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This is special coverage of Samsung Unpacked 2020. This is different than our normal episodes, but we hope to do these special coverage episodes when big productivity and technology events happen.
With that, let’s get into what happened today at Samsung Unpacked 2020…
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In this Cast | Samsung Unpacked 2020 Commentary
Headlines & Show Notes | Samsung Unpacked 2020 Commentary
Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
- Galaxy Note 20 | 20Ultra
- Galaxy Tab S7 | S7+
- Galaxy Watch 3
- Galaxy Buds Live
- Galaxy Z Fold 2
- Samsung Members Brand Ambassador Program
Raw Text Transcript | Samsung Unpacked 2020 Commentary
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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Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:00
Hello personal productivity enthusiasts and community Welcome to anything but idle, the productivity news podcast. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith. And we’re your hosts for anything but idle. This is Episode 16. And we’re recording this on August 6 2020. This is special coverage of our commentary on Samsung unpacked 2020, their event about releasing their product line for 2020. And this is obviously different than our normal episodes. But we hope to do these special coverage episodes when we have big productivity and technology events that are happening around us. So with that, let’s get into what happened at Samsung unpacked of 2020 gousto What was the first thing that you noticed about the event, and let’s get into the products that they launched,
Augusto Pinaud 0:45
the event was held live from Korea that was quite interesting, but they did a wall of people what they called Samson ambassadors on the background and that was really really nice in all that people there and clubbing and all this, especially on this conditions that we are. The other thing that I saw was they did a really nice introduction, recognizing the conditions and we’re leaving and saying how they have been trying to change the world as a technology company without expecting that the world has going to change us. I think that was that was that was a really good day introduction. His page was really really good. So the first product was a note 20 and the note 20 Ultra both devices one of them is 6.7 inch screen the other one is 6.9. The Ultra it’s a 120 megahertz screen and they come with the Aspen it’s a really nice phone and they are introducing a new color Browns color so they will you will be able to find them in white black and browns.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:51
I really found the demonstration of the products on screen. Very well done. I felt like the maybe The commercial type interludes, were a little bit much I know, they wanted to fill time and show the product in its best light. So obviously showing what amounts to probably their commercials, they kind of had these little interludes. They were fine. I could have stood without them and saved myself, you know, 30 minutes in the presentation itself. And I noticed just before we started recording, this has been watched 5.7 million times the event itself. And so obviously, this is a big entertainment piece. And so I understand why they put it in there. I just know that you know, I, I will inevitably see those commercials around, you know, television or otherwise. And so I was just like, I didn’t really need to see that. But the the 20 and the 20 Ultra the difference between the two sides of the price is the new 20 is coming with a polycarbonate casing They are trying to provide a more affordable solution. So they’ve made it with polycarbonate, the casing on the note 20 Ultra is going to be glass. And and they are calling them tablets. And I don’t know if this is something that they’ve done in the past, but I just thought it was interesting that they embrace the term. And they were like, this is our tablet. And so I thought that was pretty humorous.
Augusto Pinaud 3:21
Yeah, that was humorous. And they did. They did a really good job. I agree with you on that students were a little bit too many. But but it still was a good event, I think.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 3:30
Yeah, I think overall, they did a fantastic job in their scripting. And these are not necessarily actors. And because Apple has kind of pushed the envelope of making their design and branding and corporate executives kind of get out on stage and show off these products in a way that is very Apple II. They have had to up their game and I think that’s been good for them. But that can be difficult for the C suite to step onto stage and Talk about products in kind of a flashy way. And I felt that Tim row and the rest of the team really did a great job of doing that. I’m actually a big fan of unique and her character her presence on stage was a lot of fun. I don’t know what her her role is in brand marketing. I don’t know if she was director of brand marketing, but she was chooses a really fun character on stage. Next up, they announced the Galaxy Tab S seven and the seven plus
Augusto Pinaud 4:27
this seven is an 11 inch tablet. seven plus is 12.41 of the things that caught my attention was the fact that they broad possibility to break the screen in three parts. So you can on the iPad, you can do half on half. But now you will be able on the Samsung’s and their sevens to bring actually three parts so that was a really, really interesting thing and I agree with their comment that will increase productivity destructions too but product we differ many people one of the other things they including this one and they improve on the market was they have been working to reduce latency when you write on when you use one day it comes with a keyboard that will attach magnetically on the bottom. And the other thing that was interesting was to stand you know, there we’re seeing more and more companies coming to the stand similar to what the original surface came from. And it’s really interesting to see that
Raymond Sidney-Smith 5:32
Samsung is out with their flagship color this year which is mystic bronze. And they did a lot of work to kind of showcase the color you saw in the event. The various blobs I don’t know what you call it, but these liquid this liquid, you know kind of motif that they were using throughout the event and it was all mystic bronze. And so they have mystic bronze, white and black as their kind of primary colors in the title. Seven s and the seven s plus. And what I really liked was their ability to consolidate all of the best features that I’ve seen across the pixel book, The Surface Pro, the Apple iPad Pro, and in the development of the product line, bringing some of the best features of that all into what is now the seven s plus. So I’m really excited to see some of these pieces the ability to do split view. Now in three parts to be able to really multitask in that sense, as you talked about a gousto, I think is going to be pretty powerful. And yeah, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that works. That was pretty jazzed up about the tab seven s plus. And my only kind of misgivings about it actually, is that kickstand. It goes from 90 degrees to 160 degrees, I believe they said. And while it works on a lot of environments, I’ve found myself that if I’m just you know, laying in bed, I’ve picked up the device, it’s actually rather awkward to use that kickstand for being able to lay in and you know, just kind of lay back and then try to watch something that seems to be at a weird angle if you want it to not feel unstable, so I’ll be curious to see how that how that actually sits on you in certain environments where you might want to, you know, just lay back and watch something on on television that is on Netflix or another streaming service and not feel like you’re having to precariously place the device that I don’t have one I have any laptop on my on my lap. I’m currently, you know, testing a Chromebook duet and, and that device I feel precarious on my lap when I’m when I when I lay it down in that sense, not when I’m seated upright, but certainly when I’m when I’m laying back, so we’ll see how that goes. The thing that really stood out for me before they got to anything As they were showing their own Notes app, Samsung notes, which looks awfully like Google Keep is getting a functionality where you can draw on screen. And as you’re taking notes, you can audio record and the the audio recording is synchronized with the inputs. So very similar to the Livescribe smart pen, you now have this ability to connect those two pieces to each other, which is just very, very powerful. And really a game changer for me to think about how the ptab s seven and the seven s plus fit into my ecosystem for working now comes what I thought was the biggest news of the event. And that is the Microsoft integration.
Augusto Pinaud 8:45
I’m not that familiar with the was it galaxy line, to be honest with you. I live on an iOS ecosystem that is not a secret, but it was really into I’ve been always curious about the dex technology since Samson announced it and I think This integration really, really make it powerful. You know, I, I honestly wasn’t aware that the prior year, they announced that you could sync call sent text with your Windows machine as you can do on, on Apple with. So that was really good. But I didn’t know the dex integration and they didn’t call it that way. But I’m, I’m going to guess is the same technology and being able to use directly from your phone, on your Windows, all those apps that you have on the phone without the need to install it in seven places. That is, I think was fantastic. That one adding the the tablet there seven as a second screen, I think is great. You carry both things. You don’t need maybe two screens all the time, but it’s really cool to have the ability to say hey, I need a second screen for a couple of hours. Let me put the tablet out and get that done.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 9:52
Yeah, so so the Microsoft integration itself is fairly deep. What Samsung has partnered with Microsoft to do is to bring the ability to have tasks, as well as phone calls and other pieces really deeply embedded within the Office Suite. So if you have, for example, a note that you’ve taken, you can pull that note into Outlook. And you if you create a task in and on your, your note 20, or your note 20 Ultra, you will then have that item pulled into your outlook and into Microsoft to do you mark it off in Microsoft to do it checks it off on your Samsung Note ultra or your Samsung now Samsung Note 20 or your note 20 Ultra in the tasks app. So that’s a very, very powerful synchronization that’s happening in the background. And very welcome for those who want to be able to still work in their, you know, Windows office ecosystem, but still extend that to the mobile when they’re using the native Have features within Samsung, you know, and that’s been a what’s a rub when you’re using multiple platforms, that is Android and Windows 10. And you want those two to work together seamlessly whether or not you’re using the to do app on the Samsung device or you’re using the tasks app on the Samsung device, you just want those things to work together. And now they will. And I’m very, very excited about that. I have been I’ve been tempted to move away from my pixel line of phones, just by watching the note 20 Ultra and, and getting the addition of obviously of the of the S Pen to all of that. I really really love the notion of using the Samsung you know devices to be able to then bring those Android applications on to the Windows desktop. That is just going to be so powerful just watching the the little scene of of the woman working on creating that bench. She was like in the process of designing and building bench for her backyard and watching her pull Instagram onto her. Her desktop was just brilliant. And I just think about all of the challenges of, for me managing social media in a in a productive way. And now being able to do that from the desktop. By utilizing the phone as a connector. I’ve just really, really brilliant. I’m very excited about it. And I look forward to seeing how it really works for people in in their actual setups.
Augusto Pinaud 12:32
It was really interesting. They announced textbooks integration on how that’s going to work seamlessly. And the same day later, outside of this event. Microsoft announced that the game that exco the system they’re trying to build is not going to come to to the Apple so it’s just going to stay on Android and really integrated with Samsung that I think it was really interesting news on time to announce it but I think it’s For for gamers and people who game and use the Xbox, it is a fantastic thing, the fact that you can come play and leave and play with a remote and it’s showing how much the consoles have evolved and how much the phone, it’s really an all in one device. Let’s
Raymond Sidney-Smith 13:16
hear a word from our sponsor this week’s carvana which you can find carvana.com and we’ll be back with you after the break.
Unknown 13:24
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Raymond Sidney-Smith 14:25
And we’re back Next up, they announced their galaxy buds live. And these are their new earbuds, audio headsets, and they brought out uni and as I said before, she was kind of my favorite character on on stage she was just having a lot of fun with it. And she was showing off the galaxy buds live as well as the galaxy watch three. And so the first thing I noted about them are their their shape, you know, look like little beans and I’m sure the tech press has has been probably picked up on that and has been talking about it you know calling them you know your beans, but they are supposed to be for all day comfort. And I think they said they were made from all recycled materials both the case as well as the buds themselves and they are they are pretty unique design. So if you think about like a lima bean, it looks like a lima bean, a fat lima bean, and then it has these kinds of kind of a wing inside that rests the audio speaker into your ear and and then they kind of fill the space inside of your ear and they’re supposed to rest in you know, securely but not a tight seal that you feel like you have something or pressure inside of your ear. I’m sure that this is going to work for some people and probably not for others. So depending upon the the shape of the inside of your earlobe, you know it might be a little bit uncomfortable to have such a shape inside. But I think for most people, they presumed it would fit. And so I’m really looking forward to testing them, and seeing how those work in their, quote unquote all day comfort and quote, perspective.
Augusto Pinaud 16:12
I will be interesting to that I also, I am really excited about the customization that you have so you can set so they, the bots can call your favorite playlist on Spotify that was example they gave and I thought you know what, that was really, really interesting. It was funny to hear, you know, this the job they try to the Apple AirPods. But I but it was also interesting to see how they bring that immersive sound that the iPad Pro brought last year to the game. So I’d like you I was really really intrigued by them. enough that it’s on my list of things to to test,
Raymond Sidney-Smith 16:52
they showed the active noise cancellation utilizing three different microphones, and so you’re going to get fairly good microphone audio when you’re in noisy environments and, and it seems like they’re really working to get that sound quality up pretty high. So looking forward to seeing those as well. You talked about the the job they took at the apple EarPods. But in the in the presentation, unis said something to the effect of, you know, like you don’t get those unsightly things sticking out of your ears. And that was their slight jab at the air pods and the AirPods Pro. And, you know, it’s true. I you know, I think that, you know, for me, especially, I’m thinking about the ability to have those pixel buds live in my ears when I’m doing an interview, you know, or when I’m recording on live streams. And I just really don’t want those things to just rest into the background. And so I think that these might actually be really, really nice for me to be able to have something that is Kind of, you know, like skin tone ish, and just kind of sets into the background. I don’t want them to be visible. Right now I’m using a nude in ear earbud Bluetooth earbud when I’m doing these on screen streams, and the quality is very low. And so I’m hoping that the galaxy buds live actually provide a better, richer sound, and better sound isolation so that when I am doing these interviews, I’m not, I’m not struggling to hear the other person while I’m, you know, doing it. So looking forward to seeing those in real world. Next up is my favorite product to be announced. And so I’m looking forward to seeing this also in real life, which is the Samsung Galaxy watch three, again, unique Park was the one who kind of demonstrated this and what stood out for you about the galaxy. Watch three
Augusto Pinaud 18:51
about the galaxy. You know, it was interesting to hear about blood pressure, you know, they bring a ECG they bring out Sajan measurements and how much you know, oxygen you have that are things that are really really, for what we are reading important, especially the oxygen levels on all that we are living on on the current thing. There are other things they bring, they bring 120 plus fitness program that was interesting to the faces and all that they spent a lot of time on the faces. I don’t know, it may be me that I don’t necessarily care for them. But but it faces they may spend a lot of time.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 19:31
You know, like I think that it was really great. I mean, people want to be able to have a product that they can customize. And this is hopefully going to bring more people to the watch world. Right? Like for me, I’m a watch where I always have been and it wouldn’t matter if they had smartwatches or not I would be wearing a watch. And so I’m you know, those of us who are watch wears, we are a small group of the rest of the population. So, especially as, as smartphones have become kind of the primary watch for most people, people know time by looking at their, at their phones. And if they want more people to have watches, especially smartwatches, they’re going to have to appeal to personality. And that means people being able to express themselves in and on their on their watch. And I think you know, if it’s an if it’s a, an accessory that is both for style, and personality, as well as function, they need to really up their personalization and customization and I feel like they did that. So I think they’re on the right track. Yeah. And I was interesting to see their marketing job as well. customization is not enough. Let’s make personalization. Last but not least, was their announcement of the galaxy z fold. Two. And this is their foldable phone. There are two screens are really one screen that actually you know, collapse. And so the two casings close on each other to close the screen. And, and and so they announced the fold to and what did you think about the fold to z fold to
Augusto Pinaud 21:16
you know the fold as well as this C fall two, it is a product that from day one, it says something that has intrigued my technology, mostly because I have a phone but I don’t really leave on the phone, I live on an iPad and an iPad Mini that’s, that’s my moving around device. So having something like that, that I can put on my pocket. I don’t know if it will be too thick for the pocket. But it was my Like, comment in the original c fold. But I still think Samson has some some really interesting concept on it that I think over time will as technology progress and they can continue working on that technology may be a really, really essential proposition.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 22:02
I think that for the screen technology, this is a great bleeding edge device. I think that we have to see where it goes. I’m very unique and new uniquely interested in seeing where it goes. I myself am not excited my you know myself personally about utilizing something like this. But I can see someone who is an absolute flying if you’re flying 100,000 miles a year, and you need something that really can be mobile, as well as providing you with a larger screen, especially as I get older and my eyesight you know, probably will start degrading and I want the text to be larger on screen having the ability to turn a phone from a smaller one into a larger one. With just a flip open. That sounds to me like a really great value proposition. And being able to like flip it open and use one Part of the screen as a keyboard and the other part as the screen, giving you in essence, you know, I’m not sure if it’s double, but I’m presuming it’s about double the screen size to be able to do that, that also seems very appealing to me. I’m just not sure I want to deal with the bulk. And with the potential breakage, you know, of me. You know, having it open and sitting on it and snapping it in half. I just, I just absolutely see myself, you know, having having frequently sat on my normal phone, and thankfully it hasn’t broken. You know, I could just see that that whip heart just, you know, not being capable of withstanding my lifestyle. So they did announce a couple of other items notable for us in terms of productivity is the Android recently released nearby sharing. And so if you’re using the latest versions of Android, I think it actually is is going back legacy part number of them the note 20 Ultra is using Ultra wideband technology to be able to bring that Google nearby sharing technology to their line of devices. And there, they kind of spoke about it being better than the normal Android nearby sharing. I’m not sure how that’s possible. But they seem to say it was was in some way, shape or form superior to normal nearby sharing. And so if you think about airdrop on the Apple devices, the ability for you to share files with folks who are within vicinity of you. That’s basically the feature they’re talking about. And so looking forward to seeing how that works. I’ve actually been testing nearby sharing on my own devices already, since the latest update, and it’s been working just fine. So I’m curious to see how the Samsung sharing is better.
Augusto Pinaud 24:45
Well, it will be interesting. I obviously have done it on on the iPad that’s come from always based on on the concept of the airdrop that Apple introduced and it really works incredibly well from MAC from iPads from phones. So That was that was a really, really interesting to see that.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 25:04
And I don’t actually know how many people use that feature. So, you know, it’s I don’t I don’t really know the numbers in that in that sense, but I’ll be curious to see what user adoption looks like over time. All of the products are either starting to be available today, or they’re coming available later this month. And so orders and pre orders have have started already. So I think it’s the pixel buds, the galaxy watch three and the note 20s. Those models are available, if not today, you know, for order in the next few days, and then the seven s and the seven s plus those are coming available along with the fold later this month, like the 21st or something like that
Augusto Pinaud 25:45
their books will be August 10. The X pass will be August 15. And the other products will come towards the end of the month.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 25:52
If you’re interested in any of the products and how they might impact your productivity toolkit. Certainly go check them out. And let us know what you think. And we’ll be excited to hear about them. So yeah, this has been our coverage for the Samsung unpacked 2020. As we come to a close, just a couple of items. If we missed something about the Samsung unpacked 2020 event, maybe you wanted to talk about the Z flip, or any of the other parts that we didn’t talk about, please feel free to come to our contact page at anything but idle calm, and you can go ahead and send us a message or leave a comment on the episode page. You can tweet or DMS on twitter at anything but idle and feel free to follow us on social media on Twitter and, and other places. All of our links for Augusto and myself are on anything but idle calm. If you can feel free to leave a rating or review in Apple podcasts or Stitcher or if your podcast app does allow for a rating or review. Feel free to do it there. We appreciate the feedback that helps us to grow our personal productivity listening community here at anything but idle. And finally, thanks for listening to anything but idle The Productivity news podcast until next time, here’s to your productive life.
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Download a PDF of raw, text transcript of the interview here.