The Dev Discourse – A Daily Roundup From #SDC18 Day 1
Samsung Developer Program
The first day of #SDC2018 is behind us and what a day it was. A crowd of developers, creators, designers, partners and sponsors gathered at the Moscone Center here in downtown San Francisco to hear how Samsung is making breakthroughs in AI, IoT, and redefining the mobile experience. Providing developers with powerful new tools for the Bixby and SmartThings platforms to create connected consumer experiences. And of course, announcing the revolutionary One UI and Infinity Flex Display. If you didn't get a chance to tune in live, you can catch the replay.
The day unfolded with a lot of big announcements and here are the highlights:
Building Bixby’s Scale and Reach with Developers
As part of Samsung’s announcement to evolve Bixby into a scalable intelligence platform, they introduced the Bixby Developer Studio. The collection of tools provides an intuitive way for developers and partners to infuse intelligence into more services and devices. Developers will be able to easily create Bixby Capsules – features or services created for Bixby – and make them easily accessible to consumers in the Bixby Marketplace. The Bixby platform will allow developers to easily adapt their capsules for all products across the Samsung ecosystem.
These changes will allow developers to bring a more conversational, personal and useful intelligent assistant experience to more consumers.
Enhancing SmartThings to Deliver a Connected Lifestyle for Everyone
Next, Samsung announced they’re making it faster and easier for developers to connect their devices and services to the SmartThings platform. A redesigned SmartThings Developer Workspace was introduced with a new suite of enhanced tools including SmartThings Cloud Connector, SmartThings Device Kit and SmartThings Hub Connector. Developers can build and launch on the platform, as well as easily integrate cloud-connected Zigbee and Z-Wave devices.
These updates mark a big step forward in Samsung’s connected living vision centered around an open IoT ecosystem that unites the growing number of connected devices on a single platform. Available in more than 200 markets around the world, SmartThings delivers a connected experience in a single app, to bring IoT beyond the smart home and into the car, office and everywhere in-between.
Additionally, the upgraded Works with SmartThings (WWST) certification program gives developers direct access to SmartThings experts and resources. WWST helps ensure devices and services are fully optimized for the platform, so consumers enjoy the best possible experience.
Pioneering User Experience and Display Innovation
Finally, Samsung introduced big innovations in mobile software and hardware. First, they unveiled a new and intuitive interface design called One UI. Its clean and minimal design keeps the most relevant content on the bottom half of the screen – making it more natural and comfortable for one-handed use. The experience was reengineered to reduce clutter and distractions, allowing the user to better focus and quickly navigate their phone.
Continuing their legacy of introducing category-defining form factor and display innovation, Samsung unveiled their foldable smartphone form factor. The Infinity Flex Display together with One UI delivers a new kind of mobile experience. Users now have the best of both worlds: a compact smartphone that unfolds to reveal a larger immersive display for multitasking and viewing content. The app experience seamlessly transitions from the smaller display to the larger display as the device unfolds.
Because the Infinity Flex Display is a next generation platform, Samsung invites developers to participate in this journey from the beginning. Working collaboratively with Google and the Android developer community, Samsung will maximize the potential of this new form factor to create an optimized foldable user experience.
Fold it, and it's a #smartphone. Unfold it and it's a #tablet. In a word, wow. @Samsung #SDC18 #tech. Can be folded and unfolded repeatedly. Again, wow. pic.twitter.com/R2EoYxcsOl
— MikeFeibus - Be well, people! (@MikeFeibus) November 7, 2018
Very interesting Bixby natural language programming user interface that then compiles to test and tweak. I have never seen anything like this. Very cool. AI used to program AI. How meta. #SDC18 pic.twitter.com/Z5EbenL3EQ
— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) November 7, 2018
This story of #ScreenTechnology innovation SAMSUNG has been thru is impressive #SDC18 pic.twitter.com/B2cuJgxWrd
— Carolina Milanesi (@caro_milanesi) November 7, 2018
“Best of 2018” Galaxy Apps Awards Winners Announced
In addition to a day full of highlights, Samsung took time to recognize the creators and developers behind the most innovative and popular apps on the Galaxy Apps store in the first-ever “Best of 2018” Galaxy Apps Awards. Here are the winners in five different categories:
- Best Overall App: Booking.com for Samsung
- Best Gaming App: Disney Heroes by PerBlue
- Best Gear App: Wrist Camera by Kema Studio
- Best Gear Watch Face Designer: Bergen
- Best Theme Designer: Guangxu Zhu
All winners received an exclusive “Best of 2018” badge and premium app merchandising in the Galaxy Apps U.S. and Canada stores. The award-winning apps and content will also be featured across Samsung Developer Program’s social and digital marketing channels.
Here are your #Bestof2018 winners for the first ever Samsung Galaxy Apps Awards at #SDC18!
— SAMSUNG DEVELOPERS (@samsung_dev) November 8, 2018
And that was just Day One. Day Two will bring more exciting announcements and dev insights. Watch for the second installment of the The Dev Discourse – A Daily Roundup from #SDC18 and of course, follow us on Twitter @samsung_dev and join the conversation using #SDC18.
