Samsung Developers Conference 2018: Foldable Phone Unveiled
Samsung Developers Conference 2018: Forldable phone display, Bixby update and more expected at the event.
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South Korean tech giant Samsung unveiled some of its upcoming technology at the company’s annual developers conference in San Francisco. The Samsung Developers Conference 2018 (SDC) was more focused towards developers and software although the company did give us a glimpse into how their future foldable smartphones will look like. Samsung also showcased its new One UI which will power all the future Samsung devices.
Here are all the updates from the Samsung Developer Conference 2018.
Key Highlights
- Samsung foldable phone display technology coming soon.
- Samsung unveils new One UI.
- Bixby to add 5 more languages.
- Google to offer Android support for foldable display.
Samsung Developers Conference 2018 Kicks Off!
So, everyone is seated! It’s time to get this show on the road. Welcome to the live coverage of the Samsung Developers Conference in San Francisco. Time to ‘unfold’ technology!
And here comes the Samsung boss, DJ Koh, to open the keynote.
Opening talk on how Samsung has offered game-changing technology and how it has changed the lives of people around the world! 5G, IOT and AI being talked about. If you remember, Samsung announced at this year’s India Mobile Congress about large scale 5G testing in India that will be conducted in the coming months. It sure is serious about 5G and connected homes.
Eui-Suk Chung, Head Software Intelligence takes stage.
“By 2020, all Samsung devices will be connected to each other”, says Suk. The company also plans to invest $22 billion dollars in the coming years.
So, Bixby will be getting an update and will be coming on more devices like TVs, tables, speakers and appliances. In coming months, Bixby will support 5 more languages.
Bixby will now be open to developers! Now developers can play around with a brand new set of developer tools. I am seeing the new Bixby demo! Seems the AI is going to get much smarter and interactive.
Dag Kittlaus, CEO of Viv Labs is here to talk about Bixy and the upcoming updates to the AI.
Dag is inviting partners and brands to join the Bixby ecosystem early to make use of the “early benefits” of this move.
Samsung is offering third-party developers the same tools that Samsung uses for Bixby. This is first-class treatment. Great news for developers all around the world.
Adam Cheyer, CTO, Viv Labs is on stage to talk about Samsung Developer Studio. He says that AI and humans are going to work together to create more programs for Bixby.
It’s demo time. Cheyer on a Samsung laptop on stage with the demo. It’s all for developers!
Adam ends his session with a magic trick turning a strip of duct tape into a tie!
IOT Up Next
Jaeyeon Jung, VP, Engineering, Samsung on IOT! She opens with the Samsung Smart Things app. Reiterating how Smart Things has ushered in IOT into third-party devices and services for the company.
Samsung has partnered with Plume to offer a smart wi-fi router. It;s called Smart Things Wi-Fi. The company is are offering car solution partnering with Harman. With this you will be able to turn the A/C of the car on or off and even turn the headlights on using the Samrt Things app.
Samsung is getting us Smart Things Button for home automation. It says with one tap of the button you’ll be able to control appliances at home.
Magnus Ekenheim, VP Engineering, Smart Things is here to talk more about the technology.
Jaeyong is back on stage to talk about the Galaxy Home, Samsung’s smart speaker device. The audio is being taken care of by Harman. Galaxy Home is going to run Spotify!
Samsung Smart TV
Pedro Fretias, Director, Smart TV at Samsung is next to talk about smart TVs. Samsung is making Bixby available to developers to make Bixby compatible for other TVs.
The company has also launched TV Plus, content streaming service. This service can also help monetise the platform. It will be available starting January 2019.
You will also be able to control your home’s smart devices using the TVs interface using the remote or your voice.
Time for a Refresh to Smartphone UX
Samsung’s UI has been under a lot of criticism in the past few years. The company is looking to change that with the new One UI.
The new UI will project the more relevant text with more focus and in bold on the screen. The same will be applicable on images. Basically, more important things o the screen will be more focused. They will be highlighted and bolder.
The One UI is much more cleaner in terms of visibility on the screen. The users only see what they need the most.
The One UI will split the screen into two parts where the lower part of the screen will be for functionality so that you won;t have to take your thumb to the upper part of the screen to interact with the phone.
The upper half of the device will show us all the information and inputs we are feeding into the device.
Reading and clarity of the screen gets better. Another level of viewing experience.
The One UI will be released for the Samsung S9, S9+ and the Note 9 next year in January.
Could this be the Foldable Screen Phone?
Hassan Anjum, Director of Product Marketing is now on stage. He is here to talk about the company’s display technology. Hassan is highlighting how AMOLED has become a company standard now.
More talk on how Samsung has made curved glass for the smartphone and how it started with the S6+ as the first dual curved display phone. Also, remember Infinity display? Yup, that’s Samsung too.
This is the Infinity Flex display. The foldable phone is coming soon! The upcoming display is sturdy, very slim and flexible. The company will be starting mass production in the coming months. The company is touted to release the first foldable phone with a 7.3-inch display.
Also, the One UI will be compatible with both a single an double display.
Google has said that it will offer support for the foldable screen and also make applications compatible for the user interface.
DJ Koh to wrap it up.
So we have seen the foldable phone display and we know it’s coming soon to the market. Also, Bixby is going to get smarter and will be seen on more devices in the days to come not to mention Samsung’s new One UI could be the answer to the biggest problem Samsung has had all these years, providing a seamless user interface.
So, that’s a wrap at the Samsung Developers Conference 2018.
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