Samsung Announces Galaxy Home Speaker With Bixby Smart Assistant

The smart assistant that nobody asked for will be the brains of a new speaker Samsung is launching later this year. The Galaxy Home speaker will rival Apple's HomePod, while standing apart from competitors like Amazon's Echo and Google's Home with a promise of higher-quality audio. The Verge reports: The Galaxy Home looks like a strange vase or statue that might go on a table in the corner of your home. It's wrapped in fabric and elevated by three stout metal legs. It has a flat top with control buttons on it for skipping tracks and changing the volume. The speaker is supposed to deliver surround sound-style audio using six built-in speakers and a subwoofer. It also includes eight far-field microphones for detecting voice input. You'll be able to say "Hi, Bixby" to activate Samsung's assistant and ask it to start playing music or a number of other tasks. Samsung indicated that it'd be able to do many of the same things Bixby can do on a phone. Samsung is expected to share more details about the product at a developer conference in early November.

Comments

I have a Bixby refrigerator

[ShanghaiBill]

My wife bought a Bixby enabled Samsung refrigerator. It is difficult to voice activate, doesn't understand much, and is way worse than either Alexa or Google Home (she has both of those too).

It does include good speakers, so if you want your refrigerator to play nice music, you may like it.

Re:I have a Bixby refrigerator

[93 Escort Wagon]

I’ll never understand why people would even want combo devices. You pay a premium; then, if something goes wrong with either component, you either have to do without that functionality or you have to make another expensive purchase.

What exactly does voice assistance add to a refrigerator, for Pete’s sake?

Re:I have a Bixby refrigerator

[Brett Buck]

Us, too, but occasionally it gets enraged, turns green, and wrecks the house.

Re:I have a Bixby refrigerator

[mentil]

I know, right?! That's why I carry a Nintendo DS, point-and-shoot, flip-phone, iPod and GPS in my pockets wherever I go!

Re:I have a Bixby refrigerator

[ShanghaiBill]

That's why I carry a Nintendo DS, point-and-shoot, flip-phone, iPod and GPS in my pockets wherever I go!

At least those are all "things you want to have in your pocket". The problem with the Bixby smart fridge is that 99% of the features have nothing to do with refrigeration. The calendar can remind you of your appointments, but the interface is so clunky that it is useless. You can use it as a web browser, but why would you want to stand in the kitchen to do that? One feature that is actually related to the refrigerator is an internal camera that can display the contents of the fridge without opening the door ... but it takes so long to traverse the menus, that it is easier to just open the door and look the old fashioned way.

In fact the interface is so badly designed that we can't even figure out how to set the temperature, so it it is still on the factory settings, which occasionally results in frozen milk if we put it on the back shelf.

If they fixed the voice recognition to Alexa levels (which are very good) and tied the voice recognition to the rest of the functionality, it might not be so bad. But overall it is a dumb concept with an even dumber implementation.

Our Alexa occasionally does OTA updates. But Bixby (apparently) never does. So I don't have any hope for improvements.

Re: I have a Bixby refrigerator

[datavirtue]

Bixby is dead on arrival. What planet do these guys live on? Nevermind....board room planet.