Galaxy C5 sails through TENAA certification in China

Samsung will soon launch its new C series of smartphones. Much has already been reported about the Galaxy C5 and the Galaxy C7 so we already know quite a bit about these handsets. Pictures of the Galaxy C5 have been leaked multiple times and today we’re seeing the images that were submitted to a regulatory body in China for the certification of this handset. The Galaxy C5 has sailed through China’s Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center, a necessary step before the handset can be launched.

The TENAA listing also confirms the specifications of this handset that we previously shared with you. Clad in a metal body the Galaxy C5 features a 5.2-inch Full HD AMOLED display, an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor with 4GB RAM, 32/64GB storage with microSD support, 16-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front camera, 2,600mAh battery and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. As we reported yesterday, Samsung is going to launch the new C series handsets in China on May 26. It’s unclear right now if these smartphones will be released in other markets as well.

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Gear VR experiences will be offered at Lisbon’s Rock in Rio festival

One of the biggest music festivals in the world will take place in Lisbon, Portugal later this month. Tens of thousands of people will come from all over the world to attend the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon. Samsung is going to set up a Galaxy Adventure Park at the event to provide attendees with thrilling Gear VR-powered virtual reality experiences.

Samsung often sets up camp at major events to showcase its VR technology to as many people as possible. The Rock in Rio festival presents the company with a great opportunity to do that once again. At the Galaxy Adventure Park, people will be able to check out three unique VR experiences that include virtual roller-coaster rides, virtual skydiving and even virtual bungee jump over a volcano. Doing all of those things in real life might be scary for a lot of people so they can appreciate how Samsung’s virtual reality technology gives them a taste of it all without them even having to stand up.

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Samsung will announce a new mobile payment partnership with Alibaba on Friday, May 20

According to a new report published by Reuters, Samsung is in the final stages of preparing to announce a new payment partnership with China’s second-largest online marketplace, Alibaba. The disclosure will take place on Friday, May 20, and the South Korean firm is believed to reveal that it’s introducing out of the box support for the e-commerce company’s established mobile payment platform, Alipay, on all of its latest NFC-enabled smartphones, including the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 5.

It looks like Samsung has realized the main obstacle in the path towards total mobile payment domination is the geo-limitation it has to enforce to ensure that its service is operating legally in all countries, and while it’s spending extended periods of time optimizing its system for use in new regions, third-parties are flooding the Play Store with their offerings. However, the manufacturer firmly hopes that this deal with Alibaba will provide it with a head start in the Asian market, placing it above Android Pay and Apple Pay in terms of adoption.

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Samsung showcases shared vision with 20th Century Fox for the TV industry

Samsung has released a new video today to showcase a shared vision with 20th Century Fox that it has to further improve the consumer viewing experience and the broader TV industry. The video highlights Samsung’s longstanding partnership with the leading film studio and it emphasizes the importance of TV in the larger content ecosystem of today.

The partnership between Samsung and Fox began in 2013 when the former joined the Secure Content Storage Association. Samsung has since launched an Ultra HD download service with Fox content and an expanded service that features High Dynamic Range titles. Samsung and Fox also established the Fox Innovation Lab in 2014 and the first project it worked on was the integration of accessible content into Samsung’s UHD TVs. “Our complimentary skill sets have helped us continuously raise the bar for ourselves, as well as the industry,” said Won Jin Lee, executive vice president, service business team, visual display at Samsung Electronics.

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Samsung is going to make phones compatible with Android Daydream VR

Google announced a new virtual reality platform called Daydream at its annual developers conference today. Daydream will work with the next generation of Android smartphones powered by Android N. The platform includes reference designs for a VR headset and controller which manufacturers can use to build their own headsets and while it didn’t confirm the companies that will be making the headsets, it did confirm the companies that will make Daydream VR compatible smartphones and Samsung is one of them.

Samsung is in a list of eight companies that will make Android Daydream VR compatible smartphones, the others include LG, HTC, Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, Asus, and Alcatel. Google showed off the Daydream headset reference design today and it looks quite similar to Samsung’s Gear VR headset. It’s the same concept: the headset is worn and not held like the Cardboard and phone slots in it. Since Google is controlling the manufacturing standard for Daydream it’s partners will have to stick to them when making their own headsets and controllers based on Daydream, and compatible smartphones will need to have specific components like special sensors and screens to get certification, because the idea with these standards is to provide a smoother, lower-latency VR experience.

Google did not confirm today how much the headsets based on its Daydream reference design will cost. Since they won’t be standalone headsets like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive they are likely to be cheap, but whether or not they’re close to the Gear VR’s $99 price point remains to be seen. Samsung hasn’t confirmed anything about its Daydream VR compatible headset yet but Google mentioned during its keynote today that handsets from this select group of manufacturers will start arriving later this year in the fall.

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Wallpaper Wednesday: 3D

Welcome to the latest edition of Wallpaper Wednesday. This week we’re focusing our attention on ten 3D 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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Counters

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Crowd

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Eyes

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Flowers

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Marbles

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Pin

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Prism Madness

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Raspberries

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Reflective Balloons

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Striped Spiral

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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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Galaxy J7 (2016) now available from T-Mobile

Last week an internal T-Mobile document was leaked online hinting at a possible arrival of the Galaxy J7 (2016) at Magenta. The document mentioned that T-Mobile could make the announcement on May 18 and that is precisely what has happened today. The Galaxy J7 (2016) is now available from T-Mobile. It can be purchased from Magenta starting today for $0 down and $10 per month for 24 months. The handset will also be available from MetroPCS starting May 27th for $179.

The Galaxy J7 (2016) features a 5.5-inch 720p display, a 1.6GHz Exynos 7870 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and a 3,300mAh battery. T-Mobile is now selling it and the handset happens to be compatible with the carrier’s 4G LTE network.

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Samsung Pay update adds support for loyalty cards and brings compatibility for 38 new banks and credit unions

Samsung has just started rolling out a rather hefty update for its mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay, via the Play Store. The upgrade introduces compatibility for 38 new banks and credit unions in the United States, in addition to bringing a dedicated loyalty cards section to the application.

The full list of newly-supported banks can be seen below:

• 1st United Credit Union
• 1st Financial Federal Credit Union
• Amegy bank of Texas
• Arlington Community Federal Credit Union
• Arsenal Credit Union
• Bank & Trust Company
• Bridgeview Bank Group
• California Bank & Trust
• Catholic & Community Credit Union
• Credit Union of Texas
• Coulee Dam Federal Credit Union
• Customers Bank
• Denali Federal Credit Union
• First Atlantic
• First Community
• First Electronic bank
• Fort Worth City Credit Union
• Genisys Credit Union
• Grow Financial Federal Credit Union
• Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union
• Horizon Bank
• Leaders Credit Union
• Marlborough Savings Bank
• Max
• National Bank of Arizona
• Nevada State Bank
• Northwest Savings Bank
• Nusenda Credit Union
• Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union
• Providence Bank and Trust
• Quorum Federal Credit Union
• Spokane Teachers Credit Union
• Suncoast Credit Union
• TIB
• Tonawanda Valley Credit Union
• Utah First Credit Union
• Vectra Bank Colorado
• Zions Bank

If you own a card registered to one of the aforementioned Visa and MasterCard issuers, you should now be able to activate Samsung Pay and store your details within the application. Once successfully configured, you’ll be able to make mobile payments when you’re out and about in the same way that you’d use your physical credit/debit card.

 

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[Poll] How often do you use the heart rate sensor on the back?

Samsung’s recent flagship smartphones feature a heart rate sensor on the back. Some might find it very useful while some might think of it as just a novelty. When I got my Galaxy S6 edge I only used the heart rate sensor a few times, often to just show people that my phone could measure my heart rate. What we would like to know from our readers is how often do they use the heart rate sensor primarily for the purpose that it’s there for, or if all they ever use it for is to take selfies. Vote in the poll and let us know how you use the heart rate sensor on your Samsung flagship by leaving a comment down below.

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 Pay has been used to process over $850 million worth of transactions in South Korea

Within its first month of being active in South Korea, it was revealed that Samsung Pay had been used to process over $30 million in accumulated transaction volume. Now, eight months later, Samsung has announced that its mobile payment platform has processed over $850 million worth of sales in the region alone. You may recall that the company added support for online payments earlier this year, which has proved to be incredibly successful, accounting for over $168 million of the total transactions.

Back in February, the firm announced that the service had pushed through over $500 million in global payments. Unfortunately, it failed to detail the specific regions that were spending the most money. However, it has since then launched in both China and the US, so it’s more than likely that the figure has climbed considerably, which is good news for Samsung as it means that it may finally turn a profit from the platform after making a staggering loss of $16.8 million in 2015.

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Samsung pushes out May security OTA for the Galaxy A5 (2016) in Europe

Following a successful rollout for the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 5, Samsung has today started pushing out this month’s Security Maintenance Release (SMR) — LM47X.A510FXXS2APD2 – for the unlocked variant of the Galaxy A5 (2016) in Europe.

As outlined by Samsung in a post over on its Security Blog, the upgrade brings a handful of critical patches to the handset, including a fix for a vulnerability in the Gallery application that could have resulted in permanent memory corruption if not dealt with immediately.

If you own a Galaxy A5 (2016) and would like to see if the upgrade is ready for your device, simply head into Settings, followed by About Device, locate and select Software Update, then hit the Update Now button. Alternatively, you can wait until you receive a push notification prompting you to install the update from Samsung’s servers.

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Samsung Galaxy C series smartphones will be launched on May 26

Not too long ago we reported that Samsung is developing a new Galaxy C series of smartphones and that the Galaxy C5 and the Galaxy C7 are going to be the first two handsets in this new lineup. Much has been leaked and rumored about both handsets since. We did report that Samsung will launch these smartphones in China first and that’s what it’s going to do come May 26.

Specifications and pricing of the Galaxy C5 and the Galaxy C7 were leaked recently. The handsets feature 5.7-inch and 5.2-inch Full HD displays respectively aside from a 64-bit Snapdragon 617 processor with 4GB RAM, up to 64GB of internal storage, 16-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front camera as well as Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The Galaxy C5 and the Galaxy C7 are believed to feature a 2,600mAh and 3,300mAh battery respectively with a price tag of 1,599 ($245) and 1,799 ($276) CNY. Samsung will be launching the handsets in China first on May 26. It’s unclear if it has any plans of launching the C series in other markets.

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Galaxy S7 Active looks much better in green than gaudy desert camo

The Galaxy S7 Active is sort of an open secret right now, Samsung may not have officially acknowledged the existence of this device but there’s plenty of evidence to show that it’s going to be announced soon. A press render of the handset was leaked online yesterday which revealed that the Galaxy S7 Active will be offered in a gaudy desert camo gold hue. Fortunately, the Galaxy S7 Active will be available in another color that actually looks much better.

The latest render shows that the Galaxy S7 Active is also going to be available in green. Camo appears to be a recurring theme with this handset as a similar pattern is seen in this render as well. In case you were wondering, specifications of this handset have already been leaked online. Samsung is yet to confirm when it’s going to launch the Galaxy S7 Active but chances are that it could arrive on June 10. Initially, the handset will likely be exclusive to AT&T in the United States.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab A receives Android 6.0 Marshmallow update

The Galaxy Tab A has become the latest Samsung device to make the jump to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The new version of the OS (Android 6.0.1 to be exact) is rolling out to the 9.7-inch Wi-Fi variant (SM-T550) of the tablet in France, with build number T550XXU1BPE1. Expect to see all the under-the-hood features of Marshmallow, including better battery life thanks to Doze and better control over app permissions. Google Now on Tap should be on offer as well.

The update is available over Samsung Smart Switch on PCs and via our firmware section. It should also be making its way to users over the air, and a trip into the Settings » About device » Software update menu should let them access the update right away. Own a Galaxy Tab A? Let us know if you have received Marshmallow, and be assured that we will be letting you know once the update rolls out to other regions and to other variants of the tablet.

Firmware Details:

Model	SM-T550
Model name	GALAXY Tab A
Country	France
Version	Android 6.0.1
Changelist	7931139
Build date	Wed, 04 May 2016 05:23:57 +0000
Product code	XEF
PDA	T550XXU1BPE1
CSC	T550OXA1BPE1

Thanks, Sanay!

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