Android Circuit: New Galaxy S9 Leaks, Google Unlocks Pixel's Power, Samsung's Secret Weapon
Galaxy S9 Price Rise
South Korean prices of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus have been reported by ETNews. With a slight price bump over last year’s flagship models, the South Korean handsets are looking more and more like incremental updates, notes Gordon Kelly:
While these figures are higher than last year (the Galaxy S8 was 935,000 won), it only equates to a circa $20 increase. Meanwhile, Samsung priced the Galaxy S8 at $750 in the US so it may only go up to circa $775-800 (though remember most countries around the world list prices including tax).
So yes, you should expect to pay more and yes it might not be a lot more, but it’s still frustrating after prices were already hiked in 2017, but it’s not substantially more. And given Apple has a potential $1,400 iPhone launching this year, things could be a lot worse.
More on the price rise here on Forbes.
Olixar and Galaxy S9 Screen protector
Samsung Prepares New Security Measures
The Galaxy S9 family is set to build on Samsung’s existing biometric unlocking features by combining data from an iris camera, positional data, and an IR floodlight. Many will see this as a response to Apple’s use of facial recognition in the iPhone X, but the iris scanner at the base of the system has been around for a number of generations of South Korean smartphones. Forbes’ Gordon Kelly covers the news:
It is called ‘Intelligent Scan’ and it combines both facial recognition and iris scanning in an attempt to create something as fast and accurate as Face ID (if not more so). Last week code hidden in Samsung’s Android Oreo beta software uncovered the feature for the first time and now LetsGoDigital has discovered more information about this in a newly filed Samsung patent
Filed in English (usually Samsung patents are in Korean), it explains how the system will combine an iris camera, a light source module (IR LED) and proximity sensor.
More on the new security features here on Forbes.
It’s All About The Camera
It also looks like Samsung is going to lean heavily on the imaging software to make the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus stand out against last year’s model. As well as the dual-lens camera that is going to make its first appearance on a Samsung, the South Korean company is preparing a secret weapon… a super slow-mo mode:
">The team over at SamMobile has taken the specifications listed on the leaked box and carried on investigating to find out how Samsung’s ‘secret’ super slow-mo will work once the handset reaches consumers in early March.
The first mode is the ‘automatic’ mode. Here the user would set up the S9 handset to take a super slow-mo video clip, but the recording would not start until the AI in the camera software picks up some suitable movement that would be of benefit if it was slowed down. Samsung’s selfie mode in the rear camera, which takes the snap when a face is centred, offers a similar methodology.
The second mode is triggered as per normal, with the user starting the video recording at the touch of the super slow-mo mode button.
Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes the Galaxy S9 price, Samsung’s biometric security for the new Galaxy, why the camera is the key to the South Korean flagship, OnePlus launching the Lava Red 5T to the rest of the world, Nokia reaching ten million sales, WileyFox going into administration, and Google turning on the Pixel Visual Core for third-party apps.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week (and you can find the weekly Apple news digest here).
Galaxy S9 Price Rise
South Korean prices of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus have been reported by ETNews. With a slight price bump over last year’s flagship models, the South Korean handsets are looking more and more like incremental updates, notes Gordon Kelly:
While these figures are higher than last year (the Galaxy S8 was 935,000 won), it only equates to a circa $20 increase. Meanwhile, Samsung priced the Galaxy S8 at $750 in the US so it may only go up to circa $775-800 (though remember most countries around the world list prices including tax).
So yes, you should expect to pay more and yes it might not be a lot more, but it’s still frustrating after prices were already hiked in 2017, but it’s not substantially more. And given Apple has a potential $1,400 iPhone launching this year, things could be a lot worse.
More on the price rise here on Forbes.
Olixar and Galaxy S9 Screen protector
Samsung Prepares New Security Measures
The Galaxy S9 family is set to build on Samsung’s existing biometric unlocking features by combining data from an iris camera, positional data, and an IR floodlight. Many will see this as a response to Apple’s use of facial recognition in the iPhone X, but the iris scanner at the base of the system has been around for a number of generations of South Korean smartphones. Forbes’ Gordon Kelly covers the news:
It is called ‘Intelligent Scan’ and it combines both facial recognition and iris scanning in an attempt to create something as fast and accurate as Face ID (if not more so). Last week code hidden in Samsung’s Android Oreo beta software uncovered the feature for the first time and now LetsGoDigital has discovered more information about this in a newly filed Samsung patent
Filed in English (usually Samsung patents are in Korean), it explains how the system will combine an iris camera, a light source module (IR LED) and proximity sensor.
More on the new security features here on Forbes.
It’s All About The Camera
It also looks like Samsung is going to lean heavily on the imaging software to make the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus stand out against last year’s model. As well as the dual-lens camera that is going to make its first appearance on a Samsung, the South Korean company is preparing a secret weapon… a super slow-mo mode:
The team over at SamMobile has taken the specifications listed on the leaked box and carried on investigating to find out how Samsung’s ‘secret’ super slow-mo will work once the handset reaches consumers in early March.
The first mode is the ‘automatic’ mode. Here the user would set up the S9 handset to take a super slow-mo video clip, but the recording would not start until the AI in the camera software picks up some suitable movement that would be of benefit if it was slowed down. Samsung’s selfie mode in the rear camera, which takes the snap when a face is centred, offers a similar methodology.
The second mode is triggered as per normal, with the user starting the video recording at the touch of the super slow-mo mode button.
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