Samsung Electronics is helping drivers embark on a new journey through its ground-breaking connected car solution, Samsung Connect Auto. Providing benefits to consumers and businesses alike, Samsung is delivering an ecosystem of services and products to enable a safer, more eco-friendly and more fun driving experience. Consumers gain comfort knowing their vehicle is secure, and enterprises gain productivity through fleet management capabilities and services offered by Samsung as well as partners.

Samsung Connect Auto plugs directly into the OBD II port underneath the steering wheel. It uses real-time alerts to help users improve their driving behavior, including increased fuel efficiency, while offering a Wi-Fi connection to keep passengers online while on-the-go. The solution is kept secure using Samsung KNOX , the company’s market-leading, defense-grade mobile security platform. Samsung Connect Auto provides the mass market with an affordable connected car solution that places safety and security first, while enriching in-car and out-of-car experience. Samsung Connect Auto will initially be available in the second quarter in the U.S. AT&T will be the first wireless provider of the solution in the U.S.

“We have been listening to our customers and pushing boundaries to create a connected car ecosystem that seamlessly integrates our products and partner services for a better driving experience,” said Dr. Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Software and Services, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “Through collaborations with valuable partners and experts across many industries, we are carrying out our vision of bringing IoT technology to people’s everyday lives.”

“Samsung’s willingness to work with others to create an ecosystem of true interoperability will allow it to be one of the leaders in the aftermarket connected vehicle space,” said Chris Penrose, Senior Vice President, Internet of Things, AT&T Business Solutions. “These are exciting times for connected car innovation, and we look forward to offering customers this powerful new option.”

“Orange Business Services is proud to collaborate with Samsung to jointly provide advanced IoT/M2M expertise and services to the automotive industry. This market is growing exponentially, and we are eager to contribute to the Samsung connected car ecosystem in Europe and beyond,” said Valérie Cussac, Vice President Mobile France & International, Orange.

“This new mobile distribution platform is a potential game changer that we believe will bring usage-based insurance to the mass market,” said Geoff Werner, Global Telematics Leader, Willis Towers Watson. “We are excited about collaborating with Samsung and Tantalum, leveraging our insurance analytics to encourage safer driving and help consumers get access to better insurance rates.”

“AXA is delighted to partner with Samsung in the development of a secured Connected Car ecosystem that will bring peace of mind for our customers, provide them with additional insurance and assistance services and contribute to enhance drivers’ behaviors,” said Serge Morelli, Deputy CEO of AXA Partners and CEO of AXA Assistance.

Safety and Peace of Mind

The backbone of Samsung Connect Auto is KNOX security and Tizen OS for interoperability. Samsung KNOX provides security from the hardware through the software levels, including applications. Prioritizing security differentiates Samsung Connect Auto from competitor offerings. Developers can leverage Tizen and Samsung’s Software Development Kit (SDK) to further evolve additional services. Samsung also encourages safe driving behavior by using geo-fencing and driver rating algorithms. In the event of an accident, emergency alerts notify the driver’s contacts and accident concierge services are provided. A “Find My Car” app also helps in locating your car in real-time using LTE and GPS.

Have Fun and Be Eco-friendly

A powerful LTE Wi-Fi hotspot enables multi-user internet access that lets passengers in the car stream content and play online games. Fuel efficiency analysis helps drivers consume less fuel through the use of proprietary algorithms that analyze miles travelled, time on the road and price per gallon – a valuable feature for those in the transportation and logistics field.

Save Money and Be Productive

A virtual mechanic intelligently checks your car status from the on-board diagnostic port to recommend maintenance and repair services offered by a specialized network. This enables quick notification of performance and helps reduce repair costs.

Drivers can leverage the solution’s Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) feature by opting to share their vehicle data to receive valuable insurance offerings.

For those professionals who are often on the road, journey logs automatically generate an email report to help users track expenses while traveling for work, providing business mobility efficiency.

Partner Ecosystem

Samsung is creating a new partner ecosystem of carriers, insurance companies, roadside assistance operators and maintenance networks. Additionally, by partnering with auto manufacturers, Samsung is helping to bridge the gap between the automotive industry and the mobile world. By investing in the creation of connected car services on both sides of the market – consumers and enterprises – Samsung will continue to build valuable partner relationships that provide drivers with a premier service.

Companies currently participating as part of Samsung’s connected car ecosystem include Amdocs, AT&T, AXA, Blink by Agero, China Unicom, Cisco, Crawford & Company, Ericsson, Europcar, HERE, IBM, Jasper, Oberthur Technologies, Openbay, Orange, Tantalum and Willis Towers Watson.

Samsung Connect Auto will be on display at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

Thanks to the rising power and efficiency of mobile devices, the office is not just confined to the office anymore. Increasingly, we work while on the go, researching, analyzing and writing from the airport, hotel and other off-site locations, wherever our work might take us.

In the past, if you needed a document printed, you had to deal with the inconvenient and cumbersome process of getting that file to a computer that was hooked up to a nearby printer. Or if you used your own computer, that mean finding the network and making sure you had the right printer driver. Either way, it was inconvenient and not very secure.

But SAMSUNG Cloud Print cuts those physical connections, allowing printers to link directly to the Internet by Wi-Fi and other communication networks. Now you can print directly from your own mobile device to any printer that is set up for SAMSUNG Cloud Print—which includes all the printers currently produced by Samsung Electronics. Or you can send files from your printer to any device or email account.

(To find out whether your printer supports SAMSUNG Cloud Print, check out the Compatible printer page at Samsungcloudprint.com).

And not only is SAMSUNG Cloud Print convenient, it is also secure end to end, as everything gets encrypted to ensure your documents stay safe.

Why Cloud Printing?

Imagine you are in a taxi, on your way to an important meeting, when you get an email that something in your presentation needs to be revised. Sure you can make those changes in the taxi using your laptop or mobile device, but once you arrive, you will still need to re-print everything, costing you valuable time.

But not anymore. Thanks to SAMSUNG Cloud Print, you can send your print job from the taxi, even while you’re still navigating through traffic. When you arrive at your destination, the new documents can be all ready and waiting for you.

Similarly, SAMSUNG Cloud Print can be used at a hotel to simplify printing documents. In the past, you had to walk down to the hotel’s business center, bringing the files or your laptop. But now, you can send the print job from your device directly to the hotel’s printer and just pick up the printout.

By using the cloud, you get to bypass the old, complicated connection between computers and wired printer networks. You can even print files on printers in other countries, if you need. SAMSUNG Cloud Print is faster, easier and more flexible.

Getting Started

The first step is, of course, downloading the Samsung Cloud Print software and installing it, which can be done with a simple search on most app stores, like Samsung Galaxy Apps or the Google Play store. The software is free and works with the major platforms (Android, iOS, Windows and more).

Once the software is installed and you run it for the first time, the first thing you will notice is how simple the application is. There are just four icons across the top: Print, My Drive, Friends and More.

Printing

The first thing you are most likely to need is to connect to a printer, which can be done by clicking on the Add Device icon (the printer+ icon) on the upper-right of the Print screen.

There, you can connect to a printer by Wi-Fi, NFC, QR Code or MAC Address. Each is very straightforward. For NFC (Near Field Communication), just look for the NFC sticker on the printer, then hold up your mobile device close to it, and the device will automatically just show up.

Once you have chosen your printer, go back to the Print screen and select the document you want to print.

• Photo goes to your device’s Gallery, where you can choose from photos you have taken, downloads and screenshots.
• Document takes you to your device’s Documents folder.
• Web lets you input an Internet URL.
• E-mail allows you to sign into your email account of choice and select emails to print.
• Camera lets you take a new photo and print it directly.

After you have selected what you want to print, you can either print it right away using the green Print button in the lower right, or you can make changes with Preview, the gray button in the lower left.

Selecting Preview gives you several options for editing the file.

• The upper-left button allows you to switch between Color and Grayscale (or black-and-white).
• The middle button lets you change the paper size (default is A4).
• The right button changes the size of the image on the paper.
• The pen square on the upper-right on the document itself lets you make further changes: cropping, rotating and number of copies to print.

Again, whenever you are ready, there is a big, green Print button that sends the print command to your printer. At any time, you can also change the printer you are using by selecting the blue printer box at the bottom, just above the Print box.

Receiving Files

SAMSUNG Cloud Print also works in the opposite direction, allowing people to send documents from the printer to your device. The person at the printer just scans a document, then enters your phone number, and the file goes directly to your device.

The file will show up in your My Drive field (the second field from the left, beside Print). Selecting the file gives you the options Delete, Preview or Print.

Connecting With Others

SAMSUNG Cloud Print also lets you send and receive files directly with others. To do so, select the Friends option (second icon from right). Your contacts are in the Friends area, and you can add more contacts with Invite Friends.

When you select a contact, then get the same list of file options as in Print: Photo, Document, Web, E-mail and Camera. But now, once you’ve selected the file, the green button at the bottom is Send instead of Print. Otherwise, everything works the same.

Customizing and Everything Else

The More field (the three dots on the far right) is where you will find everything else: My Profile, Job History, Setting, Information and more. Job History is a convenient way to keep track of all the print jobs and sent files you have done using SAMSUNG Cloud Print. And Setting allows you to customize your version of the app so it works just the way you like, changing notifications, popups and help options.

More to Come

The team behind SAMSUNG Cloud Print says that more options are coming early next year to their useful service. An Enterprise edition is coming for large businesses that need a lot of in-house printing and that have advanced in-house networks, while a Business edition will be for small and medium size businesses that want to reduce printing cost, increase printing security, and print from anywhere, anytime.

No matter what version of SAMSUNG Cloud Print you choose to use, they are all excellent tools for getting print jobs done more simply, cutting the old ties to in-house networks and limitations. It’s about empowering consumers, letting them do more, and do it more easily. Now your printing solutions can be as free and as diverse as your digital life.