Samsung adds Vision AI to its premium TV line-up

by Vlad Savov, Bloomberg News

Samsung is expanding its artificial intelligence push with a new suite of enhancements for its premium TV lineup under the branding of Vision AI.

The company's AI-powered screens will be able to search online for information about what’s being displayed - such as identifying an actor or product - translate in real-time and generate personalised background images, it said in a statement from CES in Las Vegas.

A built-in AI processor on the top TV models will also analyse content, boost colours and contrast and optimize audio.

"Samsung sees TVs not as one-directional devices for passive consumption but as interactive, intelligent partners that adapt to your needs," SW Yong, head of the company's visual display business, said in the statement.

The South Korean company, which has been the world's biggest TV seller for close to two decades, said it will also collaborate with Microsoft and Alphabet's Google as it expands its Vision AI suite with additional capabilities from partners.

Samsung unveils Galaxy Z Fold6, Galaxy Z Flip6 and Galaxy Watch Ultra - plus South Africa pricing.

by Thinus Ferreira

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday afternoon in Paris, France unveiled its Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 as well as a range of new smartwatches at its next Galaxy Unpacked event. 

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 is available in three colours - silver shadow, pink, as well as navy - with all three colours which will be available in South Africa.

The Samsung Galaxy Flip6 is available in four colours - silver shadow, blue, yellow and mint - with all four colours which will be available in South Africa.

Powered by Samsung's Pro Visual Engine, the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 are equipped with multiple image editing features, and also comes with further enhanced camera features.

Similar to Samsung's recent Galaxy S24 series launch the new devices are centred around Samsung's Galaxy AI with improved versions of Chat Assist, Circle-to-Search, Note Assist and Transcribe Assist, as well as an instant slow-motion feature within photography.

The Pro Visual Engine AI functions are accessed by tapping the Galaxy AI button in the image editor.

"Our foldables meet the unique needs of every user and now enhanced by the power of Galaxy AI, Samsung is delivering an experience like never before," says TM Roh, president and head of mobile exerience business at Samsung Electronics.

The devices have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and comes with One UI 6.1.1 and both have 12GM RAM. 

The Galaxy Z Fold6 has either 256GM or 512GB storage with a recommended retail price of R43 500 (256GB) and R46 000 ((512GB), while the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 has 256GB of internal storage and a recommended retail price of R26 000.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 has a slightly larger display that its predecessor: 6.3 inches and an OLED display with a 2 376 x 968 pixel resolution. 

Its internal display remains unchanged from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5: a 7.6-inch OLED with 2 160 x 1 856 pixel resolution. Both displays are on a 120Hz refresh rate.

The Galaxy Z Fold6 comes with the same 50 MP f/1.8 main camera with OIS at the back, alongside a 10 MP f/2.4 telephoto unit with 3x optical zoom and a 12 MP f/2.2 ultrawide shooter with a 123-degree field of view.

It also has a 10 MP selfie camera on the cover display with a 4 MP video-chat shooter hidden under the foldable display.

Samsung says the Fold6 "also offers one-way translation, so you can easily understand when listening during lectures or any other type of presentation". 

Live Translate - which requires a network connection and a Samsung account - translates "phone calls directly on your device in real-time, and is also now being extended beyond Samsung’s own native calling app to a selection of popular third-party apps".

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 has unchanged display dimensions from the Flip5 at 7.6-inch for the internal display and a 3.4-inch external screen, with unchanged resolution of 2 640 x 1,080 pixels and 748 x 720 pixels. 

Here the internal display is also a 120Hz refresh rate.

Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 are possible from Wednesday 10 July 2024.

Samsung also unveiled its Galaxy Watch Ultra with a recommended retail price of R20 000.

Also new is the Buds3 earbuds (recommended retail price: R4000) available in either silver or white.

The Buds3 Pro has a recommended retail price of R5000), with the new Samsung Galaxy Watch7 that comes with a recommended retail price of R7000 for the 40mm, and R7500 for the 44mm. 

Samsung South Africa will not sell its Samsung Galaxy Ring locally.

Samsung adds first rudimentary Galaxy AI capability as it launches Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra devices.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Wednesday night Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra smartphone range at another Unpacked event in California with the Galaxy device that now incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) features.

Cheil SA that reps Samsung in South Africa didn't bother with any PR or communication about the San Jose or Fourways event held in South Africa and didn't send over any press release afterwards.

Last year Apple overtook Samsung Electronics for the first time according to data provider International Data Corp in smartphone shipments.

In South Africa the S24 Ultra will sell at R32 500. The cost of the Samsung S24+ is R25 500 while the  S24 retails for R22 500. 

Shipping of pre-orders in South Africa will start on 9 February on the same day as sales start in stores and the devices come in titanium grey, titanium black, titanium yellow and titanium violet.

Samsung is now adding the first type of rudimentary artificial intelligence functionality in its Galaxy S24 phones like the simultaneous translation of languages where people are speaking on a call in different languages. 

The device can do it in 13 different languages but users must first download language packs and excludes any of South Africa's official languages.

The phone's AI can also be used to summarise and translate voice recordings. AI can also be utilised to change the tone of a message from formal to informal and vice versa.

Image-wise the device can do generative editing of photos to add in non-existent backgrounds and turn video into slow-motion. It also has a "circle-to-search function where any part of an image can be circled to do a Google image search.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 18 September 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:  

■ Do you speak Fox News (StarSat 261)?
How Donald Trump's favourite TV channel became a language.

■ Pedro Pascal allegedly went cray-cray during filming of season 2 of Disney+'s Star Wars The Mandalorian and suddenly demanded to film scenes without his helmet on so that he can be seen.

- Has "difficult" Pedro Pascal quit Star Wars The Mandalorian?

- "Big change" coming halfway through season 2 as season "shifts away from Mando".

■ Netflix's Cheer star Jerry Harris arrested by FBI, charged with producing child porn.

■ Reality TV space series wants to send contestants to space in 2023.

■ The darkness of American daytime TV: It's awful at Ellen and other Telepictures produced shows:

Staffers who worked for Ellen DeGeneres detail how they had to sign contracts from which they couldn't quit, had to work until 11pm and weekends, were "blacklisted and fired" if they complained, extra freebies for top execs.

■ Damaged WarnerMedia is still playing catch-up with the Ellen scandal as Warner Bros executives on Thursday continued to be "concerned and disappointed" by ongoing reports of abusive workplace behaviour.

■ Poverty in South Africa - and the fear of jailing TV owners - is why the SABC struggles to collect SABC TV licence fees.

■ Celebreality was already on the decline. The cancellation of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E! (DStv 124) just put it out if its misery.

- Nene Leakes is done with The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Again.

■ Is Netflix losing subscribers over the shocking Cuties scandal?

■ More and more Disney content is disappearing from MultiChoice's Showmax streaming service. Is it because Disney plans to eventually launch Disney+ in South Africa?

■ Research: Producers of high-end TV series face delays of up to 12 months because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Reality TV used as filler on TV channel's schedules.

■ Netflix CEO Reed Hastings rejects demands for streaming content quotas in Australia.

- Netflix hikes subscription fees in Australia.

■ Trash-TV returns: Nigeria's shocking sham, TStv is once again attempting to launch as a pay-TV service despite countless lies and content theft in the past, setting 1 October 2020 as its latest launch date.

■ Prince William is livid over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix deal.

■ MultiChoice's temperamental and constantly broken DStv Now streaming service has some unexplained "temporary service outage" problem again.

■ Netflix can show gay content in Saudi Arabia. Just not anything that criticises Mohammad Bin Salman.

■ Fox News (StarSat 261) fires staff in restructuring, but not because of Covid-19.

No more hair and make-up for guests.

■ Bloomberg plans a video streaming relaunch.

Says Bloomberg TV (DStv 411 / StarSat 264) still has value but that business viewers have moved away from linear pay-TV.

■ Netflix tells Britain's parliament it doesn't want to destroy the BBC.

■ Everyone thought appointment television was dead but in 2020 with a global pandemic it's thriving as a weekly collective viewing of a show helps bring structure to people's lives.

■ The Game of Thrones sex scene that was ruined by a "visible excited" horse.

■ Samsung South Africa keeps churning out press releases about TV but PRs can't bother to actually send it out to media.

■ Uganda loses 110 000 pay-TV subscribers because of Covid-19.

Samsung South Africa launches Samsung's new range of ultra-high definition (SUHD) TV's; swimmer Cameron van der Burgh its new brand ambassador.

Despite a stalling South African economy and falling disposable income from South African consumers, Samsung South Africa on Thursday evening held a small media launch in Kramerville for its new range of ultra-high definition (SUHD) TV sets.

Pre-orders for Samsung's new SUHD TV's that has gone bezel-less - and with quantum dot display that results in better high pixel density - start on Friday.

A few hundred people who buy a new 8-series SUHD TV before 26 June will get a Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone with it.

Samsung South Africa will now be selling and has a recommended retail price for the 65-inch KS9500 SUHD Curved TV (UA65KS9500) of R64,999, 65-inch KS8500 SUHD Curved TV (UA65KS8500) for R54,999 and the 55-inch KS8500 SUHD Curved TV (UA55KS8500) for R32,999.

The new range of SUHD TV's come with one remote that can be programmed to control anything from a DStv decoder to Microsoft XBox.

"Our new SUHD TV's represent our singular focus on innovation that matters most to consumers, by providing the very best picture quality for the home," says Matthew Thackrah, the deputy managing director and head of consumer electronics at Samsung South Africa.

Samsung South Africa that has already produced and distributed 3.2 million TV sets within the South African market, announced swimmer Cameron van der Burgh as its new TV brand ambassador who attended Samsung's local SUHD media launch.

The Samsung SUHD launch event comes on the same day that Bloomberg reported that Samsung has had discussions with entertainment companies about launching its own multi-channel over-the-top TV service.

Samsung asked companies how much they would charge Samsung to carry their TV channels in a bundle over the internet and straight to viewers through Samsung's internet-connected TV sets. In South Africa Samsung for instance already carries services like the ShowMax app from Naspers.

"Our approach is to continue to develop strategic collaborations with content partners rather than compete with them," Samsung said in a statement.

ShowMax app now one of most popular apps on Samsung Smart TVs; 3-month free ShowMax subscription with all Samsung Smart TVs bought in 2016.

ShowMax has partnered with Samsung, with all Samsung Smart TV's bought in 2016 that will come with a free 3-month subscription to the new subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service from Naspers.

Samsung Smart TV users will be able to connect to ShowMax through its app and the service, normally costing R99 per month, will be free for three months.

Buyers of a Samsung Smart TV before 30 April 2016 will be able to redeem a unique voucher code for the 3-month free subscription of R297 and will need to complete a once-off sign-up process at showmax.com.

Once signed up, ShowMax can be accessed through the Samsung Smart TV app, through an internet browser, or on smartphones and tablets using the ShowMax apps for Android and iOS.

The growing ShowMax video catalogue has more than 20 000 TV show episodes and movies including Hollywood favourites, the best of British and popular local programming from MultiChoice and M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and kykNET (DStv 144) TV channels.

According to Samsung South Africa the new partnership between Samsung and ShowMax is expected to accelerate the adoption of video-on-demand in South Africa.

"Subscription video-on-demand services and Smart TVs are changing the way people experience video entertainment," says John Kotsaftis, ShowMax South Africa general manager.

"Our viewing statistics show that Smart TVs are one of the most popular ways people choose to watch ShowMax as the convenience and ease of use are compelling. It's one of the reasons why we're excited to be working with Samsung - we think that this partnership has the potential to drive a change in viewing habits in South Africa," says John Kotsaftis.

"The ShowMax app has become one of the most popular among our Smart TV viewers," says Matthew Thackrah, Samsung Electronics SA deputy managing director and head of consumer electronics.

ShowMax set to expand outside of South Africa in 2016 to 3 other continents; Naspers' VoD service signs distribution deal with Samsung and Telkom

Naspers' new video-on-demand (VoD) service ShowMax plans to go global and to expand outside of South Africa soon in 2016 into at least three other continents, the business news wire service Bloomberg reports.

Asked about ShowMax's global expansion plans and roll-out, the VoD service that launched in August told TVwithThinus it had no comment.

According to Bloomberg, ShowMax will launch in North America, across territories in Europe and in Australasia in 2016.

According to Bloomberg, ShowMax will make its video streaming service accessible outside of South Africa from next month by giving access to Afrikaans content from December, and will add West African content in 2016.

Netflix plans to launch in South Africa sometime during 2016.

At the moment in South Africa, ShowMax, Times Media Group's struggling VIDI, MTN's FrontRow and China's PCCW Global that launched  ONTAPtv.com in September are all competing against each other as VOD service.

Naspers’s fledgling video-on-demand (VOD) platform, ShowMax, will be expanded to three new continents in the coming year, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Samsung is meanwhile also silent about ShowMax's addition to its range of Smart TV's as an app.

ShowMax has signed distribution partnerships with Telkom and Samsung in South Africa and is also negotiating with Vodacom.

Samsung launches South Africa's first news-on-demand, purpose-built eNCA app with video news on Samsung Smart TV's; first of its kind in Africa.

Samsung Smart TV's news-on-demand, purpose-built eNCA (DStv 403) app with video news for Smart TV's is a first of its kind in Africa.

Currently neither MultiChoice's DStv Explora nor MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up service provide any daily updated video-on-demand (VOD) TV news in its on demand content offering, and neither does streaming VOD services like the recently launched ShowMax or ONTAPtv for people who quickly want to get a sense of the day's news.

People with connected Samsung Smart TV sets are now however able to get some type of video news through using the app.

"We are excited to launch South Africa's first video-rich TV news app," says Matthew Thackrah, the deputy managing director and head of consumer electronics at Samsung Electronics South Africa.

"With progressively more connected technologies available in the market, consumers can access content across a variety of mediums. Our partnership with eNCA gives Samsung Smart TV owners a new way to consume news. The app means they can actively select the stories they want to learn more about, at their convenience," says Matthew Thackrah.

Samsung's eNCA app for South Africa has been designed with its Smart TV platform.

The eNCA news inserts on the app complement those featured on the eNCA website.

The eNCA app's emphasis is on video stories supported by minimal text for a visual experience, says Samsung. Users can access the text and images featured on the eNCA website through the Smart TV app if they want to supplement the stories with more depth.

Samsung says the existing eNCA Smart TV app is the second most popular app among Samsung Smart TV users in South Africa.

Samsung approached eNCA with the intention of collaborating with the 24-hour TV news channel from Sabido to offer viewers a value-added service.

The eNCA app also allows viewers to toggle a news ticker, that provides news headlines at the bottom of the TV screen that viewers can see scrolling wile they watch something else.

"Samsung Smart TV consumers are now able to watch the news on their terms – as and when they want to. They can also keep up to date with the latest headlines while watching TV."

"We are proud to deliver South Africa's first video-rich TV news app in partnership with Samsung," says Timothy Spira, general manager of eNCA's online division.

"When Samsung approached us to partner in developing and promoting a purpose-built eNCA app, we embraced the opportunity to be present on the leading Smart TV platform in South Africa."

Samsung in South Africa to add VIDI and Simfy Africa as video streaming and music streaming apps to its new range of Tizen TV sets.

Samsung will be adding Times Media's VIDI video streaming service and the music streaming service Simfy Africa to its new range of Tizen TV's as apps.

The apps are in development and Samsung gave no date of when the apps would be launched on the TV sets.

Times Media launched VIDI in September last year.

"VIDI, a video-on-demand (VOD) application is being developed which will provide consumers with 30 days of free access and Simy Africa, an online music streaming service, with more than 20 million songs for 90 days for free access," Matthew Thackrah, the deputy director and head of consumer electronics at Samsung Electronics SA said on Wednesday night at a product launch.

"Details of these value-adds will be made available once all development and testing has been concluded," said Matthew Thackrah.

The apps will make it easier for Samsung users to stream video and music through their TV sets.

Samsung is apparently also working with eNCA (DStv 403) to get news and weather content for users. Samsung is also working with Vonetize to launch Aflix, offering Hollywood movies, TV series and other video entertainment content to consumers in 30 African countries.

Samsung unveiled a new range of curved SUHD TV sets for South Africa. From this year, all of Samsung's Smart TV's, including the new SUHD, will be powered by Tizen, an open-source platform that supports web standards for app development.

TV set review 2014: Samsung's 2014 40-inch H6200 Series 6 Smart LED TV will perk up your living space with great high contrast picture quality.

If you want to put one new TV set under the Christmas tree this year for someone that isn't going to break your piggy bank, a good choice would be the Samsung 40-inch H6200 - an excellent middle-range TV set that will perk up your living room, boasts a lot of connectivity features (most of which you won't use) and delivers great high contrast picture quality.

Samsung recently sent over a UA40H6200 Series 6 Smart 3D Full HD LED TV which I quickly hooked up and put through its paces for the review period.

The design and thin frame (gloss black bezel) of the UA40H6200 and the stand will enhance your living space (and all comes in such a thin, slim easily carry-able box you'd hardly believe there's a big TV inside).

Yet it's what you see on it that matters and that where this Samsung, although not part of the TV maker's high-end range of TV sets, performs a great job at the price point for ordinary consumers looking to watch television in better quality without breaking the bank.

Switching over from your existing remote control to the conventional Samsung remote control is easy and without stress (my own TV is a Sony Bravia) with zero awkward finger-memory problems and digits that want to press at wrong places out of habit.

The extremely energy-efficient LED Samsung TV set makes viewing at a wide angle possible, the colours are vivid, bright and the picture quality excellent with good dark blacks even in a airy, bright and sunny living room.

It has built-in WiFi (and now a quad core processor) so it has all the usual smart TV set connectivity options (streaming content from another device to the screen for instance. It's great to have it hooked up to your DStv decoder for instance and then watch TV on your tablet in another room through screen mirroring.)

Playing games (Destiny really is the closest new thing to Mass Effect) is smooth without lag. The Samsung's "Football Mode" for sport to limit things like motion blur, didn't really make a difference, at least not one I could detect.

The sound ... well you're supposed to really buy a flat screen TV for the image rendering and channel your sound through a quality audio system.

The Samsung UA40H6200's sound can be better, but at the price point you can't really expect it to - it's not a sound system. Connect your cables to your audio system and control your quality sound separately.

There's more apps on the interface than what you'll ever use, or can use for the South African territory and the menu slides smoothly and fast with integrated social media options.

At the back - and that's why its extremely family friendly - it's very easy plug-and-play with clearly marked 3 USB ports and a wonderful 4 HDMI ports and ethernet connection.

The Samsung UA40H6200 is a great option if you want to perk up your living room with a stylish TV edition and a more than adequate quality picture and  retails for around R6 500.00

Samsung launches a NewsON panel for Smart TV's in South Africa with local news and weather reports for all main South African cities.

Samsung has launched a NewsON panel, bringing on-screen content to Samsung Smart TV sets in South Africa, enabling viewers to get access even in a low bandwidth set-up to things like popular news and weather reports.

The new NewsON feature is freely available for Samsung Smart TV owners through the Samsung Smart Hub, which allows users to read news stories and see weather reports which they can click through, see story summaries or full articles, as well as stream news video clips.

The new interactive interface funnels the local stories as well as weather reports for all the main cities in South Africa, with Flickr photos in the background.

Smart TV users can get access to the new NewsON panel by upgrading the Smart TV firmware to version 112.6.

"NewsON gives users a more connected life by providing readily accessible and relevant local content," says Lance Berger, the head of product marketing TV/AV at Samsung Electronics South Africa.

"This new feature is part of Samsung's commitment to expanding the TV experience beyond simply watching television and movies, and to bring knowledge, news and the most immersive entertainment experience to everyone, everywhere," says Lance Berger.

Samsung's new Smart TV can be secretly hacked into to watch you as the viewer while you're watching television.

Your new Samsung Smart TV can be made to watch you while you're watching television, with the TV viewer unaware that they're being spied on.

Samsung tells TV with Thinus that Samsung is aware of the issue and has released a security update to resolve the issue.

CBS News reported that hackers can now watch you while you're watching TV if you have a new Samsung Smart TV, with the viewer unaware that they're being watched. It happens because the new Samsung Smart TV is equipped with a build-in camera so that users can use the Skype functionality.

Hackers however found a way to turn the camera on its owner and watch them whilst remaining undetected.

"They [hackers] could actually either see live, streaming video into your home or office or to take still camera shots of you,' [one of the researchers] said about potential hackers. There's no physical indicator, nor visual indicator, that you'd be able to know your camera was on or taking pictures of you," one of the researchers told CBS News.

The shocking way in which a Samsung Smart TV can be used to spy on people was demonstrated on Friday during a demonstration in Las Vegas, when researchers, in front of an audience of children at Defcon Kids, showed how a Samsung Smart TV can secretly be turned on the TV viewer themselves through malicious code inserted into apps which comes with the TV set.

In a statement Samsung South Africa says Samsung "takes all concerns regarding consumer privacy and information security very seriously and is aware of the security issue regarding Smart TV."

Samsung says it has released a software update "to reslove the issue and will take every possible measure to vigorously enhance the security level on Samsung Smart TV and protect its customers' privacy".

Samsung says "Samsung Smart TV software is autmoatically upgraded" and that users can check whether they have the latest software by accessing their Smart TV settings.