Samsung today announced a series of updates for some televisions and a trio of earbuds that will add features across the board, and also allow everything to play together that much more.
Auracast is one of the more interesting features on the way. It essentially allows one device to pick up a signal being broadcast by another, not unlike a radio. Samsung has had Auracast on select TVs for a while now, and it’s been available on multiple Galaxy Buds earbuds. Now, it’s expanding to phones and tablets. The ability to broadcast will hit the Galaxy S24 and S23 phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, and the Tab S9 series. (They’ll all need to have One UI 6.1 or newer.) And the ability to listen to an Auracast broadcast is coming to the Galaxy S24 series, S23 series, Z Fold5, Z Fold4, Z Flip5, Z Flip4, A54 5G, M54 5G, Tab S9 series, Tab S9 FE series and Tab Active 5 5G with One UI 5.1.1 or above.
We demoed Auracast at CES 2024. It’s going to be a game-changer. Maybe not right away, but it opens up some really cool possibilities.
Then there’s 360 Audio, which is what it sounds like, as it makes it sound like the sound is coming from all around you. Samsung previously supported it on phones and tablets, and now it’s coming to more devices. Samsung says it’ll work with the Galaxy Buds2 Pro and Buds 2. And it’ll be served up from TVs including the Samsung Neo QLED 8K (QN900D, QN800D), Neo QLED 4K (QN95D, QN90D, QN87D, QN85D), OLED (S95D, S90D, S85D) and QLED (Q80D, Q70D).
Samsung is also making it easier to switch functionality between devices. So if you’re using your Samsung Galaxy Buds with your Samsung TV and a call comes in, things should automatically shift the headphones back to the phone and then back to the TV once the call is over. And an update will help bring this switching to the Galaxy Book4, as well. All this seamless switching will work with the Galaxy Buds2 Pro, Galaxy phones and tablets with One UI 4.1.1 and up, the Galaxy Book series with One UI 6.0 and up, Galaxy Watch 4, and Samsung TVs from February 2022 and newer.
And if you’re using Galaxy Buds and a Galaxy S24 phone, you’ll be able to take advantage of real-time translation, where another person talks into your phone, and you hear the translation in your Buds. Then they’ll hear the translation on their end through your phone speaker.
Samsung says updates should start pushing live in late February.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.