Galaxy Note 7 customers will be allowed to upgrade to the Galaxy S8 or Note 8 for 50 percent off

We first heard a couple of weeks ago that Samsung was preparing a new compensation program for Galaxy Note 7 customers. It was reported a few days back that this program might offer substantial discounts on the Galaxy S8 or the Galaxy Note 8 both of which are due to come out next year. Samsung today officially confirmed its Galaxy Upgrade program for Galaxy Note 7 owners in South Korea.

Customers in South Korea who trade in their Galaxy Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge are eligible to take part in this program. They will be eligible for an upgrade to a Galaxy S8 or a Galaxy Note 8 when the handsets are launched next year, the company said in a statement. It also confirmed that these customers will only have to pay half the price of their Galaxy S7 device before they’re eligible to exchange it for a Galaxy S8 or Galaxy Note 8. The Galaxy S8 is going to be launched early next year while the next-generation phablet is most likely going to be launched in the third quarter of 2017.

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Samsung still doesn’t know what caused the Galaxy Note 7 to explode

According to a new report published by the Wall Street Journal, Samsung is still no closer to identifying what caused its recalled flagship Galaxy Note 7 to spontaneously burst into flames while charging. The South Korean company prematurely blamed the so-called explosions on malfunctioning batteries, but it was later revealed that was not the case when replacement models started catching fire.

It’s thought that if Samsung didn’t rush to solve the problem by diagnosing the issue as a flaw with its in-house battery, the Galaxy Note 7 would still be around today. Its efforts to solve the problem in a timely manner, likely aggravated it instead. Its “voluntary recall” didn’t help the situation, either. If the firm opted for a formal recall right from the word go, fewer explosions would have occurred, which would have preserved the Note brand.

“Outside experts have pointed to a range of possible culprits, from the software that manages how the battery interacts with other smartphone components to the design of the entire circuit. Engineers are also looking into the possibility that the battery case may have been too small to house a battery of that capacity, according to one Samsung mobile executive,” writes The Wall Street Journal in its report that went live on Sunday evening.

The South Korean government is running its own comprehensive investigation to determine the exact reason for the demise of the Galaxy Note 7, but it hasn’t produced any findings just yet. One thing’s for sure, though: Samsung’s hoping that it pinpoints the cause of the problem before it takes the wraps off the long-rumored Galaxy S8 at MWC next year in order to prevent a similar situation from occurring.

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A store in Hong Kong is still selling the Galaxy Note 7 at a “special price”

Samsung has discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide due to possibilities of a fire hazard, and the company has recalled all the units it sold. However, some customers are not willing to return their devices (for unknown reasons). Now, an image of a Hong Kong store has surfaced, which is still selling the Galaxy Note 7 at a “special price”.

This image was captured by Engadget’s senior editor Richard Lai. We don’t know whether this “special price” means a discounted price or a higher than usual price. Many vendors sell imported Samsung smartphones in the grey market with no local warranty at $100-150 discounts. These vendors may have large stocks of the Galaxy Note 7 left with no easy way to return them to Samsung.

Yeah, this shop in Hong Kong is still selling Samsung Galaxy Note 7 at a “special price.” I didn’t dare to ask how much. http://pic.twitter.com/ekW4gf3ET9

— Richard Lai (@richardlai) October 22, 2016

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Samsung’s Quantum Dot SUHD TV named ‘TV of the Year’ in the UK

UK technology magazine What Hi-Fi has awarded Samsung’s first Quantum Dot SUHD television with its coveted “TV of the Year” award. The publication gave the product a total score of five out of the possible five points that were up for grabs during its award ceremony, which took place on Sunday, saying that it “excels in all different aspects.”

In addition to being named “TV of the Year,” Samsung’s Quantum Dot SUHD also earned the top ranking in three of seven categories, including the best “47-52-inch TV” by — once again — winning five out of the available five points. This rating comes shortly after British consumer journal Which? picked the product as its “TV of the Year.”

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Samsung predicted to lose major chunk of its share in India’s premium smartphone market

Samsung has been on top of India’s smartphone market for a few years now, its current market share stands at 48 percent. Market research agency Counterpoint Research has come up with a new report which claims that Samsung is going to lose a significant chunk of its market share in the high-end segment due to the Galaxy Note 7 crisis and strong potential of the iPhone 7.

The report estimates that Samsung had a 58 percent share in India’s high-end smartphone market in the third quarter of this year, only handsets priced at Rs. 30,000 ($450) and above are included in this segment. It’s predicted that the market share in this segment is going to see a significant decline in the October-December quarter this year and that Samsung would not be able to benefit from the usual increase in sales due to the festive season.

Counterpoint’s preliminary forecast is that Samsung’s market share in the high-end segment could fall down to 35 percent which would be the lowest for Samsung in many years. Apple’s share is expected to climb to 57 percent on the back of strong iPhone 7 sales. Manu Sharma, VP for Samsung’s mobile business in India, rubbished the forecast, saying that “We don’t agree at all. In fact, we are doing exceedingly well with record sales in mobile business and the festive season has started on a high for us. We continue to sustain our leadership position across all price points.” He has already said the company is leaning on the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge to drive festive sales in India this quarter and is confident that it will see an increase in market share.

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Galaxy S8 development delayed by two weeks as Samsung engineers try to find cause of Galaxy Note 7 fires

When the first few reports of the Galaxy Note 7 catching fire started coming in, Samsung looked into the matter and determined that there was a battery cell issue in the batteries it was sourcing from Samsung SDI. It decided to recall some 2.5 million units and send out fresh units with batteries from another supplier. That should have worked, but it didn’t. Even replacement units started catching fire and it quickly became evident that something else was wrong. Samsung has since killed the Galaxy Note 7 but it’s still working to find out what caused those fires in the first place.

Samsung’s mobile chief D.J. Koh has already said that the company is going to find the cause at any cost but recent reports have suggested that the company remains clueless about it. The Wall Street Journal has published a new report today which basically rounds up everything that happened over at Samsung ever since the Galaxy Note 7 was announced in August and provides some context through information received from its sources. The report also mentioned an unnamed member of the Galaxy S8 development team who apparently told the scribe that Samsung executives have delayed the development of the Galaxy S8 by two weeks as even those engineers have been tasked with finding out what caused the Galaxy Note 7 to overheat and catch fire.

Whether or not this delay is going to force Samsung to push back the Galaxy S8 announcement early next year remains to be seen, the report doesn’t raise any such possibility. The company hasn’t given any such indication right now. New Galaxy S handsets are traditionally announced at the Mobile World Congress conference and a recent rumor suggests that the Galaxy S8 will indeed to unveiled at MWC 2017.

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Galaxy S5 mini Marshmallow update appears to be rolling out

Galaxy S5 mini owners have long been waiting for Marshmallow to arrive. The last major update it received was Android 5.1.1 Lollipop which came out in 2015 so users have been waiting for a long time to get a taste of Marshmallow. It appears that Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is now being rolled out for at least one variant of the Galaxy S5 mini.

A user on the XDA Developers forum claims that the Galaxy S5 mini duos (SM-G800H) received the Marshmallow update over-the-air today in Russia. A couple of screenshots have been shared as well which show the update, software version MMB29M.G800HXXU1CPI5 being downloaded on the device, it weighs over 800MB. There have been no additional reports right now of this update being rolled out in other markets across the globe but we’ll update you when we hear more. It’s unclear right now when Marshmallow is going to be released for other variants of the Galaxy S5 mini across the globe.

Thanks, EvoWizz!

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Galaxy S7 edge reportedly caught fire during charging

I’m sure that by now many of you are tired of hearing about Galaxy Note 7 units catching fire for no apparent reason, even Samsung is said to be clueless right now about what was causing its ill-fated flagship to catch fire. We’ve also seen similar reports about the Galaxy S7 edge but they have been few and far between so there’s nothing to suggest that it has a widespread battery cell issue as the Galaxy Note 7. Another case of a Galaxy S7 edge catching fire has now been reported, it’s said that this happened while the handset was being charged with an OEM charger.

The folks at PhoneArena were told about this incident by someone who works at “one of the big” carriers in the United States. The customer who actually owns this handset came into the source’s store, apparently he had received this Galaxy S7 edge just two weeks ago after returning his replacement Galaxy Note 7 unit. The owner says that this handset was being charged overnight using an OEM charger when this happened.

This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about something like this happening to the Galaxy S7 edge as well. One user sued Samsung last month when his Galaxy S7 edge caught fire in this pocket and left him with second and third-degree burns. We picked up on a similar report a couple of weeks ago when a woman from The Philippines said her Galaxy S7 edge started burning up when her 16-year-old daughter was using it.

Samsung is yet to comment on this latest incident and only a formal investigation will reveal what caused this. However, since the Galaxy S7 edge has been out for more than six months now and such reports have been very rare, there’s no reason to panic right now as it will be premature to draw any parallels between this and the Galaxy Note 7.

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Samsung targeting Chinese customers by placing product images in streaming video content

Samsung is looking to improve its fortunes in China by working with an advertising technology company called Mirriad. It’s working with the company to place product images in streaming video content so as to capture the attention of Chinese viewers that spend quite a bit of time streaming videos online.

Mirriad’s technology can put product images right into streaming video content. For example, it inserted an ad for Samsung’s China-specific Galaxy C handset in the show “Ode to Joy” on Youku. The ad can be seen on a billboard in an urban setting as two characters emerge from an underground escalator. This ad was inserted in the episode after it was shot and produced using Mirriad’s technology. Samsung is using the method to push products like TVs and home appliances via Youku.

Samsung certainly needs all the help it can get in China. The country’s state broadcaster recently slammed the company for its handling of the Galaxy Note 7 recall in China and analysts are now of the view that the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco can hurt the performance of Samsung’s other mobile products in the lucrative market. Coming up with new ways to market its products directly to internet-savvy consumers is really in Samsung’s best interests.

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Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 7 compensation program will reportedly let customers get a Galaxy S8 for free

It was first reported earlier this week that Samsung is preparing a new compensation program for Galaxy Note 7 owners who have already been through a lot over the past couple of months. The report suggested that Samsung will offer cash discounts on the purchase of its future flagship to those customers. Samsung is already providing monetary incentives to get people to exchange the Galaxy Note 7 for one of its other devices. A report out of Korea claims that the new compensation program will allow Galaxy Note 7 customers to get the Galaxy S8 for free, or by paying a nominal amount.

According to the report, this program will be open to those who have already exchange their Galaxy Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge. They will then be able to exchange that handset for the Galaxy S8 free when it comes out early next year. The cost of the exchange will either be zero of nominal, it’s reportedly going to depend upon if it’s the customer’s first or second exchange of the Galaxy Note 7.

“The new compensation program is designed to make it easier for those who exchange their Galaxy Note 7 with existing Samsung smartphones, to shift into our next model coming in next year,” a Samsung official has been quoted as saying in the report. How Samsung will actually process these claims remains a mystery right now, official details are slim right now so until more is said about this by the company itself, I’ll continue to be skeptical about such a compensation program for Galaxy Note 7 owners.

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Samsung rolls out hefty maintenance update for the Galaxy Note 4 in Europe

As the Galaxy Note 4 approaches the end of its two year support period, Samsung has started rolling out what’s believed to be one of its final maintenance updates for the device in Europe. The upgrade — firmware version XXS1DPJ3 — weighs in at a hefty 350 MB and transports a flurry of bug fixes, stability improvements and speed optimizations to the handset, in addition to all of the patches included in this month’s security release.

The full changelog can be seen below:

• Battery optimization
• Improved performance through efficient memory management
• Stability Improvements
• Bug Fixes
• Improved core features
• Android Security Patch (October 1)

As you’d expect, the OTA is being pushed out to the Galaxy Note 4 in stages across multiple different regions in the continent. If you’d like to see if it’s ready for your device, you can do so by heading into Settings » About Device » Download Updates Manually. Alternatively, you can always wait until you receive a notification prompting you to upgrade. It’s worth noting, however, that you’ll need to have at least 50% of battery and be connected to a reliable, secure Wi-Fi network to receive the alert.

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