Samsung has made a limited edition Galaxy Note 8 for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games

Samsung has long been a Worldwide Olympic partner and it’s extending that partnership further for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games that will take place in PyeongChang, South Korea next month. It’s keeping up with its tradition of launching a limited edition model of its flagship smartphone for the Olympic Games with the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition Galaxy Note 8.

PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition Galaxy Note 8

The company’s association with the Olympics started as a local sponsor of the Games in Seoul back in 1988. It extended its commitment as the Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communications Equipment category beginning with the Olympic Winter Games Nagano 1998. It has been providing its proprietary wireless communications platform and mobile devices since then.

Samsung will deliver more than 4,000 units of this limited edition device to the entire PyeongChang 2018 Olympic family, including the International Olympic Committee and the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. The company will also provide a Galaxy Note 8 to all Paralympians at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

It’s the same Galaxy Note 8 that we all know and love with a few visual tweaks. There’s a shiny white glass back adorned with gold Olympic rings to celebrate the winter theme. The visual tweaks have also been applied to the handset’s frame and S Pen.

These units also come with pre-loaded PyeongChang 2018 themed wallpapers as well as useful apps that will help the participants get the most out of their Olympic Games experience. Don’t expect to be able to get your hands on one of these unless you’re partcipating in the Games.

The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games kick off on February 9, 2018 and will officially close on February 25, 2018.

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Samsung launches Thrive for Galaxy Note 8 to let users take control of their personal time

Samsung today launched the Thrive app for the Galaxy Note 8 to help users take control of their personal time in partnership with Thrive Global. The app is developed by Thrive Global, a company founded by Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post fame. The wellness-focused company developed this app to help users disconnect from their smartphone and reconnect with their life.

The Thrive app was first introduced in October last year in beta. It’s rolling out today exclusively for the Galaxy Note 8 and will be released for other Galaxy models in the future.

A fancier version of the Do Not Disturb button

“Partnering to help create the THRIVE App is just one of the many ways Samsung is committed to developing technology that helps people make the most of every moment in their lives,” said Samsung Electronics America CMO Marc Mathieu.

The Thrive app lets users put their handset in “Thrive Mode.” This mutes all notifications, calls and texts except from people that are in the VIP list. When the handset is in Thrive Mode, all texts will automatically be responded with a message which informs the sender that the person they’re trying to reach is in Thrive Mode.

As we said back when this app was first introduced, it’s basically a fancier version of the Do Not Disturb button that you can already find on your Samsung device. There’s just one core feature that Thrive offers to set itself apart from that button.

It has an App Control dashboard which informs users how much time they’ve spent on a particular app. They can use this knowledge to decide whether or not they want to set goals and limits for certain apps.

Galaxy Note 8 owners can now download Thrive for free from Galaxy Apps.

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Not a single Samsung handset made it on the best sellers list in China last year

Samsung is having a tough time in the world’s largest smartphone market, China. Things are going from bad to worse for Samsung in the key market. Chinese OEMs are making Samsung an irrelevant player in the fiercely competitive market. More and more data is emerging every day about Samsung’s smartphone troubles in China.

Complete domination by the Chinese firms

According to new data from Counterpoint Research, not a single Samsung smartphone made it to the top 10 best sellers list for 2017 in China. Except for Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the list is completely dominated by smartphones from Chinese firms.

In 2017, Samsung launched some of its finest phones in the form of the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and Galaxy Note 8. None of the bezel-free Infinity Displays and curved screens were able to change Samsung’s fortunes in China.

Samsung’s market share in China has seen a gradual decline from 20 percent back in 2015 to a paltry 2% in Q3 2017. The market share is expected to have dropped even further to a minuscule 1.6% in the fourth quarter. In Q3 2017, Samsung was ranked ninth in terms of market share in China.  Those numbers pale in comparison to the market dominance enjoyed by Samsung in other markets.

One possible reason for Samsung’s deepening troubles in China is the lack of a robust mid-range and budget smartphone line-up that can compete with the Chinese offerings in terms of value for money. Samsung’s mid-range and budget smartphones come across as expensive and underpowered compared to the competitors’ products in the same price range.  Unsurprisingly, users are also ignoring Samsung’s more compelling flagships options once they get accustomed to other brands. So far, only Apple has been able to capture the high-end market without competing in the lower price segments. It is clear from the Chinese market, Samsung cannot afford that strategy.

Not just in China, Samsung is also facing heat from the Chinese OEMs in many developing markets where brands like Mi, Oppo, and Vivo are in play. Even in the world’s second-largest smartphone market, India, Samsung is facing fierce competition from its Chinese rivals.

So far there is no clear indication of any new strategy by Samsung to stop this downward spiral in China. In other key markets like India, Samsung’s efforts to tackle fierce competition from the Chinese OEMs are a bit more noticeable, even if the efficacy of these efforts is questionable.

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Samsung releases January security patch for the Galaxy J3 (2017) and Galaxy J1 mini

Samsung detailed the January 2018 security patch a couple of weeks ago and it’s now gradually rolling it out to compatible devices. As expected, the company’s mid-range and low-end devices are receiving it first, we’ve yet to see the patch being rolled out for a flagship handset. Samsung has rolled out the January 2018 security patch for the Galaxy J3 (2017) and the Galaxy J1 mini in a handful of markets today.

January 2018 security patch

The January 2018 security patch brings fixes for five critical vulnerabilities that were discovered in the Android operating system aside from fixes for several low, moderate and high-risk vulnerabilities. Samsung fixed 13 Vulnerabilities and Exposures (SVE) in its own software and has included the patches in this security maintenance release.

Samsung is now rolling out firmware version J330FXXU3ARA3 for the Galaxy J3 (2017) in Russia and Slovakia. It’s only a matter of time before the update makes its way to other markets. The firmware files are available for download from our firmware section.

It’s also rolling out firmware version J105FXXU0ARA2 for the Galaxy J1 mini in Iran, Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. All relevant files are available from our firmware section. Samsung has already released said update for the Galaxy J1 mini Prime.

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Galaxy A8 (2018) brings real-time HDR to Samsung’s mid-range lineup

It turns out that support for the Gear VR or the Infinity display aren’t the only features that have trickled down from Samsung’s flagship phones to its Galaxy A lineup. As discovered by GalaxyClub, the Galaxy A8 (2018) and Galaxy A8+ (2018) come with real-time HDR functionality for both the front and rear cameras. Real-time HDR has long been exclusive to Samsung’s top-of-the-line smartphones, but it looks like the increased power under the hood on the newest A series phones has allowed the company to break that exclusivity.

Real-time HDR comes to Samsung’s mid-range

Real-time HDR is a camera feature that was introduced by Samsung a few years back with the Galaxy S5. As the name suggests, it intelligently detects whether a scene or subject needs to be captured in HDR and allows for instant saving of HDR-enabled pictures, removing the need for the user to wait a few seconds till the HDR image is saved. Smartphone processors have come a long way since the S5 was released, and it looks like the Exynos 7885 chipset inside the A8 handsets has what it takes to process HDR images as quickly as normal images.

In fact, Samsung’s so confident about the feature that it hides the real-time HDR option in the camera settings and sets it to automatic by default. You can access it by opening the camera app, tapping the gear icon on the top right to go into the camera settings, and looking for the HDR (rich tone) option under both the rear and front camera tabs. It can be toggled between off, on, and automatic, but there’s no reason to select anything but the last option other than deliberately wanting to take a non-HDR photo against sources of light.

Look out for our review of the A8 and A8+ to see how the cameras fare in real-world usage, and don’t forget to check out our initial impressions of Samsung’s latest mid-range handsets and a few samples from the dual front camera.

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Galaxy S9 and S9+ launch, pre-order, and shipping dates leaked

This year, Samsung will be returning to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to unveil its latest Galaxy S flagship, after a slight departure from the usual schedule for the Galaxy S8 announcement last year. The company has said as much, and a new leak is now shedding some light on the exact dates Samsung has chosen to unveil the Galaxy S9, kick off pre-orders, and put it up for sale.

Galaxy S9 and S9+ could go on sale by March 16

Popular leakster evleaks says a “C-level executive at a major casemaker” has revealed that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be launched on February 26th. Pre-orders will go live on March 1, and the phones will be up for sale starting March 16th. If you’re thinking the launch date is a little off, you’re not wrong. Samsung usually unveils its Galaxy S flagship a day before MWC officially kicks off, but if evleaks’ information is correct, the Korean giant could be planning on taking the limelight away from other phones that will be on display at the event.

The pre-orders and shipping schedule sounds much more plausible and in line with how Samsung has been doing things in recent years. Our own sources have heard that the March 16th release is correct, although these dates would be for the US and/or South Korea, and the S9 and S9+ are likely to take a few more days to hit other markets. There’s not a lot of time left for MWC 2018, however, so it’s possible things will change or are already a bit different than what has been revealed by the leak.

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