MacRumors

When the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones went on sale in April, voice support for Bixby in the United States was missing due to Samsung's decision to delay the virtual assistant's English-language launch until what was then estimated to be sometime in late spring. This week, the company has announced that voice capabilities for Bixby are now arriving for Galaxy S8 and S8+ users across the United States.

Samsung describes Bixby as "fundamentally different" than AI helpers like Siri and Microsoft's Cortana because of its deeper and more nuanced integration into the Galaxy's core apps, as well as some third party apps at launch including Google Maps, Google Play Music, YouTube, and Facebook. The Bixby integration into these third party apps is available through a service called Bixby Labs, which Galaxy S8 owners can opt into through their smartphone.

Bixby's many features include letting users complete simple tasks like turning on the device's flashlight and taking a screenshot or selfie. More complex flows can be arranged as well, like asking the assistant to gather all of the photos taken over the past week into one album called "Vacation," and then sending it to family and friends. Samsung plans to continuously update Bixby with new features, app support, languages and devices, and the company said that thanks to deep learning, the assistant will only improve over time.

What’s more, because Bixby is deeply integrated into the device’s operating system – rather than being a separate app –users can seamlessly switch between controlling an app via voice or via touch commands, rather than choose one or the other ahead of time.

“There are over 10,000 functions on our smartphones, but each day, people may use less than five percent of them. The features on your phone are only useful if you know how to find them. Our goal with Bixby is to make it easier to use our phones, creating the best possible user experience for our customers. That’s why we created Bixby – an intuitive new way to do more things with your phone,” says Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Software and Services of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.

With the Bixby update, Galaxy S8 users can simply press the dedicated Bixby button on their device to call up the assistant and begin asking it questions and performing tasks, and a voice activated "Hi, Bixby" feature is also available. Right now, Bixby recognizes English and Korean languages, but Samsung noted that, "Not all accents, dialects and expressions" will be recognized.

Every time that Galaxy S8 users call up Bixby they will also earn experience points in a gamification system that Samsung is also rolling out for the launch, and ending September 14, 2017. Each message sent, call made, setting updated, or any action performed through Bixby will earn XP, which users can convert into Samsung Rewards points that can be amassed to try to win bigger prizes like Samsung products, gift cards, trips, and more.

Earlier this month, it was rumored that Samsung is planning to enter the smart speaker market with a device that uses Bixby as a way for users to interact with music playback. Codenamed "Vega," the project would place Samsung as a competitor against Apple in yet another category, since the Cupertino company at WWDC this year announced the December launch of the HomePod, its Siri-powered speaker.

Delays related to Bixby's U.S. launch are reportedly behind a slowdown on the smart speaker project, and a report out of The Korea Herald this week has furthermore placed the launch of a Samsung speaker well into the future. Sources familiar with the matter claimed that Samsung is "not enthusiastic" about a smart Bixby speaker because it "does not view Al speakers as marketable" at this time, thanks to the domination of products like Amazon Echo. Rather than dive into an uncertain market, Samsung is said to be taking a wait-and-see approach for the potential launch of its Bixby speaker.

Compal, Hon Hai Precision/Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron have filed a countersuit against iPhone LTE modem supplier Qualcomm in an attempt to prevent Qualcomm from successfully forcing them to pay certain licensing fees related to the iPhone's assembly (via Bloomberg). The move is a response to a lawsuit from May when Qualcomm sued the four suppliers for "breaching their license agreements" by failing to pay royalties on the use of Qualcomm's technology in the assembly of Apple's devices.

Now, in a court filing today, the four companies have claimed that Qualcomm is asking for payments "massively in excess" of what it would normally receive. If the countersuit is successful, Apple said that it could cost Qualcomm billions in refunded fees and damages. For the manufacturers' part, the companies described the Qualcomm suit as "yet another...anticompetitive scheme" by Qualcomm.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is said to be covering the legal fees associated with the four manufacturers' defense, and that it would soon file a separate motion to combine the new countersuit with its own suit against Qualcomm, creating one unified case.

Apple’s key contention is that Qualcomm is asking the court to force the contract manufacturers to pay licensing fees due on iPhones above the level the chipmaker normally receives.

The manufacturers -- Compal, Hon Hai Precision and its Foxconn subsidiary, Pegatron Corp., and Wistron Corp. -- denied violating any payment agreements. They called the Qualcomm suit against them “yet another chapter of Qualcomm’s anticompetitive scheme to dominate modem chip markets, extract supracompetitive royalties, and break its commitments to license its cellular technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.”

Apple and its manufacturing partners have also responded to a separate Qualcomm court filing, in which the LTE modem supplier requested an injunction to force Apple's iPhone manufacturers to keep paying royalties during the legal battle. Apple, Compal, Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron have objected to the request, stating that "there's no harm to Qualcomm waiting to get paid" until the end of the case, when the court determines the correct amount.

Earlier this week, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said that an out of court settlement for the case could still happen, although he had no specific confirmation or update on the legal battle that suggested a settlement was coming between Qualcomm and Apple. The two companies have been embroiled in the court case since January, sparked by an FTC complaint about Qualcomm's anticompetitive patent licensing practices, and continued with Apple's own lawsuit against the supplier, and then Qualcomm's countersuit response.

If there is no settlement between Apple and Qualcomm, the case is expected to continue for the next few years.

After debuting exclusively inside special pop-up vending machines last year before becoming available as direct web orders, Snap has now begun selling its video-recording Spectacles through Amazon for the first time.

When synced with the Snapchat mobile app, users can tap a button on the Spectacles to begin recording a 10, 20, or 30-second video, which is saved in the "Memories" section of the app and can be revisited and posted to their Story.

As of writing, the $129.99 Spectacles are in stock on July 23 and come in Coral, Black and Teal, and include a charging case, charging cable, cleaning cloth, and Quickstart guide. All Spectacles also come with a one-year warranty.

According to Snap, Spectacles can capture up to 100 Snaps on one charge, and the charging case can hold up to four full charges at a time.

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Augmented reality startup Blippar today announced a new social feature for its image recognition app that lets users build an AR profile using facial recognition technology.

Called "Halos", the feature offers users the ability to scan their face into the app and fill various bubbles around their head with personal details, such as their latest tweets, favorite songs on Spotify, YouTube videos, and animated emoji.

Once the facial profile is uploaded, anyone who "blips" the user – or scans their face with the app – sees the information as a halo of bubbles suspended in mid-air. The feature builds on the app's Public Figure Facial Recognition, introduced last December, which lets users scan 370,000 famous faces to learn interesting facts about them.

The Blippar app generally relies on users aiming their phone camera at everyday objects, products or images and "blipping" them to unlock helpful information, interact with brands, play videos, games, music, and more.

Blippar said in a blog post that the mobile app is mainly its way of showcasing technologies for other companies interested in adopting their visual search engine APIs – or in this case, facial recognition tech, which the company claims has more than 99.6 percent accuracy.

"Our faces are our most unique and expressive form of communication. Through AR Face Profiles we are making the face accessible in digital format for the first time, providing an innovative and dynamic way of expressing ourselves and discovering more about those around you. The technology lends itself to many other forms of implementation, and we are delighted to be able to share our APIs and technology with other companies, who like us, are committed to spurring on innovation in their own industries."

Apple has previously snapped up smaller companies specializing in facial recognition and augmented reality technology – two tentpole features expected in the so-called "iPhone 8" due to launch later this year.

In February the tech giant bought Israeli firm RealFace, whose proprietary IP could be used to power facial authentication in the upcoming phone, with Apple's ARKit developer platform likely to be used to showcase the handset's next-generation augmented reality capabilities.

Blippar is a free download for iPhone available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

China has reportedly started blocking some features of the WhatsApp messaging service, as authorities continue to tighten controls over the country's internet.

WhatsApp users began reporting problems with sharing content on the chat platform yesterday, with many unable to send video and pictures. Despite initial fears of a communications-wide ban of the Facebook-owned service, text-based messages within the app appear to be unaffected.

WhatsApp's reach in China is small compared to homegrown chat service WeChat, which boasts 900 million users but is routinely subjected to state monitoring and censorship. However, Chinese users concerned about privacy have increasingly turned to the encrypted WhatsApp platform to communicate with friends and relatives as well as businesses abroad.

Facebook and Instagram have remained blocked by China's Great Firewall since 2009 and 2014, respectively. Encrypted messaging service Telegram was also blocked inside China after it became popular with the country's human rights lawyers, while several domestic VPNs – which are commonly used to evade censorship and access services abroad – were recently shut down after authorities said they were unauthorized to run.

China appears to be clamping down on potential sources of politically sensitive news as it prepares for a major leadership reshuffle in Beijing. The event happens every five years and often leads to a tightening of online controls to project an air of stability in the country. The death of jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo last week also spurred censors into action, with commemorations on WeChat reportedly blocked by authorities.

(Via The New York Times.)

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Google today announced a new personalized news feed for its namesake iOS app, offering a stream of content based on user search history and topics they choose to follow.

The feed appears directly below the search bar in the Google app, where users will see a stream of personally relevant articles and media content powered by Google's machine learning algorithms.

The feed sits in place of Google Now, the company's predictive search feature that displays traffic updates, weather, and other information, all of which has been moved to a new tab called Updates.

Going forward, when users perform a search in the app, some results will display a "follow" button alongside them. Content ripe for following will include news, sports, and entertainment articles, with relevance prioritized by the user's search history and previous follows.

The feed itself can be customized by tapping the three dots on top of a card, from which content can be shared, followed, or dismissed to avoid seeing the subject again.

The feed is the company's latest effort to encourage users to browse with the Google app instead of thinking of it as a simple search portal. Its introduction in the app is also seen as a prelude to bringing similar personalized elements to the Google homepage proper.

The new feed should start showing up in the U.S. today and will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks. The Google app is a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

As Nintendo prepares to launch Splatoon 2 on July 21, it has made the Nintendo Switch Online app available in the iOS App Store. Nintendo Switch Online, first introduced earlier this month, is designed to enhance the online experience when using compatible games on the Nintendo Switch console.

At the current time, Splatoon 2 is the only game that's compatible with Nintendo Switch Online, and it will allow players to voice chat with friends, invite people to online matches, create teams, and access SplatNet 2.

SplatNet 2, designed specifically for Splatoon 2, offers up online play statistics like match results, stages, and rankings. It also lets users invite friends with Splatoon 2 to Private Battles, League Battles, and Splatfest battles across social media.

While Nintendo Switch Online is limited to Splatoon 2 right now, future games will have built in support, with Nintendo Switch Online serving as the hub for most interactive features like voice chat. When using voice chat, Nintendo says it works in different ways based on the game that's being played. Users can either chat with everyone in the room or split voice chat into teams.

The app's functionality and the Splatoon 2 online play will be available for free until the full Nintendo Switch Online service launches in 2018. Following the launch of Nintendo Switch Online, most games with online gameplay will require an ongoing subscription. Nintendo Switch Online will cost $19.99 per year or $3.99 per month with a monthly subscription.

A persistent internet connection is required to use the app, as is a Nintendo Switch console, and a Nintendo Account. Users must be at least 13 years old to download and use the app, and it won't work until Splatoon 2 is released on July 21. For now, expect to see a login error when attempting to sign in with a Nintendo account.

Nintendo Switch Online can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Popular password management LastPass today announced plans to introduce a new family plan, LastPass Families. The new plan is designed to allow up to six family members to store and access all of their passwords and documents from any device.

With LastPass Families, family members can share access to bank accounts, credit cards, and more, for every day use or in case of an emergency. According to LastPass, each individual family member will have access to unlimited shared folders with family members, emergency access, and a family dashboard where the family manager can add and remove members. Family members will also have a private, personal vault for storing passwords that are not shared.

LastPass plans to launch LastPass Families later this summer, but customers can sign up now to get early access to the feature. All LastPass Premium customers will also get a chance to try LastPass Families for free for six months.

LastPass Premium is priced at $12 per year, but family pricing has yet to be announced.

Adobe today updated its Lightroom apps for the iPad and the iPhone, introducing a new selective brush, a details tab, a refreshed interface for the iPad, and enhanced support for features like the Apple Pencil and 3D Touch.

Both Lightroom for iOS and Lightroom for iPad feature a new Selective Brush tool, which can be used to selectively paint enhancements on any part of an image. On the iPhone, the Selective Brush takes advantage of 3D Touch for pressure sensitivity, and on the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil can be used for the same effect. The Selective Brush works with exposure, brightness, clarity, and more.

Adobe has also added the ability to selectively erase linear and radial gradients for a wider range of effects, and there's a new Details Tab that offers global control over sharpening and noise reduction. On the iPhone, there's also a new "Show Highlight Clipping" feature available when using the in-app camera that displays overexposed areas to allow users to adjust exposure before capturing a photo.

For the iPad version of Lightroom, Adobe has introduced an entirely new interface that's designed for the larger screen of an iPad.

Lightroom can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [iPad: Direct Link] [iPhone: Direct Link]

Apple today announced the air date for its newest music-related documentary that will be shown exclusively on Apple Music, Kygo: Stole the Show. The documentary, which chronicles the life of Norwegian DJ and musician Kygo, will premiere on Apple Music on Wednesday, July 26.

Apple shared the air date in a new trailer that has been uploaded to the company's YouTube channel. Starting with the early stage's of Kygo's career, the documentary will follow his journey as he works his way up to a mega performance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York, an event that took place in January of 2016.

The film offers fans a chance to see an intimate and unfiltered side of Kygo and his team as they prepare for an unprecedented moment in Kygo's career. The documentary features cameos from a few of Kygo's closest friends and collaborators including Steve Aoki, Lyor Cohen, Julia Michaels, Pete Tong, Martin Garrix, Parson James, and more. With an upcoming sophomore studio album due for release later this year, Stole the Show offers riveting insight into the artist's origin, creative process, and aspirations, along with never-before-seen behind the scenes footage, showcasing who Kygo is both on and off the stage.

Apple has been focusing heavily on exclusive video content for Apple Music in recent months, and Stole the Show will follow Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story, the documentary that follows the rise of Sean Combs, aka "Puff Daddy," and the rise of Bad Boy Records throughout the 1990s. Can't Stop Won't Stop premiered as an Apple Music exclusive on June 26.

Other original content includes Planet of the Apps, which launched in June, and Carpool Karaoke: The Series, set to premiere on August 8.

Apple Pay continues its global expansion today with several new participating banks, and more coming soon, in France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and the UK.

In France, Apple says Apple Pay will be available later this year to Banque BCP and Arkéa Banque Privée customers, and through mobile-only banking and/or payment solutions Orange Bank, Lydia, and N26.

In Italy, as promised, Apple Pay is available now for American Express credit cards issued directly by American Express.

In Ireland, Apple Pay is available now at AIB, one of the so-called "Big Four" financial institutions in the country.

In Spain, Apple says Apple Pay will be available later this year at CaixaBank and mobile-only banking app imaginBank. Visa in general will also begin supporting Apple Pay in Spain by the end of the year.

In the UK, Apple Pay is now supported by mobile-only banking app Starling Bank.

Earlier this month, Apple announced several other new and forthcoming banks with Apple Pay support in France, Italy, and Spain. Apple maintains a complete list of Apple Pay participating banks in Europe on its website.

Update: Canadian bank Tangerine says its debit cards now work with Apple Pay following credit card support last year. (Thanks, Chris!)

One year after launching its first Bluetooth-enabled smart toothbrush with the Sonicare Flexcare Platinum device, Philips this week announced the all-new Sonicare DiamondClean Smart Sonic toothbrush. The toothbrush packs in the usual array of features found in other smart toothbrushes, including brush coaching and smartphone connectivity, as well as including a revamped brush head system and inductive charging through an included glass cup.

Like its previous toothbrush, Philips' DiamondClean device includes a variety of sensors that guide users through customized brushing routines, provides real-time feedback through the connected iPhone and Android app, and keeps track of data collected overtime within the app. The app provides a 3D mouth map, highlighting problematic areas that users might miss while brushing, as well as potential issues like bleeding areas and cavities.

The new brush head system also intends to make choosing a brushing mode easier than the Flexcare Platinum toothbrush. With included microchips in each head, when users snap on one of the four new heads -- plaque control, gum care, whitening, and fresh breath -- the DiamondClean will automatically set the routine for the related activity in the brush head that's been connected. The toothbrush tracks how long and how hard each brush head has been used, and warns the user when it's nearing time to replace them.

"Philips is committed to developing products that have a positive impact on people's lives. Through our research we know that consumers want to achieve their healthiest smile, but don't often know how they are doing in between visits to their dental professional," said Alexander Harris, Senior Marketing Director, Philips Oral Healthcare.

"We developed Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart while working closely with dental professionals to eliminate the guesswork from tooth brushing. Backed by our most recent research and insights, we are able to provide users with data and knowledge that will help them achieve a complete clean, every time."

To charge the toothbrush, Philips has included its inductive charging glass cup -- which doubles as a rinsing glass -- with a base that users connect to a wall outlet, and when the DiamondCare toothbrush is placed inside it instantly begins charging. Included in the box is a deluxe travel case as well, so if users are on the go they can recharge the toothbrush using a connected USB cable. One full charge via either charging option will provide up to two weeks of battery for the toothbrush.

The Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart Toothbrush comes in white, black, pink, and sliver and starts at $229.99 with two brush heads, rising to $269.99 with three brush heads, and $329.99 with a full set of the new brush heads. Those interested can also find the toothbrush on Amazon. The DiamondClean toothbrush uses the same connected iPhone app, Philips Sonicare [Direct Link], that the company debuted with the Flexcare toothbrush last year.

A new iPhone-compatible augmented reality headset has been announced today, called the Mira Prism, and it allows users to plug their iPhone 6, 6s, or 7 into a headset and interact with holographic images overlaid onto real-world objects.

The iPhone 7 sits facing away from the user when placed within the Mira Prism, and then a pair of mirrors reflects what's on the iPhone's screen and positions it on the front glass lenses, providing the augmented reality effect. The headset's app includes a collection of solo and collaborative AR experiences that are displayed above the included Mira launchpad, and any user without a headset can see what others are seeing in AR through the iPhone app's "Spectator Mode."

No plugs, computers, or wires needed. No matter where you are, simply open the Mira app on your smartphone, slide it into the Prism headset, and begin exploring the wonders of interactive holographic content.

The Mira Prism comes with a motion-based remote control for interacting with the various AR experiences provided by the headset, and the company said that more games and apps will becoming thanks to the Mira SDK. Engadget had a chance to check out the Mira Prism, and described a few of the games available on the AR headset:

Even though I only had a few minutes with the Prism, I was impressed with what I saw. I'm used to trying on headsets that are too expensive for most people to buy, so it was a bit of a shock that it worked at all. Beyond the initial setup experience, I played a holographic game that involved maneuvering a character through a maze, which relied on the controller's motion controls. Another game had me spinning around in my chair to destroy asteroids hovering all around me. I was particularly surprised how well Prism tracked virtual objects in AR, even though it doesn't have any spatial mapping technology like HoloLens and Meta.

One Mira Prism device comes with the headset, remote, launchpad, carrying case, lens cover, and a pair of AAA batteries for the remote, as well as software including Mira's core apps and a premium game bundle. In terms of hardware specs, the headset has a 60-degree field of view and a total resolution of 1334 x 750.

Users interested can pre-order the Mira Prism for $99 beginning today, with an estimated shipping date of holiday 2017, afterwards the headset will cost $150 at retail. A developer edition is also available, and will ship sometime in the fall of 2017, slightly ahead of the consumer version.

Augmented reality has been an increasingly popular area for many companies over the past few years, gaining larger recognition with games like Pokémon Go, and this year preparing to expand to every iOS 11 device thanks to Apple's ARKit. Developers have already begun showing off how the camera on an iPhone can fuel impressive AR experiences, including basic everyday functions like overlaying a measuring tape onto an object, or displaying Minecraft in the real world.