Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow comes to the Galaxy Note 5 (SM-N920C)!

When it rains, it pours. That might not be completely applicable here, but Samsung has started rolling out Android 6.0.1 for the Galaxy Note 5, soon after it announced the global rollout of the update for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The update is currently out in Cambodia (for the SM-N920C) with build number N920CXXU2BPB6; it’s available via Samsung Smart Switch and through our firmware section, and it should be going out to devices over the air.

We gave our readers an exclusive look at Marshmallow running on the Galaxy Note 5, and the final update shouldn’t be any different. Expect new features like Doze, Google Now on Tap, a new Samsung browser with ad-blocking support, and a few other things in addition to various interface changes (including a new look for the status bar and notification area). Performance should see a small boost as well, though you’re unlikely to notice considering the Note 5 never was a slow device.

Head over to the Settings » About device » Software update menu to manually grab the update if it hasn’t already shown up on your Note 5. As always, it will be a staged rollout so not everyone will get the update at the same time. If you’re the impatient kind, the full firmware is also available from our firmware database.

Firmware Details:

Model	SM-N920C
Model name	GALAXY Note 5
Country	Cambodia
Version	Android 6.0.1
Changelist	110166628
Build date	Mon, 15 Feb 2016 06:40:05 +0000
Product code	CAM
PDA	N920CXXU2BPB6
CSC	N920COLB2BPB6

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Samsung and AT&T join forces to take you on a virtual cruise

Beaches and tropical breezes are as much a part of the cruising experience as sailing the open seas but unfortunately that gets a bit difficult during the winter months. Fear not though as Samsung and AT&T have joined forces to bring you the sun and fun on the high seas virtually. Starting tomorrow just walk into a select AT&T store and experience a fully immersive virtual reality cruise experience powered by the Gear VR.

The virtual cruise experience will be offered at 133 AT&T stores across 37 states in the US, allowing people to try out a unique experience on the Gear VR headset. The full list of participating stores is available here. Visitors simply put on the headset to be surrounded by the sights and sounds of a relaxing cruise vacation. The VR experience has been exclusively developed for this purpose by Carnival Corporation and its 10 global cruise line brands.

Store visitors will also be able to enter a content to win one of 10 seven-day cruises on Carnival Corporation’s Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line brands by trying out the virtual reality experience and signing up via an in-store tablet or by visiting www.vrcruisewlcl.com. The contest is open from tomorrow until March 11.

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Gear S2 classic 3G will be released in the US on March 11

Earlier today Samsung announced that it’s going to launch a cellular version of the Gear S2 smartwatch soon and that it will feature the world’s first eSIM for wearable devices. It has now confirmed that the Gear S2 classic 3G will be available in black from major wireless networks in the United States. Users will be able to make calls, send texts and emails as well as receive notifications on their smartwatch even when they’re not paired to a phone.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile will be offering this smartwatch to their customers and they will individually confirm pricing and availability for the Gear S2 classic 3G on their networks. Aside from the ability to make calls right from their wrist customers will also get all of the features that come part and parcel of the Gear S2 such as its unique rotating bezel design. The Gear S2 classic 3G will be available from select major carriers in the United States starting March 11, 2016.

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The Galaxy Tab E 8.0 is now available from Verizon

Verizon has launched the Galaxy Tab E 8.0 for its customers today. It’s positioning the tablet towards customers who might want one for the whole family, pointing out the fact that the tablet has features like Multi-User mode that enables separate logins and allows each user to save settings and keep information private.

The Galaxy Tab E 8.0 has an 8-inch WXGA 1280×800 pixel resolution screen, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 16GB internal storage with microSD card support, 5-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front camera as well as a 5000mAh battery. The tablet is powered by Android Lollipop. Customers can pick up the Galaxy Tab E 8.0 from Verizon for $249.99 or for $10.41 per month for 24 months on Verizon’s installment plan. The tablet can also be purchased on Verizon with a new two-year contract for $149.99.

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Samsung will use hybrid-glass with upcoming foldable OLED panels

A new report mentions that Samsung is looking to upgrade its foldable OLED tech by teaming up with a company called Solip Technology. This could blossom into a strategic partnership as Samsung might bank heavily on the materials offered by Solip for their future foldable OLED panels. Solip markets its foldable glass panel as “Hybrimer”, a mix of hybrid-polymer. This material is said to be significantly more durable than Corning’s foldable Willow Glass and offerings from other glass manufacturers such as Sumitomo and Gunje.

While foldable display tech has been shown off by a multitude of manufacturers before, Samsung is perhaps the closest to bring it to fruition. We’ve seen prototypes for a couple of years now and should see a commercial release sometime this year. It was initially predicted that the company’s first foldable display phone would arrive in 2015, but that didn’t happen. So we’re hoping against hope that 2016 is the year we get to see Samsung’s first foldable display handset.

In late 2014, Samsung showed off a 5.5 inch foldable display panel and a 10 inch tri-fold AMOLED display, which are likely candidates to be running on Samsung’s first foldable display products.

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Themes Thursday: 15 new themes this week, but hardly any are worth a gander

It’s Thursday, which means that it’s time for another exciting edition of our weekly Themes Thursday segment. This week, fifteen new themes found their way onto the Store. Unfortunately, they’re not all worth of your attention as, sadly, the majority are priced too high and are a bit over-the-top.

If I had to choose my favourite new theme in today’s column, it would be Strix. Although it’s priced at $1.99, the skin features a gorgeous set of spherical icons, mused with a unique Material Design-inspired backdrop that’s guaranteed to give your smartphone a whole new lease of life.

Check out all of the new themes below:

Vanilla Sunrise

Strix

The Colorful Background

PutiUI

Neon Doughnut

Valentine’s Choco Theme

Flower Hydrangea

Love Is All Around

Heart Beat

Snoopy

Flower Girl – Pink

Vintage Theme

New Year’s Whisper

Green Light

Future Galaxy (Live)

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Silver Galaxy S7 render leaks, bottom of Galaxy S7 edge pictured

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge seem to be making live camera appearances everywhere, as new photos of the devices have leaked online. Thanks to the Galaxy S7 edge picture, we’re getting a direct look at the bottom of the phone. The setup remains the same as the Galaxy S6 lineup – headphone jack, microUSB port, primary microphone and the loudspeaker, in that order. If there was any doubt about the Galaxy S7 not featuring a USB Type-C port, this should clear things up.

We’re also getting our first look today at the silver variant of the regular Galaxy S7. We had seen the silver Galaxy S7 edge earlier, and frankly that edition looked rather attractive. The flat S7 doesn’t look as great, but the lack of those curves at either side of the display are probably the reason a little charm was lost. The S7 edge renders also made the silver look somewhat greyish, but the Galaxy S7 render confirms silver as the color variant other than black and gold (a white option was expected as well, but it hasn’t made an appearance yet).

Check out the images below. There’s one of the black Galaxy S7 edge from the front as well, but at this point it doesn’t really offer any surprises.

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Telus releases its Marshmallow update plan for Samsung’s flagship smartphones

Telus, the second-largest cellular operator in Canada, has today announced that it’s planning to roll out the much-anticipated Marshmallow update to its carrier-branded variants of the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 on March 9, followed closely by the Galaxy S6 edge on March 16 and, trailing up rear, the Galaxy S6 on April 13.

This news comes just three weeks after Samsung begun distributing an identical update for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge globally following a brief beta testing program in which registered users trialled a pre-release version of the Android 6.0.1 firmware in order to uncover any bugs that might be present in the OS.

 

 

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Samsung takes up residence next to an Apple Store in Barcelona ahead of Galaxy S7 launch

Samsung’s next flagship will be going official in Barcelona, and it looks like the company wants everyone in the city to know. Well, everyone who happens to be passing by the Apple Store located in the heart of Barcelona, where Samsung has taken up residence with a huge board of glass with its logo on top. We’re not sure if this is an actual Samsung store or just an advertising thing for the Unpacked event, but it’s surely an interesting move so close to the launch of the Galaxy S7.

Last year saw Samsung making a lot of Apple-like moves with its flagships, like moving to a premium design and taking away major features like expandable storage. It certainly didn’t help with sales as much as the company might have hoped, but the Galaxy S7 looks poised to change things up. It keeps the premium design, top-of-the-line specs, and brings back stuff like a microSD slot, large batteries and water-resistance. A complete package in short, and getting some marketing done next to an Apple store can’t really harm the Galaxy S7′s prospects.

Well that's fun. Samsung set up shop right outside the Apple Store in Barcelona. #MWC16 http://pic.twitter.com/21YJlbszH3

— Aloysius Low (@longadin) February 18, 2016

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Samsung launches Gear S2 classic 3G with programmable eSIM for wearables

Samsung has announced that it will soon be launching a 3G/cellular version of the Gear S2 classic with the world’s first eSIM for wearable devices. In 2014, the Apple iPad Air 2 became the first mainstream mobile device to offer a SIM that could be programmed to work with different carriers without the need to change between actual SIM cards, and the Gear S2 classic is the world’s first device to offer the wearable version of the same technology.

The eSIM on the Gear S2 classic is compliant with the GSMA’s eSIM specification, and Samsung is among many major manufacturers out there that support the specification. For a smartwatch an eSIM makes a lot of sense – even if you have a nano SIM slot, changing SIMs on a smartwatch would be far from a convenient process. Unfortunately, the eSIM is not supported by most carriers around the world at this point, so for now the Gear S2 classic 3G will be limited to a very few countries (mainly the US and a few European markets, like the UK).

When the Gear S2 was unveiled, Samsung had only revealed a cellular variant of the regular model, and we guess we now know why the company held back the cellular version of the Gear S2 classic. The Gear S2 classic 3G will be available starting March; Samsung isn’t saying where the watch will be made available, and neither is there a word on pricing.

Check out our review of the Gear S2 (a video review can be found here), and let us know what you think about the new eSIM variant that will be launching next month!

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Samsung takes us back to its history of innovations in a new video

Samsung has decided to take a trip down memory lane in order to give us a brief glimpse of what it has achieved in the mobile industry so far. In a new video titled “Unpacking History”, the company shows us how its first mobile device came to existence. The video ends with Samsung’s dual edge display-toting Galaxy S6 edge, which eventually finds itself inside a Gear VR headset, thus rounding off what we’ve seen from Samsung in the recent past.

The video is just 1:30 in duration, but it tells us a lot about what the Korean manufacturer has achieved over the last two decades or so. The company ends the video with the words “Who knows where progress will take us”, which is a positive assessment of what’s to come in the future. There’s some buzz about the Galaxy S7 right now, which makes the timing of this video near perfect.

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Does this confirm an always-on display for the Galaxy S7?

A tip from one of our loyal readers has partly confirmed the existence of an always-on display on the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. Samsung’s Theme Store apparently has a new theme called “Cuzco”. In one of the theme screenshots, we can see something that is very similar to an always-on display, with the background being black and the notifications displayed in white. Now this doesn’t outright confirm the existence of the feature, but it’s enough to go with, especially since we’re just a few days away from the big unveiling.

This also hints that the feature might not be hardware dependent, indicating that older Galaxy flagships might also get it, perhaps with a software update. Of course, it’s likely that we’re reading too much into it, so take this with a pinch of salt for the time being. Samsung filed a patent for an always-on display last week. Further, a rumor from yesterday suggested that the Galaxy S7 might have an always-on display, which makes this particular revelation that much more interesting.

Thanks for the tip Diego!

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