Samsung Unveils Solutions for a New Era of Connected Experiences @ SDC21
Developers, creators and designers explored new ways to build with Samsung’s growing ecosystem at the company’s developer conference.
Samsung Electronics today held the Samsung Developer Conference 2021 (SDC21), marking the first-ever virtual developer conference for the company. Open to consumers, developers and partners, Samsung announced a suite of services and product solutions to shape, design and create seamless experiences that integrate easily into today’s changing lifestyles.
During the event, Samsung highlighted its consumer-centric approach to innovation. In particular, the company showcased how advancements in AI, IoT and security work alongside the breadth of Samsung’s portfolio to create experiences that fit into how people live, ultimately unlocking a new era of connectivity and collaboration.
“We are proud of the pioneering work we are able to do in partnership with the creative developer community,” said DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “As society becomes more closely connected through new tools and devices, we want to make people’s lives easier and smarter – wherever they are.”
Platforms Designed for Connected Experiences
A strong platform of technologies across AI, IoT and security enhances the consumer experience and accelerates the ability of developers to build creative applications. Samsung detailed its plans to strengthen core platform technologies such as Bixby, SmartThings and Samsung Knox.
During the SDC21 keynote, Samsung announced improvements to Bixby, which has become a central part of the user experience for more than 300 million Samsung devices. Bixby now uses on-device AI and deep neural networks to process commands on devices themselves. Thanks to on-device AI, this development makes the service up to 35% faster than before.
For developers, Samsung also announced the Bixby Home Platform, which serves as an intelligent layer between Bixby’s natural language processing and SmartThings. With the platform, voice commands can now be executed more intelligently, taking into account the state and context of various devices.
Samsung made further announcements with regard to SmartThings, including how the platform will be fully integrated with Matter, the newest standard in smart home compatibility. Matter solves developer interoperability challenges and with an expansive list of partners, will be the catalyst that makes smart home connectivity nearly effortless. SmartThings Hub software will also be embedded into the Samsung product portfolio, which includes Samsung Smart TVs and Family Hub refrigerators.
Samsung believes that consumer data and personal privacy is just as important as the experiences they enable. Samsung is committed to providing a seamless consumer experience, and to ensuring that its devices and services are secure from beginning to end. Samsung Knox, the company’s defense-grade security platform, offers built-in protection for more than 100 million Samsung devices. To further secure consumer data, the Samsung Knox Vault comes in a combination of security-specific hardware (a new secure processor and isolated secure memory) and new integrated software that shields the most secure data from the Android OS and applications. During the SDC21 keynote, Samsung highlighted the importance of collaboration and its philosophy of open innovation to improve security and privacy, reiterating its work to continue releasing security analysis tools as open source projects.
Samsung also outlined its Privacy Principles at SDC21, highlighting the three commitments that guide all innovation at the company: Protection, Choice and Transparency. With these principles, consumers, developers and partners are given the information needed to make decisions about how data is managed. The company offers users the option to review and manage their permissions from the privacy setting on their Galaxy devices and Smart TVs and discloses Samsung’s privacy policies through the Privacy Portal. Going forward, Samsung will collaborate with global security experts while continuing to release open source security analysis tools to make its ecosystems more secure.
Tizen Takes Smart TV to New Heights
Based on its ‘Screens Everywhere, Screen for All’ vision, Samsung continues to build on its position as the world leader in TVs by developing new experiences that enhance connectivity, functionality and immersive entertainment. At SDC21, Samsung introduced various ways that Samsung TVs are enabling new experiences, including:
– Video communication based on partnership with Google to allow users to enjoy better video calling on TVs via AI-enabled focus and zoom features.
– Samsung Health on Smart TVs that connects with a webcam to analyze movements and provide real-time feedback during a workout.
– More realistic gaming thanks to HDR10+, with automated settings for low latency and HDR calibration.
For enterprises, Samsung will launch Tizen for Business. This service supports interactive e-boards in schools, kiosks in malls, and even displays in restaurants, airports and subways. With new management portals, businesses can conduct real-time monitoring and control screens remotely, easily applying settings to multiple devices with one simple touch.
With the Tizen TV Platform Licensing, manufacturers who want to introduce a premium TV platform like Tizen can do so quickly with minimal cost. This enables them to use the Tizen TV presence to promote their products in the Smart TV market, and ultimately, help more consumers enjoy Tizen.
Innovating Across the Galaxy Ecosystem
Samsung provides a user experience that meets the needs of all users and devices. And with an expanding range of device types and form factors, developers have a breadth of opportunities to innovate in new ways.
At SDC21, Samsung introduced the new One UI 4, the latest version of its user interface for mobile devices. One UI 4 will provide new levels of customization to enable users to create an experience and a device that is truly theirs. It combines Samsung’s leading privacy and security features with options for users to personalize permissions so that they are always in control of their data when using a Samsung device.
Samsung demonstrated the possibilities of One UI 4 to developers at the event, particularly for foldable devices such as the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3. Thanks to One UI 4, users will be able to make use of features such as Flex mode and Multi-Active Window, which enable users to enjoy more intuitive and user-friendly experiences that are unique to the foldable form factor. SDC21 also included a Galaxy Watch session that showcased developer tools to help them build new apps in the new watch app ecosystem.
Samsung invites developers and partners on its journey to bring new and secure experiences to life.
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