Technically, you can buy the "revolutionary" full body wearable for a limited time. But all the technology on the T-Mobile ONEsie is made-up.
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Samsung’s Bixby is a software feature introduced alongside the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. It’s a digital assistant, like Apple’s Siri and Google's Assistant.
It’s predominantly a voice-controlled AI, aimed at giving you a new way to interact with your phone, bypassing the touchscreen.
You’ll find it in the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus to begin with, but you can expect it to become a standard feature in many Samsung phones this year and beyond. Unless it falls flat on its face, anyway.
Phone enthusiasts may want to mention S Voice at this point. S Voice was Samsung’s previous attempt at a Siri-a-like service. However, it never fully caught on and its prominence was downplayed after the Samsung Galaxy S5, when Samsung did its best to prune back its phone software in order to make it appear more tasteful.
One of the problems with S Voice was that it seemed like a “me too” feature. It was like Siri, but not as good.
Learning from its mistakes, Samsung has done its best to make Bixby stand out and seem different. Instead of just asking for directions, cinema times and weather reports, you can ask Bixby to change settings in your Samsung phone.
Google Assistant can change certain settings as well, but as Samsung will know more about the hardware of the devices using Bixby than anyone else, so its assistant is poised to offer deeper control.
The goal in fact is to let you do anything with Bixby that you can perform using the touchscreen. It’s a HAL 9000.
The language for operating one of these digital assistants is already well-established, and Samsung sensibly adheres to these norms. There’s a hardware button you can long-press on the Galaxy S8’s left side to bring up Bixby, or you can say a “wake word” to make it pop-up.
This is just like the “OK, Google” prompt of the Google Assistant, but you can teach the phone a phrase of your choice.
Bixby isn’t just about voice, though. There’s also a Bixby home screen called Bixby Home. This is like Google Now, in that it provides a stream of information cards.
It’s best to think of Bixby as something with three parts: voice, the home feed and Bixby Vision.
Let’s start with the voice side of Bixby. We’re currently at an early stage of the assistant, and many of the things we take for granted in a digital assistant don’t actually work yet with Bixby.
You can’t ask it how old Madonna is, or find out the largest state in the US — that local information and pub quiz stuff isn’t in place yet. However, you can control a lot of elements within the phone itself.
You can ask Bixby to change to screen brightness to 50%, for example, make it switch on the mobile data hotspot or collate photos taken in a particular location. Most digital assistants primarily look outward, but Bixby looks inwards too.
At present, voice commands work with core phone features, Samsung apps and a selection of Google apps, but support for apps such as Google Play Music will arrive at a later date.
The official line is that “at launch, Bixby’s Voice function will integrate with several Samsung native apps and features including Camera, Contacts, Gallery, Messages and Settings, with the plan to expand its capabilities to include more Samsung and third-party apps in the near future.”
Other commands that already work include rotating photos, using an on-screen image as your wallpaper and beaming a video wirelessly over to your TV (you’ll naturally need a TV that supports this kind of streaming).
The important element these examples highlight is context. Bixby Voice reacts in relation to what you’re currently doing.
Bixby Home, on the other hand, is where you’ll get the information more commonly associated with this sort of digital assistant software. It’s a feed of (hopefully) prescient info that lives to the left of your Galaxy S8’s home screen.
Until recently this is where you’d normally find Samsung Briefing or Upday, but one with more of an emphasis on news stories. Bixby Home is more diverse, featuring widget-like cards you can toggle on and off, letting you choose what ends up in there.
As well as Samsung Briefing, which continues to exist as a part of Bixby, you can have an S Health step counter, a Facebook module, alarm controls, a calendar widget, one with suggested content from YouTube and another showing off themes for your Galaxy S8.
The more you pack in the less useful Bixby Home may become, but find a loadout that works and you’ll actually end up using it. That’s often the problem with these custom home pages: getting people to use them rather than ignoring them entirely.
Right at the top of Bixby Home is a little ‘eye’ icon, and this launches Bixby Vision. It’s an augmented reality camera feature that scans what the camera sees to find more information about an item or - this is the real aim - get you to buy one.
It does this using optical character recognition, digitizing fonts in the real world, and actually identifying objects just by looking at them. Point the camera at a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controller, for example, and you can get a price comparison for it.
Alternatively, you can search through Pinterest for similar-looking items/posts. You’ll see buttons for these ‘Shopping’ and ‘Image’ options whenever you tap on an object and Bixby recognizes it as an item.
If this sounds familiar, it's because we've already seen a very similar point, shoot and buy feature on the ill-fated Amazon Fire Phone.
The key to getting this to work is thinking about how object recognition operates. If you’re scanning something with no identifying text and no barcode, the view of the item will have to look similar to the picture used to represent it online.
As a demo of the more specific kinds of recognition possible with Bixby Vision, there’s also a separate wine mode. Yep, it’s used to identify specific bottles of wine. You’ll then see a page detailing suggested food pairings, prices and user (well, drinker) reviews. It should be a neat way to find out if that cut-price Sauvignon Blanc deal at the supermarket really is such a bargain.
Parts of Bixby are familiar. We’ve seen things like Bixby Home before, and Bixby Vision is a more shopper-driven version of Google Goggles.
The voice side of Bixby is perhaps the most interesting in terms of how it could influence the way we use our phones. However, like most custom Samsung Android additions, it’s limited by support.
It currently works with a fairly small selection of third-party apps, although Samsung hopes to change this. “Our plan is to eventually release a tool (in SDK) to enable third-party developers to make their applications and services Bixby-enabled easily,” Samsung says.
Of course, this is not going to make Bixby ubiquitous because it will always be a feature for Samsung devices alone. This will make it less appealing for app developers already struggling to juggle their priorities.
However, if nothing else these elements of Bixby will provide inspiration for future versions of Android, as a fistful of Samsung software additions have in the past.
This is not Samsung’s aim as such, though. It wants Bixby to become an alternative to Amazon’s Alexa, and as such you can expect Bixby’s reach to extend to future Samsung smart home devices, Samsung TVs and other connected gadgets later this year.
Lenovo technically got the Nougat ball rolling for the G4 duo in October 2016 “internationally”, but the US Moto G4 Plus is only now scoring the update.
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Palmer Luckey abruptly shot to fame by creating Oculus and the Rift headset, then agreeing to a Facebook acquisition, but now he's out of the company.
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Good news phablet fans! While the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was a fantastic phone (outside of its tendency to burst into flames), its premature death left many anxious for the next big reason to upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.
If that's you, you're in luck – the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus has finally been announced by Samsung, and as expected the prices are as big as its 6.2-inch screen. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus will have price of $1,349 if you want to buy it outright.
That said, the price seems somewhat justified for what could be a stunning phone – with an amazing new 'infinity' display and the inclusion of Samsung's Bixby smart assistant, it looks like a genuine step forward from last year's Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.
If you want to read more about the new handset itself, you can check out our hands-on review of the phone right here. In this story, we’re going to look at your best options for buying the Samsung Galaxy S8 in Australia either outright or on a contract.
Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus are officially open – below you'll see the best S8 Plus deals so far – you'll also find that we've included a table that'll automatically update with the cheapest deals as they feed through to us from the various sites and networks, but we've also included an overview of each carrier's current plan offerings.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus will officially be released in Australia on Friday, April 28 and comes in three colours: Midnight Black, Maple Gold and Orchid Grey.
Telstra's plans tend to be more expensive than the competition, often offering less data per month, and its S8 Plus plans are certainly pricier than its S8 plans. That said, it's hard to argue with the quality of the Telstra's service and the extensive coverage it provides in both rural and metro areas.
The entry level S plan at Telstra will net you a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus for $97 per month (on the $55 S plan with $25 handset repayments) with a measly 1GB of monthly data on a 24-month contract. That's a total price of $2,328 over two years.
For $18 more per month on the $115 L plan, you can get a handset with 12GB of monthly data. Total cost is $2,760 over two years.
If you've got money to burn and want the most mobile data that Telstra will offer, the XXL plan will get you 35GB for $195 per month, for a total cost of $4,680 over 24 months.
Thankfully, the jumps in price between Optus' Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus plans and its regular S8 plans aren't as big as they are at Telstra. .
Optus' entry-level plan is $87 per month (the $40 My Plan Plus with $47 handset repayment) with 1GB of data on a 24-month contract. Total cost is $2,008.
For $105 per month over 24 months, you can get a handset with 8GB of total monthly data. Total cost is $2,520.
At the high end of Optus' plans, you can get an absolutely staggering 100GB of monthly data for $160 per month over 24 months, which is the same deal that Optus is offering for the S8. Total price is $3,840.
Offering some of the cheapest Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus plans around, Virgin Mobile's entry-level plan will bag you a handset and 500MB for $75 a month on a 24-month contract. Total cost is $1,800 over two years.
For $82 a month, you can get your hands on Samsung's latest flagship with 4GB of monthly data on a 24-month contract. Total cost is $1,968 over two years.
If you really want value for money though, Virgin Mobile's top tier plan might be for you. It offers a massive 20GB of monthly data for $110 per month over 24-months. Total cost is $2,640.
Vodafone has now announced its plans for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, and while they're competitively priced, there are cheaper options available that offer more data. Still, if you're interested in Qantas Frequent Flyer points and international minutes, Vodafone is a good option.
Its entry level plan offers the phone for $83 a month with 1GB of data. Total cost is $1,992 over 24 months.
You'll probably need a bit more data than that, so we recommend the $70 plan with $26 mobile repayments ($96 total per month) with 8GB of total data (6GB + 2GB bonus). Total price is $2,304 over 24 months.
Finally, Vodafone's top tier plan will net you 30GB of data per month on the $120 plan with $10 handset repayments ($130 total per month). Total cost over 24 months is $3,120.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has jumped feet first into the world of flagship smartphones with some surprisingly good deals on offer.
Its best deal, without question, will get you a Samsung Galaxy S8 with 4GB of monthly data for only $69 per month. That's a total cost of $1,656 over 24 months.
If you need more data, there's a $95 per month plan that will give you 8GB of monthly data, Total cost is $2,280 over 24 months.
If you need some extra sweetening on these Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus deals, here it is: all pre-orders made before Thursday, April 27 through either Samsung or one of its operator or retail partners will come with the new Samsung Gear VR headset at no extra cost.
Not only that, customers will also receive a $50 voucher for use in the Oculus Store.
These are the best plans currently available for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus in Australia. Make sure you check back here over the coming days to see if more deals become available.
You won't need to take up a tweet with multiple handles, just all the hashtags you want. Users can now tag people involved in the convo.
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As Ford rushes to get into the smart car wave, BlackBerry's employment practices are still under question as a class action pends.
The post BlackBerry and Ford make 400 hires for QNX and SYNC platforms appeared first on Pocketnow.
A major bug has kept most Android Wear watches eligible for the update stuck, though we now have one more watch ready to go for next week.
The post Android Wear 2.0 roll-out got bugged, though four watches are now getting it appeared first on Pocketnow.
The docks will let Galaxy S8 users plug and play with a keyboard and a larger screen to manipulate their mobile apps in a different way.
The post Samsung DeX costs $149.99, ships in “late April” appeared first on Pocketnow.
Who says that Android 7.1.1 isn't getting around? ZTE put it out for the Axon 7. Why not try the Axon 7 mini? Yep, a $250 phone.
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Specifically, Rubin's homebrew. Since he was one of the creators of Android, it wasn't exactly a surprise that his smartphone would sport it, but...
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The Edge, originally an also-ran variant of the Galaxy Note, has now come full circle and become a part of Samsung's design language.
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With HTC making the first two Google phones, who will make the third one? A game of mastermind is underway to determine that.
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