Samsung’s Music app now available through the Play Store

Samsung has unbundled yet another native app and listed it on the Google Play Store. Samsung’s Music app is now available from the Play Store in beta. This makes it easier for the company to roll out updates to individual apps without having to push new software updates. It’s like any other music app aside from the fact that it’s “optimized” for Samsung’s Android devices.

The app supports playback for multiple sound formats like MP3, FLAC, AAC and WMA. It allows users to sort song lists by categories which include Genre, Folder, Composer, Album, Track and Artist. The user interface feels familiar and is in line with Samsung’s design aesthetic. The changelog mentions that this is a “beta test version,” which means that updates are going to arrive in the near future, it’s only compatible with devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. If you happen to have one you can download Samsung Music from the Google Play Store for free.

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Wallpaper Wednesday: Monochrome

Welcome to the latest edition of Wallpaper Wednesday. This week we’re focusing our attention on five fantastic monochrome backgrounds. All images are available in a QHD resolution, which is a perfect fit for the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy Note 5 and other flagships, but they can, of course, be used on different smartphones, too.

If any of the following images float your boat and you want to download and set one as your wallpaper, simply tap on a photo to maximise it, then click and hold to save it. Once the picture is stored locally, open up Settings, locate and select Wallpaper, then just tap the newly-saved image to set it as your background.

Alternatively, you can download a ZIP file containing all of this week’s backdrops by hitting the Download button at the very bottom of this post.

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All Aboard

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Cloudy

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Colosseum

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Monsoon

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Pebbles

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The Door

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Under The Trees

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Download

Note: We’ve tried our best to identify the creators of all of the wallpapers featured in this week’s column. However, the images appear to lack copyright information, artist signatures or any real trace of origin. If you created a wallpaper we’ve posted and would like credit, or would rather we remove the image, kindly contact us.

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Samsung kicks off two for the price of one promotion on Fast Charge Wireless Charging Pad

If you’re intending to pick up a Fast Charge Wireless Charging Pad to go with your brand new Galaxy S7, now might be a good time to do so as Samsung has just kicked off a promotion which gets you two charging platforms for the price of one. This is great for those who commute to work as they can keep one charging pad at the office and the other at home.

This deal isn’t only available for Galaxy S7 owners, though. If you posses one of the South Korean company’s latest smartphones, such as the Galaxy S6 or Galaxy Note 5, you’ll also be able to use the Fast Charge Wireless Charging Pad, and with two coming in at $69.99, we’d urge you to act fast as the promo is only set to run until March 19 or while stocks last. After all, you can always sell the additional one on if you have no use for it.

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Samsung Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO is sculpted in gold and boasts over 100 diamonds

Samsung has teamed up with famous jewelry and watchmaker de GRISOGONO to create a limited edition model of the Gear S2. The Samsung Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO is sculpted in gold and boasts more than 100 diamonds. It’s unlike any other smartwatch on the market today as it features rose gold, more than 100 black and white diamonds and a bracelet studded with de GRISOGONO’s signature galuchat.

Underneath all that glamour it’s still the Gear S2 so the diamond-set gold bezel turns freely around the dial allowing users to access all features of the Gear S2 as they would on a normal unit. The Samsung Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO is going to be showcased at Baselworld 2016, the annual watch fair where countless watchmakers unveil their new models. This limited edition smartwatch will go on sale later this summer through Samsung and de GRISOGONO’s retail channels. Pricing has not yet been confirmed but you can be sure that it’ll cost a pretty penny.

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Samsung preparing to release the Galaxy J3 (2016) in several European markets

Samsung is almost ready to release the Galaxy J3 (2016) in Italy, Spain, Germany and The Netherlands. More European countries are likely to follow. The Galaxy J3 (2016) is of course not a new device. In fact, it made its debut in China several months ago. More recently, evidence of a US release with AT&T surfaced, and now the device is popping up all over Europe, confirming its imminent arrival across that continent as well.

More precisely, Samsung Netherlands has gone and launched the J3 (2016)’s full product listing. In Italy and Spain official support pages are available, and in Germany, last but not least, the device can already be pre-orderded with local retailers.

The Galaxy J3 (2016) resembles the current Galaxy J5, with its 5-inch AMOLED display, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB internal storage and a microSD slot to expand the latter. There’s an 8-megapixel camera on the back, a 5-megapixel shooter in the front, and a 2,600 mAh battery powering the package. The device measures 142 x 71 millimeters, and is 7.9 mm thin while weighing 138 grams. For now, the J3 (2016) runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Notably different from the J5 is the Galaxy J3 (2016)’s design, which uses two colors for the font panel to make it stand out. Also, the shape of the frame resembles that of the 2016 Galaxy A devices, with one clear exception: there is no aluminium to be found on the new J3, despite the fact the not-yet-revealed Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) almost certainly have a metal frame.

Of course, the Galaxy J3 (2016) comes with a friendly €189 price tag, so we can’t expect too many high-end features. Although a European release date for the phone remain unknown, we think ‘any moment now’ pretty much sums it up.

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Samsung Galaxy TabPro S goes up for pre-order in the UK

Samsung’s Windows 10-powered Galaxy TabPro S tablet is now available for pre-order in the UK, the company has announced. Unveiled earlier this year, the Galaxy TabPro S is the first Windows tablet to come with a Super AMOLED display (a 12-inch unit) and is priced at £849. It’s available in black and orders will be delivered by March 17th, which is also the date when the tablet will go on general sale in the country.

The TabPro S is powered by an Intel Core M processor and supports LTE Cat 6 connectivity, which is the fastest for a Windows tablet available on the market. The 2-in-1 tablet (you can get a full keyboard accessory to turn it into a laptop) comes with a display resolution of 2160×1440 pixels, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, and 5-megapixel cameras on the front and back. A 5,200 mAh battery is sealed inside and can offer up to 10.5 hours of usage. It also has a USB Type-C port, in addition to regular connectivity options like Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC and Bluetooth. All this in a body that is only 6.3 mm thick.

You can pre-order the Galaxy TabPro S at the source link.

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Over 10 million pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge placed in China

Samsung appears to have a hit on its hands with the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. The new flagships are outselling their predecessors by quite a margin and from what we gather Samsung’s new flagships are performing very well in one of the most lucrative smartphone markets on the planet. Research conducted by our colleagues over at SamMobile China shows that the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge are on track to net more than 10 million pre-orders in the People’s Republic.

Pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge have been open in China since March 11. There are eight retail channels through which customers in China can pre-order the new handsets. Customers have pre-ordered over 6.35 million units of the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge from one of the biggest online retailers in China, JD.com. Pre-orders at the retailer Suning have crossed 1.3 million units while retailers Gome and Lynx have already sold out of their pre-order inventory. Therefore, it’s likely that total pre-orders for the new Samsung flagships in China will cross 10 million units and may very well reach 15 million by the time pre-orders are closed on March 18. Looks like Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh’s prediction about a return to form in China is right on the money.

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Samsung scales back R&D investment for the first time in 18 years

Samsung spends large amounts of money on research and development (or R&D), and even in the face of disappointing sales last year still invested more in R&D than ever before, coming in second globally for its spending with an R&D budget of $14.1 billion while also leading the pack in semiconductor spending (though still less than it spent in 2014; Samsung maintained third place from 2014 but didn’t grow). Samsung even added new R&D projects to its already over 160 projects mid-year last year. Yet and still, the Korean giant has said that it has a tough road ahead in 2016 in the smartphone market, and announced its structural reorganization for 2016 in January. It’s eight weeks later, but we’re starting to get some insight on just how big of a structural reorganization Samsung has made to wade this competitive year in the market.

According to a new report out of Korea, Samsung has decreased its workforce between the end of 2015 and now by 2,480 personnel at the company’s headquarters, dropping from 99,382 employees down to 96,902 employees. In addition to employees, Samsung has also reduced its R&D centers, eliminating 3 of its 44 R&D centers last year (from 44 down to 41) and shutting down the electronic materials research and information application research centers in the US. Other divisions of the company, are also seeing employee reductions. To exacerbate the financial situation, the Korean giant has also reduced its R&D costs for the first time since 1998, the publication says, hinting to more than just employee streamlining.

Samsung’s reason behind the structural reorganization is to provide a pre-emptive strike to what could be a rough year financially and wade it as best it can. At the same time, however, Samsung has been doing everything it can to provide a positive spin on this difficult financial weather: the mobile division has been working to boost its component profit, having placed its own Exynos 7420 processor in all worldwide variants of the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, and the Galaxy Note 5 to reduce patent royalties between 2.5 to 5 percent. Samsung is now the fourth largest smartphone processor maker in the world behind the likes of Qualcomm and Apple.

Outside of the smartphone, components, and TV market, the Korean giant has also begun investing in virtual reality, producing its own virtual reality headset, Gear VR, for average consumers (with a goal to win enterprise professionals as VR users, too) while also investing in VR startups such as Baobab Studios and creating VR partnerships with global hotel chain Marriott, the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Youth Olympic Games, Six Flags for virtual reality roller coasters, and AT&T, with the possibility that Samsung may expand VR beyond smartphones. Samsung also has automobile ambitions, with the company having created its own autonomous vehicle team, partnered with SEAT and SAP for connected car projects, BMW for smart brains to implement in autonomous vehicles, and Panasonic to produce a smart vehicle assistant for the same.

Overseas business is looking up as well, with Samsung having acquired 8 new subsidiaries in 2015 (for a total of 159), some based in the US. Samsung’s found a new chapter in its own homegrown mobile operating system, Tizen, with over 3 million Tizen-powered smartphones sold last year. Samsung’s newest high-end Android-powered smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, have surpassed the company’s expectations. As for the TV sector, Samsung’s Tizen-powered TVs are in high demand – and Samsung’s TV market share is leaving its competitors in the dust.

Samsung is no stranger to structural reorganizations: the company restructured its India team last year as part of its global agenda, and has an annual restructuring employee program as part of its commitment to Korean business tradition.

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Galaxy S7 edge tip: put a file manager on your edge screen

A recently released third-party edge panel puts a file manager on the edge screen of the Galaxy S7 edge and last year’s Galaxy S6 edge and Galaxy S6 edge+.

There’s been plenty of debate about how useful the edge screen on Galaxy devices is. There’s never been much doubt about the beauty of a curved display, but as far as real functionality is concerned, opinions are split at best. With the release of Android Marshmallow came much-needed improvements to the edge screen. Particularly, the wider edge panels offer much more space for actually functional applications.

The freshly released file manager panel, developed by EHZ Studios, gives us a very clear look at what else is possible on the edge screen, beyond offering lists of shortcuts or simple information feeds. It offers quick access to all files and folders on your phone.

Now, this is probably not something every single Galaxy S7 edge user desperately needs, but for those who regularly download and open various kinds of files, the file manager panel offers direct access to them, in a way that is, in our experience, faster than traditional file manager applications.

You can install new edge screen panels by jumping into Settings, and heading to the Edge screen section. Now, go to Edge panels and tap the DOWNLOAD button to enter the Edge Specials section of Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store. There, you’ll find the file manager panel for a mere € 1,36, or your local currency’s equivalent.

Do you have any other edge panels installed that you find indispensable? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our other Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge tips!

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Samsung promises exceptional after-sales service to Galaxy S7 owners in Slovakia

While Samsung is bundling the Gear VR for free with all Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge preorders to improve the uptake of its flagship devices, Samsung Slovakia is going one step ahead. It is promising some exceptional after-sales service offers to customers who purchase the Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy S7 edge.

According to a press release that came out on the launch day of the Galaxy S7 in Slovakia, customers who purchase the Galaxy S7 or the Galaxy S7 edge in the country will be able to call a special support hotline and schedule the faulty device for pickup. After the pickup, users will be given a spare Galaxy S7 to use till their device gets repaired.

Users who visit the company’s service center can get their faulty devices repaired within an hour, unless it’s a severe issue that requires more time. Still, this sounds like a pretty sweet deal, and we hope that the company starts offering such service in more markets. What do you think about this offer?

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Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge tip: How to move apps to the SD card

One of the major features of Android 6.0 Marshmallow is adoptable storage, which formats and encrypts a microSD card to work as part of the internal storage. It basically lets you increase the size of the internal storage, and the biggest use of this feature is having more space for installing apps, which can only be done on the internal storage on Android. Samsung, unfortunately, hasn’t implemented adoptable storage on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge (or on Marshmallow for other devices), but it continues to offer the option to move apps to the external storage.

This is the same option that has existed on Samsung devices for long, but the way you move apps to the SD card is somewhat different on Marshmallow (and the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge). How do you do it? Well, just follow the steps below. Keep in mind that it’s up to individual apps to support moving to the external storage, so the steps below can only be applied on apps that do enable the option.

Step 1: Head into your phone’s settings, then tap the Applications option. On the next screen, select Application manager to see a list of all your installed apps.

Step 2: Then, find the app that you want to move to the SD card, and click on its name in the list.

Step 3: Here, below the Uninstall button, tap on the Storage option.

Step 4: If your app supports moving to the SD card, you should see a CHANGE button on the screen that pops up after you select Storage in the above step.

Step 5: Tap the CHANGE button, then select SD Card. This will bring you to the export menu, where you can hit the MOVE button at the bottom to start moving the app to the SD card.

That’s it! Once done, simply hit the back button to go back to the applications list, or hit the home button to go to the home screen. Do note that Android doesn’t support fully moving an app to the SD card, so some of the app’s data will continue to reside on the internal storage. Taking out the SD card at any point might make these apps stop working, so if you are ever swapping your microSD card for a new one, make sure to move each of the apps back to the internal storage before doing so. Then simply repeat the above steps to move those apps to your new SD card.

Having issues with this? Let us know in the comments and we will help you out the best we can. Don’t forget to check more of our Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 tips to get the most out of your device.

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[Poll] Is Samsung making a mistake by not acquiring Tidal?

It was first rumored last year that Samsung might be interested in acquiring Jay-Z’s music streaming service Tidal. The rap mogul was even spotted coming out of Samsung’s HQ in Silicon Valley and that just added more fuel to the fire. A couple of weeks ago it was reported that the company had restarted its talks with Tidal but Samsung soon came out with an official comment on the matter. The company confirmed that it was not interested in acquiring the music streaming service.

Samsung hasn’t really been lucky in the music streaming arena. It launched Milk Music about two years ago and positioned it as a competitor to Pandora and other streaming services. Milk Music remained exclusive to Samsung smartphones for quite some time but when adoption didn’t really pick up it decided to launch it on the web. That didn’t help either and now Samsung is on the verge of shutting down Milk Music.

That’s really why rumors about Samsung acquiring Tidal picked up steam. The company has teamed up with Jay-Z in the past and an argument could be made for it to acquire Tidal and either roll it into the existing service or launch a new service altogether. Apple did something similar not too long ago. Instead of creating its own service from scratch the company acquired Beats Music and rolled its technology into a new service and now Apple Music is the second largest online streaming service behind Spotify.

Do you think Samsung is making a mistake by not acquiring Tidal? It could have used the technology in a new service since Milk Music has clearly flopped, instead of bowing out of this arena, or do you think that Samsung doesn’t really need to have a music streaming service of its own? Your vote counts!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Samsung’s VR thriller series shows how virtual reality can add a new dimension to film

Samsung has been talking up the benefits of virtual reality lately. It brought us the story of how virtual reality training can help people overcome their fear of public speaking and heights. Now it’s proving that VR has a role to play in filmmaking as well. Samsung introduced a VR mystery-thriller called Gone at SXSW, the series is about a girl who goes missing and the subsequent search effort to find her.

Since the film has been shot in 360 degrees viewers are not limited to just one angle. The scene opens to a children’s playground and while the kids play their mothers are engrossed in conversation on a bench. Viewers can decide to stay focused on the women and listen to them talk or look around the playground to see where the children are playing. Viewers can thus explore an entire scene in the series to look for hints related to the abduction. They can also try and find “hot spots” which allow them to zoom in and take a closer look at an object from a different vantage point. The idea here is to enable maximum re-watchability for viewers so that they can watch the film again and again to discover all of the different views and uncover part of the story that they might have previously missed.

Gone, produced by the creators of The Walking Dead, is available through Samsung’s Milk VR app.

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Microsoft is planning to bring Minecraft to Samsung Gear VR

There’s a lot of buzz around virtual reality gaming, and the Oculus Rift and the Gear VR are some of the most popular virtual reality headsets right now. Now, Microsoft has announced that it is bringing its popular game series Minecraft to both these VR headsets shortly. Considering that Samsung and Oculus have worked together on the Gear VR, it shouldn’t be surprising to see the game released for these VR headsets.

Today, at a GDC 2016 event, Microsoft and Oculus have announced that they will soon bring a Minecraft port to the Gear VR. Not many specifics are known about the port right now, but the quality of the open-world game is expected to match with the one on the Oculus Rift. Currently, there’s no information about the pricing or the release date of Minecraft for the Gear VR, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything official on those terms.

Right now, the Gear VR is a far more attractive option for many users due to its low price point, especially when compared to high-end VR headsets like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Consumers can soon play the Minecraft port on their Gear VR headsets without burning a hole in their pockets. Samsung is bundling the Gear VR for free with all Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge preorders.

Samsung has done a brilliant job by partnering with Oculus to design the Gear VR. Even though both VR headsets have the Oculus mark, they are quite different in nature. The Oculus Rift has its own screen and is compatible with a PC. The Gear VR lacks a screen, so it relies on Samsung’s recently released high-end smartphones.

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