Not content with being a ‘fast follower’ of HealthKit and HomeKit with its Digital Health and Smart Home platforms, and iBeacon with its Proximity Service, Samsung has just announced a Continuity clone, Flow.
People today use multiple devices in their daily activities: phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, TVs, and more. But the way we work is still device-centric. We still use one application, within one device, with data that is tied to that application and device.
Samsung Flow is a platform that enables developers to create seamless transitions across devices, so that people can change devices in the midst of an activity and continue right from where they left off.
Flow is compatible with anything that works with Android’s Share feature: if content can be shared with other apps, Flow can be used to to hand it off to other devices …
Flow includes the equivalent of iCloud tabs, allowing you to start reading a webpage on one device and then continue on another; the same functionality as Handoff, starting work on a document on one device and then continuing on another; and Continuity-style ability to take phone calls on other devices.
Samsung put together a video demonstrating some of the capabilities, and it’s clear that in concept it’s identical to the Continuity feature introduced with Yosemite and iOS 8, with some differences of execution – including the need to explicitly choose the device you want to handoff to.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEkaxi7pqlk]
Gizmodo got a hands-on, albeit without the phone features enabled, and said that “it looks like Samsung will be pushing its Continuity clone a little bit further than Apple in some places but not nearly enough in others.”
It’s not yet known when the feature will go live for Samsung owners.
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They have no f*cking shame. BURN THEM!
What’s the big deal [have you bought a new car lately]? You can get the same equipment on any make. There is no fuss in the auto industry.
Only if you mean four wheels and an engine. User experience is quite different, especially for respectful manufacturers. Yes, any car can still drive you around the block.
@ Varera – I’m referring to equipment like the rear camera, navigation, ABS, collision avoidance systems, bluetooth, vehicle design, ect., they are basically all the same. Take Boeing and Airbus, there is very little difference between the planes. Firearms, they are all single shot or automatic with the same calibers. Their design might be a little different to distinguish one from the other. My point is this. One company invents something new and different which customers like, the competition comes out with their version. Its not a bad thing. Customers benefit because we get more choices and lower prices. I don’t understand this attitude Apple people have with not allowing others to play with their toys.
There is probably similar whining on the car websites.
You’re comparing 2 different things. Wrong comparison.
@Gregory “One company invents something new and different which customers like, the competition comes out with their version.” It would be nice if Samsung came out with something new and different THAT customers all over liked that Apple, Microsoft, et. al. liked and wanted to copy, but they don’t, as far as I can recall. Maybe you can help me and give a shout out regarding a Samsung R&D initiated feature the rest of the industry copied? Samsung, outside of their phone size, when it comes to their phone, in my opinion, is just… http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oHvMtRvGbeo/0.jpg
Apple copied Samsung in the Note. The Note had been out for years and Apple fans laughed at how big it was, until Apple came out with a phone that is larger than the Note 4, yet has a smaller screen. Samsung came out with a much better version of a one handed use application for the Note and Apple came out with their inferior version. Samsung has a fantastic stylus that has lots of uses in the Note, I wonder when Apple will do that as well.
Android came out with over a dozen features that Apple implemented in their OS versions 5-8.
See? You’re just being obtuse if you don’t think Samsung, Google, and Apple have all taken ideas from each other that have benefited the consumer.
don’t you remember where were samsung before the first iPhone came out?
I don’t know why people say Apple copy samsung with a big screen, when samsung before Apple first gen iPhone don’t even have a touch screen phone, and when Samsung came out with their first touch screen phone they even copy the user interface of Apple IOS. Is not that I am an Apple fan is just that Samsung is should be called SAMSUNG COPY MACHINE
http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/18/tablet-design-before-after-the-ipad/ the link say it all.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-20/samsung-sought-to-beat-iphone-with-galaxy-nexus-apple-says
check the picture in the link. is samsung “phone” looks familiar to you?
Very mature.
You are the last person on the planet Sad Herb, to call out anyone on maturity.
Now now Dave, don’t criticise him too much – he’s found a way to earn money in life, like any adult should. Even if the employer is Samsung and the job is continuous trolling.
Competition would be great. Sadly, they just copy everything.
Exactly. Competition is always a good thing but not the one who copies everything they can as fast they can.
I have zero issue with these companies taking good ideas from the others and putting their own spin on it.
But with things like iBeacon? We all will lose if it isn’t more standard. Can iBeacon talk to any Bluetooth LE device or just iOS ones?
Any Bluetooth device.
Just iOS.
I can’t wait to take calls on my Samsung washing machine!
To bad they installed the microphone inside it.
Samsung will have it next year.
Apple will have it one year after that.
They have millions of products (exact way how a company should not work) and ware waiting what will stick (nothing). What you said is totally untrue.
How about talking into their Dyson clone vacuum! That will be impressive.
That company name is Samesoon, obviously
Juvenile.
Fail.
Go back to your shamesung hole.
Do everyone a favour, just STFU and GTFO. Go to a place like C|Net where that kinda trolling might actually be appreciated.
They copy everything, including the Ad style (Music, environment, etc., except for the length. It was a very long Ad!).
It was very long, poorly made ad. They copy everything they can however make it the worst.
Why do people complain that only Samsung copies Apple and forgets about Apple copying the bigger iPhone , front facing cameras was androids first . Apple has always been slower in coming out with new ideas . I love apple but they are not as innovative sorry .
Android devices has larger screens for several years before Apple introduced a larger iPhone. If Apple was just copying we would have had a 5″ iPhone 3 years ago.
Apple was making the iPad before Android screens got huge, so Apple was no stranger to large screen iOS devices. They simply chose not to bring it to the iPhone until now, they could have easily since they already knew how to run iOS on a huge screen. Not a big deal. Apple isn’t always first, but always does it better. They weren’t first with a payment system, but now look… no one cared about Google Wallet until Apple Pay came out and both only have a chance at making a real impact on consumer usage thanks to Apple Pay because it’s better in every way.
Apple hasn’t been slower, you’re just cherry picking. Who was the first company to bring a screen with a pixel density so high one can’t see individual pixels? Apple.
Who was the first company to create what we now call the ultrabook, a super thin lightweight laptop genre? Apple.
Who was the first company to create the entire tablet economy at a scale that mattered? Apple
Who was the first company to create a Find my Phone feature? Apple.
I can cherry pick too.
This is plain wrong on so many levels.
Don’t rock the cult!
Larger screens is not indicative of innovation. Larger screens came along way before mobile phones, TV anyone? I would rather have it come out slower and done right rather then fast and hardly useful.
Samsung is always playing catchup…
And no, Apple doing bigger screen iPhones wasn’t catchup or copying Samsung, they already had huge screen iOS mobile devices since 2010, something called the “iPad”.
Waiting until now to do a large screen iPhone was a choice.
FaceTime continuity would be nice, though.
I hate Samsung so much. Just as a company. No moral compass and no shame. It’s sickening.
I’ve had a health app on my Samsung Galaxy S5 for nearly a year. It does what Apple’s health app will do.
Samsung innovates. Apple imitates.
Samsung just half bakes what Apple is rumored to do in the future. Samsung strategy bible is entirely made out of Apple rumors websites.
Nikes partnered with Apple on health years before that.
Hey Apple aplogists:
How is your watch working out?
Oh, it’s not available yet?
Samsung’s has been out for a while. Maybe Apple R & D hasn’t finished studying the Samsung version yet.
The verdict isn’t out yet on the apple watch, but Samsung’s watch is terrible. Everyone knows that.
Hey herb. You’re clueless. In a big way. If you knew anything about Apple Watch or Apple in general, you’d know Sammy copied 4 major innovations by Apple just today.
And your shamesung watch still doesn’t do payments, let alone something as great as Apple Pay (which I’m sure you have no knowledge of at all because you’re just comfortable with the thought its some kind of google wallet clone. again: clueless)
HEY 9TO5MAC, LET’S FINALLY BAN HERB!
No please don’t ban Herb. We need him to not just uncritical follow our religion Apple!
Samsung is a huge industry production company. There is no reason to hate them. They can copy as much as they want, their phones will never reach the feeling you have, when you hold an iPhone in your hand. A Galaxy will always feel like a cheap piece of plastic in your hand.
But what we all forget, and I think don’t understand is: in Asia to copy something is a privilege for those who are copied !!!!!!
So Samsung honors Apple.
Point
There is an unbelievable difference between honor and what samsung does. If Apple hints at Dieter Rams with his calculator by burrowing its color scheme and then implementing it in a totally different way on a product that is totally different, that’s honor. And Dieter Rams himselft approves it and feels honored.
Samsung though? No shame, ruthless copying of major features. And Jony Ive’s opinion about samsungs copying is about as negative as Dieter Rams was possitive about Apple. Huge difference.
Shamesung watches are sh*t. They made them just to be first and they made them just because they heard Apple is working on watches too. End of story.
The most financed part of they company is a part of people who search the internet for newest Apple rumours so they can be first. Everything that Shamesung does is a huge fail and they should be banned from selling in the whole world except their shi**y country.
bad choid sad herb to bring up the samsung watch, universally panned as crap!
Samsung has a “smart watch” firs because Apple is rumored to do in the future. Samsung strategy bible is entirely made out of Apple rumors websites.
Usually I’m not quick to jump on companies for borrowing ideas, but this is just bullshit.
Did you call bulls hit on the larger phone screen, health app or mobile payments that Apple has copied?
How about the watch? Multitasking?
You really should.
Larger phone screen – Dell Streak, 5in, released June 2010. Since screen size (unlike layout, OS, or experience) is very variable and not really subject to “copying,” this is really just a BS argument to have at all.
Mobile payments – Mobil had contactless payment since 1997, and mobile payment systems existed in Japan as early as 1999. Fortunately, the ability to shout “FIRST” is not as important as little things like convenience, security, or usability.
Watch – the first Linux watch was invented by Steve Mann in 1998. The Fossil Wrist PDA came out in 2003. Maybe Samsung’s poorly thought-out offerings copied the lack of desirability, lack of functionality, or lack of purpose of these predecessors.
Multitasking – if you’re referring to the card thing – Palm put that in webOS before anyone else.
I could argue that these are all things Samsung copied, but I am not a mouthbreathing, dirt eating, self-groin-punching idiot who can’t tell the difference between building standalone features and crafting user experiences.
Sorry, this is nothing new, so neither Apple or Samsung can claim it’s original. Skype and Hangouts have been continuous for years. I remember when living in London, I would have Skype up and running on all my devices, and simply handover to the next device, according to my situation. Likewise, Google docs offers ‘continuous’ editing of pages. All this has been about for over 5 years.
BTW, when our iPhone 4S rings, despite being right next to my MacBook Pro, the MacBook Pro still rings, and even after I have answered and finished the iPhone call, the ringing and controls continue on the Mac. IE, it’s proximity detection doesn’t work and it cannot sense when the call ends either! Oh dear.
Herb be like “The next big thing is here”
WOW what a cheap ass lame company. Get out the xerox machine lets get copying. The only thing I would like to see is Apple and Microsoft work together and get handoff to work on PCs as well. These Samsung bone heads are cheap asses.
Really why does anyone even care.
We have values.
Samsung is a company that is known in every market as a company that produces knock-off products of any and every model their competitors make. This is nothing new, never has been and will continue to be that way for a long time to come. Their biggest problem chasing Apple, is that they don’t have a viable platform or ecosystem and neither of those are things you can copy just by adding features. First and foremost, it requires a user base that is willing to participate and Samsung doesn’t have a user base, they only have people that buy their *devices*. The fact that Samsung has been releasing so many “platform” related features recently just demonstrates how desperate they’ve become since they can no longer “boast” about having larger screened devices. And after their dismal quarterly results, we can all see exactly where they’re headed.
This Company is so full of shiiiit. I freakin’ hate them. Literally.