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.
