Android News

Samsung Electronics and KT today announced the pilot service launching of Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT, CAT-NB1). The service launch is targeted at friendly-users in Seoul and its metropolitan areas over a two-month period, with the aim of extending diverse service models and coverage in near future.   The NB-IoT technology is designed to meet the demands for use cases that require low throughput and battery use owing to its main feature, the narrow bandwidth of 180KHz. With its low-power consumption and cost-effective device, NB-IoT is applicable to diverse service models for individual and industry automation, such as utility metering, smart factory, cargo tracking and location tracking of children and goods. KT will initiate its first NB-IoT pilot service with the location tracking service and further expand on its use cases to diverse business applications.   Samsung has deployed its latest NB-IoT technology to existing LTE radio base stations and rolled out its virtu

  As part of a joint partnership between Samsung Electronics and the AmirKabir University of Technology (AUT) in Iran, the Samsung-AUT Tech Center was recently opened to support technology research and innovative projects, in addition to boosting education and employment prospects for students.   Operating under the Samsung Corporate Citizenship series of programs, the center’s primary focus is on mobile application development within the health, environment and energy, education, and employment sectors. As part of its efforts, the center will provide logistical and technical support, as well as facilitate the development, production, and introduction of innovative and useful applications.   At the center, young people will also receive support in the form of training, mentorship and equipment, with the aim that they use this support to create their own projects that will help them to become more employable in the future. In addition, with research and development another major a

Ever since Samsung released Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge, all eyes have been on carriers in the United States to follow through. Carriers tend to hold up updates for a few weeks as they make their own tweaks and often add some bloatware. The firmware has since been released for other Samsung devices as well. Today, we have some good news for Verizon customers. Big Red has now released Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge. It’s now rolling out software version G920VVRS4DQD1 and G925VVRS4DQD1 for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge respectively. They’re quite chunky because of the simple fact that they are major Android version updates that bump up the core OS to Nougat, the latest iteration of Android from Google. If you’re unclear about What’s New with Nougat , the latest update brings a handful of new features such as a blue light filter, the ability to adjust screen resolution, simpler device maintenance, Video Enhancer and

Samsung today confirmed that the Galaxy S8 is now its best smartphone launch ever as pre-orders for the new flagship outpaced pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 by 30 percent. It’s an amazing result for Samsung given that this is the first flagship smartphone it has launched since the disaster it suffered because of the Galaxy Note 7 last year. Samsung Electronics America president and chief operating officer Tim Baxter says that the company has recommitted itself to innovate with new products and services. He points out that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are a result of that recommitment and that the market has responded by enabling an over 30 percent year-over-year growth in pre-orders versus record pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 last year. The reddish tint issue that some Galaxy S8 owners have been facing was addressed in today’s statement as well. Samsung has reconfirmed that it’s soon going to release a software update that going to take care of the issue once and for all.

The Galaxy S8 is Samsung’s first flagship smartphone to sport on-screen buttons. However, instead of opting for the stock Android arrangement (Back, Home and Recents), the company kept its traditional order —  Recents, Home and Back. Fortunately, as they aren’t physical buttons, you can switch the order of them. Here’s how: Head into  Settings . Hit Display . Select  Navigation Bar . Press  Button Layout . Choose  Back – Home – Recents . Pretty simple, right? If, for whatever reason, following the aforementioned steps doesn’t go quite according to plan, feel free to reach out to us in the comments section below (or over on Facebook and Twitter ) and we’ll do our best to get you back on track. Otherwise, be sure to check out our other Galaxy S8 tips and tricks .

We publish  a lot  of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a  daily recap . Here’s what we went live today. Deals Daily Deal: Take 26% off a 32GB EVO Plus microSD card Firmware News Original and refurbished Galaxy Note 7 both receive Wi-Fi certification on Android 7.0 Nougat Rogers to start rolling out Nougat update for Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge next month T-Mobile Galaxy Note 5 Android 7.0 update coming soon General Sennheiser partners with Samsung to make smart headsets for Android devices Phones Bixby Vision is crippled on Verizon’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ Galaxy J3 (2017) specifications surface online Galaxy S8 iris scanner may soon be used for financial transactions Galaxy S8 reddish tint on screen not a ‘controversial issue’ Galaxy S8+ likely to account for

Running low on storage on your smartphone? Well, you’ll probably be pleased to hear that Amazon has cut the price of the 32GB EVO Plus microSD card by 26 percent — so you can pick one up for a mere $16.99. That’s not a bad price to pay for a memory card that’s not only waterproof, but also resistant to heat and X-rays. If you like the sound of the 32GB EVO microSD card and want to bag yourself one, hit the Buy Now button below. As we say time and time again, you’ll need to be quick though, as Amazon only has a limited amount of inventory. Also, seeing as this promotion is available worldwide, stock will likely fly off the shelves. Happy buying!

Samsung Electronics Italia earlier this month launched Samsung Wemogee, the first emoji-based chat application designed to enable people with aphasia and other language disorders to more effectively express their ideas and emotions with the people they love. Currently, there are more than three million people worldwide living with aphasia, a disorder that causes the loss of language capabilities. Aphasia is often the result of an injury to the parts of the brain that are responsible for speaking, reading, writing and understanding others.   Given the fact that language is the most important tool to communicate, aphasia can have negative effects on one’s social relationships and often takes a toll on one’s emotions.  But recent studies show that emojis, which are predicted to become a universal visual language of the future, can help people with language disorders like aphasia better express themselves.   Developed in collaboration with a team of speech therapists, Samsung Wemogee

The European TV market declined in the first half of 2017, but Samsung is confident that its business would improve in the second half of the year. The South Korean TV giant sees potential for its QLED and Frame TVs, thanks to 4K resolution, better picture quality, and improved HDR capabilities. The company plans to target premium customers in the European market. The company also feels that the competition between the picture quality of OLED and QLED technologies is now obsolete as consumers not just want the picture quality but a better overall package. Michael Zoller, the head of Samsung’s TV business in Europe, said, “ We have no soccer championship this year, so the first half will be weaker than last year for the whole European market, but Samsung can be better in the second half, ” in an interview with The Korea Herald . He didn’t disclosing any numbers, but he was confident that Samsung could capture a majority of customers in Europe’s premium TV market (TVs priced above $1500

Samsung discontinued the original Galaxy Note 7 last year and after months of rumors that it would launch a refurbished version, the company confirmed last month that the refurbished Galaxy Note 7 is going to be sold in select markets . Samsung is yet to confirm the markets where the refurbished Galaxy Note 7 will be offered, whether it’s going to be sold under a different moniker, if it’s going to have a smaller battery and how much it’s going to cost. The refurbished Galaxy Note 7 bears model number SM-N935S and it’s not at all surprising to see it receive its Wi-Fi certification on Android 7.0 Nougat. The letter “S” denotes that this variant is likely meant for South Korea. However, what’s interesting to note is that the original Galaxy Note 7 with model number SM-N930F has also received the same certification. Bear in mind that this is a discontinued device and it would obviously be a pointless exercise to prepare a major update for a handset that has been taken off of the

Samsung recently was named the most admired brand in Africa by Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands , an annual survey of the Top 100 brands in Africa, in recognition of the company’s wide variety of citizenship programmes across the continent.     In addition to clinching the top position on the 2016/17 Brand Africa 100 rankings, Samsung also grew its brand value by 13 percent, making it the top brand in eight different countries.     A Focus on Improving Education As a global corporate citizen, Samsung aims to create positive change for people in communities across the world and in Africa specifically, the company’s primary Citizenship efforts have focused on education. Since 2011, Samsung has been on a mission to provide education solutions in the country, including the development of Smart Schools, eLearning Centres and Digital Libraries in rural areas across the continent, so that a greater number of children are able to access the digital technology needed to gain an

We already know that it’s only a matter of time before Samsung launches the refreshed Galaxy J series. We’ve been hearing reports and rumors about the Galaxy J (2017) series devices and even saw some leaked photos of the Galaxy J5 (2017) recently. Additional specifications of the Galaxy J3 (2017) have now surfaced online. A benchmark listing reveals that the Galaxy J3 (2017) bearing model number SM-J330 is going to be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 7570 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The Galaxy J3 (2017) will feature a 5-inch 1280 x 720 pixel resolution display, a 5-megapixel front and 12-megapixel rear camera as well as the Mali-T720 graphics processor. Previous reports have already suggested that the Galaxy J3 (2017) will be running Android 7.0 Nougat when it arrives . The benchmark listing reiterates that the latest version of Google’s mobile OS will be available on the handset straight out of the box. Samsung is yet to confirm when it’s going to launch

It has only been a few days since the Galaxy S8 was released and a new report out of South Korea is now telling us that Samsung and Qualcomm have already started working on a new mobile processor for the company’s next flagship smartphone. The next flagship will presumably be called the Galaxy S9. Given that the chip inside the existing flagship is called the Snapdragon 835 , it’s likely that the Galaxy S9′s processor is going to be called Snapdragon 845. It’s said that when the development is completed either Samsung or Taiwan’s TSMC will mass produce the processor. The Snapdragon 835 is manufactured by Samsung on its 10nm process. It promises 27 percent improvement in performance and 30 percent in energy efficiency compared to processors based on the 14nm process. The Snapdragon 845 will obviously offer more performance and efficiency gains but it’s too soon to speculate on the numbers right now. Samsung recently unveiled its second-generation 10nm process which promises a furt

Every Galaxy S8 that flies off the production line costs Samsung an eye-watering $307.50, which includes the price of materials and manufacturing, reveals an estimate released by renowned analytics firm IHS Markit on Thursday, April 20. For comparison, that’s $82.70 more than the iPhone 7 and $52.40 more than its predecessor, the Galaxy S7 . It’s hardly difficult to see why the Galaxy S8 (no figures were provided for the Galaxy S8+ ) is an expensive device to manufacture. At the end of the day, a quality product rarely comes cheap — and this is a prime example. The handset’s innovative design, gorgeous display and beefy internals all bump up the basic manufacturing costs and bill of materials quite considerably. Via Source

Even though there are some variants of Samsung’s previous generation flagship smartphones that are yet to receive the Nougat update, Cricket has announced the Galaxy Amp Prime 2, a new cheap phone running Android 7.0 out of the box. The smartphone is a successor to last year’s Galaxy Amp Prime, and a rebranded version of Sprint’s Galaxy J3 Emerge that was launched earlier this year. It is available from Cricket for $149.99 with activation. The Galaxy Amp Prime 2 features a 5-inch HD display (probably LCD), a 5-megapixel primary camera with HD video recording, and a 2-megapixel secondary camera. It is equipped with a 1.35GHz quad-core processor (probably a Snapdragon 430 chipset), 1.5GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot. It features 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and microUSB port for connectivity, and comes packed with a 2,600 mAh battery. Via Source 1 Source 2

A new report out of South Korea predicts that the 6.2-inch Galaxy S8+ is going to account for more than 50 percent of combined sales for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ . The model with the larger display is expected to sell better compared to its 5.8-inch sibling. Yuanta Securities Korea Co. released a new report today predicting that the annual combined sales of the Galaxy S8 are going to hit 50.4 million units with the Galaxy S8+ accounting for 27.1 million units or 53.9 percent of all sales. Industry analysts predict that this will be due to the rising demand for larger screens as users prefer those for consuming multimedia content and mobile gaming. Customer preference has sided with models that have larger displays for the previous Galaxy flagships as well. The edge models of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 both had larger displays and outsold their smaller siblings. Increased sales of the larger model are beneficial for Samsung as the higher margins on these devices will lead to inc

Shortly after Samsung rolled out an upgrade to  patch an exploit that enabled users to remap the function of the Bixby button on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, another workaround has surfaced. Once again, it’s in the form of an application — but there’s a caveat. At present, it can only be used to remap the button to open Google Now. It’s thought that, providing the interest is there, the developer will spruce up the application’s design and add more functionality in the coming weeks. It’s already proving to be a hit over on reddit , where fellow Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners are both singing its praises and providing feedback for its creator to take on board for the next version. Play Store Download Link

It has been a while since the Galaxy Note 5 started receiving the Android 7.0 Nougat update . Even major carriers in the United States have rolled it out. T-Mobile’s rivals AT&T, Sprint and Verizon have all released Nougat for the Galaxy Note 5. T-Mobile subscribers have no reason to be concerned. The carrier has now confirmed that it will soon release the Android 7.0 Nougat update for the Galaxy Note 5. T-Mobile’s @AskDes confirmed via Twitter that the carrier has received approval of the Android 7.0 Nougat software update for the Galaxy Note 5. He also mentioned that the carrier’s customers should start seeing it on their devices early next week. Magenta subscribers will surely be happy that they will finally be able to get a taste of the latest and greatest version of Android not too long after all of T-Mobile’s rivals in the United States have already released it for their customers. Check out the video embedded down below to find out all that’s new with Nougat for the Gal