focus more on conducting research studies that utilize new digital data. I believe that such convenience for development will be a great foundation for various forms of digital health care research and new data-based technologies.
Q2. What was the focus of the open source when designing Samsung Health Stack?
We designed it by analyzing the user experience of everyone involved in healthcare research so that the solution can accommodate the entire process of recruiting participants, collecting data and analyzing data. When there were some difficulties during the course of the development, we found solutions through health care-related cooperation with many research institutions.
In addition, we made effort to provide the structure that can continue to be scaled up to handle new forms of data and devices that become the interest of digital health researchers. In particular, we’ve designed the structure so that only certain necessary parts can be selected and expanded for use in order to enable application in various cases that go beyond clinical research, such as the area of care, etc.
Q3. What do you think the direction of development will be going forward for data-based health-care technologies?
Due to the technological advancement including AI, and the transition to aging society, the digital technology that centers on consumers and data is becoming more important in the field of health care. In order to respond to such changes, it is important to have the capability to safely manage and precisely analyze various data on users.
We believe that a world in which everyone will be able to receive customized, optimal health care solutions with data on users’ everyday life will come in the future. We’ll continue to make effort to develop technologies and products to make this possible, and we look forward to seeing many developers participate in this effort.
In order to create the best product experience, Samsung’s One UI platform offers a simple and intuitive interface across all of its devices, putting the user at the center of its unified device experience. Content Strategist Josh Ross from Samsung’s Core UX Group of MX Business shared the inspiration behind One UI and how it was created with users in mind.
Q1. What is One UI and what experiences does it provide to users?
One UI is the unified platform for Samsung Galaxy products, from phones and tablets to watches and Galaxy Books. It creates a single, seamless experience that empowers users to get the most from their Samsung products.
Q2. To create an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for users, One UI adheres to four key principles: simplicity, effortlessness, consistency and authenticity. Can you explain why these principles are important for development of One UI and how you think this enhances the mobile experience for users?
You need principles so you can be sure your design is heading in the right direction. We’ve chosen these four principles because they put the focus on the user, which is what we always want to do. Simplicity helps users focus on what matters. Effortlessness means that you don’t have to struggle to get things done. Consistency means that things work the way you expect them to, which helps to make things effortless. And authenticity is about creating experiences that feel natural, like a part of your own self-expression. When these principles come together, the result can be very powerful but also subtle. You don’t always notice all the work that goes into the design, and that’s actually good. The best design is almost invisible.
Q3. Why are partnerships an essential part of One UI? What are the benefits of partnerships for One UI development?
Partnerships are a huge part of the One UI experience. As good as Samsung is, we need the insight and expertise of others to deliver the best experience to users. Partnerships make apps like SmartThings and Samsung Wallet possible, so that you can do amazing things like control your car or your lights, make payments, board an airplane and so much more, right from inside One UI. Partnerships enrich our Samsung Health content with fitness expertise about everything from sleep coaching to body composition to mindfulness. Partnerships add flavor to your chats with GIFs from Giphy and Tenor, stickers, fun camera features on Snapchat and much more. Partnerships like the Global Goals app, a collaboration between Samsung and the UN, help bring awareness to important causes.
We want to empower our users to do things the way they want, with the apps and services they love. Partnerships are a huge part of that.
Q4. Going forward, what are some things users can expect from Samsung’s One UI?
We have a lot of things we’re announcing at SDC this year, so I don’t want to give everything away, but you can always expect further refinement and improvement. We look at everything from icons and animations to how you organize and find things and so much more. We’re learning more and more from our users about how the foldable experience changes things, so keep looking for exciting developments in the area of unique features for the Galaxy Flip and Galaxy Fold.
Samsung has also partnered with HealthTap to provide telemedicine services through its Smart TVs. Samsung’s Tizen, an open-source operating system, helped developers optimize the service for use on Smart TVs. Sean Park, Senior Product Manager from the Experience Planning Group of Visual Display Business, explained more about accessing telemedicine through Samsung’s Smart TVs.
Q1. How did Tizen help with the development of this service?
Samsung Electronics’ smart operating system (OS) Tizen provided the grounds for easy navigation on the large screen display. Tizen is very quick to deploy as evidenced by what we were able to achieve in three months’ time.
Q2. What are the benefits of accessing telemedicine services through Samsung Smart TVs?
Everything nowadays has gone remote. We want to provide Samsung users with a more convenient way to access medical care, which is telemedicine.
Samsung’s collaboration with HealthTap allows you to see a doctor through a large screen from the comfort of your home, creating a more immersive telehealth experience. If you want to access services including mental health counseling, you can do that with Samsung Smart TVs. For those who are a bit older and whose vision makes it difficult to use a small mobile screen, or for those who need to hold small children while consulting a doctor, they can easily access telehealth services through Samsung Smart TVs. We want everyone to be able to easily see a doctor from home, which we believe is not only convenient but necessary.
Ultra-wideband technology (UWB) has been recently gaining more and more attention in the smart device industry. Principal Engineer Haeyoung Jun from Samsung Research’s Standards Research Team talked about the importance of standardization of UWB and how it could shape the future of the industry.
Q1. What is the role of the FiRa Consortium that Samsung Electronics established in 2019 with key industry players, and what specific activities does it do?
The FiRa Consortium develops the interoperability standard and certification program to enable consumers to use services powered by Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in smart devices across devices made by different manufacturers.
After the FiRa Consortium was initially established by only a few companies, including Samsung Electronics, there are now more than 115 member companies participating in defining the interoperability standard together. Furthermore, FiRa is exploring various applications that utilize UWB, and is cooperating with multiple standard organizations across various industry verticals for the standardization of these applications.
Q2. We’d like to know why UWB technology is gaining attraction again recently and how it is moving forward.
As many service providers and manufacturers investigate use scenarios utilizing relative location information obtained by direct communication among devices without heavy infrastructures, the barrier to implementing UWB technology and applications have been lowered. Along with Samsung Electronics, global companies are also implementing UWB into their devices. As the number of UWB enabled products increases in the market, there will be motivation to install UWB infrastructures as well. We anticipate that, if just one or two game-changing UWB applications emerge in the market, the UWB ecosystem will expand rapidly.
Q3. We’d like to know what the new era of wireless communications envisioned through UWB technology standardization would look like in detail.
UWB technology allows your own devices to detect the location, including distance and direction, of other UWB devices in proximity. It also enables the secure data transactions among devices as well as secure internal interfaces, therefore UWB can provide different type of location-based services that GPS is unable to. For instances, UWB brings the same effect as tagging NFC to a reader even with the smartphone placed in a pocket or bag. With the standardized UWB technology, consumers will be able to access new convenient services across multiple verticals.
View the full article
-
By BGR
After the Galaxy S22 throttling disaster involving the Exynos 2200 chip earlier this year, we saw Samsung apologize to customers and investors. The company faced plenty of criticism and scrutiny, especially in its home market. Then, Samsung vowed to create a new set of flagship chips for its best phones. But the Galaxy S23 series that launches next year will probably run on Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon processor.
It’s all speculation at this point, but based on a significant announcement from Samsung and Qualcomm that claims the Korean giant will use more Snapdragon chips in its smartphones.
Exynos is a major disappointment
Samsung Exynos System-on-Chips (SoC) have never been able to match their Qualcomm counterparts, let alone outperform the iPhone. But Samsung kept using both Exynos and Snapdragon chips in its Galaxy S flagships for years.
The Exynos 2200 is the last such flagship Samsung-made chip, powering Galaxy S22 variants sold in certain markets. And the Exynos 2200 might be the final nail in the Exynos coffin. At least until Samsung reshuffles its chips teams and develops a new processor for high-end phones. The Galaxy S23 might come only in a Qualcomm Snapdragon variant as a result.
As soon as the Galaxy S22 series came out, buyers discovered the Exynos 2200 processor would reduce performance to conserve battery life. This was more aggressive than on previous phones, implying the chip is prone to overheating when under heavy stress.
The Exynos 2200 isn’t the first Samsung SoC to see criticism from buyers. Even Samsung mocked its previous Exynos variants last year while promoting the Exynos 2100. That was a chip that was supposed to fix all of the previous overheating and performance issues.
Galaxy Z Fold 4 press image leak. Image source: 91mobiles/Evan Blass Galaxy S23 likely to be a Qualcomm-only affair
During the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 rumors season, we learned the new foldables would come with Snapdragon chips inside. The phones would get the brand new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC, leaks said. The 8 Plus Gen 1 is even more powerful and efficient than the 8 Gen 1 SoC that powers some Galaxy S22 variants.
That meant the new Fold and Flip will not suffer the same throttling issues at the hand of the Exynos 2200. Or any version of it.
Samsung, by the way, also mass-produced the 8 Gen 1 chip variant. But Qualcomm moved to TSMC for the 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC.
Fast-forward to late July, and Qualcomm and Snapdragon issued a joint announcement. The two companies said they’ll extend their patent licensing agreement for seven years through 2030. More importantly, the announcement says that Snapdragon Platforms will power future Samsung Galaxy devices. The list includes “smartphones, PCs, tablets, extended reality, and more,” the press release says.
Qualcomm didn’t list the Galaxy S23 as a beneficiary of the upcoming Snapdragon chips. But considering the context, it certainly seems like Snapdragon is a much better choice for Samsung’s future flagship. A report from an insider said earlier this month that Samsung would move to a Snapdragon-only strategy for the Galaxy S23 series.
Also, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Samsung use only Snapdragon flagship SoCs in future flagships beyond the Galaxy S23. As much as Samsung might want to make a high-end chip of its own that can compete with Apple’s iPhone and Mac chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragons, it won’t happen overnight.
The post Galaxy S23 to feature Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon processor appeared first on BGR.
View the full article
-
By BGR
The Galaxy S23 Ultra might feature a 200-megapixel primary camera, says an insider familiar with Samsung’s plans. Similar sensors are already in use or will come on other Android flagships. And it so happens that Samsung has a few Isocell sensors with 200 megapixels. But Ice Universe says it’s unclear which sensor will end up in the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra that will be released next year.
Ice Universe often leaks details about unreleased Samsung devices on Twitter. While it might seem too early for Galaxy S23 Ultra rumors, the leaker already shared some camera specs on social media.
He posted the image below, which reportedly comes from an upcoming Motorola flagship phone. The primary camera is a 200-megapixel sensor that the leaker identifies as HP1. That’s short for Isocell HP1, a 200-megapixel sensor that Samsung unveiled last year.
In this context, Ice claimed that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will also feature a 200-megapixel sensor. However, it’s unclear which sensor Samsung will employ for its upcoming flagship. The HP1 isn’t the latest camera innovation from Samsung, as the company has an updated HP3 200-megapixel sensor in production.
The leaker is also very vocal on Twitter when it comes to criticizing what he perceives as Samsung’s failures when it comes to mobile devices. He criticized the Galaxy S22 processor’s performance and One UI features in the past. More recently, he addressed issues with the Galaxy S22 camera’s performance.
Samsung Isocell HP1 camera tech. Image source: Samsung Do phones need 200-megapixel sensors?
Unlike its early days in the smartphone business, Samsung no longer increases the camera megapixel count on its smartphones just for the sake of bragging about specs. The Galaxy S20 Ultra came with a 108-megapixel sensor three years ago, but the upgrade was walked back with the Ultra’s larger camera setup. The Galaxy S22 Ultra also rocks a 108-megapixel wide-angle camera.
If Ice’s claims are correct, the Galaxy S23 Ultra might be the first Galaxy S flagship to get a 200-megapixel camera.
Samsung unveiled the Isocell HP1 sensor last year without specifying which smartphones would get the 200-megapixel camera. We now know Samsung never meant to use the camera on its 2022 flagships.
A few weeks ago, Samsung unveiled the HP3 camera, which is also a 200-megapixel sensor. The video below explains the benefits of the sensor.
In short, these cameras will improve resolution in well-lit environments. But they will automatically combine pixels and reduce the overall resolution to improve low-light and night photography.
The HP3 sensor should deliver improved autofocus and better HDR algorithms. Moreover, Samsung also says the Isocell HP3 camera will support 8K video recording at up to 30fps.
That said, the Isocell HP3 might not be the 200-megapixel camera that Samsung uses for the Galaxy S23 Ultra next year. Instead, Samsung might tweak it to create a custom version for the upcoming flagship. But that’s just speculation at this point.
The Galaxy S23 series should launch in early 2023. By then, all of the camera specs will have leaked and we’ll know exactly what sort of camera experience Samsung plans to offer.
The post Galaxy S23 Ultra to feature a 200-megapixel camera, insider claims appeared first on BGR.
View the full article
-
-
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.