Magnetic beetles and smart speakers? What on Earth is Samsung ‘Magbee’?

• Samsung trademark filing emerges for "Magbee" name.
• The trademark covers a whole host of products, including potentially Samsung's upcoming Bixby smart speaker.
• Bizarrely, a Magbee logo and evidence of a "magnetic beetle" speaker dial has also come to light.

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Samsung has filed for a mysterious new trademark — "Magbee" — which it may eventually use to bring all of its connected gadgets under one brand.

Word of the oddly-named brand comes from an application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The pending application was submitted just over a week ago on July 16 for use in the U.S. and comes just days after a separate trademark application emerged for use in Europe.

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Weirdly enough, the name and a beetle logo (below) first appeared in a trademark document back in December last year for a speaker accessory with a very strange tagline: "Magnetic Beetle, A Sleek Wireless Dial Wheel."

As noted by the folks over at SamMobile, there will be plenty of speculation that the insect-inspired name of Samsung's long-awaited Bixby smart speaker which is expected to launch next month alongside the Galaxy Note 9.

The Samsung AI speaker may be named "MAGBEE" and Samsung has registered a trademark in Europe. pic.twitter.com/Orq2oF9QCa

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) July 20, 2018

You'd be forgiven for thinking this is definitely the case as under the latest filing's Goods and Services tab there's a clear reference to "audio speakers," which corresponds to the now-unavailable filing from last year.

The thing is, the UPSTO filing lists pretty much every possible type of mobile- or smart home-related technology, including smartphones, smartwatches, VR headsets, routers, chargers, cameras, tablets, headphones, and much, much more.

USPTO

Confused? So are we.

Assuming Samsung's application is successful, we might see the Magbee brand rolled out at either the Galaxy Note 9 launch event on August 9 or at a pre-IFA 2018 conference in Berlin later that same month.

Considering Samsung has made no secret of its desire to expand into and dominate the connected home market with "conversable" digital assistant technology, it would make sense for the South Korean firm to dream up an umbrella brand for its smart, AI-powered products, including perhaps the Bixby smart speaker.

We'll have to wait and see to be sure, but for now be sure to share your thoughts and theories on the Magbee name and the idea of a "magnetic beetle" speaker dial in the comments.

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