Samsung says its Galaxy Home smart speaker is very much alive, despite its absence at Unpacked

When Samsung did not make any point out of its long-awaited—and oft-delayed—smart speaker at its Unpacked 2019 occasion earlier this week, it solid additional doubt on whether or not the Bixby-powered speaker would ever see the sunshine of day.

But Samsung lately broke its silence on the Galaxy Home, telling The Verge that the speaker is, certainly, nonetheless within the works.

“We’re continuing to refine and enhance the Galaxy Home prior to launch, and look forward to sharing more with Galaxy fans soon,” a Samsung rep informed The Verge by way of e-mail.

First introduced at final Unpacked 2018, the kettle-shaped Galaxy Home smart speaker has been in purgatory ever since, making a quick look at Mobile World Congress in February earlier than disappearing again into Samsung’s improvement lab.

Designed with high-end audio courtesy of Harman’s AKG unit (Samsung scooped up Harman International in 2017), the Galaxy Home is slated to boast six drivers, a subwoofer, and “sound steering” know-how that’s supposed to permit the speaker to direct its sound towards you on command.

Samsung

The Bixby-enabled Galaxy Home additionally features a SmartThings hub for controlling your appropriate smart gadgets, whereas eight built-in microphones assist the speaker to pinpoint your place within the room.

During the Galaxy Home’s Mobile World Congress look earlier this yr, Samsung revealed that the speaker would get help for Bixby Routines, which allow you to customise a sequence of actions based mostly on a wide range of situations, such because the time of day or whether or not you’re coming or going.

The Bixby Routines (which you’ll be able to already arrange on the Galaxy S10+) would additionally allow you to create “scenes” that you might activate by way of voice instructions; for instance, you might say “Hey Bixby, I’d like to meditate” to dim the lights and queue up the suitable temper music.

Samsung has by no means revealed a strong launch date or pricing for the Galaxy Home. Co-CEO DJ Koh told CNET back in February that the smart speaker would be out by April. After missing that deadline, Samsung moved the goalposts to the first half of 2019, before telling The Korea Times in June that the new time frame was the third quarter of 2019.