SamMobile Daily Recap: April 13, 2017 — Galaxy A (2017), Galaxy S8 and more!

We publish a decent amount of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up with every post. But, we think we’ve come up with an ideal solution — a daily recap.

So, without further ado, here’s what went live today:

Business

Samsung heir loses board seat at Fiat Chrysler

Deals

Daily Deal: Save 20% on a Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand

Firmware News

Galaxy A (2017) series gets new update in India

Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Nougat update could start rolling out in India next week

Verizon Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ get Nougat

Phones

Samsung sells over 100,000 additional Galaxy S8 units in just two days in Korea

Samsung’s In-Traffic Reply app will help drivers keep their attention on the road and not their phone

Some customers who pre-ordered the Galaxy S8 from Samsung are receiving a free speaker dock

Themes

Themes Thursday: Here are this week’s seven best themes

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Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro gets April security patch in India

Just two days after the device went on sale in the country, the Galaxy C7 Pro is getting its first software update in India. The update is a small one (35 MB) that brings the security updates for the month of March, putting the security level at April 1. The C7 Pro is among the first Samsung devices to be getting the latest security patch, and you can see details of what the patch entails here.

The Galaxy C7 Pro is the second Galaxy C smartphone to be made available in India, with the first being the C9 Pro. We liked the C9 Pro, even though we thought it could do with improvements, and we’ll take a good close look at the C7 Pro in our coming review to see how it fares compares to the C9 Pro. For now, if you have the C7 Pro, head into the Settings » Software update menu to download the update.

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Some customers who pre-ordered the Galaxy S8 from Samsung are receiving a free speaker dock

The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ went on preorder in the US on March 30, and they will be released on April 21. All four major carriers in the US are accepting preorders for the new flagship smartphones. However, if you happen to preorder the Galaxy S8 or S8+ from Samsung’s official website, you might just receive an additional gift from the company.

Samsung is sending out free speaker docks to some customers who pre-ordered either the Galaxy S8 or the Galaxy S8+ from shop.samsung.com in the US. The speaker dock appears to have a USB Type-C port for docking the smartphone, but there are no buttons to control the volume or music playback. Have a look at the speaker dock in the images below.

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Daily Deal: Save 20% on a Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand

While stock lasts, you can pick up Samsung’s Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand for $39.34 (20% off). As its name suggests, this charger has compatibility for the firm’s Fast Charge technology, though it also supports regular charging speeds on non-Samsung Qi-enabled handsets.

Review: Samsung fast wireless charging stand makes charging very convenient

As always, if you like the sound of the Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand and want to take advantage of the deal, hit the Buy Now button below. You’ll probably want to hurry as Amazon has only assigned a small amount of inventory for this specific promotion and once it’s gone, it’s once.

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Themes Thursday: Here are this week’s seven best themes

Samsung has released 135 themes for its compatible Galaxy smartphones this week, and there are some of those theme packs are brilliantly designed. We’ve shortlisted seven themes for this week’s Themes Thursday, and you might find them worth having a look.

The [Code Art] Nice Day theme has a pleasing blue background and a brighter color scheme for the user interface. If you want a Pixel-like UI design, have a look at [Kendi] Android O and DePixelizeD. For all the donut lovers out there (including me), the Donutshop & MOH (Live & AOD) theme is a pretty good one.

The Flipside and [Very] Flower Way theme packs look good too. However, the best of the lot, according to us, is the [Kendi] Oxy OS Black theme. It features brilliantly-designed circular icons and darker backgrounds which might help you in eking out some extra battery life. Which theme did yo like?

[Code Art] Nice Day

[Kendi] Android O

[Kendi] Oxy OS Black

[Very] Flower Way

DePixelizeD

Donutshop & MOH (Live & AOD)

Flipside

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Samsung’s In-Traffic Reply app will help drivers keep their attention on the road and not their phone

Samsung Netherlands has created a new app called In-Traffic Reply which is going to help drivers keep their attention on the road and not on their phones. Using your phone while you’re behind the wheel can be very dangerous. You might think that it’ll only take a few seconds to check that message or read what your friend just tweeted, but those few seconds can quickly prove to be fatal if you take your eyes off the road.

PanelWizard conducted a survey which found that one-third of the road users in the Netherlands have used their smartphone behind the wheel. In most situations, they felt social pressure to answer calls and reply to messages immediately. Samsung wants to bring down this statistic.

Samsung Netherlands has created the In-Traffic Reply app which will automatically know when the user is in the car or on a bike. When the app is enabled, it can reply to incoming calls and messages with a standard response that says “I’m sitting in traffic, so I can not answer at this time.” The automatic reply can also be customized to be a funny animation or the user’s custom message.

The In-Traffic Reply app is currently available in beta and those who are interested in trying it out can sign up for the beta on the Google Play Store. It will be officially launched next month.

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Samsung heir loses board seat at Fiat Chrysler

Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the conglomerate’s heir apparent has had a tough few months. He has been behind bars due to his alleged role in South Korea’s corruption scandal that has already toppled the presidency. The scandal appears to be having an impact on Lee Jae-yong’s standing in the global business community as well.

Lee Jae-yong is currently facing trial on charges of bribery, embezzlement, corruption, concealment of assets abroad and more. If convicted on all charges he may be looking at a prison sentence of over 20 years.

Lee Jae-yong was appointed to Exor’s board in 2012. Exor is Fiat Chrysler’s holding company. His tenure was renewed for three years in 2015. Lee was unable to attend the company’s board meeting in November last year because he was banned from leaving South Korea as special prosecutors looked into his possible involvement in the scandal.

Exor reportedly decided at a board meeting earlier this month that it was going to replace four independent directors that Lee Jae-yong happens to be one of them. Exor Chairman John Elkann thanked all four outgoing members for their “wise counsel during a particularly intensive and complex period.”

Whether or not this is going to have any impact on Samsung’s decision to acquire Magneti Marelli remains to be seen. Magneti Marelli is an auto parts giant owned by Fiat Chrysler which is controlled by Exor. Recent reports suggest that Samsung is looking to complete its acquisition of Magneti Marelli by the end of this year.

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Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Nougat update could start rolling out next week

It looks like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge could start getting the Nougat update next week, finishing the rollout for Samsung’s crop of flagships from the last two years. This comes from a Samsung India representative, but we guess the update will be made available globally within the next couple of weeks. As usual, we’ll let you know once the update starts going out.

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge should get the same new features and improvements with Nougat as other Samsung devices. To see everything that’s new in Nougat, take a look at our comprehensive list and check out the video below. We also have a few tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of the latest version of Android on Samsung devices.

Thanks, gahlot119!

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Galaxy A (2017) series gets new update in India

Samsung has started rolling out a new update for the Galaxy A3 (2017), the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017) in India. There isn’t much cause for celebration, though, as this isn’t an upgrade to Nougat. The 101MB update is minor in the sense that it doesn’t bring much in the way of big new features and obviously doesn’t bring Nougat for the Galaxy A (2017) series.

What the changelog does tell us is that this update includes device stability improvements and bug fixes aside from further improvements to performance. Firmware version A520FXXU1AQD1, A520FXXU1AQC7 and A720FXXU1AQC5 is now rolling out for the Galaxy A3 (2017), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017) respectively. It does come with the March security patch.

Samsung’s Galaxy A series for 2017 is great for those who are looking for a robust smartphone at a reasonable price. If you’ve not yet made up your mind on the handset you want to buy, check out our reviews of the Galaxy A3 (2017), the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017) to make the decision a bit easier for you.

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Samsung sells over 100,000 additional Galaxy S8 units in just two days in Korea

It has only been two days since Samsung said that pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have crossed 620,000 units combined in its home market of South Korea. The company has even sold more than 150,000 units of the $1000 128GB Galaxy S8+ that features 6GB of RAM.

Samsung’s mobile business chief Dong-jin Koh confirmed to reporters today that the combined pre-order sales have now reached 728,000 units as of Wednesday. He added that while the company can’t disclose the exact figure for pre-orders in the United States, the number is higher than it was for the Galaxy S7 last year.

Koh further added that Samsung is going to make efforts to regain its lost position in China where Korean companies like Samsung are facing increasing competition from local rivals. Not to mention the fact that public opinion against Korean companies in China isn’t too favorable considering the political tension between the two countries.

“China is the market we can never give up. Although we have had a hard time over the past two years in the market, we believe Chinese consumers will react to and recognize good products,” Koh said.

He also addressed concerns about battery safety which are still fresh in our memories because it hasn’t been that long since the entire Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. Koh said that Samsung conducted battery tests on more than 100,000 units of the Galaxy S8 and it can “confidently say the Galaxy S8 is safe for use.”

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