CES 2018: Samsung goes all in with IoT via SmartThings, including Gear smartwatches
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Yesterday, Samsung held its CES press conference, and IoT was a major focus of all aspects of the event. Samsung various products will be centralized around SmartThings and a SmartThings app will soon be launched on its Gear smartwatches.
Samsung currently has Samsung Connect, Smart Home, Smart View, and more IoT services that will be brought into the SmartThings app to connect and control any SmartThings-enabled device directly. As Cho Mu-Hyun wrote yesterday, this includes controlling these devices through your automobile.
The Samsung Gear Sport and Gear S3 smartwatches will be provided with a SmartThings app to let you control multiple devices right from your wrist. I bought a SmartThings hub back when it was a Kickstarter project, before the Samsung purchase of SmartThings, and look forward to expanding this network of devices.
Samsung also discussed a further expansion of Bixby, to include integration on new TVs and refrigerators. There was no mention of replacing the terrible S Voice app on Gear smartwatches with Bixby, which is a natural progression of the service. We reached out to Samsung regarding this issue and will update the post with any comments we receive.