JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – 09 May, 2019 – Samsung has announced its strategic partnership with Syte to power the first native visual AI marketplace within Samsung devices – ground-breaking technology which is now expanding to South Africa. Syte’s visual AI technology will be powering Bixby Vision’s Shopping Assistant, enabling users to browse and shop visually similar products directly from their camera and through a gallery of similar products including Superbalist, Zando, Cotton On, Wantitall, Homechoice and Bid or Buy.

“South Africa has enthusiastic consumers that expect engaging and convenient experiences that fit their lifestyle. We therefore decided to expand our partnership with Syte so our devices deliver just that. With visual search, South Africans can shop with ease, and connect better with their favourite retailers and brands and vice versa,” said Justin Hume, Director: Integrated Mobility at Samsung South Africa.

Syte retail clients will populate the shopping results, which means unprecedented access to high quality, purchase-ready traffic to retailers. Samsung aims to create the first visual AI ecosystem, where real-life inspiration leads directly to product discovery and purchase, all powered by Syte’s leading visual AI technology for retail. In a strategic decision by Samsung and Syte, the retailers that appear on the shoppable feed will create a consistent experience driven by visual inspiration, all the way from snapping a picture to check-out.

“We are thrilled that more and more consumers are going to experience the power of visual search. Our partnership with Samsung and its expansion to South Africa are meaningful achievements for us. By powering the end-to-end journeys of shoppers, we bring more value and increase the engagement between our retail clients and consumers,” said Ofer Fryman, CEO of Syte.

Ultimately, Samsung’s Bixby is being enhanced in many innovative ways. With Bixby Vision already built into the camera on select Samsung devices, you can translate foreign languages, identify landmarks or businesses to learn more about them and even keep track of calories so that each meal fits into your health goals. Along with Bixby Shopping, Samsung continues to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence even further. As a human-centred company, this is all aligned to Samsung’s greater vision of helping people ‘Do What You Can’t’.

Supported devices for Bixby Vision and Shopping include Galaxy S10+/S10/ S10e, S9/S9+, Note8/S8/S8+/A7 2018/A5 2018

Each device is designed to pioneering standards. However, with Samsung Care+, the applicable devices are covered for those unforeseen accidental damages. It’s also important to note that only Samsung original parts are used to repair your device and it’s done swiftly to get you back on your phone in no time. With 103 Service Centres nationally.

What will the peace of mind cost?

Accidents do happen. Which is why Samsung has factored in the traditional costs associated with smartphone insurance to give you greater financial convenience. You can now get R10 000 worth of benefits when you add Samsung Care+ to your purchase of a Galaxy S10. For a once off cost of R499 you get two screen repairs, two battery replacements, free pick up and drop off service and access to a 24-hour Call Centre. This is 2 years of amazing benefits. To add to the value skilled technicians will also do a complimentary device ‘health check’ when its sent in, while ensuring that your device is updated to the latest software. Customers who pre-ordered their device by 17 March have until 17 April 2019 to take advantage of this offer. Once purchased, customers have 30 days to activate Samsung Care+ and enjoy the benefits. And there is even more value for customers who purchase their Galaxy S10 from DionWired during the current launch period. DionWired customers can enroll on Samsung Care+ for free and are only liable for screen and back repair costs, at a minimal fee, if needed.

Samsung has a 24-hour call centre on stand-by to assist customers who want to find out more about Samsung Care+. The centre can be contacted on: 0861 888 003 |
0860 726 786 . They can also register on the Samsung Members app or online at www.samsung.com/za/mobile/samsung-care-plus. Additional terms and conditions apply.

“Samsung Pay has brought South Africans a new level of convenience and security when making contactless mobile payments. It makes a rushed trip to the stores and shopping malls, a lot easier. Armed with your ever-present smartphone, you can now pay with your smartphone faster and more conveniently than with a debit or credit card. It’s this kind of convenience where technology can make a massive difference in our lives,” says Justin Hume, Director: Integrated Mobility at Samsung South Africa.

Debit and credit cards have already made a literal impact on wallets. They have allowed many people to go cashless. This development, along with cardless banking at ATM’s, which is being widely promoted by local banks recently, has changed the banking landscape massively. The recent arrival of Samsung Pay on the local market is therefore well timed to turn your smartphone into virtually the only payment device you need.

With a bank card loaded on a Samsung smartphone, paying is as simple as swiping upwards on your screen, authenticate via PIN, fingerprint or iris and hold your phone by the payment terminal. Additionally, Samsung Pay’s security exceeds other mobile payment methods. Through tokenisation from Visa and MasterCard the physical card information is never used during the payment process but instead a unique cryptographic sequence and token is used for the transaction, where the cryptographic sequence changes with every transaction made. Samsung Pay also works almost anywhere you can swipe, insert or tap a card. That’s a first in South Africa.

Even if 2019 is not the year of complete cardless banking, it’s undeniably still closer than we’ve even been before. The future has clearly arrived.

Samsung Pay can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store and used on the following compatible Samsung devices: Galaxy Note 9, Note 8, S9/S9+, S8/S8+, S7/S7 edge, A8 (2018), A7 (2017) and A5 (2017). If you cannot find Samsung Pay in the Google Play store, please do a firmware update for your smartphone to get access to this amazing feature.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 09 April 2018 – When innovation and people-centred excellence are not just buzz words but core values within a company, it follows that awards will be won. Every year, the much-lauded tech blog htxt. gathers experts, geeks and fundis to put various technology products to the test. Today, Samsung announced their wins in the Gear of the Year Awards.

Justin Hume, Marketing Director for Samsung South Africa, says, “While Samsung doesn’t design with awards in mind, it’s the way in which we approach every product that makes it award-winning. Innovation is key, as is the people who will be using the products. It’s always an honour to be nominated for and win an award for one of our products.”

It wasn’t just one product that won an award – tipped against other leading brands, Samsung came out top in six different categories.

In the category of high-end smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was chosen by the majority of htxt.’s readers as their favourite smartphone of 2017. In the Storage category, the Samsung SSD won an astounding 50.2% of the votes as the favourite way to store data, media and entertainment. Also for storage, Samsung was a winner in the Business Storage category for SSDs and Micro SDs.

When it comes to business tablets, the Galaxy Tab S3 was deemed to be the best Android tablet money can buy. For business smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ were the devise of choice and the inclusion of the Samsung DeX was a huge influence on voting. The Galaxy Note 8 was also tipped as a favourite among readers, as well as the highly affordable J4.

Samsung also cracked the lead for one of the wearables categories, with voters saying the Samsung Gear Sport and Gear S2 were great all-round fitness trackers. It almost goes without saying that the superlative Q9F QLED Television got over 50% of the votes for not only its incredible functionality but also the deep range of colour achieved.