Verizon Galaxy Note 7 will get a software update on release day

Samsung has announced today that the Galaxy Note 7 has been released in these countries and customers will now be able to find its new flagship in stores. The United States is a launch market and the Galaxy Note 7 will be available today from retailers as well as brick-and-mortar locations of all of the four major mobile carriers. If you’ve bought your Galaxy Note 7 bear in mind that the carrier is going to send out a software update for the device on release day. The device page has been updated on Verizon’s website to reflect this. It’s not a major update by any means, Samsung has already sent out the first firmware update for the Galaxy Note 7.

Software version MMB29M.N930VVRS1APH1 applies an important security patch to the Galaxy Note 7 on Verizon. The Galaxy Note 7 is available for purchase from Verizon starting today, customers can save $20 off the new Gear VR if they buy a Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy Note 5 or one from the Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S7 series. It will start selling the Gear 360 camera tomorrow while the Gear IconX is currently available for pre-order and will go on sale by August 26.

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Samsung is getting dedicated space in US Cellular stores

Samsung’s “store-within-a-store” concept has largely been limited to big retail partners which provide some space to the company in their stores where it can set up a mini-store of sorts that deals exclusively in Samsung products. US Cellular has now become the first wireless carrier in the United States to offer this concept in its company-owned stores. The carrier unveiled its first Samsung store-within-a-store at one of its locations in Madison, Wis.

In this concept, Samsung gets a 100 square-foot space that’s has dedicated branding as a Samsung experience area. It won’t just be limited to this location in Madison. US Cellular is going to roll out the concept to approximately 57 locations across the country by October this year. Each Samsung store-within-a-store features an interactive virtual host designed to help customers learn more about Samsung devices. It will also be staffed with US Cellular associates which will help customers every step of the way. Products available will include the Galaxy S7 series, the Galaxy Note 7, the Gear VR, and the Gear S2 smartwatch.

US Cellular may not be as big of a mobile carrier as the country’s big four but having dedicated space in its stores is great for Samsung as it looks to further increase its market share in the US smartphone market and to better compete against the iPhone 7 which is due next month. It can’t be said for sure if a similar concept will ever be rolled out in Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint stores, though something tells me Samsung wouldn’t mind that at all.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has been released today in these countries

Samsung unveiled its new flagship smartphone – the Galaxy Note 7 – on August 2. It confirmed at the event that the handset is going to be released in select markets on August 19. Samsung today announced that the Galaxy Note 7 has been released in the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, the UAE and Korea. Pre-order customers in these countries will receive their units today if they haven’t already and the handset will also be available in retail and carrier stores.

Demand for the Galaxy Note 7 is believed to be much higher than the Galaxy Note 5 so much so that Samsung is having to manage supply. The company has already delayed the Galaxy Note 7 release in several markets across Europe because it simply doesn’t have enough units to meet the demand. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. Samsung will be taking steps to address this demand-supply gap and hopefully it will be able to normalize supply in affected markets. Try asking your local Samsung arm for more information if there’s no news yet regarding availability in your country, they usually have a dedicated Twitter account.

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Teardown shows the Galaxy Note 7 is hard to repair, still does better than the Galaxy S7

The folks at iFixit have got their hands on the Galaxy Note 7 and they have done what they do best. The Galaxy Note 7 teardown shows that the device is hard to repair, however, it got a better repairability score than the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. Opening up the Galaxy Note 7 isn’t exactly easy since there are no external screws. An adhesive heater and suction cups have to be used.

Teardown observations mentioned an unorthodox battery cable design, difficulty in replacing the battery and the fact that because of the curved screen it’s “probably impossible” to replace the front glass without “destroying the display.” That being said, the Galaxy Note 7 received a repairability score of 4 out of 10 with 10 being the easiest to repair. It scored one additional point compared to the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge because of revamped cable routing and that disassembling the display is no longer required to replace the charging port.

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SamMobile Shop offers you a lifetime subscription to Sticky Password Premium for 83 percent off

Do you find it hard to remember long and complicated passwords? I wouldn’t hold it against you. We all use so many different services and since using one password for all of your accounts is a recipe for disaster, many of us have multiple passwords that we are sometimes just not able to recall. Fortunately, many services have cropped up which help users in such a time of distress. Sticky Password is one such password management solution and if you head over to the SamMobile Shop right now you can get a lifetime subscription to Sticky Password for 83 percent off.

Sticky Password if available for Android devices as well as iOS, Windows and Mac. It provides strong encrypted passwords for accounts which are easily managed via a single master password that only you know. It also helps log in automatically to recognizes sites, fills out forms and allows users the option of choosing either cloud-based or local storage of their passwords. Sticky Password has been created by the team behind AVG Antivirus. A lifetime subscription to the Premium tier normally costs $149 but you can get it from SamMobile Shop for a limited time at 83 percent off for just $24.99.

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Themes Thursday: Here are this week’s best themes

Samsung has released 93 themes this week in its Theme Store, and we’ve selected eight themes that you might be interested in. That’s what we do every week with Themes Thursday.

We think that the MossUI and Good UI themes are the best themes of the week, thanks to clean and colorful wallpapers as well as well-designed icons. Diving Space and [HIO] Martion are space-related themes, and might interest those who are intrigued by space.

[V] Midnight (Live) and [Invaser] Mountain Sunset (Live) come with live lock screens. If you like dark or black themes, have a look at the [Kendi] Apex theme. Which theme did you like the most?

[HIO] Martion

[Invaser] Mountain Sunset (Live)

[Kendi] Apex

[V] Midnight (Live)

[Walk On Mars] Funky Pop Patterns

Diving Space

Good UI

MossUI

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Samsung starts rolling out its first firmware update for the Galaxy Note 7

Samsung has just started pushing out its first firmware update for the factory unlocked model of the Galaxy Note 7 (SM-N930W8) in Canada. The upgrade itself weighs in at approximately 96MB and brings a handful of essential bug fixes, stability improvements and software enhancements to the device that have been designed to ensure it’s running smoothly when it makes its way into the hands of customers on September 2.

 

Model	SM-N930W8
Model name
Country	Unknown
Version	Android 6.0.1
Changelist	8706648
Build date	Tue, 02 Aug 2016 05:47:46 +0000
Security Patch Level	2016-08-01
Product code	MTA
PDA	N930W8VLU1APH1
CSC	N930W8OYA1APH1

 

If you’re lucky enough to be one of the few who already have the handset in their possession, you should be able to install the over-the-air (OTA) update right away by heading into Settings, followed by About Device, then tap the Download Updates Manually button. Alternatively, if it’s not ready for your device just yet, you can grab a copy of the software package from our comprehensive firmware database and manually flash it onto your device.

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Galaxy Note 7 with 6GB of RAM to go up for pre-order in China on August 26

We first heard that Samsung was working on a variant of the Galaxy Note 7 that sports 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage two weeks ago when the handset surfaced in a listing on the official Geekbench website. A couple of days later, the device was spotted in an online database belonging to the Chinese Industry and Information Technology Ministry, which led many people to believe that the unit would launch exclusively in China. Then, one week ago, Samsung Mobile Chief D.J. Koh publicly confirmed that the company’s preparing to launch the long-rumored model in the region later this month, but kept the exact date to himself.

However, Samsung’s Chinese subsidiary has today announced that the Galaxy Note 7 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage will be available to pre-order in the country on Friday, August 26, via its online store. Unfortunately, the firm failed to provide any information with regards to pricing and availability. However, if recent speculation is anything to go by, it looks like the handset will carry an eye-watering price tag of 6,088 Yuan, which converts to a little over $900. It’s also worth noting that all customers who choose to reserve themselves a device will be eligible to receive a complimentary Gear VR headset.

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Samsung declares UFS as the Excalibur of the future mobile world

Samsung unveiled the world’s first Universal Flash Store (UFS) lineup of microSD cards about a month ago. UFS is the next-generation memory standard for mobile devices and Samsung is aiming to be a leader in this sector. The company talked about its future strategy for UFS at the Mobile & IoT Forum 2016 in Seoul. Senior research fellow at Samsung’s memory division Cho Hee-chang said that “As King Arthur subjugated the whole nation with the magical sword Excalibur, the Excalibur of a future mobile world will be none other than UFS.” What an interesting analogy.

Cho predicted that the use of UFS memory will expand in the coming years as OEMs switch to this high-capacity and low-power consumption storage solution. High-capacity storage is essential in gadgets like 4K and 8K cameras and UFS will also prove to be very useful in the production of VR content and in automobiles where camera sensors are increasingly playing an important part.

Another researcher from Samsung’s memory business, Kim Do-kyun, forecasted that the external UFS card v1.0 that is capable of transfers of 600MB per second will be upgraded to v2.0 by the first half of 2018. It will be capable of transferring 1.2GB per second. Internal UFS 2.0 and 2.1 which transfer data at 1.2GB per second are expected to jump to 2.4GB per second in version 3.0 also by the first half of 2018. Both Samsung presenters at the forum said that the company will steadily lead the UFS market in the years to come.

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Samsung wins multiple design awards at IDEA 2016

The Industrial Designers Society of America has recognized Samsung in its prestigious International Design Excellence Awards competition by awarding the company a total of five design awards which include one gold, two silver and two bronze awards. It also selected 21 other Samsung products from categories such as printers and home appliances as finalists. Design innovation is integral to IDEA which is one of the most influential competitions in North America.

Samsung received a Gold award for its Serif TV which features a unique design that makes the TV blend into one’s living space. Silver awards were presented to Samsung for the Galaxy S6 edge and the Gear 360 camera. Both push the envelope on design by being the world’s first dual-edge screen smartphone and a compact 360-degree camera. Samsung received bronze awards for the Gear S2 smartwatch as well as the portable SSD T3 external drive. Products selected as finalists include Samsung’s Family Hub Refrigerator which has a massive touchscreen display right on the door, its 2016 smart TV as well as the MX A3 printer.

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Galaxy Note 7 durability test highlights questionable scratch resistance

You’ve heard it said that the Galaxy Note 7 is even the best phone on the planet, and that proves true in many ways. And yet, no matter how great the handset, there are always flaws and imperfections. This doesn’t take away from the best handsets on the market, but it does educate consumers on how to protect their financial investment(s).

YouTuber JerryRigEverything is no stranger to most diehard tech enthusiasts, as he tends to be behind most durability tests on most high-end Android handsets. He’s an Android guy; we love it. He’s been the go-to source to explain the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge CPU cooling system as well as the S7 and S7 edge’s water and dust resistance. Jerry is back to test out the durability of the Galaxy Note 7, and the results will surprise you.

Jerry tested out the scratch resistance of the new Gorilla Glass 5 display and found that the Note 7 isn’t as scratch-resistant as its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 5. The fingerprint scanner also stopped working after Jerry scratched up the Note 7′s home button, which is in stark contrast to the fingerprint sensors of other rivals that continued working after the scratch test. The Galaxy Note 7 only survived 8 seconds in the flame test before the pixels turned white, which isn’t nearly as good as the endurance of some of its high-end rivals (though Samsung’s Note 7 is quite bend-resistant).

Durability tests always showcase the strides manufacturers have made to craft a terrific handset. In the end, though, the flame endurance of the Moto Z or the home button scratch resistance of the LG G5 aren’t enough to make diehard Samsung fans return their Galaxy Note 7s, but just be sure to use a tempered glass screen protector and stay away from fires and knives, and your handset should be just fine.

You can check out the Galaxy Note 7 durability test below to find out just how Samsung’s best stacks up against the best of its rivals.

 

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