Samsung will announce the next Galaxy Note on August 7

It’s official. Samsung just sent out invites for the next Unpacked event. The big show kicks off at 4PM ET August 7, right here in New York. The timing lines up with rumors that have been floating around for few weeks — not to mention last year’s big event.

And in case there was any mystery around what precisely the company is going to unveil, Samsung has happily spoiled the surprise with the inclusion of a prominent S Pen on the invite. The August event will almost certainly see the debut of the Galaxy Note 10.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review

The art appears to hint at an updated camera, as well. Based on recent leaks, the invite looks to be a closeup of the nearly all-screen front of the new phablet, with the single hole punch front facing camera up top. 

The new handset is said to include a vertical three array camera with depth sensing and a 5G option. Samsung is also reportedly dropping the headphone jack this time out, after years pointing to it as a standout feature from the rest of the industry.

Last year’s event also saw a number of additional devices, including the (still unreleased) Galaxy Home smart speaker. And very least maybe we’ll finally be getting a date on that product, along with more information about the long delayed Galaxy Fold.

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Samsung CEO calls Galaxy Fold mishap ‘embarrassing’

In a meeting with a group of journalists in South Korea, Samsung Electronics CEO DJ Koh candidly addressed the company’s latest hardware mishap. “It was embarrassing,” he told reporters, as quoted by The Independent. “I pushed it through before it was ready.”

That last bit no one can debate, really. After years of preamble, Samsung still managed to jump the gun with the Galaxy Fold. The company was eager to be the first major manufacture to market with the category’s most radical redesign in a decade. Ultimately, however, the company ended up pumping the breaks after multiple reviewers reported problems with their units.

Samsung Galaxy Fold review: future shock

Samsung was quick to place the blame at the hands of reviewers, but eventually shifted tacts after realizing that problems were more widespread. More than two months after the handset was initially expected to hit retail, we’re still very much in a holding pattern with Samsung’s first foldable. Though the company has promised a more concrete date for some time.

Samsung has been quick to deny any rumors that the phone has been altogether canceled, and Koh reiterated that the Fold is still being put through its paces. “I do admit I missed something on the foldable phone, but we are in the process of recovery,” the executive told the press. “At the moment, more than 2,000 devices are being tested right now in all aspects. We defined all the issues. Some issues we didn’t even think about, but thanks to our reviewers, mass volume testing is ongoing.”

Koh didn’t offer specifics with regards to a release date, though the company is reportedly gearing up to launch the next version of the Note at an event in August.

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Samsung launched an app store for Bixby

Oh, Bixby. Samsung made big promises and some key acquisitions ahead of its launch. But the company’s smart assistant got off to a rocky start and has had trouble making a name for itself in amongst a sea of competitors ever since. 

Third-party integration has long been one of the categories in which Samsung has promised to truly distinguish Bixby. Back in November, the company announced that it would finally be opening up the assistant to third-party developers with the release of Bixby Developer Studio. Those developers finally began to deliver on the promises of the company’s Viv Labs acquisition.

The launch of Bixby Marketplace is the next step in the process. Now vendors can make their Bixby integrated services (or “capsules”) available to users. The store opens today in the U.S. and Spain, launching with a handful of key apps, including Google Maps, Spotify, iHeartRadio, NPR and Yelp.

That’s a good start, but attracting a critical mass of developers is always the hard part of getting these things off the ground. On the upside, Bixby’s already available on a LOT of devices, when you factor in all of Samsung’s flagships from the last few years. And that number is slowly but surely growing as the company integrates it into additional appliances, TVs and the like. Though the company hasn’t done itself any favors with the still MIA Galaxy Home speakers.

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Vertical market networks, effective startup names, Libra, Carbon, and Sidewalk Labs

The next service marketplace wave: Vertical market networks

B2B service marketplaces (think translation as a service) are an extraordinarily lucrative startup category. But despite the incredible potential of these platforms to generate outsized returns, many fail. Why?

Ivan Smolnikov, the CEO and founder of translation service startup Smartcat, investigates why certain marketplaces seem to grow while others stall. His conclusion is that unlocking value for both sides of the marketplace is much more challenging than it appears, and the most successful, next-generation marketplaces are going to come from highly networked, efficient platforms for complex projects targeting specific verticals.

Smolnikov then gives a step-by-step guide to optimizing marketplace growth.

One reason is that several service providers must often work together to complete a single job for a buyer, requiring a complex workflow from end to end. As a result, it’s difficult for marketplaces to not only mediate service delivery but also make it significantly more efficient for buyers and suppliers. If both the buyer and suppliers don’t see a significant efficiency gain other than being initially matched, why would they continue using the marketplace?

What startup names are most effective?

Perhaps the first step in building a company is just figuring out what to call it. Adam Zelcer, who founded Adboy, explores some tactics on how to optimize a startup’s name.

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TransferWise’s new debit card for the US fires the starting gun on a new war for travelers

International money transfer service TransferWise, has made a significant incursion into the US market today, launching a MasterCard debit card alongside a multicurrency account. Mirroring the card it has already launched in the UK and Europe last year, the card will work in over 40 currencies without balance limits, and conversion fees will be competitive with current exchange rates. A similar card aimed at businesses will follow the consumer launch.

Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus told me that the card effectively makes the average person able to act like a millionaire when they are traveling. “Alternative ‘travel’ cards are four times more expensive for every dollar spent and are only available to the top 10% of people who pass credit checks and also pay hundreds of dollars per year,” he said.

He believes this card will democratize the whole market. That means it’s likely that US tourists in Europe or elsewhere will be hugely attracted to this card because they will be charged as if they were a local person, in the local currencies, without all the normal fees.

Transferwise is also pushing an immigration angle to the launch featuring Tan France (pictured), star of “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy”.

Key features of the account and debit card include international bank details for the UK, the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, meaning account and routing numbers that are unique to the account holder. Additionally, if a holder swipes a card in a currency they don’t have in their account, the card knows to choose the cheapest option from their available balances. The card is also free to get, with now no subscription, no sign-up fees, and no monthly maintenance fee. Holders can also freeze/unfreeze the card from the Transferwise app and receive push notifications every time they spend. It will also sync with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.

Hinrikus added: “Our goal is to offer bank details for every country in the world through one account — the world’s first global account — and we’re starting with five of the world’s top currencies. The 40-currency debit card completes the package, so we’re excited to be releasing the card in the US.

Earlier this year TransferWise said it was now valued at $3.5 billion after closing a $292 million secondary funding round. In November it reported an annual post-tax net profit of $8 million for the year ending March 2018. At the time it said it had five million users transacting $5 billion across its platform a month.

While Transferwise competes with the smaller Revolut and WorldRemit, as well as incumbents like Western Union and MoneyGram, with the launch of this new card it will also be breathing down the neck of Paypal.

Its investors include Old Mutual, Institutional Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital, Vitruvian Partners, BlackRock, Valar Ventures, Baillie Gifford, PayPal founder Max Levchin, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, among others.

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What startup names are most effective?

Samsung releases a trio of smart home products

Samsung’s approach to the smart home has been — “uneven” seems like a nice way of putting it. None of this has really been helped along by the fact that Bixby and the company’s long-promised smart speaker, the Galaxy Home, are still lost in the woods.

SmartThings, the home automation startup the company acquired in 2014, has been relatively steady under its watch, on the other hand. The brand just released a trio of products maintaining its focus on low cost entry points for the starter smart home.

Two, the SmartThings Cam and WiFi Smart Plug have the helpful bonus of not requiring a separate hub. The Smart Bulb, on the other hand, does require one, but that’s not particularly surprising given the $10 price point. Samsung’s SmartThings Hub currently runs around $70, by the way.

None of the new entrants looks particularly exciting. The $90 Cam shoots in 1080p at a 145 degree angle and switches into night vision when the lights are off. It can capture HDR footage and has two-way audio.

The Smart Plug does seem like a pretty solid bargain at $18 vs. Amazon’s $25. Plugging in lights, appliances and the like gives the user app and voice control with Alexa, Google Assistant and, of course, Bixby. All three of the above will work with all of the new products.

The Cam, Smart Plug and Smart Bulb are available starting today.

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