Samsung Internet Beta application highlights design of the Galaxy S8

Earlier today, we reported that Samsung has released a Beta version of its Internet client on the Play Store, and now we’ve uncovered that it actually includes a sketch of the Galaxy S8; leading us to believe that this will be the build (if not, a later one) that ships on board the firm’s upcoming flagship smartphone of 2017.

The exact location of the render can be found in the activation panel for the CloseBy extension, which you can access by heading into Settings (hidden in the triple dot menu), tapping Extensions, then selecting CloseBy from the list of options. Grab the APK from our database and give it a go for yourself.

Thanks, TurkishStyle!

 

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[Exclusive] Galaxy Note 8 codename and model number, refurbished Note 7 in development for South Korea

With the Galaxy Note 7 seeing an early demise, Samsung knows it has to hit it out of the park with the Galaxy Note 8 to make a proper comeback, and it looks like the company has taken the task to heart. According to our sources, the Galaxy Note 8 is codenamed Great. You read that right. Great, and not Baikal as had been previously rumored. If that’s not a big sign that Samsung is doing all it can to make the Galaxy Note 8 special, we’re not sure what would be.

We have also found out the model number the Galaxy Note 8 will carry. As expected, Samsung is skipping the number 4 (as the Koreans consider it unlucky) and will use SM-N950F for the Galaxy Note 8 (the international unlocked variant, at least). The letter at the end will, as usual, change based on the market. As we had seen with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung will not be using too many different model codes, which helps in rolling out software updates faster than what the company achieved a couple of years ago.

We also have a scoop on a refurbished Galaxy Note 7. According to our sources, Samsung is working on a refurbished Note 7 for the South Korean market, with the device to possibly feature model number SM-N935. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S3 event at MWC was interrupted by a Greenpeace protestor with the message that the company should recycle components that now sit unused following the Note 7′s discontinuation, and it looks like the organization could get what it wants. We should point out that nothing is confirmed at this point, and the refurbished Note 7 may or may not make its way outside South Korea if it happens to launch sometime later this year.

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Verizon Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge receive Android 7.0 Nougat update

Verizon has begun rolling out the Android 7.0 Nougat update for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. Software versions G930VVRU4BQA2 and G935VVRU4BQA2 are being pushed out to the S7 and S7 edge respectively. All of the new features and improvements that Google introduced with Nougat are part and parcel of this release, in addition to Samsung-specific upgrades like a new user interface and a multitude of other changes and new features peppered across the OS. Verizon says it has removed the go90 app from the devices but doesn’t list any other changes of its own.

Verizon is the last of the four major US carriers to be rolling out the latest version of Android for Samsung’s 2016 flagships. The Nougat update is available over the air, and you should be able to download it from the Settings » About device menu. To know what Nougat brings to the S7 and S7 edge, check out this comprehensive list or watch the video embedded below for a quick walkthrough. For tips on how to get the best out of Nougat, go here.

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Samsung Pay to launch in Sweden later this year

Samsung Pay will launch in Sweden later this year, reveals online publication Va Finans. Unfortunately, an exact date remains unknown at this precise moment in time, but we can expect to find out more during a press event that will be held in the region on Thursday, March 9.

Sweden will mark the twelfth country that Samsung Pay has reached following its debut in South Korea and the United States a little over two years ago. Most recently, it was released in Thailand and Malaysia, and it’s expected to reach a slew of additional countries before the end of the year.

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Galaxy S8 release reportedly pushed back to April 28

We have seen a couple of reports saying that the Galaxy S8 (and the S8 Plus) could go on sale on April 21st, and according to serial leakster evleaks, Samsung could push the release of its next flagship by a week. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it could take longer before we are able to get our hands on the Galaxy S8, as Samsung would want to make sure that the Galaxy Note 7 debacle isn’t repeated.

Furthermore, since no official dates have been announced yet, there is no telling whether any of the reported release dates will actually turn out to be true. For all we know, Samsung could put the Galaxy S8 on sale before April 21st, given that the phone’s official announcement will be happening a month later than previous Galaxy S flagships. It also remains to be seen if the previously rumored April 10 pre-order date will be affected by the delay in the phone’s release.

Until something truly concrete comes knocking (you know, like a leak from a carrier), we would recommend taking everything with a pinch of salt. The Galaxy S8 will be unveiled on March 29th at dedicated events in New York and London.

Read More: Even more hands-on images of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus surface

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SamMobile Daily Recap: March 6, 2017 — Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy S8 and more!

We publish a lot of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, most of the news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to follow every post that goes live. But, we think we’ve come up with a great solution — a daily recap.

In the list below, you’ll find the stories we’ve published today. It’s likely that you’re not going to be interested in all of them. To help you find what’s important to you, we’ve split them into their respective categories — so if you want to see the latest Galaxy A5 (2017) news, locate the Phones subheading.

Business

Bribery scandal investigation finds Samsung heir and President of South Korea at fault

Deals

Daily Deal: Bag yourself a Galaxy S7 for 33% off

Firmware News

Galaxy J3 (2016) February security patch rolling out across Europe

Nougat update for the Galaxy S6 delayed while Samsung reviews its quality

General

Samsung releases new remote app for Dacor iQ smart appliances

Phones

Even more hands-on images of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus surface

Partners reportedly impressed by the Galaxy S8 at Samsung’s MWC preview event

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) to go on sale in India on March 15th

Samsung Pay

Samsung Pay goes live in India, works with Paytm wallet too

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White variant of the Galaxy S8 breaks cover in new images

Earlier today, a set of leaked hands-on images surfaced giving us our closest look at the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus to date, and now two more have appeared online, showing off what looks like a white variant of the handset.

Fortunately, these images match up to what we’ve previously seen. There’s a large edge-to-edge Infinity Display on the front and a set of three on-screen navigation keys, as opposed to the traditional home button.

Check them out below:

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Samsung Exynos may or may not be teasing dual rear cameras for the Galaxy S8

Samsung’s Exynos account has just sent out a tweet that could be taken as a hint that the Galaxy S8 could feature dual cameras at the back. Yes, it would seem impossible given all the images of the Galaxy S8 that have leaked in the last couple of weeks showing only a singe rear camera, but could it be that the device seen in the leaks is not the final version of Samsung’s upcoming flagship?

A lot has been revealed about the Galaxy S8 in recent days, and we certainly would have heard something about a dual camera if it is making its way to the Galaxy S8. We should also consider the fact that the fingerprint sensor on the back would leave no place for a second camera module, and unless Samsung has managed to fool us with leaks of a prototype S8 that won’t be the final product, it seems unlikely that there will be two cameras at the rear.

Samsung Exynos is most likely just showing off that the Exynos 8895 supports dual cameras (thanks to the dual built-in image signal processors) as it also has tweets talking about other features of the 8895. It is still suspicious, however, as the only manufacturer other than Samsung that uses Exynos chips is Meizu, although it could simply mean that Samsung is now trying to woo other OEMs by highlighting the Exynos 8895′s support for a feature that has seen a huge demand in the smartphone industry.

What do you think? Are you still holding on to hope that the S8 will have two cameras at the back?

Take great pictures. #Exynos8895 with #DualISP for #DualCamera. http://pic.twitter.com/hPcyueGOZs

— Samsung Exynos (@SamsungExynos) March 6, 2017

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Samsung Internet Beta released, will let you test new features first

Samsung’s Android-powered smartphones come with the company’s own Samsung Internet web browser even though most users are likely to use Google Chrome by default since it’s present on all Android device and also happens to be the most popular desktop browser. Nevertheless, Samsung continues to improve its offering and it has now released Samsung Internet Beta on the Google Play Store to allow you to test upcoming features first.

The standalone Samsung Internet Beta app will enable the company to test new features that it’s developing for its web browser with users who don’t mind using a beta app. This particular version of Samsung Internet Beta does come with a couple of new features like the CloseBy extension but others like Video Assistant and DuckDuckGo support are already present in the stable version of Samsung Internet. Samsung will likely add more new features to the beta app in future versions.

Samsung Internet Beta is now available for download from the Google Play Store. It supports all Samsung and Google handsets (Nexus and Pixel) running Android 5.0 and up. You can also download the Samsung Internet Beta app from our APK page.

Thanks, gahlot119!

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Daily Deal: Bag yourself a Galaxy S7 for 33% off

Looking for a new smartphone? You’ve come to the right place. For a limited time, you can bag yourself a Black Onyx or Gold Platinum variant of the Galaxy S7 for $379.99 (33% off). We should note, however, that while this deal is restricted to customers in the United States, the actual unit they’ll be getting their hands on is the international model — so it can only be used with GSM carriers, like T-Mobile.

For those in need of a refresher, the Galaxy S7 packs a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display, an Exynos 8890 octa-core CPU, a Mali-T880 MP12 GPU, 4GB of RAM, a 12MP rear-facing camera, a 5MP selfie shooter and a 3,000mAh battery. Unfortunately, it ships running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, but customers can download and install the Android 7.0 Nougat firmware as soon as they power on the device.

Not sold? Galaxy S7 Review: Samsung’s most refined Galaxy yet

If you like the sound of the Galaxy S7 and want to take advantage of this promotion, hit the Buy Now button below. We strongly advise you to hurry, though, as the eBay merchant (don’t worry, if things do for whatever reason happen to go pear-shaped, you’re protected by PayPal) 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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Samsung’s domination of the global NAND flash memory market continues

Samsung has been in a very comfortable position in the global NAND flash memory market for several years now and the latest data from market research company DRAMeXchange shows that Samsung’s domination of this market continues. Samsung Electronics is said to have racked up $14.151 billion in NAND flash memory sales last year while its closest competitor Toshiba managed to bring in $7.898 billion in sales. Samsung’s NAND flash memory sales increased 34 percent last year from a year ago whereas Toshiba only saw an increase of 18.4 percent.

As you might have guessed already, Samsung and Toshiba are the two largest players in the global NAND flash memory market but the game between their sales has never exceeded $6 billion until last year.

Samsung’s utter dominance in this market is now expected to continue for a considerable amount of time as its manufacturing technology is progressing faster than the competition. Toshiba may not be able to catch up with Samsung quickly given that it’s facing a few hurdles in trying to increase its investment in 3D NAND flash memory production facilities.

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Partners reportedly impressed by the Galaxy S8 at Samsung’s MWC preview event

The Galaxy S8 received a favorable response from global partners after Samsung unveiled it to them during a series of exclusive briefings at a hotel near the venue where Mobile World Congress took place in Barcelona, Spain, last week, reveals The Korea Herald.

All that was preventing hotel guests and other MWC attendees from catching a glimpse of the South Korean company’s latest flagship was a temporary wall. Only those invited were able to enter the makeshift demonstration room and a see a prototype of the device in all its glory.

Partners exiting the facility reportedly revealed to local press that what they saw was “very impressive,” but as you can imagine, in order to prevent any legal repercussions, they failed to respond to comments pertaining to the Galaxy S8′s features or specifications.

Read more: Even more hands-on images of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus surface

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Bribery scandal investigation finds Samsung heir and President of South Korea at fault

The special prosecutor’s office of South Korea said earlier today that the country’s President Park Geun-hye colluded with her friend Choi Soon-sil to receive bribes from the Samsung Group which were aimed at cementing the control of Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong over the entire conglomerate. Special prosecutor Park Young-soo announced the results of the influence-peddling scandal today and the conclusion is more or less similar to what has been alleged in the media for months.

Reports claimed that the Samsung Group had paid more than $35 million in bribes by making contributions to organizations and foundations controlled by Choi Soon-sil in order to win the government’s backing for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that allowed the company’s founding Lee family to further enhance its control of the empire. The merger went through after South Korea’s state-backed National Pension Service, a major shareholder in one of those affiliates, gave its nod of approval.

The prosecutor’s statement mentions that the findings have revealed that the National Pension Service voted in favor of the merger even though it anticipated a 138.8 billion won ($119.87 million) loss because of it. The report says that Lee pledged 43 billion won ($37.19 million) to win support for the merger from the president and also for the domestic listing of Samsung Biologics, a loss-making drug manufacturing affiliate of the conglomerate.

This now paves the way for prosecutors to investigate the impeached President Park if she’s told to leave office by the Constitutional Court that’s reviewing her impeachment. The possibility exists that she might also be indicted for bribery.

Park, Choi and Lee have all contested the charges against them. Samsung maintains that the conglomerate did not pay bribes or make contributions to seek favors, adding that “future court proceedings will reveal the truth.” Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong has been behind bars for a couple of weeks now after he arrested and indicted on several charges including bribery. His trial is scheduled to begin later this week.

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Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) to go on sale in India on March 15th

Two of Samsung’s new Galaxy A (2017) smartphones will soon be available in the Indian market. The Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) have been launched in the country today and will go on sale on March 15th through online and offline channels. The phones are priced at Rs. 28,990 and Rs. 33,490 respectively. The Galaxy A3 (2017), like its predecessors, won’t be made available in India, likely because consumers in the country have an affinity for smartphones with large displays.

If you have read our reviews of the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017), you will know that we came away impressed from what Samsung is offering. The handsets offer IP68-certified water resistance, excellent battery life, and the latest Samsung software (despite not running on Android 7.0 Nougat), in addition to the premium design that the series is known for and Samsung’s wonderful AMOLED displays.

Of course, the intense competition in India from Chinese OEMs like Huawei and OnePlus means the new A series devices might not be the best value propositions, but Samsung’s presence in the offline market and its brand power should be able to persuade quite a few consumers to put their money on the A5 (2017) and A7 (2017). It helps that the new A5 and A7 are the only mid-range phones to be resistant to water and dust.

Will you be buying the Galaxy A5 (2017) or the Galaxy A7 (2017)?

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Galaxy J3 (2016) February security patch rolling out across Europe

It may be a while before the next major Android update makes its way to the Galaxy J3 (2016) but at least it keeps getting new security patches. Samsung is now rolling out the February security update for the Galaxy J3 (2016) across Europe. Firmware version J320FNXXU0AQB2 has now been released for this device. It weighs in at just under 260MB and promises fixes and optimizations for the handset which includes the February security patch.

The Galaxy J3 (2016) is still running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Marshmallow continues to evade this entry-level smartphone in Europe so if you’re based in Europe and get this update notification, don’t get excited too much because it won’t bump up the handset to Marshmallow. It’s unclear at this point in time when Samsung is finally going to release Marshmallow for this handset.

This over-the-air update is rolling out now across Europe. We have the relevant update file available for download in our firmware section for those who just can’t wait.

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Even more hands-on images of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus surface

Over the past few days, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus leaks have been flowing in quicker than fresh water from a tap, and today’s no different as we’re catching yet another glimpse of the handsets courtesy of an anonymous case maker. The images, which were snapped at close range, corroborate everything we’ve seen (and heard) about the units in past, including that they’ll sport gorgeous edge-to-edge Infinity Displays and a fingerprint scanner on the back.

This latest set of pictures also cast light on a feature we’ve picked up on, but were skeptical about — a physical home button on the back (pictured above). It’s hardly a secret that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus sport on-screen keys, but there’s no denying the fact that the mysterious button seen in this image looks an awful lot like a shortened version of the traditional home button found on Samsung’s previous flagships.

Take a look for yourself in the gallery below:

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Samsung releases new remote app for Dacor iQ smart appliances

Premium home appliance company Dacor has been selling Android-powered products like its Discovery IQ Wall Oven and Discovery Dual-Fuel Range Oven for several years now. Since these are connected objects, the company created a remote control app which allows users to easily manage their smart home appliances from a distance. Samsung acquired Dacor last year to improve its position particularly in the US appliance market and it has now gone ahead and released its own remote control app for Dacor iQ smart appliances.

Samsung’s remote control app for Dacor iQ smart appliances is much better than the one that Dacor created. The user interface of Samsung’s Dacor iQ Kitchen application is quite similar to other Samsung applications. If you don’t have a Dacor smart appliance this app is obviously of no use to you but if you do, you’ll be able to control appliances like dishwashers, ovens, and more right from your smartphone.

The Dacor iQ Kitchen app is now available for download from the Google Play Store, you can also download it from our APK directory.

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