Wallpaper Wednesday: Architecture

Welcome to the latest edition of Wallpaper Wednesday. This week we’re focusing our attention on seven architecture-inspired backgrounds. All images are available in a FHD 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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Big Ben

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Burj Al Arab

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Dubai Aerial View

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Eiffel Tower

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Metropolis Skyline

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St Paul’s Cathedral

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Taj Mahal

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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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Samsung is certain that its latest SUHD Tvs won’t suffer from screen burn-in

Samsung has announced today that it will be providing a lifetime guarantee against screen burn-in for all of its 2016 SUHD Quantum Dot TVs. In the highly unlikely scanario that your shiny new television has an image burn to the display, the South Korean company will replace it for free.

If you’ve never experienced a burn-in before, there’s a good chance you may not know what it means. Fortunately, it’s pretty simple to explain. It usually occurs when a single image, such as an end of broadcast transmission, is displayed on a TV for an extended period of time causing it to burn into the panel.

There is one caveat, though. Samsung will only replace the TV if it was purchased and registered in the United States. If you’re in other regions, you’re out of luck, but seeing as the firm is offering lifetime cover, it seems like it’s pretty confident that burn-in won’t occur.

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Galaxy A8 (2016) spotted on AnTuTu with 64GB storage

The first benchmark results of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A8 (2016) were spotted about a month ago and since then this handset has not only received its Bluetooth certification but it has also been spotted at the FCC. This means that it’s only a matter of time before Samsung makes the Galaxy A8 (2016) official. Specifications of this handset have already been leaked but it’s interesting to note that the Galaxy A8 (2016) has been spotted on AnTuTu benchmark today with 64GB of onboard storage.

Previous reports suggest that the Galaxy A8 (2016) is going to feature a 5.7-inch full HD display with a 2.1GHz Samsung Exynos 7420 processor under the hood that’s coupled with 3GB of RAM. Its AnTuTu sojourn goes to show that the handset may be available in 32GB and 64GB internal storage versions that will also have microSD card support for external memory expansion. The handset is also expected to feature an 8-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel selfie camera as well as Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. In case you’re curious about what this handset looks like, renders of the Galaxy A8 (2016) were leaked recently. Since it has been over a year since this handset’s predecessor was launched it’s quite likely that Samsung might make the Galaxy A8 (2016) official in the near future.

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Samsung has stopped airing Galaxy Note 7 commercials on TV

With all the bad press Samsung has been getting recently you would expect the company to go on a marketing blitz to reassure its customers and entice more people to purchase its products. It isn’t exactly doing that at the moment if the Galaxy Note 7 is considered. It turns out that Samsung has stopped airing Galaxy Note 7 commercials on TV even on home turf in South Korea, you can expect this to be the case in other markets as well.

One of the reasons why it may have stopped airing commercials for its new flagship smartphone is that sales of the Galaxy Note 7 have been suspended for over a week now. Samsung will not be resuming sales across the globe until it has enough inventory to replace all Galaxy Note 7 units that have been already shipped, some expect that sales might not be resumed until next month. It doesn’t make sense to air commercials for a product that you’re not currently selling.

KBS, MBC and SBS are the three top broadcasting stations in South Korea and on Samsung’s request, they have stopped airing commercials of the Galaxy Note 7. The ad slots Samsung had already purchased are now being used to run commercials for its other products like TVs and refrigerators.

Samsung poured a lot of time and resources into developing a big marketing campaign for the Galaxy Note 7 before the handset was launched and it’s now having to pull it due to the recall. We can expect Samsung to go on a marketing blitz once the recall is done with, but some argue that the damage to the Galaxy Note 7′s image is permanent, so Samsung would be better off by launching the Galaxy S8 earlier than schedule.

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Samsung China will recall 1,858 Galaxy Note 7 units

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine – China’s quality watchdog – has confirmed today that Samsung will be recalling 1,858 units of the Galaxy Note 7 in the country. These units are different from the ones that Samsung is officially selling in China right now which is why sales of the Galaxy Note 7 haven’t been suspended in the People’s Republic even though they have been suspended in all other markets.

These units were partly sold in China via an official Samsung website prior to the handset’s proper launch in China on September 1 as part of the company’s testing scheme. In China, Samsung is officially selling Galaxy Note 7 units which feature batteries from China’s ATL that’s now believed to be the only supplier of Galaxy Note 7 batteries as Samsung SDI looks into the flaw to try and understand why this entire debacle happened in the first place. Customers who purchased their Galaxy Note 7 in China after it was formally released have nothing to worry about even though it’s the only place in the world where you can officially purchase a Galaxy Note 7 from Samsung right now.

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Galaxy S8 release might be advanced due to the Galaxy Note 7 recall

It has been over a week since Samsung confirmed the global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 due to faulty batteries. Samsung has stopped selling the Galaxy Note 7 across the globe and sales are likely to remain suspended until it provides replacement inventory because customers who need to exchange their existing units are definitely going to be prioritized. Only then will Samsung resume sales and the company is yet to announce a timeframe for that.

Some analysts believe that this is going to force Samsung to advance the Galaxy S8 release next year. This could be a possibility given that Samsung hasn’t had ample time to sell its latest flagship smartphone. It has had to recall the Galaxy Note 7 merely two weeks after the new flagship was released and it’s expected that sales might not be resumed in some key markets like the United States until October.

Samsung will have to make up for lost time and we can surely expect a marketing blitz for the Galaxy Note 7 after this entire debacle is over as the company tries to rebuild consumer confidence in its new phablet. Analysts believe that launching a new flagship smartphone is going to be a more realistic solution to deal with this recall debacle. An early launch of the Galaxy S8 could help Samsung reduce sales impact from the recall. Samsung may have to spend a lot of money to convince customers that the Galaxy Note 7 – which now has a tainted reputation – is safe. Dare I say it would be easier to make customers focus on its next latest and greatest smartphone where no lingering concerns about exploding batteries exist.

This is all speculation at this point in time as the company hasn’t said anything about the Galaxy S8 at this point in time. Samsung traditionally launches new Galaxy S flagships at the Mobile World Congress and next year’s MWC takes place in February so it’s already quite early. Just how soon the launch could take place next year than MWC in February is anybody’s guess right now.

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Samsung blames manufacturing flaw for exploding Galaxy Note 7 batteries

Samsung has already provided some explanation about what’s causing Galaxy Note 7 batteries to explode and now an unpublished report that the company provided to regulators in South Korea reveal the reason why Samsung has had to recall 2.5 million units of the Galaxy Note 7 merely weeks after the handset was launched. Samsung submitted this report to the Korea Agency for Technology and Standards earlier this month and in it the company blames a small manufacturing flaw for the exploding batteries.

The company says that its preliminary findings reveal that there was a manufacturing flaw which placed pressure on plates inside the battery cells. This is what caused the negative and positive poles in the battery to come into contact and trigger excessive heat which ends up burning the device itself. Samsung says that it continues to investigate this battery issue with its battery manufacturers and that it’s going to carry out thorough analysis to find out “the exact cause” of this issue.

Samsung SDI is widely believed to have supplied these faulty batteries for the Galaxy Note 7. Recent reports suggest that Samsung will now be sourcing batteries for the Galaxy Note 7 from China’s ATL exclusively, at least until such time when battery cells created by its battery-making division for the Galaxy Note 7 are not a fire hazard.

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Samsung will no longer source Galaxy Note 7 batteries from its own battery-making division

Several reports have suggested that the faulty Galaxy Note 7 batteries at risk of overheating and explosion were sourced from Samsung SDI, the company’s battery-making division, and it’s believed to have met 70 percent of Samsung’s demand for the Galaxy Note 7. China’s Amperex Technology Limited or ATL is believed to have met the remaining 30 percent with focus on units headed to China. This is one of the reasons why customers in China are not affected by the Galaxy Note 7 recall.

The company is yet to assign blame to Samsung SDI publicly and it hasn’t said whether it’s going to stop sourcing batteries from it for the Galaxy Note 7 but this possibility has been rumored before. Reuters now hears from a person with knowledge of the plans that Samsung will be making ATL its main battery supplier for the Galaxy Note 7.

The scribe’s source says that ATL received orders from Samsung for additional Galaxy Note 7 batteries soon after it announced the global recall, it’s also said that ATL will completely take over the battery supply for this handset at least for the time being. ATL’s chief operating officer Joe Kit Chu Lam said he couldn’t comment on a specific client’s business but he did mention that his company saw a “significant increase” in business this month.

ATL expects this situation to continue for “the coming one to two quarters,” and doesn’t believe that this will create any capacity issue for the company. This means that ATL has the capacity to be the main supplier of Galaxy Note 7′s batteries even if Samsung decides not to source them from Samsung SDI for this handset. Multiple Korean news outlets are now reporting that Samsung will exclusively use batteries supplied by ATL for the Galaxy Note 7.

 

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Exclusive: Galaxy S8 code names and the interesting story behind its model numbers

The Galaxy S7 has had a great run this year and it has done quite a bit to improve Samsung’s fortunes. Samsung will obviously want this momentum to continue next year as well so it’s going to have to hit the ball out of the park yet again with its next-generation flagship handset which will presumably be called the Galaxy S8.

We have heard from our insiders that there are two versions of the Galaxy S8 which are internally referred to as Dream and Dream2 and bear model numbers SM-G950 and SMG955 respectively. If you know your Samsung model numbers you might be aware that the Galaxy S7 bears model number SM-G930 and Samsung normally bumps up the model number by 10 whenever it launches a successor. By this logic, the Galaxy S8 should have model number SM-G940 but it doesn’t and there’s a good reason for that.

Tetraphobia – the practice of associating the number 4 with bad luck – is a thing in South Korea. The number 4 is usually skipped in the country’s hospitals and public buildings while in some buildings the 4th floor is denoted by the alphabet F instead of the number 4. Samsung has done this in the past as well when it assigned model number GT-I9300 to the Galaxy S3 but GT-I9500 to the Galaxy S4.

There have been some rumors recently that Samsung might only launch an edge variant of the Galaxy S8. We hear that two versions of the next flagship handset are in the pipeline right now but since there’s quite a long way to go before the Galaxy S8 is due, who knows, Samsung might end up dropping one. The Galaxy S8 will be launched early next year.

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Samsung production facilities halted after South Korea experiences its biggest quake

Samsung was forced to halt the production line for the precision mould it uses to create the small plastic casing for its smartphones in its manufacturing plant located in Gumi, South Korea, after an incredibly powerful earthquake rocked the country on Monday.

The firm’s main assembly line for smartphone production continued to operate without interruption, though. However, it was left with no other choice than to temporarily pause the actions of three facilities that have equipment to print chip circuits in Giheung and Hwasung.

Fortunately, Samsung was able to resume all operations after a safety inspection yesterday without incurring major losses. After all, the last thing the firm need to deal with is faulty machinery seeing as it has to replace over 2 million Galaxy Note 7′s.

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Rumor: Samsung looking to replace the 3.5 mm headphone jack with a proprietary port

Apple’s has done away with the 3.5 mm headphone jack with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, a move that had been rumored for long and actually came true earlier this month. Apple wants people to use its new wireless AirPods headphones instead; the company is also paving the way for accessory makers to follow suit and make wireless headphones the next big thing, and come up with headphones that work with the company’s proprietary Lightning port. According to Geek, Samsung might just be thinking of coming out with a proprietary port of its own in the future, following in the footsteps of its one and only true competitor.

According to the website, Samsung is only exploring the move at this point. If the company is indeed working on an in-house port, Geek says it could look at licensing the port to other Android manufacturers. Frankly, this rumor doesn’t make too much sense. Samsung, for all its resources and innovations, doesn’t command the same power as Apple to make a replacement standard for a widely accepted existing one a big thing in the market. Should Samsung choose to come out with a new standard, it will have to impress a lot of companies with the benefits in order to make the new standard popular.

Of course, it would also have to think about what the consumers will say. Samsung’s decision to remove something like the microSD slot from its phones last year was met with strong opposition, and it wouldn’t be in the company’s best interests to do so with the headphone jack. But then again, with Apple having said goodbye to the 3.5 mm jack, it is possible the market will move towards the same. If that happens, Samsung certainly has the resources to lead the way for a new standard backed by manufacturers.

In any case, provided this rumor is even slightly grounded in reality, it would be a considerable time before the headphone jack goes away for good from the smartphone market. What do you think of Samsung possibly coming out with a proprietary headphone jack of its own? Do you think the industry needs such standards to move forward, or do you think innovation should take place elsewhere and not in the way people enjoy audio on their smartphones?

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Galaxy Grand Prime+ receives Wi-Fi certification

Three weeks ago, an unidentified Galaxy-branded smartphone, which we believe to be the Galaxy Grand Prime+, surfaced on the official Geekbench online database bearing the model number SM-G532F.

Unfortunately, the listing didn’t shine much light on the device’s specifications, other than that it’ll sport a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and will ship running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

Details regarding the handset’s appearance and intended launch date have been almost non-existent, too, but it now looks like it’s one step closer to hitting the shelves as two variants — one regular model and one dual-SIM version — have been granted Wi-Fi certification.

For those who are unaware, Wi-Fi certification is one of the final tests required to launch a new smartphone. The Galaxy Grand Prime+ passed Samsung’s testing procedure when it was imported into India last month, which means the last thing that’s required is FCC approval.

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