Eric Zeman / Android Authority
✂️ Happy Wednesday! I got my bi-annual haircut this week, and again the barber scolded me for not cutting more often. I was trying to explain my social anxiety, but you know… 🤷
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus can leapfrog it.
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
We’re close to the release of the Galaxy S23 lineup (it now has an event date), but rumor has it that the company is planning a big shake-up for next year’s S24 devices.
- Korean media reports that Samsung will skip the Galaxy S24 Plus model in favor of the standard S24 and premium S24 Ultra.
- This will be the first change since the Ultra model entered the 2020 Galaxy S20 series.
- At the time, it was mostly there to replace the Galaxy Note series, and apparently, it’s here to stay.
- On the other hand, it is said that sales of the Plus series have seen disappointing sales.
- The Galaxy S22 Plus is believed to hold just 17% of the load, with the S22 Ultra leading the charge at 45% and the flagship S22 taking 38%.
- In a sense this makes sense, as the mid-range phone in the lineup was always meant to be overshadowed by its cheaper and premium siblings.
- But, it’s a shame if it’s true because the Galaxy S22 Plus was actually our favorite phone in the lineup. In fact, we think it’s the best Android phone for most people.
- The company is also rumored to be reducing the number of Galaxy A series models, which is interesting considering how similar they are.
Microsoft has shifted focus to the Surface Duo 3.
David Email / Android Authority
Microsoft’s gamble on a dual-screen foldable didn’t exactly pay off, but now it looks like the company is considering switching to a true foldable design for its next iteration.
- The Surface Duo and Duo 2 featured two screens connected by a foldable hinge, offering a unique experience on a foldable phone.
- However, the costs outweigh the benefits in our assessment, especially when it comes to software.
- This new report says that while Microsoft may have finalized designs for another dual-screen model by the end of 2023, the company is currently exploring single-screen designs.
- Considering the software updates on Android foldables like Samsung Galaxy Fold 4 and Oppo Find N2 with Android 12L, this might be the right move.
- In any case, the Duo line-up clearly isn’t doing the trick, so a rethink is certainly in order.
- Personally, I’d still like to see a dual-screen tablet like the Surface Neo from years ago, but that doesn’t seem destined to happen.
Wednesday is amazing
Last week, Microsoft unveiled a new text-to-speech AI model called Val-E, and the results are surprisingly good. Using the most sophisticated technology to be explained in this article, researchers were able to generate a synthetic sound that matched a sampled sound using three seconds of audio. But it relates not only to the speaker’s voice, but also to their mood and tone of voice. For example, if the audio sample is an angry voice on the phone, the AI ​​will generate audio that matches those conditions.
But honestly, the proof is in the pudding, so go check out the audio samples if you don’t believe me. Thankfully, the researchers are aware of potential ethical issues and have not released the entire model to the public. They also mention that a protocol could be created to detect altered or scrambled speech in the wild.
from a real person,