Samsung’s next Gear smartwatch to feature mobile payments

As per a report published in Korea today Samsung is going to release a new Gear smartwatch in the second half of this year which is going to have the mobile payments feature. The company has not launched a new smartwatch in quite some time now, it was believed that one would be unveiled at MWC 2015 but Samsung decided against it because it wants to launch the “perfect smartwatch,” so it’s taking its time. Samsung’s next Gear smartwatch is the Orbis, which will have a round watch face, a metal crown and a metal frame with a 1.18-inch circular display.

The report in today’s Electronic Times newspaper says that Samsung is going to make use of NFC or Near Field Communication to enable mobile payments on the smartwatch, it’s the very same technology used by Apple to support mobile payments on the Apple Watch. Samsung has already confirmed that its payments service, Samsung Pay, is going to be launched in September in the United States and South Korea. It’s unclear right now if the smartwatch will be unveiled at IFA 2015, where Samsung is expected to make the formal announcement regarding Samsung Pay’s launch.

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S Pen auto-eject feature reportedly making its way to the Galaxy Note 5

Samsung isn’t due to unveil the Galaxy Note 5 before September this year but already there are countless rumors and reports about what to expect from Samsung’s latest flagship phablet. Some believe that it may also get dual curved displays, while others think that design will more or less remain the same and that Samsung is going to upgrade the internals. A report also suggests that the next Galaxy Note handset could some with an auto-eject S Pen, which basically means that users won’t have to pull the stylus out, the handset is going to push it out on its own.

This technology has actually been patented already by Samsung, the patent reveals that this technology uses magnets to achieve the desired result. There’s a magnet inside the S Pen and one magnet inside the device, the magnets will snap firmly when the stylus is inside the device. Making it throw out the S Pen on its own would be simple enough, just reverse the polarization on those magnets and make the device pop up the S Pen on its own.

This leaves the question of how polarization is going to work, Samsung may tie the auto-eject feature of the S Pen to a certain voice command or perhaps there will be a button or a gesture drawn on the display that’s going to bring out the stylus. Samsung has obviously not confirmed anything regarding the features we can expect from the Galaxy Note 5, we’ll only know for sure once Samsung formally unveils this smartphone later this year in September.

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Samsung patent hints at foldable display for future Galaxy Note handsets

It goes without saying that Samsung is working very hard to differentiate its high-end products in the market and take the battle to the likes of Apple, the iPhone-maker continues to perform spectacularly in the smartphone market and obviously Samsung wants to counter it. A new Samsung patent has surfaced which hints at the possibility of a foldable display and form factor for future Galaxy Note handsets, it would be a change that would certainly set that Galaxy Note handset apart from the rest.

This is certainly not the first time we’re hearing about such a project. Just a week back we exclusively reported that Samsung is working on a new smartphone codenamed Project Valley, even though it’s in early stages of development we’re able to reveal that it has dual screens and will support multiple gestures for switching between the two screens. The fact that it’s called Project Valley suggests that it could be a foldable device.

There has been talk of foldable displays before from Samsung, with vice president of business strategic team at Samsung Display Lee Chang-hoon saying back in late 2014 that the company will be able to “supply products with foldable displays” by either the end of 2015 or the start of 2016. An illustration in the patent shows how the dual display handset will be able to open in close in different configuration courtesy of an advanced hinge that Samsung has designed, it also reveals that the company may use this design and form factor in tablets as well. Obviously it’s too soon to say at this point in time if this major change for Samsung’s flagship phablet lineup is going to be introduced with the Galaxy Note 5, which is due this September, nevertheless whenever Samsung decides to bring this technology to market it would certainly be quite ahead of its competitors.

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Club Samsung bites the dust in July

Samsung hasn’t always seen success with homegrown software services and it has had to shut quite a few of them down, Club Samsung is going to join that list next month. This service was initially launched back in 2013 with the Galaxy Grand 2, the company tried to position this service towards users in India by offering TV shows, videos and movies. It was actually quite similar to Samsung Hub, though Club Samsung’s main focus was the Indian consumer as it promised content from more than 90 TV channels in various Indian languages.

Usage of Club Samsung remained low for a couple of reasons, it was only really meant for users in one particular country and even the content wasn’t regularly updated. This led to low usage and ultimately just stopped making sense for Samsung to keep this service around for any longer. The company has sent out notifications to all Club Samsung users informing them that the service is going to be shut down from July 10, 2015. Before the service is shut down existing users will be able to download their playlist, favorites and purchased content, and the company assures users that all their personal information will be treated in accordance with Samsung’s privacy policy.

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