Where the hell is Samsung's Ballie robot? The company repeatedly promised it would be on sale this year. Another CES is nearly upon us, another year where we'll see new gadgets aplenty from giant companies and tiny ones you've never heard of. And the not-so-secret secret of CES is that many of these things never make it to market -- but usually it isn't things companies like Samsung show off. But here we are, nearly six years since Samsung first showed off its Ballie personal robot and it is nowhere to be found.

When Samsung launched its Bixby digital assistant with the Galaxy S8, some basic features were missing, and they were slow to arrive. On top of that, Bixby was installed alongside the well-established Google Assistant, prompting questions as to whether it was really necessary to add another digital assistant to an already crowded market. Samsung may have realized Bixby's shortcomings as a digital assistant, but with Bixby 2.0 the Korean tech giant is hardly backing down. Bixby 2.0 is the lead element of Samsung's bid to build its own ecosystem of connected devices and services. The new Bixby strategy is vastly different from what came before it, which is why we've chosen to publish this article to accompany our original Bixby cheat sheet, which focuses more on its digital assistant features.

The last 12 months were filled with ground-breaking products. We saw in-display fingerprint sensors break into the mainstream, the world's first foldable displays in action, and crazy leaps in cameras and computational photography, all on devices small enough to fit in a bag (or a pocket). But among all the great things we got, there were a few things that didn't make it--products and features that were promised in 2018 but won't be arriving until 2019 (if at all): At this point AirPower is the stuff of legend. Announced alongside the iPhone X in 2017, it was supposed to be the first pad capable of charging three devices at once (namely an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods). In fact, the only indication that Apple is even working on it was an accidental mention in the quick start guide inside the iPhone box this year.

As it gears up to move into a new home (a Galaxy Home, to be specific), Bixby is far from ready. Samsung's digital assistant has become infamous for its tardiness, and even after showing up late to the AI party, Bixby doesn't have much to show for the extra time. It's not smarter than the rest and doesn't offer any new tricks, even in the recently announced Galaxy Home, other than perhaps better sound quality. As much as I'm excited about Samsung potentially giving Amazon, Google and Apple some competition in the smart speaker space, I'm pretty sure they have nothing to worry about, if my time with Bixby on the Note 9 is any indication. To be clear, Samsung still hasn't launched the Bixby-powered Galaxy Home speaker, and no one seems to have published an in-depth hands-on with it.

After more than a year of rumors and vague comments from Samsung leadership, the Galaxy Home, Samsung's Bixby-powered smart speaker, is finally official. Samsung briefly showed off the device at today's Galaxy Note 9 launch event in Brooklyn, but the company left us with more questions than answers. We don't know when it'll launch; how much it'll cost; what music services, if any, it supports besides Spotify; and, perhaps most importantly, what Bixby will be capable of when the Galaxy Home goes on sale. Like Apple did with the HomePod, Samsung is touting the Galaxy Home first and foremost as an excellent listening speaker, with multidirectional tweeters and a full subwoofer as well as some neat audio-optimization tricks. Spotify is Samsung's new streaming-music partner, which means you'll be able to control Spotify music playback with Bixby.

Samsung is wading into the smart-speaker market with an entirely new product called the Galaxy Home. The speaker has a large, rounded body and sits on a tripod -- a very different design from competing speakers offered by Amazon.com, Samsung announced a partnership with Spotify, which is the default music player for the Galaxy Home. The speaker will be able to pick up streams from a Galaxy phone and hand it off to the speaker. The company didn't say much about the Galaxy Home apart from acknowledging its existence, and promising more details will come at its developers conference in November.

Samsung has finally unveiled its own smart speaker in a bid to take on Amazon, Apple, and Google. At the firm's Unpacked event in Brooklyn, New York today, Samsung teased a look at its Galaxy Home speaker, equipped with the Bixby voice assistant. But, Samsung remained tight-lipped on most of the details. The firm hasn't yet revealed how much it will cost or when it will officially launch, but promised more information is to come at the developer conference in November. At the firm's Unpacked event in Brooklyn, New York today, Samsung teased a look at its sleek Galaxy Home speaker, equipped with the Bixby voice assistant.

Samsung's Bixby digital assistant is taking the next step in its challenge of Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple's Siri, and will soon be available in a high-end speaker with an integrated smart home hub. At the launch of its Galaxy Note 9 smartphone today in New York, Samsung said a Bixby speaker, called Galaxy Home, is on the way. The speaker will feature an integrated SmartThings hub, which will enable it to control the vast array of smart home devices in the SmartThings ecosystem. That should make it much more powerful than the Amazon Echo Plus, which is equipped with a ZigBee radio, but doesn't support the equally popular Z-Wave platform. We knew a smart speaker was coming from Samsung sometime this year, but not much else.

Samsung has been developing a speaker based on its own digital assistant, Bixby, for a while. During its Galaxy Note 9 event in New York City, the company finally revealed the Galaxy Home smart speaker, a clear rival to Apple's HomePod, the Google Home and Amazon's Echo line. The device, which features the rumored tripod design with a round body, is powered by Harman's AKG audio and was engineered to "make music sound amazing." Of course, since this is a smart speaker after all, you'll be able to use your voice to control it. Samsung says there are eight microphones built-in for far-field voice recognition, which will make it possible for it to hear your commands from long distances within your home or office.