Samsung May Reveal Tizen Devices in February
Ubergizmo reported on Thursday that it received an invitation to a special Samsung event just one day before Mobile World Congress 2014 kicks off in Barcelona this February 24, 2014. The invite states that attendees will have an "exclusive sneak preview of the newest Tizen devices." Both Intel and Samsung will reportedly talk about the major milestones the new OS has achieved since the last Barcelona event.
Samsung's first Tizen-based smartphone was supposedly set for a 3Q 2013 release, but Samsung co-CEO JK Shin reportedly pushed back its release so that the company can get both the hardware and software perfect. After all, first impressions are always the lasting ones, right? The specs, according to sources, need to be phenomenal.
Tizen OS is an open-source Linux-based platform for devices like smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs and in-vehicle information devices. The project resides within the Linux Foundation, is governed by Samsung and Intel, and contains Samsung's merged Bada project and Intel's failed MeeGo platform. Tizen OS was originally released in January 2012 and is at version 2.2.1 as of November 9.
Backing up news that Samsung will reveal Tizen devices in February is a batch of screenshots lurking in the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service database. These shots were uncovered by Sammy Today, and show a user interface that looks different than the TouchWiz overlay Samsung typically slaps on to its Android smartphones.
Sammy Today reports that the obtained screenshots come from v2.1 and that Samsung was granted patents for this particular Tizen UI revision. SamMobile has the same batch of shots but without the watermark. This batch reveals texting, the gallery, the settings interface, the address book, calling, tabs in the built-in browser, the contact list and more. The overall color theme is white, gray and brown.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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de5_Roy didn't it die and got absorbed into another mobile o.s. already? just give up and get assimilated into the droid army until skynet awakens. resistance is futile. :pt1cable:Reply -
obiown77 Regardless that apple and google dominate this market, I'm always for and interested in anything open source, I think this *could* pay off.Reply -
JD88 As good as I think Android is, competition fosters innovation. Especially when it's open source.Reply -
Rotorhard I'm always open to more options and competitors but this looks like touchwiz meets Gingerbread. I'll wait.Reply -
catfishtx If you use a Samsung phone like I do, this all looks reasonably familiar. And not in a bad way.Reply -
wemakeourfuture Samsung couldn't build an OS if it dependent on it.Reply
Bada was god awful. Tizen is trash. Samsung, stay in your lane. -
obiown77 Regardless that apple and google dominate this market, I'm always for and interested in anything open source, I think this *could* pay off.Reply -
vmem Reply12226751 said:Regardless that apple and google dominate this market, I'm always for and interested in anything open source, I think this *could* pay off.
c'mon, this is samsung we're talking about... it'll end up being the linux equivalent of iOS along with a huge push for their samsung app store... -
shadowed If the Kies program is a indicator of samsungs software quality then this should be avoided at all costs.Reply -
JD88 Reply12229071 said:If the Kies program is a indicator of samsungs software quality then this should be avoided at all costs.
Agreed. Samsung's hardware tends to be very good, but their efforts into application design need a lot of work. I use practically no Samsung apps on my S3.
The biggest gain to be seen from Tizen lies in what it might mean for Linux as a whole.