It’s official: The next Samsung Unpacked event is scheduled for February 11 in San Francisco, where the company is expected to announce its latest consumer electronic devices — notably the Galaxy S11 smartphone.
Samsung sent “save the date” invitations to select members of the press including Digital Trends late Saturday night to announce the date and location for the event, which will be held in the San Francisco Palace of the Fine Arts in mid-Februrary. The announcement said little about to what to expect, save for one cryptic line: “On February 11, Samsung Electronics will unveil new, innovative devices that will shape the next decade of mobile experiences.”
The invite also contained an image of the Galaxy logo, with block cubes standing in for the two letter As. The cubes resemble the white storage containers for the company’s Galaxy Buds, but the star of the show is almost certain to be the company’s next flagship smartphone, anticipated to be the Galaxy S11 phone. Samsung announced the Galaxy S10 on February 20, 2019 — Feb. 11 will mark nearly a year since that phone was released.
A key question ahead of the event: Will it fold? Samsung used its last Unpacked event to unveil its folding smartphone, cleverly named the Galaxy Fold; our review of the cutting edge device lauds its innovation and suggests consumers wait for the next model. It stands to reason that “innovative new devices for the next decade” will include the folding screens that have dominated conversations around smartphones for the last few years — and a Fold 2.
Beyond that, there have been countless rumors and suggestions about what the next-gen phone will look like. Recent leaked renders showed a larger-than-ever camera module on the back of the phone, with fully four lenses and a flash unit. It’s … big, and certain to be polarizing. But the power of the camera, if rumors hold true, will be impressive.
It is expected that the three lenses on the left side will include a monstrous 108-megapixel lens, which will use “pixel-binning” — a process that will combine nine pixels into one for much greater performance in low light. Also expected is an ultra-wide-angle lens, and the long-awaited periscope 5x telephoto zoom lens. The periscope lens is found at the bottom of the module, given away by its distinctive square opening. A periscope lens runs along the phone’s body to give the longer zoom lens the room it needs to operate and uses a periscope to redirect light into it.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.