Samsung employees spotted wearing Gear smartwatches with Wear OS

If a recent trademark application is anything to go by then Samsung might be thinking about replacing the Gear branding for its smartwatches in favor of Galaxy. Some reports have suggested that the company’s next smartwatch may be called the Galaxy Watch. The possible switch to the Galaxy brand, which has largely been associated with Samsung’s Android products, has led to speculation that the company might shift from Tizen to Wear OS (Android Wear) for its next wearable device.

We do know that Samsung is working on a new smartwatch that it’s going to launch in the coming months. Now, a trusted source says that some Samsung employees have been spotted wearing Gear smartwatches running not Tizen but Wear OS.

Samsung possibly testing Wear OS for smartwatches

Evan Blass a.k.a @evleaks is a trusted source with a very solid track record. He tweeted today that Gear watches running Wear OS and not Tizen have been “seen on the wrists of Samsung employees.” Blass offered no additional details so it’s not known whether these are new wearable devices or existing smartwatches that have been modified to run the Android-based operating system. It’s also unknown who spotted them, where and when.

However, given his solid track record of accurate leaks, this isn’t something that can be discarded as a mere rumor. As they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It appears that something is definitely up at Samsung with regards to Wear OS but it’s still too soon to be sure what the company has got going on.

There have also been whispers that Samsung may have two new smartwatches up its sleeve, one powered by its Tizen OS and the other by Wear OS. This is certainly not the first and last time we’re hearing about this possibility so we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out. The possibility that Samsung might shake up its wearable lineup this year seems a bit more plausible now.

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Samsung lays out its next four generations of silicon innovation

Samsung may be the biggest chipmaker in the world but it still has a lot of ground to cover in the foundry space. It’s the part of the company’s business that builds processors and chips for other companies. Samsung is the fourth largest player in the global foundry business behind the likes of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and GlobalFoundries.

The company obviously wants to attract more customers so it has laid out its next four generations of silicon innovation which will power high-performance computing and connected devices of the future. Samsung hopes that this exercise will compel some of its potential customers to approach it for chip manufacturing.

New process technology roadmap goes down to 3-nanometer

It was first reported several months ago that Samsung is going to start manufacturing 7nm processors later this year and that the Galaxy S10 might very well be the first handset on the market next year with a 7m chip. The company also reportedly started building a production line for its 7nm chips three months back.

Some in the industry feel that time is running out for Moore’s Law which has been the driving ideology behind the chip industry’s significant process over the year. Samsung is highlighting today that it can squeeze a bit more out of Moore’s Law.

Simply put, Moore’s Law charts a doubling of transistors for a particular chip area every couple of years but that has recently been slowing down. Transistors are the crucial components of a processor, they can be best described as small electronic switches that process data. It has been difficult to stick to Moore’s Law as the scale of chip components continues to shrink.

We have been hearing that Samsung will start using extreme UV (EUV) lithography technology for chip manufacturing since last year. The company today confirmed that its 7LPP (7nm Low Power Plus) process technology is the first in its roadmap to use the EUV lithography solution and that it will start developing chips on this process in the second half of this year.

Next up on its roadmap is 5LPE (5nm Low Power Early) which will benefit from further innovation from the 7LPP process and allow for greater area scaling and ultra-low power improvements. Samsung will follow that up with 4LPE/LPP (4nm Low Power Early/Plus) by using its highly mature and verified FinFET technology. It’s going to be the last generation of FinFET, providing a smaller cell size and improved performance.

Samsung has even detailed in its roadmap a new manufacturing process that it’s planning based on 3-nanometer technology. Its 3GAAE/GAAP (3nm Gate-All-Around Early/Plus) process nodes will use GAA, the next-generation device architecture. Samsung will work around the physical scaling and performance limitations of the FinFET architecture by developing its unique GAA technology MBCFET (Multi-Bridge-Channel FET).

What Samsung hasn’t detailed today is how long it’s going to take the company to realize all of these technology improvements after the 7nm process starts producing chips later this year. It hasn’t talked about how the cost per transistor will change as it goes down the roadmap and development on the more complex processes begins to get more expensive.

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Samsung releases May 2018 security patch for the Galaxy S9

Samsung has already released the May 2018 security patch for a string of low-end and mid-range devices. The company rolled out this update for the Galaxy A8+ and Galaxy J1 mini Prime just yesterday. It has also rolled out this update for devices like the Galaxy J7 (2017) and Galaxy J2 Pro in the past couple of weeks.

The company is finally turning its attention to flagship devices starting today with the rollout of the May 2018 security patch for the Galaxy S9. Samsung has made it a habit of rolling out new security maintenance releases for mid-range devices first before expanding it to its flagship models.

Galaxy S9 May 2018 security patch

Samsung is now rolling out firmware version G960FXXU1BRE5 for the Galaxy S9 in Germany. It’s going to be rolled out gradually over the air. We do have the firmware file available for download in our database.

The company is also rolling out the latest security patch to a couple of other handsets today. The newly announced Galaxy J4 is now receiving the May 2018 security patch in Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. The firmware version J400FXXU1ARE8 can also be downloaded from our database.

Last but certainly not the least, the Galaxy A7 (2017) is receiving the latest security maintenance release in India. Firmware version A720FXXU3CRE3 is being rolled out and is also available for download online.

The security patch for the month of May 2018 brings fixes for six critical vulnerabilities in the Android operating system alongside fixes for dozens of moderate and high-risk ones. There are fixes for seven vulnerabilities found in Samsung’s own software as well.

It goes without saying that Samsung will roll out the May 2018 security patch for more devices in the days to come. The handsets that have already released in it some markets should soon get it in others as well.

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