From CNET: Samsung's Bixby digital assistant is getting a boost in capabilities -- but the question is whether it's too late.
The South Korean company on Wednesday will kick off its two-day developer conference in San Francisco, an annual event that reflects the company's big push to get developers to make software specifically for its devices. In the past, that's meant making apps that work on the edge of Samsung's curved smartphone displays or take advantage of its S Pen stylus. This year, that focus turns to Bixby and artificial intelligence.
While the prospect of a foldable smartphone -- the long rumored Galaxy F -- may draw eyeballs to Samsung's 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) keynote, that's more a tease of what's to come. The meat of the presentation will be all about the now: getting Bixby smarter. The consumer electronics giant could share more information about the Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker that it unveiled in August, including its sales date.
Samsung plans to let all third-party developers tap into Bixby, according to The Wall Street Journal. Soon companies will be able to make "capsules," similar to Amazon Alexa skills, to do things like order food using a voice command, the paper said.
The move would fulfill a vow Samsung made when it launched Bixby on the Galaxy S8 in early 2017 and when it unveiled version 2.0 of the AI technology later in the year: opening Bixby up to third-party apps. The goal is to help Bixby compete with the likes of Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant at a time when digital helpers are all the rage, allowing you to call an Uber ride or control your smart home with your voice.
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