Samsung to showcase experimental C-Lab projects at SXSW 2016

Samsung showcased three Creative Lab (C-Lab) projects for the first time ever earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016. C-Lab is the company’s innovation program that allows its employees to develop their own business ideas. Samsung has announced today that it’s going to showcase three experimental C-Lab projects at South by Southwest 2016. The latest trio of projects includes an app which transcribes hummed melodies into musical scores, a social media platform for collaborative content creation and a virtual reality accessory that enables users to feel the movements of on-screen action.

Hum On! is the app that allows just about everyone to score, arrange and share hummed melodies in just a few minutes. Waffle is the social media platform that enables collaborative content creation, allowing users to add their own perspective to someone else’s content and vice versa. VR accessory Entrim 4D uses a combination of algorithms and Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) to synchronize the user’s body with changing movements in the video. All three C-Lab projects will be showcased at Stand 1710 in Exhibit Hall 2 of the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas from March 13 to March 16.

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Best Buy Canada discounts the Gear VR for customers who missed out on the pre-order incentive

Samsung enticed customers to place a pre-order for the Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy S7 edge by promising to give them a free Gear VR headset as a pre-order incentive. Any customer who placed a pre-order before March 11 was eligible to receive a free headset. Best Buy Canada is running a promotion for customers who missed out on this pre-order incentive. It’s discounting the Gear VR by $40 for customers who buy and activate the Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy S7 edge at Best Buy.

Customers can also get an additional $50 off that be used as a discount on the purchase of any of the new flagships if they trade-in their existing device. Combine the two discounts together and customers get $90 off, which is what the Gear VR costs at Best Buy Canada, so if they play their cards right customers can still get the Gear VR for free essentially. Just bear in mind that the handset has to be activated at Best Buy on either Telus, Bell or Rogers and that signing up for a new two-year plan on the carrier is required. This promotion is only valid at select Best Buy Canada stores for a limited time.

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The Galaxy View is now available from Verizon

It has been a few months since Samsung came out with the Galaxy View. Even though it looks like a giant tablet with an 18.4-inch display Samsung actually wants you to call it a movable display instead of a tablet. Customers in the United States can easily pick one up from Amazon but there’s another option available for them now. Verizon has started selling the Galaxy View, the cellular version to be precise which is compatible with Big Red’s 4G LTE network.

The Galaxy View is powered by a 1.6GHz octa-core processor, it features 64GB of internal storage with microSD card support, promises 8 hours of battery life and runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Its biggest selling point is the 18.4-inch full HD display coupled with stereo speakers which make the Galaxy View a compelling device if customers want to primarily stream content on it. Customers can pick up the Galaxy View from Verizon for $24.99 per month for 24 months. It’s also available with a new two-year contract for $399.99.

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Samsung might use advanced laser technology to monitor health vitals in future devices

The US Patent & Trademark Office has published a patent application from Samsung which reveals that future mobile devices from the company might use advanced laser speckle interferometric technology to monitor health vitals of the user such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow velocity, pulse rate and skin conditions. The patent mentions that this technology can be used in future smartphones, tablets and even wearable devices.

Samsung explains in the patent that this works by emitting a laser beam from the light source which is then scattered on the user’s skin surface. A speckle pattern is formed by scattering of coherent light that a detector detects and records. Pulsation in arteries causes a skin movement that affects the detected speckle pattern. The technology can then be used for the measurement of vital signs like heart rate and blood pressure. Samsung filed for this patent in September last year. Since it’s a patent application one can’t be sure if the technology will really make its way into future devices, the possibility always exists even if there’s no evidence to show that the patented technology might be brought to market in the near future.

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Samsung rolls out stability update for the Exynos-powered Galaxy S7 edge

Samsung has just started rolling out an over-the-air (OTA) stability update to all unlocked variants of the Exynos-powered Galaxy S7 edge located in Europe. The firmware doesn’t bring anything new to the table by way of added functionality, but it does bundle a plethora of much-needed bug fixes, stability improvements and speed optimizations, which are all geared at improving a user’s overall experience.

Firmware Details:

Model	SM-G935F
Model name	Galaxy S7 edge
Country	Unknown
Version	Android 6.0.1
Changelist	110166628
Build date	Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:41:29 +0000
Product code	ALE
PDA	G935FXXU1APB4
CSC	G935FUUB1APB6

If you haven’t received the upgrade yet, own a Galaxy S7 edge with the model number SM-G935F, and would like to manually flash it onto your handset, you can download the software package by heading over to our dedicated firmware page.

Stability update arriving on the Galaxy S7 edge. 

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Galaxy S7 edge gets the teardown treatment

Hot on the heels of its standard Galaxy S7 teardown, the folks over at iFixit have now published its deconstruction guide for the curved variant of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7 edge. Just like its non-rounded counterpart, the S7 edge earns a rather meagre repairability score of just 3 out of 10, with 0 being the most difficult to fix. The team claims that the reason behind the scanty rating is due to convenience. For a broken USB to be replaced, the entire display has to be lifted from the frame, which is a tedious task owing to an abundance of small parts, screws and waterproofing adhesive.

Check out the teardown images below:

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I think I want the IR blaster back on Samsung devices

If you have never used an IR blaster on a smartphone, you might often be shocked and wonder why so many folks love the feature and don’t want a device without one. Samsung flagships started offering an IR blaster a couple of years ago, but the company dropped it with the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ last year and it is also missing on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.

Our recent poll asking our readers what they think shouldn’t be missing from the S7 lineup saw the IR blaster coming out on top. I was never a fan of using IR blasters on phones or using phones as remote controllers as a substitute for traditional remotes, as you always need to be looking at the phone’s display in order to control another device. With a traditional remote you simply get used to pressing all the right buttons without ever looking at the remote, and it’s a major reason why I never had any love for these so-called IR blasters.

Well, until this weekend when I had to turn to my girlfriend’s LG G4 to be able to operate my newly installed air conditioner.

We shifted to a new house last year, and with summer fast approaching here in India (the afternoons are already reaching 41C), I decided to get my old air conditioner (it’s a Samsung) installed. It turns out we had misplaced the conditioner’s remote in all the havoc that is caused when you shift homes. I ordered a new remote, but the installation guys needed a remote to test the air conditioner to make sure it ran fine. That presented a problem, but it soon clicked that the LG G4 and its IR blaster could come to the rescue.

A search for an IR app on the Play Store and a few seconds of downloading later, the problem was solved. There are quite a few apps on the Play Store that will let you control a slew of remote-controlled appliances, and it made me realize how the IR blaster can be a lifesaver when you misplace a remote. For someone who sticks to regular remotes to control appliances, it was a great example of why there is a consistent outcry against the absence of an IR blaster on Samsung’s flagships.

That the IR blaster won our poll was surprisingly shocking for me back then as I couldn’t wrap my head around why it could be such an important part of a smartphone, but I guess I got my answer when the same feature came to my rescue in this near sweltering heat. My use case might not be one that will present itself too often, but I sure wouldn’t mind having an IR blaster on my Samsung phones just in case.

Hey Samsung, how about bringing it back?

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Goldgenie launches 24K Gold Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge

Luxury gold plating specialist Goldgenie has unveiled its incredibly-opulent 24K Gold versions of the recently-released Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. These handsets have been coated in the precious metal utilizing the same technique the company used for its lavish Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The device’s frame, buttons, camera module, flash and backplate have all received the gold treatment, leaving only the glass at the front in its original black colorway.

Goldgenie’s 24K Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge are available to purchase today through its official website. The former will set you back around $1500, while the latter will cost you somewhere in the region of an eye-watering $1600. You do, however, get free shipping complete with insurance up to the price of the package, which is always an added bonus when you’re spending such a large amount of money on a premium product as you have peace of mind that if something does happen to the unit in transport, you’re fully covered.

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Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge owners can get a free $30 gift card for making a purchase using Samsung Pay

If you’ve bagged yourself a gorgeous new Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, live in the United States and have never used Samsung Pay before, you may want to listen up as we have some fantastic news for you. Samsung recently announced that it will be awarding all new users of its mobile payment platform who own either of the two aforementioned flagships a complimentary $30 gift card to be redeemed at Best Buy, eBay, Nike Store, Regal Cinema or Whole Foods Market when they make their first purchase using the service up until Thursday, March 31.

Sadly, all private-label and Bank of America debit cards are excluded from this promotion, which is certainly a decision that won’t be favored by many seeing as BoA is the second-largest bank operating in the United States. However, Wells Fargo customers will be glad to hear that they can at last take advantage of one of Samsung’s fantastic deals.

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