Samsung: The Death Of The Spec Gives Way To The Birth Of The Human Touch

If we have reached the Death of the Spec, then what Samsung wanted to introduce us to today was nothing short of the birth of the human touch. In the presentation launching the Galaxy S III, the first full half hour was very light on specs, with mention of only one — the size of the screen (4.8″-huge).

Instead, what we got was long on references to intuitive design, with lots of non-tech buzzwords: “nature,” “organic,” and so on. The Galaxy S III is “really designed for humans” the company said today, again and again.

The “simple, organic design” will come in ”pebble blue” and “marble white” and it has worked natural elements into every aspect of the user interface.

Included in that will be new alert sounds that sound like water drops and other sounds from nature.

“The Galaxy S III looks deep into your eyes and only turns off when you do,” noted Jean Daniel Ayme to the audience. That is to say, the screen will note when your eyes are on it and will stay “awake” for as long as you look at it. “It knows precisely what we are doing and our intentions.” It will also recognize your face and that of others — automatically tagging contacts in your pictures and inviting you to share them with them.

And Samsung also talked about its new, improved answer to Siri: the S Voice, “a voice recognition service that does more than just respond to voice commands.”

That will include features like automatically taking users to other services on the phone, like the camera, and understanding different languages. In addition to English, there will be Italian, German, French and “even English spoken in a French accent,” said Ayme.