A new partnership has been formed between the NBA, Samsung, and Twitter. Starting with Game 1 of the NBA finals today, Samsung’s Gear 360 camera will be used to shoot exclusive 360-degree footage of NBA games. Clips shot using Samsung’s camera will then be sent out through the NBA’s official Twitter account, Twitter says that this content will be exclusive to its platform for the entire duration of the series.
Samsung announced and released the Gear 360 camera earlier this year. It’s an easy-to-use camera for recording 360-degree video. Clips posted to Twitter will show up as links on the microblogging network as it doesn’t have native support for 360-degree video. Clicking on the link will take viewers to a separate website where they will be able to view exclusive footage of NBA games shot using the Gear 360, they will be able to click and drag around the scene to view it from multiple angles.
According to Evan Blass a.k.a @evleaks, the Galaxy Note 6 (also known as the Note 7) will be announced “exactly two months” from now. As we’re already into the second day of June, we’re bound to believe that Samsung will unveil the new phablet some time by the first week of August, or the 2nd of August to be precise.
Blass has been pretty accurate with leaks before, so there’s no reason to doubt this particular revelation. But we suggest you take this with a grain of salt for now until more evidence emerges. As for the features to expect from Samsung’s latest Note flagship, it has been rumored that it will come with a dual-lens camera, which sounds like a bit of a stretch at the moment, but cannot be written off.
Samsung just launched two new devices that we have been looking forward to for quite some time now, one of which is the Samsung Gear Fit 2, a new wearable fitness tracker which improves on the very robust original Gear Fit tracker. Many of you will be comparing specifications of the Gear Fit 2 vs Gear Fit, so here’s a great infographic from Samsung which will help you quickly make note of all of the big changes that the Gear Fit 2 brings.
Images of Samsung’s upcoming fitness tracking device were leaked last month, and we exclusively revealed its specifications earlier this week. Today, Samsung has unveiled the Gear Fit 2, which comes with better activity tracking and a trendier design compared to the original Gear Fit. Samsung has equipped the Gear Fit 2 with a GPS chip so that it can track your runs and bicycle rides accurately.
The Gear Fit 2 features a sleek yet ergonomic design that will ensure comfortable daily use. The 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED touchscreen display (216 x 432 pixels) shows the current time, steps taken, current activity, and calories burnt. Apart from an accelerometer, gyro, and barometer, the Gear Fit 2 also features a heart rate monitor, so it can automatically start tracking runs, walks, cycling rides, rowing, and workouts on an elliptical machine. It syncs with S Health or other fitness tracking apps.
The Gear Fit 2 comes equipped with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and 200 mAh battery. This IP68-certified water-resistant fitness tracker is based on Tizen, and can show notifications from a connected smartphone. It comes with 4GB of internal storage, so you can store music files on the device and listen to them using Bluetooth headphones without a need for a smartphone. The Gear Fit 2 comes in large and small sizes, and will be available in Black, Blue, and Pink. Its price isn’t known as of now, but the device will be available beginning June 10, 2016.
“Living a healthy lifestyle is a top priority for consumers to enjoy fulfilling lives. Our wearable technology can enhance existing routines and blend fitness and fun. The Gear Fit2 and Gear IconX are specialized to easily address these needs, ultimately allowing users to get more out of their fitness experiences and everyday activities,” said Younghee Lee, Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics.
Along with the Gear Fit 2, Samsung has also unveiled its first wireless earphones with built-in activity tracking mechanism, the Gear Icon X. These cord-free earbuds are lightweight, and Samsung claims that they provide a perfect fit with three different sizes of ear tips and wingtips. The Gear IconX can be a standalone music player with 4GB of internal storage, which is good enough for up to 1,000 MP3 tracks.
The Gear IconX is equipped with an accelerometer and a heart-rate monitor for activity tracking, and it syncs with Samsung’s S Health platform. It can track distance, speed, duration, heart rate, and calories burned. It is compatible with any device running Android 4.1 (or upwards) with 1.5GB of RAM (or more).
These earphones turn on automatically when they are placed in the ears, and you can control the music using the inbuilt capacitive touch controls. You can also pair them with a smartphone using Bluetooth 4.1 to listen to music as well as take calls. The Voice Guide feature on the Gear IconX provides instant voice feedback on your workout progress.
These earbuds come with a 47 mAh battery, but you can charge them using the bundled case which has a 315 mAh battery. Samsung has not revealed its price tag yet, but the Gear IconX will be available in Black, Blue, and White beginning in Q3 2016. Live images of these earbuds were leaked last month along with the Gear Fit 2.
Two months ago the United States Supreme Court confirmed that it will review the patent infringement matter between Samsung and Apple. This is the first time in over a 100 years that it has taken up a lawsuit related to design patents. Samsung submitted its opening brief before the Supreme Court today, arguing that design patents are grossly overvalued when it comes to the calculation of damages. Even though Samsung has paid $548 million in damages to Apple, the company reserves the right to obtain reimbursement if the previous judgement is reversed, modified, or set aside. It later filed a writ of certiorari before the US Supreme Court for a review of the decision that awarded Apple the damages.
It’s now arguing that the impugned judgement be set aside, and if that can’t be done then “at a minimum, a new trial is necessary.” Samsung argues that even if it’s held that the company did infringe on Apple’s patents then its rival should only get profits from the parts of the smartphone that infringe on its patents, and not profits from the entire phone. Samsung further argues that the precedent of “grossly overrewarding design patents” is going to hurt competition and will even lead to “absurd” results in other lawsuits. “If the current ruling is left to stand, it would value a single design patent over the hundreds of thousands of groundbreaking technology patents, leading to vastly overvalued design patents,” Samsung said in a statement.
Apple has not yet commented on the filing but it’s certainly going to respond to Samsung’s arguments in its filings before the apex court. This is by no means an open and shut case. Given the implications a Supreme Court ruling on this matter will have on the technology industry at large, the highest court in the land has a huge burden on its shoulders and it’s certainly going to take its time before it comes to a decision.
Samsung has released a whopping 123 themes this week, and we’re here with some of the most attractive ones. Welcome back to Themes Thursday!
Plenty of themes were released this week with Material design guidelines including [Kendi], Bora UI, and Noir UI themes. However, Material X is our favorite theme for this week, and the Material Blue UI theme comes in a close second. If you’re into Pixel Art, check out the Pixel Rocket (Live) theme. New York _MINDON Design and Vintage Mountains themes are decent too. Needless to say, most of these themes are paid, and if Samsung hasn’t started listing paid themes in your region, you won’t find these themes in the Theme Store.
There’s a decent collection of dark themes this week, so if you are someone who likes to save your smartphone’s battery, do check them out. Which theme did you like the most?
There’s no denying the fact that the Galaxy S7 features one of the clearest, most vibrant displays on the market, but its over-saturated color palette almost certainly isn’t for everyone. That’s why Samsung has provided users with the facility to alter the screen settings to obtain a more natural color accuracy. It’s extremely easy to do, too.
Here’s how:
Open up Settings.
Locate and select Display.
Hit Screen Mode.
Switch the option from Adaptive Display to Basic.
Tap the Back button to save your changes.
That’s all there is to it. Now you should notice the warmth of the colours have toned down significantly and are more accurate. If you happen to run into any issues along the way, do be sure to let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll do our very best to get you back on track.
Samsung has a plethora of phones and tablets in its lineup and regularly releases firmware updates for various devices. These can include major updates, which bring a newer version of the OS to a particular device, or minor ones that improve performance and stability and fix bugs. Software updates for Samsung devices roll out in various regions every day, and you can find out which firmware updates were pushed out by the company over the last 24 hours through our firmware list.
As usual, you can download each of these firmware from our firmware section (simply enter your device’s model number to view all firmware for that device) in order to update to a new firmware manually, or as a means to return to your phone or tablet’s stock software.
Samsung has announced that its mobile payments service has been launched in Spain today, pointing out that Spain is the first country in Europe where Samsung Pay has been introduced so far. Samsung Pay was first launched in South Korea and later in the United States. A couple of months ago the service also went live for users in China. It happens to be the first such payments service of its kind in Spain and a research commissioned by Samsung reveals that almost six in 10 Spaniards are interested in adopting a secure, simple, and widely accepted mobile payments service like Samsung Pay.
Samsung smartphones compatible with Samsung Pay in Spain include the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S7 edge, the Galaxy S6, the Galaxy S6 edge, and the Galaxy S6 edge+, with specific availability varying by local operator. The Galaxy A5 2016 is going to get support for Samsung Pay in the coming weeks. CaixaBank and imaginBank are onboard so their customers can use their debit or credit cards to make payments via Samsung Pay. Support for Abanca and Banco Sabadell customers will arrive soon.
Samsung is slowly but surely expanding Samsung Pay to new markets. We hear that Portugal is next in line, it’s likely that Samsung Pay will go live there in a couple of months.
The next Galaxy’s moniker has been settled, with the most recent information pointing to “Galaxy Note 7 edge” as Samsung’s next big thing for the smartphone market. We’ve seen Samsung’s trademark filings for Galaxy Iris and Galaxy Eyeprint in the European Union, Korea, and the US, we’re well on our way to seeing an iris scanner on the upcoming handset. Now, a new report from Taiwan claims that the Galaxy Note 7 edge (a.k.a. the Galaxy Note 6 edge) will feature a dual lens camera setup.
Huawei’s P9 already offers the feature as does the LG G5, and, with Apple rumored to feature a dual lens camera in the upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, it seems as though the Korean giant is following through with industry-leading trends for 2016. This rumored dual-lens camera could presumably perform, at the very least, the same function as it does on the LG G5: one lens would work for micro shots, the other for macro, panorama shots at a distance.
The Galaxy Note 7 is said to feature a 5.8-inch, Slim RGB display with a Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440p) resolution and a 4,000mAh battery according to rumors, though this should be taken with a grain of salt until more information is in place. Another rumor says that Samsung could offer a cheaper version of its flagship, though there are no details on a Galaxy Note 7 Lite spec sheet for now.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has awarded the Galaxy Note 5 with the title of America’s favorite smartphone. The handset earned a whopping satisfaction rating of 86/100 in the nationwide poll, beating the iPhone 6s Plus by just one point. The Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 4 ranked in joint third place with a rating of 84/100, while the iPhone 6s came in fourth with a score of 83/100.
ACSI also published a list of the most reliable manufacturers in the region. Unfortunately, the tables took a turn for the worst for Samsung this year, earning it a second place position with a score of 80/100. Apple came in first with a satisfaction rating of 81/100. However, there was a considerable difference between Samsung and the third-ranking party, Motorola, which pulled in 77/100 points.
Evidence is mounting that Samsung is getting ready to launch a new member of its Level headset and speaker family. The Level Active has surfaced at several certification authorities, revealing model number and images for us to enjoy. At the Bluetooth SIG, a new accessory with model number EO-BG930 recently surfaced, and some further digging reveals that this new headset will likely land in shops under the name Level Active.
Furthermore, a recent visit to the FCC provides a good number of images, confirming that it is a Bluetooth headset aimed at conquering Jaybirds’ territory. Currently, we do not know when Samsung is planning to launch the Level Active, but given the fact the device already passed most mandatory certification processes, we won’t be surprised to see them later today at the NYC event.
Samsung isn’t done with flip phones, as the company is testing a new smartphone with the classic (and outdated) form factor. A Samsung SM-G1600 can be seen on the import tracking site Zauba, with a screen size of 3.8 inches. That’s the same as the Galaxy Folder’s display, making it a surefire hint that we’re looking at yet another device in the series. Another hint is the model number, which is an increment over the previous Galaxy Folder’s SM-G150.
The new Galaxy Folder is likely to launch in China first, followed by Samsung’s home market. The hardware should be in the mid-range segment like the original Galaxy Folder since the high-end stuff is reserved for the Galaxy Golden lineup (the Korean giant will hopefully employ the latest version of Android, at the least). July is probably when the handset will go official, and we should be seeing more information make its way online in the coming weeks.
![Samsung Galaxy Theme - [Kendi] Atrix](/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Samsung-Galaxy-Theme-Kendi-Atrix.jpg)
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