Samsung Galaxy S8 to come with 'Siri rival'
Now Artificial Intelligence app specification is the new development among big tech companies. However Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant compete in dominating the tech market, Samsung is working on the development of its first virtual assistant to join the race. Its upcoming flagship phone, "Samsung Galaxy S8", has raised hopes among consumers and tech community alike that it will feature this new AI assistant app that the Korean tech giant is presently working on.
In October the world's top smartphone maker declared the acquisition of Viv Labs, a firm run by a co-creator of Apple's Siri voice assistant program. Samsung tactics to integrate the San Jose-based company's AI platform, called Viv, into the Galaxy smartphones and increase voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices.
"Samsung Galaxy S8" will undoubtedly be a big release for Samsung considering the recent fiasco of Galaxy Note 7. If speculations are to be believed, "Samsung Galaxy S8" could possibly sport an AI assistant specification that will be called "Bixby."
According to Android Headline, Samsung was spotted filing for a trademark for "Bixby" which was defined as a "computer application software for smartphones, portable computers, mobile telephones, and tablet computers. Namely, software used to operate voice recognition system."
Bixby is actually an application that features a hands-free operation and voice recognition. These features incidentally look like AI assistant programs like Corona, Siri, and Assistant. For tech savvies, this could possibly mean one thing. That is, Samsung is planning to incorporate Bixby on "Samsung Galaxy S8."
Last month, Samsung declared that it had acquired Viv, a company started by one of the minds behind Siri. Of course, we’ll recall that Siri began its life as a startup before being acquired by Apple and changed into a central iPhone feature.
“The more you ask of Viv, the more it will get to know you,” Siri co-creator and Viv founder Dag Kittlaus said earlier this year when discussing his new company. “Siri was chapter one, and now it’s almost like a new Internet age is coming. Viv will be a giant brain in the sky.”
Samsung did not confirm on what types of services would be presented through the AI assistant that will be launched on the Galaxy S8, which is likely to go on sale early next year. It said the AI assistant would permit customers to use third-party service seamlessly.
"Developers can attach and upload services to our agent," said Samsung executive vice president Rhee In-jong during a briefing, referring to its AI assistant.
"Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease."
Apart from having a new virtual assistant feature, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is supposed to launch with the Galaxy S8 Edge, and that both phones will have thinner builds than earlier devices. It was said that the S8 will have a 5.2-inch display with a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160 pixels, while the S8 Edge is learned to have a 5.5-inch 4K AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 806 pixels per inch.
It has also been appealed that the upcoming smartphone will have dual rear cameras with two sensors — one at 12 megapixels, and the other at 13 megapixels. The Galaxy S8 is said to have an 8-megapixel sensor at the front for selfies.