Samsung to disable radio functionality on the Galaxy Note 7 in Canada next week

Samsung has today announced that it will distribute a compulsory firmware update to disable all Bluetooth, cellular and Wi-Fi radios on the Galaxy Note 7 in Canada next week. This news comes shortly after it started rolling out an upgrade for the device in the region to limit the battery’s maximum charge to just 60 percent of its total capacity.

We strongly urge any customers still using their Note7 to return their device to the place of purchase for a refund or exchange between December 7th and December 15th. We have been in continuous communication with Note7 customers to remind them about the need to return their recalled device and will continue to communicate daily with a push notification about this network deactivation event to ensure they continue to receive adequate notice.

It’s clear that the firm is taking the danger the Galaxy Note 7 poses to customers seriously as it’s effectively turning all units in the wild into expensive Android-powered media players with no access to the Internet and cellular services. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi disablement will be implemented as early as December 12, while the full cellular cut-off won’t take place until December 15.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 edge is now available in Black Pearl with 128GB storage

We had reported yesterday that Samsung could introduce the Black Pearl variant of the Galaxy S7 edge in South Korea, and Samsung has now made it official. The company has launched its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7 edge, in its seventh color: Black Pearl. The new color variant will be available in select markets starting December 9.

Samsung says that the new, glossy Black Pearl color variant “radiates quality and luxury” and that it was “designed to be modern and striking.” Apart from the new color, the newly announced variant of the Galaxy S7 edge also features 128GB of internal storage. Even though the company hasn’t announced the markets where this new variant would be launched, it is safe to assume that it would be available in South Korea starting tomorrow.

The Galaxy S7 edge is now available in seven colors: Black Onyx, Black Pearl, Blue Coral, Gold Platinum, Pink Gold, Silver Titanium, and White Pearl. Have a look at the images of the Galaxy S7 edge in its Black Pearl color trim below.

 

 

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BBM app will soon be launched for Tizen devices

BlackBerry’s BBM was one of the most popular IM apps on smartphones back in the day. However, its popularity decreased after the likes of WhatsApp, iMessage, and WeChat entered the race. To compete with these new IM services, BlackBerry launched its app on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone over the past few years. Now, the company is planning to launch its IM app for Tizen devices.

Indonesia is one market where BBM is still famous, and BlackBerry is trying to capitalize on that aspect. Around 90% of the smartphone users in this emerging country still use BBM. It’s an emerging market where cheap smartphones are sold like hot cakes, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if Tizen phones gain popularity in the market. Matthew Talbot, CEO of BBM, has reportedly confirmed that the company’s IM app will soon make its way for Tizen smartphones. Even though he didn’t provide any specific dates, Talbot said that the app should be available soon.

Tizen OS is not much different to the Android OS. So it’s not a difficult thing for an Android application developer, to create Tizen applications.

This is good news for Samsung, and it will only help to increase the popularity of Tizen phones, at least in some markets. The South Korean electronics giant is trying hard to popularize Tizen by using it in its wearables and TVs. BlackBerry and Samsung have been working closely for over two years now, and they’ve focussed on information and device security.

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Blue Coral Samsung Galaxy S7 edge launched in India

The Blue Coral Galaxy S7 edge has made its way to yet another market. Samsung has announced the new color option in India today, with shipments set to commence on December 15. India was one of the very few countries where Samsung didn’t launch the Blue Coral Galaxy Note 7, so it is great to see the company isn’t doing the same for the blue S7 edge.

The Blue Coral S7 edge is priced at Rs. 50,900, which is also the price for the existing color variants. Interestingly, the silver S7 edge is no longer listed on Samsung’s official Indian website. The company had told us that spare parts for the silver version of the phone might not be easily available in India when we sent in one of our phones for repair after its screen broke, so it looks like the silver S7 edge is no longer available in the country.

The availability of the blue S7 edge comes at a very good time for Indian consumers then, and if you’re in two minds about whether the Galaxy S7 edge is worth purchasing here in late 2016, do check out our long-term review of the device.

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Samsung Galaxy A (2017) devices confirmed to have IP68 certification, USB Type-C ports, 16 MP front cameras

Samsung hasn’t made anything official yet, but it looks like the Galaxy A (2017) smartphones have been unveiled at a small event in Iran. We have seen the three devices – the Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5, and the Galaxy A7 – make numerous appearances over the course of the last few weeks, and we are finally getting confirmation on some of their features thanks to the folks over at Toranji.ir.

First and foremost, the Galaxy A (2017) bring water and dust resistance to Samsung’s mid-range lineup, something we were the first ones to report. These phones are rated for the highest level of resistance that we have seen on smartphones – all three handsets are IP68 certified, which means they can survive 1.5-meter deep water for 30 minutes and are protected from pretty much every form of dust. There’s also a USB Type-C port on the new lineup; with the demise of the Galaxy Note 7, the A (2017) phones are now the only ones in Samsung’s galaxy to feature the reversible USB port.

Samsung has also put in rather huge batteries inside the handsets. The new Galaxy A3 (which was revealed in press renders earlier today) gets the biggest upgrade – it has a 3,000 mAh battery, which is 700 mAh more than the battery that powered the 2016 iteration. With its 4.7-inch 720p display, the A3 (2017) should offer nearly two days of battery life with regular usage. The A5 (2017) and A7 (2017) might not last as long but should manage to easily get through the day with their 3,300 mAh and 3,500 mAh batteries.

Samsung has also switched to a rounder design for the new A series handsets, which look very similar to the Galaxy S7. There is no Edge screen on offer here, despite what a recent rumor had suggested, and we’re guessing Samsung will be keeping its curved displays exclusive to its flagship smartphones at least until the Galaxy S8. The front and rear cameras are both 16-megapixel sensors (that’s the highest-resolution front camera to grace a Galaxy smartphone) and sit flush with the rest of the body.

Samsung will be launching the A (2017) phones in black, silver, gold, and rose gold, although there is currently no word on when they will go on sale or get a global announcement. What do you make of the company’s latest mid-range smartphones?

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Wallpaper Wednesday: Christmas Season

Welcome to the latest edition of Wallpaper Wednesday. This week we’re focusing our attention on ten Christmas-inspired wallpapers. 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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Blur Tree

 

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Gingerbread Man

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Material Tree

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Snowman

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Snowy Tree

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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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What’s New With Nougat Part 14: Samsung Cloud pricing revealed

We’re testing the latest Android 7.0 Nougat beta that Samsung released today for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge to find out if it brings any new features. We’ve already told you about Samsung Pass and we’ve now found out that the latest beta build also reveals Samsung Cloud pricing. Samsung Cloud was launched with the Galaxy Note 7 in August. It enables users to easily switch their data to a new phone or restore an older device, all Galaxy Note 7 users were also promised 15GB of free Samsung Cloud storage for their personal files.

Samsung Cloud continuously backs up native apps like Contacts and Calendar as well as selected third-party applications so users can simply pick up where they left off on a new device. Samsung Cloud also backs up the home screen and user settings. While all Galaxy Note 7 customers were promised 15GB of free storage it was evident that paid tiers would be offered as well to users who needed more storage.

Those who are running the latest Nougat beta on their handset need to launch the Settings app and go to the Cloud and Accounts option followed by Manage Store and Change Store Plan to see the pricing. Users will be able to purchase 50GB and 200GB of cloud storage per month from Samsung for 0.99 and 2.99 euro respectively.

Samsung Cloud will be available for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge once the flagships receive the Android 7.0 Nougat update early next year. Don’t forget to check out our What’s New With Nougat series to find out more about the features that Nougat brings.

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Daily Deal: Grab Samsung’s dual-port fast car charger at 36% discount

Most people charge their smartphones when they’re on their way to the office or on a trip as GPS navigation eats up a lot of battery charge. So, it is almost mandatory to have a fast charger in your car. If you have a Fast Charge compatible smartphone from Samsung, you should pick up this dual-port charger. It is currently priced at $22.55 on Amazon as opposed to its usual price of $35.28, which is a discount of 36 percent.

The Fast Charge Dual-Port Vehicle Charger from Samsung has two full-sized USB ports. It can charge Fast Charge compatible smartphones from 0 to 50% in about 30 minutes. The company claims that it can charge USB-C equipped phones at 2A. The charger also comes with a detachable Micro-USB to USB cable as well as a USB to USB-C cable. So, hit the source link to grab the charger before stock runs out!

 

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Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) renders leak, here are the images and a video

We exclusively reported three months ago that Samsung is readying 2017 variants of its Galaxy A series smartphones. The smallest of these devices, the Galaxy A3 (2017), appeared on Geekbench as well as in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth certification documents. Now, the render images and videos of the Galaxy A3 (2017) have been leaked.

The folks over at MySmartPrice have published renders of the Galaxy A3 (2017) along with a video showcasing the device in 360 degrees. Its metal body is 7.89mm thin, and the phone has a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED screen as well as a USB Type-C port. This would be the second Samsung smartphone (after the Galaxy Note 7) to feature a USB Type-C port.

It seems to have rounded corners and a 2.5D glass over its display. There’s a SIM card slot on the top, a headphone jack and the USB Type-C port at the bottom, the power button and a loudspeaker on its right side, and volume buttons on the left side. According to previous reports, the device might come with an octa-core Snapdragon processor, 2GB RAM, a microSD card slot, a 13-megapixel primary camera, and an 8-megapixel secondary camera.

What do you about the design of the Galaxy A3 (2017)? Have a look at the images below and let us know your thoughts about the phone in the comments section.

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Galaxy A7 (2017) could launch soon with a dual-edge display

It’s December, and it was around the same time last year that Samsung made its Galaxy A (2016) smartphones official. We have been expecting the 2017 editions to make an official appearance thanks to the number of leaks that have cropped up in recent weeks, and it looks like the Galaxy A7 (2017) could be unveiled very soon. The invite for the phone’s unveiling in Iran has surfaced online, revealing something very interesting about the handset.

We recently heard that Samsung could begin using curved displays on the Galaxy A lineup, and it looks like the company is doing it this year itself. The curves on the A7 (2017)’s display aren’t as large as the ones on Samsung’s flagship Edge smartphones, but there are certainly present on the device. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that Samsung is bringing curved screens to its mid-range smartphones so soon – the company has started producing dual-edge screens for Chinese manufacturers, and it wouldn’t want to be left behind by not offering its own consumers a cheaper way of getting a smartphone with a curved display.

The Galaxy A7 (2017) could also feature IP68 water and dust resistance, another feature that might stop being exclusive to Samsung’s flagship phones, in addition to having a USB Type-C port. Other specs should include a 5.7-inch Full Super AMOLED display, 16-megapixel rear and front cameras, the Exynos 7780 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of expandable storage. It should be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, and the Nougat update should follow in the coming months.

Except the curved display, nothing is confirmed at this point, but the invite suggests it won’t be long before we get all the official details on Samsung’s new Galaxy A handsets.

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What’s New With Nougat Part 13: Samsung Pass eliminates the need to remember passwords

Samsung has released a new beta of Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge today. It brings Samsung Pass, a feature that was announced with the Galaxy Note 7 earlier this year. Think of Samsung Pass as a master key for website login or mobile banking services. It eliminates the need for you to remember passwords and enables you to access those services by relying on the fingerprint scanner.

Samsung Pass lets you use biometric authentication to verify your identity easily and securely. The biometric data is coded, encrypted, and stored securely under Samsung Knox protection. The data always remains on the device itself and is never stored on the Samsung Pass server or backed up anywhere else.

Once it has been configured, Samsung Pass can quickly enable auto login for websites and even applications. You can use medical, financial and healthcare services that require additional security on mobile with biometric authentication as well.

Be sure to go through our entire What’s New With Nougat series to find out all that’s new with the upcoming major update for Samsung devices.

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TouchWiz will henceforth be known as Samsung Experience

The skin that Samsung slaps on top of core Android OS is commonly referred to as TouchWiz but that’s going to change with Android 7.0 Nougat. The company rolled out a new beta of Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge today. The latest update quietly rebrands the user interface so TouchWiz will henceforth be known as Samsung Experience.

The TouchWiz branding was last used with the Galaxy S2 which came with TouchWiz 4.0. Samsung then phased it out in favor of Nature UX with the Galaxy S3 but the name TouchWiz stuck around nonetheless even though it wasn’t used officially. Samsung didn’t really bother with branding the user interface these past few years but it’s decided to start calling it Samsung Experience from now on.

You can notice the change in the Software Information section of the Settings app, the latest build of Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge comes with Samsung Experience version 8.

Check out our What’s New With Nougat series to find out more about all of the changes that Samsung will be making with Android 7.0.

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Galaxy A5 (2017) stops by the FCC

Three months ago we reportedly exclusively that Samsung has started working on the 2017 lineup of the Galaxy A series. Since then we’ve heard quite a few rumors about the Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 (2017). It’s expected that Samsung is going to launch the revamped series early next year but the company hasn’t confirmed anything about it now. One of the handsets in this series – Galaxy A5 (2017) – has now made the customary stop at the FCC.

This is normally taken as an indication that the device is just around the corner. The Galaxy A5 (2017) has already received its Wi-Fi certification as well. We even saw the handset in a leaked video recently which suggested that the handset features a 5.2-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, an octa-core ARMv8 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage as well as a 13-megapixel rear camera. It may be available in blue, pink, gold and black colors at launch.

No word as yet on the pricing and availability details so we’ll have to wait for a bit more to find out when the Galaxy A (2017) series is going to arrive and how much the devices are going to cost.

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New Nougat beta released for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge

Samsung launched the Galaxy Beta Program about a month ago to give select Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge owners a taste of Android 7.0 Nougat. It has since been rolling out updated beta builds for participants of the program and the company has released a new Nougat beta today as well. It’s a big one, coming in at just under 530MB.

This is the third Nougat beta that Samsung has released so far for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. The latest build adds Samsung Pass, the Samsung Note app, an auto brightness button in Quick Panel, moves the position of the “Close All” button from Recent view back to the bottom aside from bug fixes and stability improvements.

There’s still an unresolved problem in these beta builds which causes the screen to appear late when it’s turned on. Samsung says that it’s trying to find the cause of this issue and will release an updated version of the firmware once it does.

We’re putting the new Nougat beta for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge through its paces and will report if we find any additional improvements. Don’t forget to check out our What’s New With Nougat series to find out all of the improvements that Android 7.0 will bring.

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T-Mobile releases November security patch for the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+

If you’re on T-Mobile in the United States you might want to keep your eyes peeled for an over-the-air update notification for the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+. The carrier has started rolling out a new firmware update for both handsets which brings the November security patch. These handsets are receiving the November security patch a few days after T-Mobile rolled it out for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge.

It has taken its sweet time in bringing the November security patch to these handsets. Samsung detailed the December security patch just yesterday but you can imagine it’s going to take a lot of time for T-Mobile to release it for the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+. Software version G928TUVU4DPK6 is now being rolled out for the Galaxy S6 edge+ and N920TUVU4DPK6 for the Galaxy Note 5. There’s not much else included in this update besides security and stability improvements but the changelog does mention that the performance of S Cloud has also been improved.

This latest firmware update can be easily downloaded for the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 edge+ from our firmware section.

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