Samsung is preparing to launch a sports smartwatch and AirPods-like earbuds

Samsung’s newest product launch happens next week, but already the Korean tech giant has revealed its entire upcoming range of wearable devices that will seemingly be unveiled alongside the Galaxy S10.

That’s because the company’s Galaxy Wearable’s app was uploaded today with support for a range of unreleased products which include wireless earbuds, a sports-focused smartwatch, and a new fitness band.

First reported by The Verge — and originally noticed by @SamCentralTech on Twitter — the new wearables include a Galaxy Sport smartwatch, fitness bands Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit e, Galaxy Buds, Samsung’s take on Apple’s AirPods. The devices have all been teased in various leaks in recent weeks but this confirmation from the Samsung app, deliberate or inadvertent, appears to all but confirm their impending arrival.

That said, we really can’t tell too much about the respective devices based on the app, which just shows basic renders of each device.

Still, that might just be enough of a tease to general a little more interest in what promises to be Samsung’s biggest consumer launch event of the year.

The Samsung unveiling comes days before Mobile World Congress, the mobile industry’s biggest event of the year, kicks off — so expect to see new product launches coming thick and fast over the coming weeks.

What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2019

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Sixteen percent of US adults own a smartwatch

The latest figures out of NPD show a continued uptick in smartwatch sales here in the States. The category has been a rare bright spot in an overall flagging wearable space, and the new numbers show gains pretty much across the board. In fact, the study puts smartwatch ownership at 16 percent among U.S. adults as of December — that figure is up from 12 percent a year prior.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a younger demo driving that growth — specifically 18-34-year-olds, where smartwatch ownership is around 23 percent. Of course, Apple and the like have been looking to increase purchases with the older crowd, courtesy of more serious health features like last year’s addition of an ECG meter.

Apple, Samsung and Fitbit continue to dominate the market, making up 88 percent of the nearly $5 billion in sales tallied for the year ending in November. But companies like Fossil and Garmin made some market-share gains. Google, naturally, will be looking to make a larger dent in the market, with its recent purchase of Fossil IP. Wear OS’s growth has been pretty flat, but that could change in 2019 with the rumored arrival of the Pixel Watch.

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Sub-brands are the new weapon in China’s smartphone war

Samsung promises a better look at its folding phone next week

Samsung’s not telling us anything we don’t already know with its latest teaser. But before I hop on yet another flight to San Francisco, it’s good to know I’m getting a little more bang for my (well, Verizon’s) buck.

In addition to the Galaxy S10, Samsung will also be offering a much better glimpse of its long-promised foldable phone at its SF event on February 20. A new animated teaser promises that “The Future Unfolds” at the event that’s currently a little over a week away.

If you’ll recall, the company offered a very fleeting glimpse of the product at its developers conference, but the product was shrouded in mystery — not to mention pretty unwieldy prototype hardware.

The most likely scenario for next week’s event is a more detailed glimpse at the future product, including a name — and perhaps even something approaching a release date. Most likely, however, the company and event will be largely focused on the details around its next flagship.

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What to expect from Mobile World Congress 2019

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: 2019 just might be the year that smartphones get fun again. After years of similar form factors and slight upgrades, the mobile industry’s back is against the wall.

For the first time ever, sales are down, owning to economic factors and slower upgrade cycles. Most people who want good phones have had access to them for a while, and smartphone makers are providing fewer compelling reasons to buy new ones.

With their backs against the wall, handset makers are getting creative. We’ve already seen some early fruits from companies late last year and last month at CES. But MWC is really going to be their time to shine. It’s a much larger mobile show, and all parties know that everyone’s bringing the big guns.

Here’s what we expect to see in Barcelona February 24-28.

Huawei: The company looks to have a lot on tap for the event — in part because the North America-based CES is kind of a non-starter. CEO Richard Yu has hinted at a foldable and a 5G handset — which could well be the same phone. More mainstream are the P30 and P30 Pro. The company’s done a good job keeping it under wraps, but rumors about three or four rear-lenses have made the rounds.

LG: As is its move, LG has already announced the G8 ThinQ. We know that the new flagship will feature a front-facing camera with Time of Flight sensor that brings potential tricks like face unlock, along with AR applications. The V50 is also reportedly on tap, potentially bringing 5G along for the ride.

Microsoft: A surprise addition to this year’s show, Microsoft’s already announced an event for February 24, where we expect the company will show off the HoloLens 2. The next-gen version of the headset will arrive as the rest of the hardware and software world is finally ready to embrace augmented reality in earnest.

Motorola: The recent launch of the G7 may have taken the wind out of MWC’s sails, but rumors of a foldable Razr reboot are making the rounds.

OnePlus: We know that a 5G handset and the OnePlus 7 are both in the pipeline — and, perhaps, one and the same? There’s also tell of a closed-door event at the show, but most aren’t expecting any big unveils from the company.

Samsung: Don’t expect a ton out of Samsung this year. The company (inconveniently) is holding its big event a mere days before. Expect the S10 and all its iterations to get a big unveil that week in San Francisco, along with a preview of the company’s upcoming foldable. That doesn’t leave a heck of a lot for MWC, but perhaps we’ll get a peek into the world of wearables or PCs.

Sony: While Xperia phones have long felt like a bit of a loss leader, the electronics giant has always made a big show of launching flagship devices. Those, in turn, have long been a launchpad for some exciting camera tricks. This year, the Xperia XZ4 appears to be on tap for the event. The handset looks to be an interesting one, with a reported 21:9 aspect ratio display and a beefy 4,400 mAh battery.

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As threats proliferate, so do new tools for protecting medical devices and hospitals

Six months after an episode of “Homeland” showed hackers exploiting security vulnerabilities in the (fictional) Vice President’s pacemaker, Mike Kijewski, the founder of a new startup security company called Medcrypt, was approached by his (then) employers at Varian Medical Systems with a unique problem. 

“A hospital came to the company and said we are treating a patient and a nation-state may attempt to assassinate the patient that we’re treating by using a cybersecurity vulnerability in a medical device to do it,” Kijewski recalled.

At the time, there were no universal solutions to those types of security threats — so companies were left to cobble together one-off solutions for their devices, which is what Kijewski’s former employer likely attempted to do.

Ever since, Kijewski became obsessed with the security holes that exist in the foundation of the healthcare industry’s practice — the devices used to diagnose and treat patients.

“My partner Eric Pancoast and I looked into the problem of medical device cybersecurity and we found two things,” says Kijewski. “Number one there were no regulations forcing medical device companies to use cybersecurity protections at all. Number two, any given company has only one core competency — maybe two. And are medical device vendors going to have cryptography and cybersecurity competencies?”

Medcrypt was launched in 2016 to ensure that medical device manufacturers wouldn’t need to be cryptographic experts. The company is graduating from the latest batch of Y Combinator (after raising a $3 million seed round from Eniac Ventures and other investors) with a pitch to secure medical devices using just a single line of code.

It’s a technological necessity thanks to new guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration requiring medical devices to include security features like encryption, signature verification, and intrusion detection.

By inserting a single line of code into the software of a device, Medcrypt can provide the security manufacturers need at the device level, according to Kijewski.

The company not only encrypts the data on the device, but it also provide intrusion detection services by analyzing medical device metadata to identify standard device behaviors and deviations from that behavior, Kijewski said.

Medcrypt is one of a growing number of startups that are securing medical devices and hospital networks as the threats to the healthcare system proliferate.

Other startups are working on protecting hospital networks. Companies like Medigate, founded by ex-Israeli officers from the Israeli Defense Forces, which just raised $15 million from investors including YL Ventures and US Venture Partners; and Cylera, which is backed by Samsung Next and launched from the DreamIT healthcare accelerator are two such companies.

By 2017, Beckers Health IT and CIO Report counted over 107 technology companies pitching cybersecurity solutions to healthcare practitioners and medical device manufacturers.

It’s little wonder so many companies are pouring in to close the (data) breach in healthcare, given the scope of the problem.

A 2018 report from Experian cited by U.S. News indicated that 233 breaches were reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, media, or state attorneys general in the period from January to June 2017. And for the 193 attacks where the scope of the breach was calculated, roughly 3.2 million patient records were affected.

Experian predicts healthcare cybersecurity spending will be a $65 billion industry by 2021.

Still, some of the security problems that hospitals face can be solved with some fairly basic updates. Indeed, perhaps the most critical — and the one that left hospitals most exposed — is just ensuring that their technology can accept patches and security upgrades. Many of the attacks that crippled health networks came down to an inability to upgrade their Windows operating systems.

Sometimes, all it takes is tightening the screws to make sure the machines don’t fall apart.

“Connected medical devices — from patient monitors, MRIs and CAT scanners to infusion pumps and yet-to-be invented devices — are critical to the delivery of healthcare today and are revolutionizing the care of tomorrow,” said YL Ventures founder Yoav Leitersdorf in a statement announcing Medigate’s 2017 financing. “These devices are inherently different from traditional IT endpoints and can’t be protected by currently available products and practices. With the pandemic of cyberattacks targeting healthcare providers, far too many connected devices are left vulnerable and exposed, putting patient health and privacy at risk.”

 

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Samsung pulls the plug on ‘Supreme’ collaboration

When Samsung announced a collaboration with Supreme at an event back in December, it didn’t go over great. It wasn’t that people weren’t excited about the potential of rocking a Supreme-branded Galaxy Note or whatever, so much as which Supreme the company had struck a deal with.

You see, there’s Supreme, the U.S.-based streetwear company beloved by hypebeasts everywhere, and then there’s “Supreme.” Or, in this case, Supreme Italia. There are all sorts of intellectual property-related reasons the company is allowed to exist with near-identical signage, but the long and short of it is that the deal rubbed plenty of people the wrong way.

After initially balking at the pushback, Samsung this week announced that it’s killing the deal. According to a Weibo statement translated by Engadget Chinese, “Samsung Electronics had previously mentioned a collaboration with Supreme Italia at the Galaxy A8s China launch event on December 10th, Samsung Electronics has now decided to terminate this collaboration.”

So, yes, those dreams of sporting that familiar red and white logo on your Android handset will have to wait. Or you can always just take matters into your own hands. 

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