All focus on selected person in your films
The new phones have got a new AI-powered video editing feature. The feature is called My FanKam and allows you to re-edit your recorded videos so that they focus on a selected person in a larger crowd. It could be a person during a stage performance or, for example, as Samsung themselves suggested, a player during a football match. The feature relies on the movie being stored in the phone’s photo gallery app, but it doesn’t have to be a movie taken with one of the new phones, it can just as easily be an old movie taken with any camera you have saved there.
By opening the movie in the Gallery app and tapping on the Galaxy AI icon with stars, you will bring up the new feature. When you press the My Fankam button, the video is analyzed and the AI finds the people who can become protagonists. When you have chosen a person, you must also choose which format the new video should have, so that it should be suitable for sharing on any social media app and then the movie is created. When we tested, the AI sometimes has problems finding the person we wanted, but you can change where in the film the AI should find people, so that you get the right person.
All focus on selected person in your films
The new phones have got a new AI-powered video editing feature. The feature is called My FanKam and allows you to re-edit your recorded videos so that they focus on a selected person in a larger crowd. It could be a person during a stage performance or, for example, as Samsung themselves suggested, a player during a football match. The feature relies on the movie being stored in the phone’s photo gallery app, but it doesn’t have to be a movie taken with one of the new phones, it can just as easily be an old movie taken with any camera you have saved there.
By opening the movie in the Gallery app and tapping on the Galaxy AI icon with stars, you will bring up the new feature. When you press the My Fankam button, the video is analyzed and the AI finds the people who can become protagonists. When you have chosen a person, you must also choose which format the new video should have, so that it should be suitable for sharing on any social media app and then the movie is created. When we tested, the AI sometimes has problems finding the person we wanted, but you can change where in the film the AI should find people, so that you get the right person.
When it’s all done, you can save the new movie as a copy, so you don’t overwrite the original, but can still share your new creation.
First Samsung phones with the new battery technology
While Chinese manufacturers invested heavily, Samsung has been more conservative and cautious in using the new battery technology where silicon is mixed in the battery’s anode. The technology enables more battery capacity without the phone needing to be bigger and thicker. Samsung did not mention the technology at all during Unpacked, but it is precisely this technology, in English silicon-carbon, which means that the Galaxy Flip 8, Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra have slightly more battery capacity and slightly slimmer dimensions, respectively. Samsung is still cautious and has chosen to mix in only a small amount of silicon.
The overall concern surrounding this new technology is that it could shorten battery life, and reports of that have also come after Unpacked. According to the EU’s energy database, Samsung’s Galaxy Flip 8, Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra can handle 1,200 charging cycles with a maintained capacity of at least 80 percent, while the same figure for last year’s Fold 7 with traditional battery technology is 2,000 cycles.
Easier to open
It’s not obvious when you look closely at the Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra for the first time, but if you compare and use the phones for a while, you may notice that they are easier to open. It may seem like a very basic function, but with the Fold 7 being significantly thinner than its predecessor, there was also a disadvantage, that it was a bit tricky to open. Although the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 is even a little thinner, it is also a little easier to open. That’s because Samsung made the edges more rounded, so that there is more of a gap to grab when you open. Of course, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has the same design and they also have magnets so that they stay more clearly in the open and closed positions.
Fold 8 is for media but then why is it not in 16:9 format
The clear purpose of the Fold 8 and its new format is that it should be optimized for consuming content, more than for productivity. If we only look at movies and series, the vast majority of titles there are in 16:9 format. Since the screen in the Galaxy Fold 8, just like in most iPads, is 4:3, there will still be black edges above and below the video when you watch it on the Fold 8.
The arguments Samsung has for choosing the 4:3 format is that the Fold 8 should also work well for other content, such as e-books, for surfing the web and other things where 16:9 would not be as optimal. As well as the fact that there is also film in a wider 21:9 format, even if the latter does not speak in the Fold 8’s favour.
Apps and more in the external screen of the Flip 8
Motorola and their Razr have long had the upper hand in the game of how useful the external screen in a Flip phone can be, but Samsung is now tapping into that lead. With the Flip 8, you can run 16 different apps directly in the external screen, among these, for example, many of Samsung’s own apps, but also Youtube, Google Maps, Google Messages and Netflix.
In addition to that, the AI summary Now Brief is in the outer screen so you can get a summary right there of relevant events and things you want to keep track of. Previously, more complete use of apps in Samsung’s Flip phones required the special Samsung Good Lock program.
Not just Samsung – this is what Google launched at Unpacked
Samsung wasn’t the only one on stage during Unpacked in London. Here, Android and Pixel manager Rick Osterloh also presented news about Android and Gemini. Samsung’s smart glasses that were shown once again are a collaboration between Samsung, Google, Qualcomm and the two glasses manufacturers Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. In those glasses, Gemini is central, and Samsung’s new watches get the lift-to-talk feature, so you can call Gemini by lifting your wrist and start talking right away, without first saying Hello Google. Furthermore, Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is pre-installed in Samsung’s foldable phones. Here you can images, movies, documents, sounds and other things as a basis for AI-created. sketches, summaries and overviews.
We also got more information about Gemini Intelligence and the function to perform tasks directly in apps that are there. About 40 apps are to be supported and after you give instructions, Gemini can order gadgets, plan a trip or manage recipes and grocery shopping directly in supported apps. All you have to do is confirm when everything is ready.
This is first launched in Korea and the USA, Sweden is not yet in the schedule.
We weren’t told that about the Galaxy Glasses
Samsung’s glasses are a close collaboration with Google and since most of the glasses were already presented at Google’s developer conference Google IO earlier this year, there wasn’t much left for Samsung Unpacked. The main news we learned about the glasses was therefore that they will not come to Sweden and the Nordics.
Samsung also confirmed that the glasses can be controlled using gestures and a Galaxy Watch.