Commentary on Samsung Galaxy Unpacked January 2024

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In this Cast | Commentary on Samsung Galaxy Unpacked January 2024

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Art Gelwicks

Art Gelwicks, a productivity and collaboration consultant, blogger at Gelwicks Tech, and host of the Being Productive podcast, CrossPlatform podcast, as well as a collaborator on ProductivityCast Podcast.

Headlines & Show Notes | Commentary on Samsung Galaxy Unpacked January 2024

Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

Summary (Auto-Generated)

  • Samsung Galaxy Unpacked initial impressions.
    • Art Gelwicks felt the Samsung Galaxy unpacked show had an “awkward” start but improved with a live audience.
    • Art Gelwicks found the presentation to be lacking in energy and enthusiasm, with a few notable exceptions.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith contrasted the pre-recorded and live elements of the presentation, finding the latter to be less engaging.
  • Samsung’s commitment to security updates and AI-powered call features. (4:25)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: Samsung’s commitment to 7 years of security updates and 7 operating system updates for flagship devices shows their dedication to customer satisfaction.
    • Art Gelwicks: Samsung’s decision to make updates backward compatible for 7 years highlights the power and longevity of their hardware.
    • Art Gelwicks highlights the on-device AI component in Samsung’s new phones, which processes language translation and live calls without relying on the cloud.
  • AI-powered real-time language translation technology. (9:14)
    • Art Gelwicks and Ray Sidney-Smith discuss the benefits of real-time language translation technology, including smooth and accurate translations, and the ability to choose between speaking and listening to translations in different languages.
    • Art Gelwicks and Ray Sidney-Smith discuss the potential of AI in making communication more efficient, with examples of language translation features in Samsung Keyboard app.
    • The speakers highlight the benefits of seeing both languages side by side during conversations, rather than relying on post-typing translations.
  • Samsung’s AI-powered note-taking features. (13:35)
    • Art Gelwicks: Samsung notes getting AI functionality, handwriting realignment, and note summarization.
    • Gelwicks: Samsung’s focus on making phone the “do all be all” for productivity and photo editing.
    • Art Gelwicks and Ray Sidney-Smith discuss the limitations of Samsung Notes, a feature that uses AI to clean up handwriting and typing.
    • They agree that while the feature is useful for some users, it’s not a practical solution for most people due to the limitations of the Samsung ecosystem and the inefficiency of using the app on a phone.
  • AI-powered note-taking features on Samsung devices. (19:20)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: Photomoji capabilities in Google Messages are powerful and seamless, but RCS availability is crucial for full functionality.
    • Art Gelwicks: RCS standardization across backends makes this feature more useful, but personal interest is low due to limited use case.
    • Samsung Notes is designed to be a competitor to Apple Notes or Google Keep, not OneNote, with S Pen integration for handwriting recognition and text conversion.
  • AI-powered features in Samsung phones and Google partnership. (23:55)
    • Art Gelwicks highlights the usefulness of Android Auto’s one-button reroute feature and ability to send an ETA with a single button press.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith agrees, emphasizing the importance of keeping eyes on the road and facilitating a seamless driving experience.
    • Art Gelwicks and Ray Sidney-Smith discuss the Voice Recorder app on Samsung phones, which can transcribe speech in real-time and synchronize with the recording.
    • Samsung partners with Google on “circle to search” feature, allowing users to quickly search for objects circled on the screen using Google Search/Lens.
  • Google’s new visual search feature. (29:00)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith highlights the potential of Google’s new visual search feature, Circle to Search, to improve search experiences and solidify Google’s position in the future.
    • Art Gelwicks notes the privacy and security benefits of the feature, which only sends the specific part of the image being searched, rather than the entire image.
    • Art Gelwicks and Ray Sidney-Smith discuss the new visual search feature on Android devices, which can identify objects in images and provide related information.
    • They praise Google for continuing to improve search functionality and make it more accessible, especially through voice search and visual search on mobile devices.
  • Android’s quick share feature and its potential impact on file sharing. (33:42)
    • Google and Samsung are standardizing Quick Share for Android devices, making it a universal transfer tool.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: Samsung and Google’s collaboration on quick share flattens the playing field for Android, providing an olive branch to Microsoft and an opportunity to improve file sharing across ecosystems.
    • Art Gelwicks: Quick Share will likely come in the form of multiple third-party apps tying together all the pieces, providing a more seamless experience for users.
  • Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 series with AI-powered photo editing capabilities. (38:09)
    • Art Gelwicks and Ray Sidney-Smith discuss Samsung’s new AI-powered photo editing capabilities, including the ability to remove unwanted objects or reflections from images and the addition of watermarks to indicate AI editing.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith likens the AI editing watermark to Microsoft’s CoPilot logo, with two small stars representing that AI was involved.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith and Art Gelwicks discuss the design of Samsung’s new phones, including their similarity to Apple’s iPhone.
    • Ray and Art praise the flat design of the S 24 Ultra and the use of titanium edges, but note that the curved screen of former models with the S Pen was a mistake.
  • Samsung Galaxy S23 camera features and improvements. (43:37)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: Sizes of screens increase from 6.2 to 6.8 inches, with battery sizes also increasing.
    • Art Gelwicks: Improved glass technology reduces screen reflections by up to 75%, and AI processing is used to optimize battery usage.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith explains that Samsung has optimized their camera system for the average user, dropping the 10x telephoto lens in favor of a 5x 50 megapixel lens for better image quality.
    • Art Gelwicks agrees, highlighting how the camera’s ability to switch between lenses based on the user’s distance from the subject creates a more seamless and high-quality zoom experience.
  • Samsung’s new phones, including specs and pricing. (49:31)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith highlights Samsung’s focus on user feedback and improvements in camera capabilities, while Art Gelwicks notes the significant differences between the standard and ultra models, including storage and RAM.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: Samsung’s Knox Matrix offers synchronized, encrypted data across devices, while Knox provides separate, encrypted partitions on individual devices.
    • Art Gelwicks: Knox Matrix synchronizes encrypted data to the cloud and to other devices, while Nox requires separate authentication for each device.
  • Samsung’s Knox security platform and health features. (54:54)
    • Art Gelwicks highlights Knox Matrix’s potential to securely store sensitive information across multiple devices without risk of breach.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith and Art Gelwicks discuss Samsung health and its new AI capabilities, with Art expressing reservations about the My Vitality score but hoping for improved insight and learning.
    • Samsung health users like Art Gelwicks use the app daily, with potential benefits including better data analysis and new sensor sets for feeding data.
  • Samsung’s upcoming health tracking device, the Galaxy ring. (1:00:14)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: Samsung Galaxy ring is a competitor to the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, tracking health data and feeding it into Samsung Health.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith: The ring navigates the small place between non-watch wearables, solving a problem for those not compatible with the aura ring or brand.
    • Ray Sidney-Smith mentions the ring’s ability to capture data without needing to charge the watch, which solves the problem of waking up with an indentation on the face from sleeping on the watch.
    • Art Gelwicks suggests that the ring could be improved by adding a temperature sensor and EKG reading capabilities, and if it could measure blood sugar, it would be a game-changer.
  • Samsung’s new Galaxy ring and its potential features. (1:06:35)
    • Ray Sidney-Smith and Art Gelwicks discuss the potential of smart rings for measuring health data, including heart rate, sleep apnea, and blood oxygen levels.
    • They speculate that smart rings could be a complementary device to watches or other wearables, rather than a competitor, and may be used intermittently for specific purposes.

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).

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Download a PDF of raw, text transcript of the interview here.

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