Samsung and Intel show off Tizen for phones and cars (pictures)
Since being shown off at MWC 2013, Tizen has changed its focus purely from phones, to include cars and wearables.
Andrew Lanxon
When he's not testing the latest phones or phone cameras, Andrew can normally be found with his own camera in hand or behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food -- sometimes all at once.
Tizen was first shown off on Samsung phones at Mobile World Congress 2013. Now that a year has passed, how does the Android-alternative operating system look?
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Tizen is highly customisable. Samsung has therefore done its utmost to make it look a lot like its Android TouchWiz interface.
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There are app icons and live widgets scattered across various homescreen panels.
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You can resize the widgets too.
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Samsung's app menu looks almost identical to its Android one.
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You'll even see familiar faces like S Note.
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The rounded icons look a lot like the new icons on the Galaxy S5.
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There are still plenty of settings to confuse you.
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The camera app can float above the rest of the interface.
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You can have different versions of your homescreen so you can customise which widgets show on your screen at which time.
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The widgets -- named "dynamic boxes" -- can display more information if you swipe down on them.
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News widgets, for example, can show more of a story without you needing to open an app.
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This F1 racing game looked good.
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There's a Tizen app store. You can find some native apps, but it will also run HTML 5 apps.
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This is an HTML 5 app -- I couldn't tell it wasn't a native app as it ran very smoothly.
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I love playing Asphalt 8 on Android and it seemed to run fine on Tizen, too.
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The image gallery is pulled straight from Samsung's Galaxy phones.
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ZTE had a Tizen phone too. Its version of Tizen was much more basic.
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There's no app menu -- app icons are simply scattered on the homescreen.
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The settings menu is more basic -- but much easier to understand.
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Physically, Samsung's phone looks the same as the Galaxy S4. Keep in mind that this isn't the phone that will be released -- it's just a reference model.
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The home button is identical.
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There's a camera in the same place on the back too.
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Intel is working with Tizen to bring the software to in-car entertainment systems.
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It'll be able to run Google Maps with touch and voice control.
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Working with manufacturers like Land Rover, Intel intends the software to be able to give detailed information about the car.
