T-Mobile releases July security patch for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge

T-Mobile is in the midst of pushing out this month’s security patch to its carrier-branded variants of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge located in the United States. The upgrade weighs in at approximately 340MB, and brings the security level to July 1, and not July 5 like the firmware Vodafone started distributing for the handsets in Germany earlier today.

As usual, the update is being rollout out in stages. If you’d like to see if its ready for your device, all you have to do is head into Settings » About Device » Software Update, then tap the Update Now button. Alternatively, you can wait until you receive a push notification prompting you to download the upgrade, but you’ll need to have at least 50% of battery to receive the alert.

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Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) with Smart Glow notification ring goes official in India

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy J2 (2016), its latest offering in the Galaxy J lineup, in India. The company has revealed that the original Galaxy J2 is its best-selling budget smartphone (and the Galaxy J series its best-selling lineup), and the new J2 builds on that popularity with improved specifications across the board and a couple of exclusive software features.

We have already detailed the Smart Glow notification ring on the back of the J2 (2016), which is the phone’s most notable feature. The ring’s color can be customized for various apps and contacts – the phone lets you set a custom color using an RGB scale, which means the Smart Glow ring is a step ahead of regular notification LEDs. Smart Glow can also notify you when the battery is low or your data usage limit has been reached. Furthermore, Samsung’s “rear cam selfie” camera mode uses the ring to indicate when the camera has detected a face, instead of providing an audio cue of the same as on other devices from the company.

The other major feature on the Galaxy J2 (2016) is what Samsung is calling Turbo Speed Technology (TST). See, the J2 (2016)’s internals aren’t very powerful (a 1.5GHz quad-core Spreadtrum processor and 1.5GB of RAM), and TST is simply a fancy name for system-level changes Samsung has made to improve performance. The company has optimized a few basic apps (like the phone and messaging apps) to be 40 percent lighter on memory usage, and TST also kills idle processes in the background to make sure the phone remains fast and smooth at all times.

The J2 (2016) also comes with S Bike mode, which was introduced on the Galaxy J3. According to Samsung, 56 percent of users who have a device with S Bike mode use the feature for upwards of 90 minutes every day. That’s impressive but not entirely unsurprising, as motorbikes are the primary mode of transport for a majority of the Indian population. There’s no NFC for quick activation of S Bike mode, however – Samsung doesn’t think people use NFC enough to make it a permanent feature on its budget smartphones.

In terms of specifications, the J2 (2016) offers several upgrades. It has a 5-inch 720p Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front camera, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD slot (up to 128GB), 4G LTE connectivity, dual SIM slots, and a 2,600 mAh battery. You get Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box on the software front. None of this is very impressive, but again, the specs are considerably better when compared to the original Galaxy J2. Samsung even seems to have put some thought into the design.

At Rs. 9,750 (roughly $145), the Galaxy J2 (2016) seems a bit overpriced for what it offers, but we will only find out how it really is in the real world through a full review. The phone will go on sale in the Indian market on July 14th through offline and online retailers in silver, gold and black color options. The Galaxy J Max will follow a couple of weeks later on July 27th.

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Samsung dishes out hefty bonuses to employees in its mobile business division

According to a new report published by The Korea Herald, Samsung has issued a hefty bonus to employees in its mobile business division to celebrate the success of its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, which generated around 49% of the firm’s net profit for Q2 of 2016.

Samsung often distributes bonuses to its employees as it uses them as a form of motivation to encourage them to churn out more fantastic products each year. The incentives are offered in three levels and are determined based on an employee’s salary — Level A for 100%, Level B for 50% and Level C for 37.5%.

It has been revealed that employees in the smartphone development sector were offered the highest bonus, which is to the tune of 100% of their annual salary. Samsung also provided two other divisions — appliances and components — with a Level A reward thanks to their upbeat sales this year.

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AnTuTu: Samsung smartphones took the popularity crown in H1 2016

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have helped Samsung in achieving its highest profit in two years, and the company is on the right path to reclaiming the glory it once had. Now, AnTuTu has revealed a list of the world’s most popular smartphones in the first half of 2016.

According to AnTuTu, Samsung dominates the list of world’s most popular smartphones (during H1 2016). Top four slots are acquired by the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, and the Galaxy S7. The Galaxy S7 edge ranks sixth in the list of top ten smartphones worldwide. The scene is even better in the US as there are six Samsung devices in the top list for the country.

AnTuTu has also released the list of ten most popular smartphones for other markets such as China, Germany, HongKong, India, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and Samsung is dominating a lot of those lists. Samsung is also expected to announce the Galaxy Note 7 early next month.

 

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Exclusive: Samsung Gear S2 to get an update with new features, UX improvements

We love the Gear S2, and we think it is the best smartwatch currently available in the market (the lack of apps compared to Android Wear or the Apple Watch notwithstanding). Right out of the box the Gear S2 offers an excellent user experience, and we have received information on a major new update that will be released in the near future with a slew of improvements to how the smartwatch works.

The update will be the biggest yet, and the headline feature for many is likely to be the ability to use their photos as backgrounds in watch faces. Using personal photos as a wallpaper on phones is something everyone does (or has done at some point), and it is only natural that the feature be made available on a smartwatch. After the update, the Gear S2 will also start offering watch face recommendations and will let users install these watch faces from the watch itself.

This will extend to recommended apps as well – Samsung basically wants you to use the paired smartphone less often, which is why the update will also add the option to post exercise stats to Facebook directly from the watch. The Gear S2′s fitness tracking abilities will also be getting improvements, as the update will add a sleep monitor, a feature that probably should have been there from the start.

Other changes will include the addition of UV index information in the weather app, the ability to start a timer using S Voice, and a menu for managing notifications when there are no unread notifications available. We’re told the update will roll out sometime in the coming weeks, although there’s no concrete time frame. With a big update such as this, Samsung is likely going to make sure everything is right before making it available to consumers.

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Samsung takes the wraps of the Galaxy J Max in India

Yesterday, we reported that Samsung was working on a 7-inch smartphone called the Galaxy J Max, and, lo and behold, 24-hours later it has announced the device in India. Judging by the renders, the handset follows the same design language as the Galaxy J1, Galaxy J2, Galaxy J3, Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 , with a flash, camera module and loudspeaker positioned in a row on the textured faux metal backplate, and a home button, together with two capacitive keys, located on the front.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 7-inch WXGA TFT display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 200GB via microSD), an 8MP rear-facing camera complete with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), a 2MP selfie shooter and a 4,000mAh battery that Samsung promises can last for up to 9-hours of continuous use. It also has compatibility for 4G LTE and supports two SIMs.

The Galaxy J Max ships running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop skinned with the latest version the South Korean company’s TouchWiz user interface. The handset is, of course, pre-loaded with the standard suite of stock applications and services you’d expect to find bundled on any of Samsung’s budget-friendly smartphones, including Ultra Data Saving Mode (UDS), which is powered by Opera Max, and the brand new S Bike Mode that made its debut for the Galaxy J lineup three months ago.

With regards to pricing and availability, the Galaxy J Max is available in either Black or Gold and carries a price tag of Rs. 13400 ($200). Unfortunately, we don’t have a specific release date at this precise moment in time, but recent rumors point towards it hitting the shelves in India as soon as the last week of July. It’s also worth noting that the device will come with a six-month double data offer for Airtel worth up to Rs. 4,500 ($65), so if you’re thinking about picking up a new smartphone, that’s certainly something to bear in mind.

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Vodafone starts pushing out the July SMR for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge in Germany

Vodafone is the first carrier in Europe to start pushing out this month’s Security Maintenance Release (SMR) to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. It’s kicking off the rollout in Germany where Samsung is expected to follow suit and start distributing an identical firmware for the handsets sometime over the course of the next couple of days.

As you’d expect, this update doesn’t bring any new functionality to the devices. It just transports all of Google’s latest patches for the Android OS, in addition to a handful of Samsung-specific optimizations, which includes a fix for a vulnerability that resulted in the Jack audio service enabling malicious applications to access or modify values in shared memory.

If you own Vodafone-branded Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, are located in Germany and would like to see if the firmware is ready to be installed on your device, you can do so by heading into the Settings screen, tapping About Device, selecting Software Update, then clicking the Update Now button.

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Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Edition goes up for pre-order in Germany for €879

Yesterday, Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Edition. However, it failed to provide any detailed pricing and availability information for the handset, other than that it would go on sale in Brazil, China, Germany, Korea and the United States on Monday, July 18. Rather unexpectedly, the company has just launched a pre-order page for the device in Germany. Those interested in getting their hands on a unit can reserve one starting today for a whopping €879, but they’ll have to hurry as there’s only 2,016 pieces available.

The webpage reveals some additional details about the Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Edition that Samsung held back during its unveiling yesterday. Unlike the standard variant, the Olympic Edition will ship in a gorgeous, textured limited edition box, which will have the individual identification number of the handset inside embedded on it. These numbers start at GER-0001 and go all the way up to GER-2016. It’s believed that the South Korean company will start shipping the handset to those who pre-ordered on the 18th, and will reach customers within 1-2 business days.

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Save yourself $484.99 on the ultimate Android development course!

How many times have you been looking through the Play Store in search of a specific application that you know would make your life a little easier, only to find that it doesn’t exist? I’ve been in that exact situation twice, and both times I’ve wished that I had the skills to design and develop it for myself, but I’m just not good enough at programming to do so. I think it’s because I struggle to learn things by reading. Instead, I need to be shown what to do, but all of the online step-by-step courses are extremely expensive, so that wasn’t an option.

Until now, that is.

For a limited time only, you can save yourself an eye-watering $484.99 on a five-part Android development program exclusively through the SamMobile Shop, so you’ll be able to create the application you’ve always dreamt of having in no time for just $18.01. The course offers over 70-hours worth of content, during which time you’ll master Marshmallow development from the ground up by creating a plethora of applications like a calculator, a top-10 daily apps display, and even a fully-fledged YouTube video player.

Pretty neat, huh? I certainly think so. While you’ve over in the store, be sure to take a look at the giveaway we’re hosting, too. It’s free to enter. All you have to do is input your email address, then wait until the end of the month to find out if you’re the lucky winner of a PlayStation 4 and a copy of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which have a combined value of $399.

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Samsung launches ARTIK Cloud application for the Gear S2

Samsung has released an ARTIK Cloud companion application for the Gear S2 on the Play Store. The integration of the smartwatch into the ARTIK Cloud network enables users to control all of their IoT devices from their wrist, including Samsung SmartThings appliances. Unfortunately, the application has to be connected to the wearable via Bluetooth to function, which means that they’ll need to have their smartphone nearby at all times.

The ARTIK Cloud application for the Gear S2 also opens up many new doors when it cross-communication between software services. By processing data recorded by the device’s gyroscope, pedometer, accelerometer and heart-rate sensor, information can be sent to other applications, such as Nike+ Running and Evernote, to enable users to access additional functionality that previously wouldn’t have been available with just the smartwatch itself.

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