Samsung is offering 20% off select gift cards as part of its Father’s Day promotion

With Father’s Day right around the corner, Samsung has launched a ’20% off’ promotion on select gift cards purchased through its mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay. Although the choice of cards available as part of the deal isn’t overly extensive — it’s limited to American Eagle Outfitters, Best Buy, Domino’s, GameStop, P.F. Changs and Regal Entertainment Group — you should be able to find something for the Dads & Grads in your life.

If you’re still looking around to find the perfect present and would rather use a gift card as a last resort, you’re in luck, as just like the Mother’s Day promotion, the offer will run for four weeks, ending on July 19. The South Korean company has noted, however, that it only has a small amount of stock — so I wouldn’t leave too much time before purchasing as the card you’re after might sell out.

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The Washington Post’s Gear S2 watch face provides you with live updates from the US presidential election

The Washington Post has just released its first ever watch face for Samsung’s latest Tizen-powered smartwatch, the Gear S2. The face has been designed to provide political junkies with the most recent information from the US presidential election, including up-to-the-minute polling results and a live numeric countdown to election day.

“What we’ve learned from being on wearable devices is that users want to glance at their watches and get information quickly, so we designed a simple display of useful election data for the best small screen experience,” said David Merrell, Senior Mobile Product Manager at The Washington Post.

As you’d expect, the watch face is available to download for free directly from the Samsung Gear App Store. All you have to do is open up the application, tap the search field, type in The Washington Post, then download and install the very first app presented at the top of the results page.

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Samsung’s Always On Display updated with time range settings

Samsung has pushed out an update to Always On Display on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, with users now having the option of setting the duration for which the feature stays enabled. It’s a useful addition that means you can limit Always On Display to a custom time range and save battery life. Hopefully, the next update will bring the option to keep the feature enabled only while charging, which it sorely lacks at this point.

Samsung has also updated the Night Clock feature on the Galaxy S7 edge. Night Clock can now be enabled for a maximum of 18 hours, down from 24 hours before (though the last time we checked, the limit was 12 hours). If you have both Always On Display and Night Clock enabled for the same time range, the phone will display the latter. Furthermore, Samsung has changed the Dual Clock option to World Clock in the regular clock app, and not without reason: You can now have up to four different clocks from various regions enabled at a single time.

All these updates are included in the update to Always On Display, which you can grab by going into the Settings » Display » Always On Display, heading into the About section at the bottom, and hitting the update button.

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Turn up the volume in Gear VR without turning off the game

You’ve been a good follower of Samsung’s Gear VR tutorial, and you’re fascinated with your Gear VR settings. Yet and still, you find yourself pressing the back button to access these settings whenever you want to raise or lower the volume. It gets tiring, particularly when you’re relaxing on your executive jet in vTime, wanting to just enjoy the scene, but you suddenly remember that your volume is too loud (the airplane is making too much noise, ruining the peace and quiet you’re trying to create).

What you may have forgotten is that there’s an even easier way to adjust the volume in Gear VR without pausing the game. What’s this easier way? You need only use the volume buttons on the right side of your headset.

These volume buttons are located directly in front of the trackpad, in black, near the phone slot (which is also black).

There’s a Volume Up to raise the volume and a Volume Down to lower it.

From now on, you need not pull yourself out of the game to adjust the volume. Those hardware buttons may seem oddly placed, but they’re a grand shortcut when you need them.

Galaxy S7 customers in Europe should take advantage of Samsung’s new exclusive deal that gives you a Gear VR headset at a special price and some VR titles that will let you use your hardware volume buttons to stay in the game.

Are there any questions about VR that you have?

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Samsung advancing chip-making technology to better compete with TSMC

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is perhaps the biggest rival for Samsung’s chip-making business and the company recognizes the need to effectively compete against TSMC in the market. Reports out of Korea reveal that Samsung is working to compete more effectively against TSMC by advancing its chip-making technology.

According to the report, Samsung has signed a deal with Dutch-based ASML to purchase the latest extreme ultraviolet equipment for mass production of its 7-nanometer process. ASML is one of the biggest suppliers in the world of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry, its machinery is pivotal in the production of integrated circuits like memory chips and CPUs. The installation of the advanced machinery that Samsung has reportedly acquired is expected to be completed by the first half of next year, this will be the first time that Samsung deploys EUV equipment in its chip-manufacturing process.

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Samsung SM-G880 spotted in import database, could it be the Galaxy S7 Sport?

Indian import listing database, Zauba, is popular for leaking out devices ahead of their scheduled arrival. One such Samsung handset has now made it to this import database packing the model number SM-G880. Now it’s anybody’s guess as to what this device could be, but one theory floating around is that this could be a variant of one of the upcoming S7 series smartphones. Could it be another variant of the Galaxy S7 Active?

The import listing reveals the value of the smartphone to be 31,876 INR which is about $477, further suggesting that this is not a budget device. It’s important to note that Samsung has already released devices with the model numbers SM-G860 (AT&T Galaxy S5 Active), SM-G870 (Sprint Galaxy S5 Sport) and the SM-G890 (AT&T Galaxy S6 Active).

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Active has already popped up on benchmarks with the model number SM-G891A, so we can rule that out. Perhaps this will be Sprint’s own variant of the Galaxy S7 Active (the Galaxy S7 Sport?).

We must remember that not all devices that reach Zauba are assured of a launch. So take this particular revelation with a pinch of salt for the time being.

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Samsung’s new commercial shows how you can relive memories using the Gear VR and the Gear 360

Samsung not only bundled its virtual reality headset for free with every Galaxy S7 and S7 preorder but also announced exclusive Gear VR content for customers who bought its flagship smartphone. The South Korean tech giant is now trying to show how amazing virtual reality can be when captured using the Gear 360 camera and experienced through the Gear VR headset.

The latest video commercial from the company shows how a dad makes her sick daughter happy by attending a teen pop concert on her behalf. He records a 360-degree video of the concert using the Gear 360 camera and the daughter enjoys the video later using the Gear VR. A perfect mobile virtual reality setup can be made using the Galaxy S7 edge, Gear 360, and the Gear VR.

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T-Mobile offering the Galaxy Grand Prime for free with the Galaxy S7 or the S7 edge

Samsung was offering the Gear VR at no cost with initial pre-orders of the Galaxy S7 and the S7 edge. The company has now teamed up with T-Mobile to offer the Galaxy Grand Prime for free along with the purchase of either smartphone. The deal is valid “for a limited time” with the carrier not specifying a date as of yet. Keeping that in mind, we suggest you hurry.

The free handset will be offered to the customers through a prepaid MasterCard card, which will be worth the value of the Galaxy Grand Prime. We’ve seen several promotions offered by carriers, but this has to be the most attractive one running around right now. The Galaxy S7 can be purchased for $0 down and 24 monthly installments of $27.92, which roughly translates to a full retail pricing of $669.99. The Galaxy S7 edge from T-Mobile will set you back by $59.99 up front and 24 monthly installments at $30/month or a full retail price of $779.99.

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Samsung announces exclusive Gear VR content package for new Galaxy S7 customers

Samsung today announced an exclusive Gear VR content package for new Galaxy S7 owners in Europe. For a limited time, customers who purchase a new Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge will be able to purchase the Gear VR headset at a special price. They will also get free access to exclusive premium games and experiences available on the Oculus Store. This content package includes some of the most popular paid content available on the store such as Anshar Wars 2, Keep Talking, Drift, Darknet, Ocean Rift, Starchart, and Nobody Explodes.

David Lowes, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung Electronics Europe, said that Samsung is providing this incentive to customers in order to encourage broader VR adoption so that more people can experience virtual reality. Samsung has been aggressively pushing VR with the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge, it provided customers who pre-ordered the handsets with a free Gear VR headset, and has since been running promotions aimed at bringing VR technology to as many people as possible.

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Samsung rolls out Marshmallow to the Galaxy S5 LTE-A in South Korea

Samsung’s first smartphone with a Quad HD display, the Galaxy S5 LTE-A, is now getting updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow in South Korea. This follows the Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S5 Plus, the European variant of the Galaxy S5 LTE-A. The three major carriers in the country are rolling out the update; the Android version is 6.0.1 as expected, with build number G906KKTU1CPE1 for all three models.

Like other pre-2015 Samsung devices, Marshmallow for the S5 LTE-A should feature mostly under the hood changes (Google Now on Tap, Doze, better app permission control, and more), with just a few updated app icons to indicate that the phone runs a newer version of the OS. The update should be available over the air and through Samsung Smart Switch; it can also be downloaded from our firmware section.

Firmware Details:

Model	SM-G906K
Model name	GALAXY S5 LTE-A
Country	Korea (KT Corporation)
Version	Android 6.0.1
Changelist	8016985
Build date	Mon, 09 May 2016 06:22:11 +0000
Product code	KTC
PDA	G906KKTU1CPE1
CSC	G906KKTC1CPE1

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User finds Sprint Galaxy S6 edge+ on fire shortly after charging

Devices catching fire is nothing new. We’ve seen multiple isolated incidents of Samsung flagships supposedly burning up spontaneously. A new report is now talking about a Galaxy S6 edge+ that has apparently seen the same fate and the findings are rather interesting.

When a situation like this arises, the first question on our minds is if the user was charging the device with a third-party or unofficial charger. It is often found to be the case. But here, it is said that the original Galaxy S6 edge+ charger was used. Much to our surprise, the device was supposedly not being charged at the time of this incident, as the user is believed to have unplugged it from the charging adapter after finding the phone to be overheating.

Subsequently, the phone was found to be burning up with its innards melting, resulting in the bed getting some damage as well. So from the looks of it, it seems like the user is not at fault. But since we don’t know the entire episode and have only heard the customer’s version as of now, we won’t ready our pitchforks just yet. Samsung hasn’t commented on the issue, although we should expect the company’s PR team to get right on it.

We must remember that incidents like these are very rare in nature. So if you own a Galaxy S6 edge+, there’s probably nothing to worry about.

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You can now register to beta test Samsung Pay in Singapore

After revealing plans to bring its mobile payment platform to seven additional markets this year, Samsung has today launched a pre-registration page in Singapore enabling eager customers to sign up for an opportunity to test Samsung Pay before it goes live for all compatible smartphones in the region. Unfortunately, it’s unclear how close the company is to rolling out the service to the masses, but if the time frame put in place for testing in South Korea is anything to go by, we should see an official launch within the next three-to-four weeks.

In order to get in on the beta testing action, you’ll need to own a factory unlocked variant of either the Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy Note 5 registered in Singapore and have an active Samsung account linked to a qualifying debit/credit card issued by MasterCard or Visa. Unfortunately, there’s only a limited amount of spaces available in the program, and they’re being distributed on a first come, first served basis — so if you want to start using the service sooner rather than later, you better act fast as hundreds of applications are flying in by the minute.

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