Pearl Black Galaxy S7 edge launching in South Korea on December 9

Samsung’s answer to the Jet Black iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is finally on its way to the market, according to new information we have received from our Weibo source. The darker black color for the Galaxy S7 edge is dubbed Pearl Black and will be launching on December 9 in South Korea.

As confirmed by live images we had seen earlier and by the official images from Samsung, the Pearl Black S7 edge doesn’t look all that different from the Black Onyx variant, especially in the way the device looks when light hits the front and rear glass. As for specifications, the only change in the Pearl Black version will be the presence of 128GB of on-board storage; the rest will remain the same and the device will offer the same excellent experience that you expect.

Samsung’s official announcement of the new color option for its curvy flagship should happen shortly. It remains to be seen if the Pearl Black variant will launch outside South Korea; even if it does, it is likely to be less widely available than the Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge.

What do you think of the new S7 edge color?

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[Poll] Would you prefer the 3.5mm headphone jack for Galaxy S8 over stereo speakers and bigger battery?

We exclusively reported earlier today that Samsung is going to remove the standard 3.5mm headphone jack from the Galaxy S8. It’s likely that the space saved by removing the headphone jack could be utilized for a slightly bigger battery and perhaps even stereo speakers. So the question we need you to answer is whether you’d prefer to keep the headphone jack instead of better speakers and a bigger battery? Vote down below and do share your thoughts about this with us in the comments section below.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Daily Deal: Pick up a Galaxy Tab Active for just $194.82

Looking for a new tablet, but aren’t too fussed about having the latest specifications? If so, we have a cracking deal for you. For a limited time only, you can pick up the ruggedized 8-inch Galaxy Tab Active for just $194.82 from Amazon, which is a total saving of $55.17.

With regards to internals, the Galaxy Tab Active sports a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, an Adreno 305 GPU, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable internal storage, a 3.15MP rear-facing camera, a 1.2MP selfie shooter and a 4,450mAh battery.

If you like the sound of the Galaxy Tab Active and want to take advantage of this promotion, hit the Buy Now button below. We strongly advise you to hurry, though, as Amazon only has a limited amount of inventory available for this specific deal, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Buy Now

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Verizon cancels Galaxy Beta Program for Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

It is said that all things must come to an end. That is true, not only in life, but also in the latest beta program for Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 edge customers. Samsung is making the following Nougat beta announcement in the Galaxy Beta app:

Dear Customers, Verizon will stay on the original software for the remainder of this trial. Beta trial users will be upgraded to the commercial N release when it is available early next year. Thanks, Galaxy Beta Program Team

What this means is that Verizon will no longer endorse the Galaxy Beta Program on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, so customers who’ve been making the most of the program will either remain on their current beta version or exit the program completely and revert back to the current Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Beta participants will get Nougat, but they’ll have to wait until “early next year” Samsung says. No, Android Nougat won’t arrive just in time for Christmas.

We don’t know if this will be permanent for upcoming OS updates, but it certainly seems abrupt at this point and is discouraging to Samsung customers with Big Red and intrudes upon Samsung’s own vision for its customer base.

Verizon has not only done this, but other past actions that make Big Red suspect when it comes to Samsung devices. In the Galaxy S5, Verizon customers were denied Download Booster until a later update added it back. On the Galaxy Note 5, Verizon customers were denied Samsung’s Write On PDF feature until Verizon brought Marshmallow to the Note 5 back in March of this year (though Samsung did bring it to the Play Store even earlier). Even with the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung’s 15GB Samsung Cloud storage was hidden from users who had to use an app shortcut to find it in their software.

Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 edge customers, what do you think? Have you received the message yet? Planning to stay in the Galaxy Beta Program until Nougat lands, or revert back to Marshmallow?

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Samsung defeats Apple in US Supreme Court showdown

Samsung’s main patent battle with Apple made its way through the United States federal court system for almost five years before the Korean giant finally decided to approach the Supreme Court. It was evident from the get go that whatever the apex court decided, it would be a landmark decision given that the United States Supreme Court has not ruled on a designed patent case in more than a century.

The ruling has been handed down today. Samsung has defeated Apple. It was a unanimous decision, 8-0, in favor of Samsung as the justices ruled the violation of design patents may only involve a component and not the entire product. This means that Apple can’t claim all proceedings from an infringing device. The appeals court ruling which said that Samsung had copied key iPhone designs and awarded Apple $399 million damages has been thrown out. The Supreme Court has now sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

This lawsuit started in 2011 and Apple was initially awarded $1 billion. Samsung was able to get the amount reduced through subsequent appeals. The company paid Apple $548 million in damages last December but said that it reserved the right to claim or obtain reimbursement of any or all of the amount if the judgment was modified, reversed or set aside entirely. The Supreme Court ruling gives Samsung a chance of getting back almost half a billion dollars from Apple.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a patent violator doesn’t have to give all of the profits from the sales of an infringing device if the infringement was limited to certain components and not the entire device. This ruling is going to have a ripple effect on the technology industry as it was one of the most closely watched patent battles in history, the history which will now remember Samsung as the victor.

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Samsung patent reveals foldable smartphone prototype

We’ve seen a lot of patents from Samsung concerning foldable smartphones. These patents normally include drawings which give us an idea of the technology that the company has cooked up. A new Samsung patent has been published in South Korea today and it provides us our first look at what might possibly be a proper prototype of a foldable smartphone from Samsung.

This patent follows one published recently which included renders of a flexible Samsung smartphone in the advanced stage of development. The image you see here is likely of a real prototype that Samsung has been working on. Samsung filed for this particular patent back in May last year but it has only been published today. The illustrated device has two hinges, a removable camera lens and a flexible display made of three parts.

Depending upon how the device is folded, the home button may either be below the display or on the side of the socket with the fixed camera lens. In the second scenario the front of the device is then completely occupied by one large display.

Countless reports suggest that Samsung is going to unveil its first foldable smartphone in 2017 but the company is yet to confirm anything. We’ll continue to see more patents and hear more rumors about a foldable smartphone until the company says something about it and who knows when that’s going to happen.

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Exclusive: Galaxy S8 is not going to feature a 3.5mm headphone jack

If you were cross with Samsung for ditching removable batteries with the Galaxy S6 then you might not like what it’s going to do with the Galaxy S8. We can exclusively confirm that Samsung is going to remove the standard 3.5mm headphone jack from the Galaxy S8. This means that all of your existing headphones will not be compatible with the upcoming flagship unless you use a USB Type-C adapter as the Galaxy S8 will feature a USB Type-C port. This also means that you won’t be able to plug in the Galaxy S8 and use wired headphones at the same time.

We’ve seen Apple take this step with the iPhone 7 as well as a handful of Chinese OEMs. Apple took a lot of flak for this decision but the company says that it showed courage by making this decision to move beyond the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. We don’t know how Samsung is going to put a spin on its decision since fans are likely to lash out but there are some functional advantages to it.

Removing the 3.5mm headphone jack enables Samsung to make the Galaxy S8 thinner while also freeing up more space inside for a bigger battery. Samsung may also integrate stereo speakers which some believe will be made in collaboration with Harman, a company that Samsung is acquiring for $8 billion. Perhaps the company will try to convince customers that this is a trade worth making.

Samsung is going to officially unveil the Galaxy S8 in February next year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It’s not going to confirm anything about the device before the event so it’s likely that the company might still have some surprises for fans up its sleeve.

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Exclusive: Galaxy S8 does feature a USB Type-C port

This isn’t going to come as a surprise to many of you. Samsung introduced the USB Type-C port with the Galaxy Note 7 earlier this year. It was the company’s first smartphone with the latest USB technology. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Note 7 met an early demise and now the Galaxy S8 is going to carry the baton forward.

We’ve heard from our sources that the Galaxy S8 does indeed come with a USB Type-C port. That was to be expected since Samsung already took this step with the Galaxy Note 7 and it was only logical for it to bring it to the Galaxy S8 as well. The USB Type-C port will enable support for the latest fast charging technology as well as provide significantly faster data transfer speeds. It’s also going to be compatible with the new Gear VR headset that Samsung launched alongside the Galaxy Note 7 a few months ago.

Samsung is due to unveil the Galaxy S8 at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in February. It’s only then we’ll get to hear all of the details officially from the company about its latest and greatest flagship smartphone.

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Exclusive: Galaxy S8 display retains 2K resolution, new material enhances quality, home button ditched

There have been countless rumors over the past couple of months that the Galaxy S8 might feature a 4K display but we’re now hearing from our sources that this may not be the case. Our sources reveal that the Galaxy S8 display retains the 2K resolution of its predecessor but since the Super AMOLED panel will be made out of a new material, it’s going to be all about quality over quantity with the next flagship.

The new Super AMOLED display of the Galaxy S8 is going to have the standard RGB arrangement, it will consume less power and will have a longer service life. We performed a detailed screen analysis of the Galaxy S7 edge earlier this year and found that it has the exact same pixel layout as the Galaxy S6 edge – the Diamond PenTile layout with 7,372,800 pixels.

That’s not going to be the case with the Galaxy S8 display which will have a Standard RGB arrangement with 11,059,200 pixels. It retains the 2560×1440 pixel resolution of its predecessor, though, so it’s going to be called a 2K display. The RGB array is going to provide a noticeable improvement in virtual reality environments.

Samsung may have decided against a 4K display for the Galaxy S8 because either it deems it too early or finds it to be a bit too expensive at this point in time. The company appears to be favoring quality this time around and you can’t really fault it for that. Better to have a display that feels like it has actually been improved than one that can merely be marketed as being 4K.

We’ve also heard that Samsung is going to ditch the home button in its next flagship. The screen-to-body ratio is going to be very high and the design will be similar to that of the Galaxy Note 7. The fingerprint sensor will be embedded within the display itself making the Galaxy S8 the first handset to feature proper optical fingerprint identification.

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Samsung Electronics vice chairman denies role in South Korean political scandal

Lee Jae-Yong, the vice president of Samsung Electronics, has denied the company’s role in South Korea’s political scandal involving the country’s president. He also stated that the conglomerate did not pay any bribes to gain business favors.

The political scandal includes South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, her close friend Choi Soon-sil, and the country’s six large business groups including Samsung, Hyundai, and Hanjin. Choi Soon-sil, the president’s close friend, allegedly used her influence to collect bribes from the country’s conglomerates for herself and her family’s gain.

It was revealed in an investigation that the business groups, including Samsung, paid bribes (or financial support) to foundations started by Choi Soon-sil as well as to her daughter’s equestrian career. However, the chaebols have denied any involvement in paying bribes and said that they were victims of extortion.

It is also being said that the group used Choi Soon-sil’s influence to force the national pension service – which owned a large stake in Samsung C&T – to vote in favor of a merger of two of Samsung’s affiliate companies. However, Lee has denied these allegations and said that Park didn’t ask for donations or financial support.

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Samsung rolls out firmware update for the Gear S3 in Europe

Samsung’s now in the midst of rolling out its first firmware update for the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier in Europe. The upgrade is identical to the one that started making the rounds in the United States last week, bringing improved GPS performance for the Golf NAVI and S Health applications, in addition to some changes to the time zone settings for Russia in the World Clock application.

The update, which carries the version number R760XXU1APK6/R760OXA1APK6, has already arrived on our units in the Netherlands and United Kingdom, but will make its way to other countries in the continent over the course of the next couple of weeks — so be sure to keep your eyes pinned to your Gear S3 as you’ll receive an alert from the Gear Manager application as soon as it’s available to download.

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Samsung’s collaborations yield new band variety for the Gear S3

Samsung today announced that it has collaborated with brands that “understand the value of quality” to create a new variety of bands for the Gear S3. These band options will now be sold in addition to Samsung’s own line of bands for the Gear S3. Samsung says that the new options have been beautifully crafted and that they fit every budget and style.

Braloba Group member Strap Studio is one of the leading design companies that creates straps for wearable devices in collaboration with Samsung. Its collection includes bands made from premium Italian leather available in 15 different colors. The bands have an easy change spring bar system which enables users to swap them out within seconds even when they don’t have the tools on hand.

TheSom a.k.a SLG Design is a well-known maker of fashionable technology accessories. Its Gear S3 bands are available in materials like leather and canvas with a diverse range of colors, textures and patterns.

These new bands are now available for purchase from the respective companies’ website. Samsung is also going to sell them through its online store in South Korea and its retail stores in Singapore, Hong Kong and Mexico later this month.

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Galaxy S8 front camera autofocus seems more plausible as Samsung trademarks ‘Smart AF’

It has been suggested in recent reports that the Galaxy S8 front camera is going to feature autofocus which is going to make your selfies look even better. Samsung’s latest trademark filing with the European Union Intellectual Property Office has been uncovered which reveals that Samsung has trademarked the term “Smart AF.” The accompanying description mentions that this trademark will be associated with “mobile phones; smartphones; tablet computers; auto-focus photographic cameras for mobile phones, smartphones.”

It’s common for trademark filings to reveal some details about upcoming devices which is why this latest trademark filing by Samsung needs to be highlighted. Reports suggest that the Galaxy S8 front camera is going to feature autofocus and if that really is the case, it’s going to further set the new flagship apart from the competition. Samsung might very well end up calling this feature Smart AF.

Samsung hasn’t confirmed anything about the Galaxy S8′s cameras at this point in time. The company is due to unveil the new flagship at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in February. It’s very unlikely that it will reveal details about the new flagship prior to the event.

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Rumor: Samsung Galaxy S8 could come in 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch screen size variants, and with stereo speakers

We’ve heard plenty of rumors regarding Samsung’s next flagship smartphones, including the ones which claim that the Galaxy S8 would feature an optical fingerprint sensor and a touch-based power button. Now, a new rumor states that the Galaxy S8 could come in two screen sizes: 5.7 inches and 6.2 inches. This is an increase of more than half an inch when compared to the screens on the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. However, it is being rumored that the screens on the upcoming smartphones curve on all the sides, so there will be minimal impact on the physical size of these devices.

It is also being rumored that the Galaxy S8 could come with stereo speakers, especially since the iPhone 7 already have them. However, it is not yet known whether they will be made by HARMAN, which Samsung recently acquired, but they could be licensed by HARMAN. This rumor doesn’t gel well with a previous report which stated that HARMAN-powered speakers could be introduced in Galaxy smartphones, but no sooner than 2018.

Take these rumors with an appropriate grain of salt as we can’t be sure of anything till Samsung announces these features on the stage during the unveiling of the Galaxy S8 smartphones next year.

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Samsung partners with the George Enescu National Museum to introduce an immersive Gear VR exhibit

Samsung has partnered with the George Enescu National Museum to create a unique and interactive journey that captures the classical musician’s legacy in a way that resonates with the digital generation — and that’s, of course, a VR experience.

The Enescu 360 Gear VR exhibit is currently on display at the George Enescu National Museum in Bucharest, Romania. Using the latest VR technology, the experience offers visitiors a glimpse into the artist’s life during his formative and most creative years.

An image of the George Enescu National Museum taken from the Gear VR Gateway application.

Those who can’t physically make it to the venue in the Romanian capital to attend the exhibit can take part in the comfort of their living room. All they have to do is download the Gear VR Gateway application, which is available in the Oculus Store.

This isn’t the first time that Samsung has tried to preserve George Enescu’s legacy. Back in June, it developed an interactive “At Enescu’s Home” application for use at the Memorial Museum in Dorohoi, another city in Romania.

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Samsung reveals details about the December security patch

Samsung has provided all of the details that we need to know about the final security maintenance release of 2016. The company will soon start rolling out the December security patch to major flagship smartphones as part of the monthly security maintenance release process. The patch includes fixes from Google for the core Android OS as well as those discovered by Samsung.

Aside from dozens of Google patches, the company identified 15 Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures that were patched to improve the safety and performance of its devices. These include fixes for a bug that showed notifications intended to be hidden on the lock screen and mobile hotspot being activated without user interaction and the password being exposed in the log.

It’s only a matter of time now before Samsung starts sending out the December security patch to some of its flagship smartphones. Keep your eyes peeled for an over-the-air update notification if you happen to one of these devices.

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