Samsung is developing a new smart speaker designed to let you use the company’s Bixby voice assistant without taking your phone out of your pocket or handbag.
It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Home, and the company gave a sneak peek at the upcoming smart speaker during the launch event for the new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 smartphone today. But the company isn’t ready to talk about pricing or detailed specs yet. Samsung says more details will be available during the Samsung Developer Conference in November.
Here’s what we know so far:
- The speaker looks a bit like a vase resting atop a tripod.
- It has AKG tuned audio and a subwoofer for deep base sound.
- There’s an 8-microphone array to support far-field voice detection.
- You’ll be able to use it to play music, interact with smart home gadgets, and more.
- There are physical controls on top of the speaker.
Samsung is also announcing a partnership with Spotify, allowing you to do things like start listening to a Spotify music stream on your smartphone when you’re commuting… and then pick up where you left off when you get home by pressing a single button a Galaxy Home speaker.
The partnership is also bringing Spotify integration deep into the Samsung ecosystem: it’ll be part of the setup process for new devices including Samsung smartphones, smart TVs, and smart speakers… which sounds great for people who want to use Spotify and less great for folks who don’t. Bixby voice control support for Spotify is also coming soon.
Looks like a Ding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_(vessel)
I studied ancient China, so this design struck me. I guess it will have an extra appeal in Asia.