Samsung Uses UWB To Turn Galaxy Phones Into Digital Car Keys

After announcing it earlier this year, Samsung is finally adding support for using certain Galaxy flagship smartphones as digital keys to unlock your vehicles. Known as Samsung Digital Key, the new feature uses Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and NFC to enable “passive entry”, meaning that the car will unlock when you’re nearby without you needing to take out your phone, similar to Apple’s car keys introduced last year.

Samsung’s iteration will launch by the end of this year in South Korea and will initially support only one car model for now, which is the Genesis GV60. Interestingly, the car already comes with several smart features of its own, including a built-in face scanner on the side of the car known as Face Connect, and a fingerprint scanner. Both of which are used to biometrically verify the driver’s identity without requiring a physical key.

Back to Samsung’s new tech, the digital key also uses the company’s embedded Secure Element (eSE) technology to protect sensitive information, and is stored in the Samsung Pass app. The company says that using UWB as a car key prevents potential relay attacks, meaning thieves can’t start your car without having your physical phone in the vehicle. Additionally, the key can be shared with friends and family with the ability to set a time limit, and even allows each driver to preset seat and mirror positions when they get in the car.

When the feature was announced, Samsung revealed four automaker partners — Audi, BMW, Ford, and Genesis. With that in mind, we can expect the Samsung Digital Key to be compatible with the other brands some time in the future, although their expected rollout has not be revealed as of yet. The Galaxy devices that come with UWB are the Galaxy S21+, Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold2, Galaxy Z Fold3, and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Apple TV 4K 2021 Uses An iPhone To Adjust Colour Balance; Starts From RM849

 Alongside the new iPad Pro and AirTag, Apple also announced the new Apple TV 4K at its recent event. This new entry features the A12 Bionic chip that we previously saw powering the iPhone XS and XR back in 2018.

The new Apple TV 4K has an interesting feature, simply called Colour Balance. This makes use of an accompanying iPhone to automatically adjust its own colour output, allowing it to compensate for colour inaccuracies of your TV. In other words, it works sort of like a monitor calibrator, except you do the calibration with an iPhone.

Accompanying the new Apple TV 4K is a new Apple TV Remote. It’s a small remote, with very few buttons. Most of the operation is done via the round clickpad at the centre. You can press down on each direction the old fashioned way. But in certain contexts you can also swipe across it like you would a smart device. And since it supports touch controls, you can also use circular gestures to use it as a jog control.

The Apple TV 4K comes with two storage options, 32GB and 64GB. These are priced at RM849 and RM949, respectively. You can also just get the new remote for RM229. Or, you can get the existing Apple TV HD with the new remote for RM719. That being said, Apple Malaysia has not said when you can actually buy it yet.

THX Onyx Is A Mobile DAC That Uses USB-C; Costs RM1190

When it comes to music on mobile phones, there’s still nothing like having a portable DAC, and a pair of wired headphones plugged in. The THX Onyx is a new one in the market. And despite it coming from a big-name mainstream company, the thing itself is pretty tiny.

The company says that the Onyx comes with its own THX AAA DAC, as well as the ESS Pro DAC chips inside. Adding to those is MQA support. There’s also three audio indicator LEDs that tell you the quality of the music you’re currently listening to. If you know your stuff, there’s probably no need for this. But it may be useful for the uninitiated who want to hear the difference between standard quality and top quality music, and being told which is which.

THX did not mention the physical size of the Onyx, but from the images, it looks smaller than the average pen. It makes use of the USB-C port, addressing the lack of a 3.5mm audio jack on most phones these days. You can even fold it when not in use, as the two ends attach magnetically. This allows it to be used as a cable tie for your extra long headphone cables. And if you want to use it with a PC, there’s also a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

The THX Onyx is available to us in Malaysia, and you can get it via the Razer online store. Probably not too surprising, since the two companies work together quite a lot in the past. It is very pricey though, coming in at RM1190.