We had only heard rumors up until now about Samsung's upcoming virtual assistant and the artificial intelligence that powers it, but it has now been confirmed by Samsung officially. Previously, Samsung had filed for patenting the name "Bixby" and reports are suggesting that's exactly what the AI assistant will be called on release. Also, the good news is that it will be launched along with the upcoming S8 as expected.

In the official statement by Executive Vice President Rhee Injong, "Developers can attach and upload services to our agent,"

"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."

Although this means that third party services will be supported, Samsung did not specify any details about which ones it will work with or how exactly it will work with them. It will be interesting to see how the AI developed by the Korean electronics giant manages to stack up against the competition and especially the likes of the mighty Google Assistant that is now exclusively available to the Pixel phones.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Ever since the Note 7 disaster, reports and surveys have been rampant, as well as conflicting. Just the other day, we were hearing about IDC's report which stated that roughly half of the Note 7 owners may switch over to the fruity side (read Apple iPhone 7), while today, we have a report from ReportLinker that says otherwise.

This particular survey was conducted on 500 smartphone users in the US, over the internet. While a majority of the customers (60% approx.) felt that Samsung did not handle the Note 7 recall episode well enough, about 86% of the survey population stated that they would still consider Samsung smartphones the next time they decide to buy a new phone.

In fact, 84% of the people voted that they do not feel that their smartphone poses any kind of risk to them. Provided that Samsung manages to deliver a product that we had come to expect from the company before the Note 7, the Galaxy S8 seems all ready to lift Samsung up and out of the ditch which the Note 7 landed it in.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Samsung has officially unveiled its next generation of chips at their Device Solutions America Headquarters and they are based on both 14nm, as well as 10nm processes. Now we know where all that investment into their semiconductor business went to. Additionally, they also unveiled their new generation of 7nm Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) wafer that will allow for precise patterning on chips, without needing to opt for more than just a single pattern.

The 14LPU process will improve over the current gen 14nm chips by providing them with a boost in performance without exceeding the allotted power quota. Processors enabled by these new 14nm chips will be able to provide high performance for long stretches at a time. The 10LPU process on the other hand, will make the next gen chips smaller than its predecessors; the 10LPE and 10LLP chips. The boost in performance is not highlighted as significant, but they will be cheaper to manufacture and will provide better power efficiency when used inside the new processors. Will the new tech be introduced with the Snapdragon 830 (rumored to be produced by Samsung)? Or will we see them exclusively in the new generation of the Exynos processors? We will find out soon.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is coming and it probably has more attention on it than any of its predecessors because of the Note 7 disaster and all the hope that rests upon its slick shoulders. Things so far are looking quite promising to be honest and today we have one more detail for you regarding the upcoming smartphone. "Bixby" is possibly going to be the name of the AI virtual assistant that may debut with the Galaxy S8 in 2017. This conclusion was reached after Samsung filed to copyright the name "Bixby" in South Korea just recently. The details regarding the trademark are as follows.

"computer software for personal information management," "computer application software for smartphones, mobile telephones, portable computers and tablet computers, Namely, software used to operate voice recognition system" and "computer software for enabling hands-free use of a mobile phone through voice recognition."

If the details aren't enough to convince you, consider the fact that this news comes hot in the heels of Samsung's acquisition of Viv Labs last month. Viv Labs was closely associated and instrumental in creating Siri, the extremely popular and successful AI digital assistant found on the Apple iPhones. In case you don't agree, what do you think Bixby signifies?

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

It is no secret that a lot depends on the Galaxy S8 and its success for Samsung as they continue to struggle against the huge losses suffered recently. In fact, we are pretty sure that Samsung is going to leave no stone unturned in order to make the upcoming smartphone as close to perfection as it can be. In spite of Samsung officially trying to keep a lid on things, rumors have been getting out about the S8 ever since day one and the latest rumor suggests that the Korean giant could be opting for a flexible OLED panel this time around.

The alleged Full-Screen flexible OLED panel with a resolution of 4K will bend around the eyes to make VR experience as immersive as it possibly can be. Keep in mind that Samsung had been using AMOLED displays for its flagship and high-end devices for a long time now and since AMOLED panels too are a type of OLED panel, we are not entirely sure what the difference would be in terms of real life performance in that respect.

What really sounds interesting is that according to Park Won-sang, an engineer of Samsung Display, Samsung may remove most sensors and even the physical Home button completely from the front side of the S8. In his own words, "Samsung Display would roll out a full-screen display whose display area ratio (a scale that measures space taken up by a display on the front part of a handset) reaches more than 90 percent next year."

The senior engineer further added that the screen-to body ratio might go up to as high as 99%, which is even higher than the only edge-to-edge phone we have seen till date, the Xiaomi Mi Mix. A Samsung flagship smartphone that will sport a 4K edge-to-edge flexible OLED panel! We would say Samsung has got our attention.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

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