Hasta La Gadget!

I’ve never thought of Samsung as a software company, let alone as a name to pay attention to in the AI race. But with the launch of the Galaxy S24 series today, the company is eager to have us associate it with the year’s hottest tech trend. The new flagship phones look largely the same as last year’s models, but on the inside, change is afoot. At a hands-on session during CES 2024 in Las Vegas last week, I was more focused on checking out the new software on the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus.

Thanks to a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor (in the US) customized “for Galaxy,” the S24 series are capable of a handful of new AI-powered tasks that seem very familiar. In fact, if you’ve used Microsoft’s CoPilot, Google’s Bard AI or ChatGPT, a lot of these tools won’t feel new. What is new is the fact that they’re showing up on the S24s, and are mostly processed on-device by Samsung’s recently announced Gauss generative AI model, which it has been quietly building out.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI features on the S24

There are five main areas where generative AI Is making a big difference in the Galaxy S24 lineup — search, translations, note creation, message composition and photo editing and processing. Aside from the notes and composition features, most of these updates seem like versions of existing Google products. In fact, the new Circle to Search feature is a Google service that is debuting on the S24 series, in addition to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Circle to Search

With Circle to Search, you basically press the middle of the screen’s bottom edge, the Google logo and a search bar pop up, and you can draw a ring around anything on the display. Well, almost anything. DRMed content or things protected from screenshots, like your banking app, are off limits. Once you’ve made your selection, a panel slides up showing your selection, along with results from Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).

You can scroll down to see image matches, followed by shopping, text, website and other types of listings that SGE thought were relevant. I circled the Samsung clock widget, a picture of beef wellington and a lemon, and each time I was given pretty accurate results. I was also impressed by how quickly Google correctly identified a grill that I circled on an Engadget article featuring a Weber Searwood, especially since the picture I drew around was at an off angle.

This is basically image search via Google or Lens, except it saves you from having to open another app (and take screenshots). You’ll be able to circle items in YouTube videos, your friend’s Instagram Stories (or, let’s be honest, ads). Though I was intrigued by the feature and its accuracy, I’m not sure how often I’d use it in the real world. The long-press gesture to launch Circle to Search works whether you use a gesture-based navigation or if you have the three-button layout. The latter might be slightly confusing, since you pretty much hold your finger down on the home button, but not exactly.

Circle to Search is launching on January 31st, and though it’s reserved for the Galaxy S24s and Pixel 8s for now, it’s not clear whether older devices might get the feature.

Chat Assist to tweak the tone of your messages

The rest of Samsung’s AI features are actually powered by the company’s own language models, not Google’s. This part is worth making clear, because when you use the S24 to translate a message from, say, Portuguese to Mandarin, you’ll be using Samsung’s database, not Google’s. I really just want you to direct your anger at the right target when something inevitably goes wrong.

I will say, I was a little worried when I first heard about Samsung’s new Chat Assist feature. It uses generative AI to help reword a message you’ve composed to change up the tone. Say you’re in a hurry, firing off a reply to a friend whom you know can get anxious and misinterpret texts. The S24 can take your sentences, like “On my way back now what do you need” and make it less curt. The options I saw were “casual,” “emojify,” “polite,” “professional” and “social,” which is a hashtag-filled caption presumably for your social media posts.

I typed “Hey there. Where can I get some delicious barbecue? Also, how are you?” Then I tapped the AI icon above the keyboard and selected the “Writing Style” option. After about one or two seconds, the system returned variations of what I wrote.

At the top of the results was my original, followed by the Professional version, which I honestly found hilarious. It said “Hello, I would like to inquire about the availability of delectable barbecue options in the vicinity. Additionally, I hope this message finds you well. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

It reminded me of an episode of Friends where Joey uses a thesaurus to sound smarter. Samsung’s AI seems to have simply replaced every word with a slightly bigger word, while also adding some formal greetings. I don’t think “inquire about the availability of delectable barbecue options in the vicinity” is anything a human would write.

That said, the casual option was a fairly competent rewording of what I’d written, as was the polite version. I cannot imagine a scenario where I’d pick the “emojify” option, except for the sake of novelty. And while the social option pained me to read, at least the hashtags of #Foodie and #BBQLover seemed appropriate.

Samsung Translate

You can also use Samsung’s AI to translate messages into one of 13 languages in real-time, which is fairly similar to a feature Google launched on the Pixel 6 in 2021. The S24’s interface looks reminiscent of the Pixel’s, too, with both offering two text input fields. Like Google, Samsung also has a field at the top for you to select your target language, though the system is capable of automatically recognizing the language being used. I never got this to work correctly in a foreign language that I understand, and have no real way of confirming how accurate the S24 was in Portuguese.

Samsung’s translation engine is also used for a new feature called Live Translate, which basically acts as an interpreter for you during phone calls made via the native dialer app. I tried this by calling one of a few actors Samsung had on standby, masquerading as managers of foreign-language hotels or restaurants. After I dialed the number and turned on the Live Translate option, Samsung’s AI read out a brief disclaimer explaining to the “manager at a Spanish restaurant” that I was using a computerized system for translation. Then, when I said “Hello,” I heard a disembodied voice say “Hola” a few seconds later.

The lag was pretty bad and it threw off the cadence of my demo, as the person on the other end of the call clearly understood English and would answer in Spanish before my translated request was even sent over. So instead of:

Me: Can I make a reservation please?

S24: … ¿Puedo hacer una reserva por favor?

Restaurant: Si, cuantas personas y a que hora?

S24 (to me): … Yes, for how many people and at what time?

My demo actually went:

Me: Can I make a reservation please?

pause

Restaurant: Si, cuantas personas y a que hora?

S24: ¿Puedo hacer una reserva por favor?

pause

S24 (to me): Yes, for how many people and at what time?

It was slightly confusing. Do I think this is representative of all Live Translate calls in the real world? No, but Samsung will need to work on cutting down lag if it wants to be helpful and not confusing.

Galaxy AI reorganizing your notes

I was most taken by what Samsung’s AI can do in its Notes app, which historically has had some pretty impressive handwriting recognition and indexing. With the AI’s assistance, you can quickly reformat your large blocks of text into easy-to-read headers, paragraphs and bullets. You can also swipe sideways to see different themes, with various colors and font styles.

Notes can also generate summaries for you, though most of the summaries on the demo units didn’t appear very astute or coherent. After it auto-formatted a note titled “An Exploration of the Celestial Bodies in Our Solar System,” the first section was aptly titled “Introduction,” but the first bullet point under that was, confusingly, “The Solar System.” The second bullet point was two sentences, starting with “The Solar System is filled with an array of celestial bodies.”

Samsung also borrowed another feature from the Pixel ecosystem, using its speech-to-text software to transcribe, summarize and translate recordings. The transcription of my short monologue was accurate enough, but the speaker labels weren’t. Summaries of the transcriptions were similar to those in Notes, in that they’re not quite what I’d personally highlight.

Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

That’s already a lot to cover, and I haven’t even gotten to the photo editing updates yet. My colleague Sam Rutherford goes into a lot more detail on those in his hands-on with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which has the more-sophisticated camera system. In short though, Samsung offers edit suggestions, generative background filling and an instant slow-mo tool that fills in frames when you choose to slow down a video.

Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus hardware updates

That brings me to the hardware. On the regular Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, you’ll be getting a 50-megapixel main sensor, 12MP wide camera and 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. Up front is a 12MP selfie camera. So, basically, the same setup as last year. The S24 has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ screen, while the S24 Plus sports a 6.7-inch Quad HD+ panel and both offer adaptive refresh rates that can go between 1 and 120Hz. In the US, all three S24 models use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor, with the base S24 starting out with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Both the S24 and S24 Plus have slightly larger batteries than their predecessors, with their respective 4,000mAh and 4,900mAh cells coming in at 100mAh and 200mAh bigger than before.

Though the S24s look very similar to last year’s S23s, my first thought on seeing them was how much they looked like iPhones. That’s neither a compliment nor an indictment. And to be clear, I’m only talking about the S24 and S24 Plus, not the Ultra, which still has the distinctive look of a Note.

Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

It feels like Samsung spent so much time upgrading the software and focusing on joining the AI race this year that it completely overlooked the S24’s design. Plus, unlike the latest iPhones, the S24s are also missing support for the newer Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which includes magnetic support, a la Apple’s MagSafe.

Wrap-up

I know it’s just marketing-speak and empty catchphrases, but I’m very much over Samsung’s use of what it thinks is trendy to appeal to people. Don’t forget, this is the company that had an “Awesome Unpacked” event in 2021 filled to the brim with cringeworthy moments and an embarrassingly large number of utterances of the words “squad” and “iconic”.

That doesn’t mean what Samsung’s done with the Galaxy S24 series is completely meaningless. Some of these features could genuinely be useful, like summarizing transcriptions or translating messages in foreign languages. But after watching the company follow trend after trend (like introducing Bixby after the rise of digital assistants, or bringing scene optimizers to its camera app after Chinese phone makers did), launching generative AI features feels hauntingly familiar. My annoyance at Samsung’s penchant for #trendy #hashtags aside, the bigger issue here is that if the company is simply jumping on a fad instead of actually thoughtfully developing meaningful features, then consumers run the risk of losing support for tools in the future. Just look at what happened to Bixby.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/galaxy-s24-and-s24-plus-hands-on-samsungs-ai-phones-are-here-but-with-mixed-results-180008236.html?src=rss

Social media apps tend to offer the convenience of their very own camera tools, but on the flip side, these are limited by the few shooting options. Understanding our modern-day pain point, Samsung has teamed up with Instagram and Snap to integrate some of its handy native camera features into their apps, in order to up our social media game via the brand new Galaxy S24 series smartphones — namely the titanium-framed S24 Ultra with its 200-megapixel main shooter. Specifically, you’ll be able to leverage Samsung’s “Super HDR” option, upgraded “Nightography” power and video stabilization within Instagram and Snapchat’s in-app cameras. The only caveat here is that for video stabilization, you’ll need to have it enabled in the native camera settings first.

Samsung’s collaboration with Instagram goes deeper, offering upgraded editing, uploading and viewing experiences tailored to its devices. These also include the ability to create Instagram stories directly from motion photos. With their Super HDR capabilities, the Galaxy S24 devices are also the first to receive HDR photo support on Instagram — likely marking the first of many more apps to potentially support this vibrant display format in the near future.

With its new AI capabilities playing a big role in the Galaxy S24 lineup’s camera systems, it’s no wonder that Samsung is pushing its camera integration into the two popular social media platforms. Still, you’ll probably want to stick to the native camera app and editing tools for maximum versatility — especially when it comes to the more AI-specific tools like “Edit Suggestion,” “Generative Edit” (network connection required) and “Instant Slow-mo.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-and-snapchat-can-use-samsung-galaxy-s24s-native-camera-features-070121743.html?src=rss

Like clockwork, the new year has brought new Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The company announced the new Galaxy S24 lineup today, which includes the flagship S24 Ultra along with the Galaxy S24+ and S24. The handsets will look familiar to Samsung diehards, and the company spent most of its launch event hyping AI features rather than hardware upgrades. The new phones boast AI perks like an enhanced photo editor, a “circle to search” feature, quick summarization tools and more. If you’re on the market for a new smartphone, here’s how you can pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24+ and S24, along with everything else announced at Samsung Unpacked 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-pre-order-the-samsung-galaxy-s24-ultra-180028971.html?src=rss

Following Google’s recent rounds of layoffs affecting over a thousand jobs, CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly told remaining employees to expect further downsizing later this year. According to The Verge, Pichai sent out an internal memo on Wednesday, in which he stated that “to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted.”

The exec explained that the latest “role eliminations” are about “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas.” which is just another way of packaging the situation. What’s a little more reassuring, perhaps, is Pichai saying that these won’t match the scale of some 12,000 job cuts around this time last year, and that not every team will be affected. But numbers are all relative, of course.

Google isn’t the only notable tech company that has already made redundancies at the beginning of 2024. Earlier this month, the industry also saw Discord, Meta, Amazon, Twitch, Humane AI, Unity and Duolingo making similar moves at various scales. Here’s hoping that LinkedIn’s timely launch of its AI-powered “Job Collections” feature will help those impacted quickly land a new post.

Engadget has reached out to Google for comment and will update the story if required.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-ceo-says-more-layoffs-expected-throughout-the-year-in-internal-memo-044016588.html?src=rss

If you’re in the US, any Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 model you buy from Apple will no longer have a functional blood oxygen monitoring feature. Apple failed to convince the court to allow it to keep selling the aforementioned models while it’s appealing a ruling by the US International Trade Commission (ITC). If you’ll recall, the commission found that Apple had violated patents owned by medical technology company Masimo, which accused the iPhone-maker of infringing on its intellectual properties related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. The ITC ordered the company to stop selling the contested watches.

Apple pulled the Watch models from its website and stores in December before the the ban took effect as a preemptive measure. A few days later, though, the company put them back up for sale after a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. granted it a temporary pause on the import and sales ban. Now, the appeals court has lifted the stay and ordered Apple to stop selling both models again by 5PM ET on January 18. 

The company, however, is able to skirt the ban, because the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently decided that redesigned watches without a pulse oximetry functionality fall outside the scope of the ITC’s ruling. In a statement sent to 9to5Mac, Apple said it believes “the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should reverse the USITC’s decision” and that it strongly disagrees with it and the resulting orders. “Pending the appeal, Apple is taking steps to comply with the ruling while ensuring customers have access to Apple Watch with limited disruption,” the spokesperson added. “These steps include introducing a version of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States without the Blood Oxygen feature.” The company also clarified that there “is no impact to Apple Watch units previously purchased that include the Blood Oxygen feature.”

The modified watches will still have the blood monitoring app, Apple told the publication, but you will get a message that says it’s no longer available when you tap on it. That message also tells you to go the Health app on your iPhone to learn more, where you’ll then see a link to a support article on the company’s website. 

Even before the ITC’s ban took effect, Apple was already reportedly scrambling to create a software update that would allow it to sell the devices involved. Clearly, the company was able to develop a solution in time for the stay to be lifted. While the ban isn’t officially taking effect until the afternoon of January 18, you’ll already see a note that says “Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 no longer include the blood oxygen feature” when you visit the company’s website and access either model’s product page. Engadget reached out to Apple, and while it confirmed the resumed US availability of both watch models, it refused to comment on the matter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-is-now-selling-watch-series-9-and-ultra-2-with-disabled-blood-oxygen-monitor-035833529.html?src=rss