SamMobile Daily Recap, December 21, 2018: Note 8 Android Pie, Galaxy S10, and more

We publish a lot 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. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a daily recap.

Here’s what we covered today.

Phones

Samsung Galaxy A8s price confirmed, launches December 31 in China

T-Mobile will also offer the 5G Galaxy S10

Stable Samsung Internet 8.2 released with improved Bixby integration

Firmware News

New Galaxy Watch LTE update brings battery life improvements

New Android Pie beta adds quick toggle for full-screen navigation gestures

Android Pie builds leaked for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 Snapdragon models

TV

2019 Samsung smart TVs may come with Google Assistant

General

Recap: What we discussed in our YouTube live stream this week

The post SamMobile Daily Recap, December 21, 2018: Note 8 Android Pie, Galaxy S10, and more appeared first on SamMobile.

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Recap: What we discussed in our YouTube live stream this week

We just concluded our latest YouTube live stream. It was the Christmas Special and we were in full holiday spirits! In addition to talking about news, we also gave away a free Galaxy Watch to three lucky viewers.

The Galaxy S10 was obviously among the topics that we discussed during today’s stream. We particularly focused on the possibility that Samsung might bring back the “Edge” branding for at least one Galaxy S10 model. We also discussed how the past has shaped Samsung’s strategy for the future and the strategies that we think it may adopt going forward.

The upcoming Android Pie update for Samsung devices came under discussion as well. Samsung will be releasing it next month for the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9. It’s also internally testing Pie for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy Note 8 as we reported earlier today.

We have embedded the video below so that you can easily catch up on the discussion. Do take a moment to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We’ll have plenty more to discuss and give away in the future. Merry Christmas!

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Stable Samsung Internet 8.2 released with improved Bixby integration

Samsung has been testing the 8.2 release of its web browser since September. The company announced today that it has released the stable version of Samsung Internet 8.2. The update brings several new features in addition to improved Bixby integration.

The stable version also includes a Chromium engine update (to M63) that features JavaScript (ES6) modules, font-display CSS property and Web Assembly. There are additional tools for developers to run automated testing in the browser as well.

Samsung Internet version 8.2 goes stable

The Do-Not-Track preference is a major privacy-focused feature in the 8.x versions of the browser. It allows users to avoid sites from tracking them. It’s a preference that users can set in a browser to notify websites that they don’t want to be tracked.

It arrived with Samsung Internet 8.0 alongside the updated download manager. That feature allows the browser to download files faster by using multiple parallel connections. It works in a fashion similar to download accelerator programs for desktop operating systems like Windows. The company says that files larger than 13MB will download in chunks. It estimates a 15-40 percent improvement in download speed.

Samsung Internet 8.2 gets further Bixby integration. It’s now possible to use the browser with just voice commands. You can give commands like “Open Internet and search for photos of dogs” and Samsung Internet will happily comply.

News in Quick Access is another new feature in version 8.2. The feature essentially allows quicker access to news articles from the browser’s main page. Samsung will provide more information about it soon. News in Quick Access is only available in the United States and India right now.

The latest version of Samsung Internet is now available for download from the Google Play Store. Remember, Samsung Internet works on all Android devices, not just those made by Samsung.

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New Galaxy Watch LTE update brings battery life improvements

Samsung is rolling out a new firmware update to the Galaxy Watch LTE on Telstra in Australia and New Zealand. The latest update, R805FXXU1CRKA, weighs 38.63 MB and is mostly focused on bug fixes and improvements to enhance the user experience.

According to the changelog, the new update improves Samsung Health experience, battery efficiency, and GPS connection and accuracy. Samsung doesn’t explain in detail what these improvements are, but going by the update size, it is safe to assume they are minor changes. The update also adds a dual-clock watch face and removes the ‘Use Gear without phone connection’ menu.

Another minor update

As is common with most software updates, Samsung might roll out the latest firmware in stages. Galaxy Watch users can manually check for the update by launching the Galaxy Watch application and clicking on the Download updates manually option in About Watch under the Settings tab.

The improvements mentioned in the changelog doesn’t sound specific to the Telstra network, and so may soon roll out to the Galaxy Watch LTE users in other regions and on other networks as well. Samsung also recently pushed out an update to the Galaxy Watch LTE variant on T-Mobile and Verizon in the US. However, that update even smaller and carried a different changelog.

Samsung has already released multiple firmware updates to the Galaxy Watch since its launch in August this year. All these updates were mostly bug fixes and minor changes similar to the current one.

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T-Mobile will also offer the 5G Galaxy S10

The much-talked about 5G Samsung smartphone is ostensibly coming to the major US carriers. AT&T and Verizon have already confirmed their plans and now T-Mobile has joined them as well. All of them will be offering the 5G Samsung smartphone early next year.

It’s more or less confirmed by now that this smartphone from Samsung is going to be the 5G Galaxy S10. The model number for this handset was spotted last week.

T-Mobile will also offer the 5G Galaxy S10

T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray has confirmed that the carrier will offer the same 5G Samsung smartphone that the other carriers have confirmed. He pointed out in the blog post that the 5G device others have laid claim to is a phone that all carriers have been working with Samsung on.

“T-Mobile is working on that phone too — and other 5G devices with other OEMs and chipset manufacturers,” Ray said in the blog post, much of which is spent refuting recent 5G-related claims made by AT&T and Verizon. Carriers in the United States are understandably trying to become the “first” in the 5G race. Their commercial 5G networks for smartphones are slated to go live early next year.

The phone in question here is the 5G variant of the Galaxy S10, a possible prototype of which was showcased at the Qualcomm Tech Summit in Hawaii earlier this month. The phone is expected to feature a total of six cameras and may come with an ability to wirelessy charge other phones. Samsung is likely to officially unveil the device at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in February.

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Android Pie builds leaked for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 Snapdragon models

We have known for some time that Samsung has started testing Android Pie for last year’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8, and test builds for the Snapdragon version of the two devices have now leaked online. The leak comes from XDA Developers, who were also the first to obtain Android Pie test firmware for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 before Samsung officially started the One UI beta program.

Android Pie for the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 comes with many of the features that we see on the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 Pie beta, including Bixby 2.0, full-screen navigation gestures, and the beautiful new Night mode. The December 2018 security patch is included as well, suggesting that these are recent builds. XDA Developers also has the Galaxy Note 8 test build available for download, which you can flash on your Snapdragon Note 8 if you are okay with taking the risk with leaked early software.

It’s unclear how stable these builds are, and there’s certainly no telling when Samsung will release the official Pie update for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8. The Galaxy S9 and Note 9 release is slated for January, and we can expect to be waiting until the second quarter of 2019 for other Galaxy devices to start getting Pie. It could happen earlier, as Samsung has even begun testing Android Pie for the Galaxy A series, but nothing is set in stone.

Galaxy S8

• Model: SM-G950F
• Dimensions: 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0mm
• Display: 5.8” (146.5mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 8895
• Camera: 12 MP, Dual Pixel F1.7 OIS

More specifications

Galaxy Note 8

• Model: SM-N950F
• Dimensions: 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6mm
• Display: 6.3" (160.02mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 8895
• Camera: 12 MP, 2x, 1 telephoto F2.4 and 1 wide angle F1.7 OIS

More specifications

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New Android Pie beta adds quick toggle for full-screen navigation gestures

It’s not just major features that Samsung is still adding to the Android Pie beta for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9. Minor additions and changes are being made as well, and the latest Galaxy S9 beta (software version XXU2ZRLF) brings a new quick toggle for the status bar that lets you switch between the software navigation buttons and the new full-screen navigation gestures that Pie introduces to Galaxy devices.

Quicker switching between navigation keys and gestures

The navigation gestures in Android Pie are a great alternative for those who dislike the software navigation keys taking up part of the screen. They’re easy to get used to as well, but until now, Samsung required users to take a trip into the phone’s display settings in order to switch back to standard navigation keys. The new quick toggle will make things much faster when you want to switch between navigation keys and full-screen gestures.

If you’re running the Android Pie beta on the Galaxy S9, you can find the navigation bar toggle on the second page of the quick toggles panel in the status bar. And don’t forget to check out more of what Android Pie and Samsung’s new One UI interface will bring to Galaxy smartphones.

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Samsung Galaxy A8s price confirmed, launches December 31 in China

Two weeks after unveiling its first smartphone with an Infinity-O display, Samsung today confirmed the Galaxy A8s price. The handset is only going to be launched in China initially. It remains to be seen if Samsung plans on releasing it in other markets across the globe.

It’s not a flagship device by any stretch of the imagination. Samsung has competitively priced it so as to appeal to Chinese customers looking for an affordable option that offers good value for money.

Galaxy A8s is competitively priced in China

Samsung has confirmed the Galaxy A8s price today for China. It will be available in silver, black and blue colors for 2,999 yuan. That’s approximately $430. The company does mention on its website that the blue and black colors will ship from January 15. The silver will ship from December 31.

The Galaxy A8s is a device of firsts for Samsung. It’s the first with an Infinity-O display. There’s a hole in the actual display panel itself for the front camera. This allows Samsung to maximize screen real estate without opting for a notch. This is also Samsung’s first Galaxy A smartphone with an LCD display. It has the same premium metal and glass build as many of Samsung’s recent mid-range devices. A fingerprint sensor is located at the rear as well.

The 6.4-inch Full HD+ 19.5:9 aspect ratio Infinity-O display is certainly the most unique aspect of this device. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. Samsung did say at launch that there will be an 8GB RAM option but the price for that has not yet been revealed. There’s a triple camera at the back which is exactly the same as the one on the Galaxy A7.

Whether or not Samsung releases the Galaxy A8s in other markets across the globe remains to be seen. Otherwise, its fans outside China may have to wait for the Galaxy S10 to experience the Infinity-O display.

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2019 Samsung smart TVs may come with Google Assistant

Samsung normally makes major TV-related announcements at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. With CES 2019 just around the corner, a new report suggests that the 2019 Samsung smart TVs will get support for Google Assistant. This would be the first time that the company opens its smart TV platform to third-party voice assistants.

It has only been a few months since Samsung brought its Bixby voice assistant to the platform. It allows for a variety of new user experiences between compatible devices. The addition of Google Assistant will certainly enhance the smart home capabilities of Samsung’s upcoming smart TVs.

Variety hears from sources familiar with the company’s plans that the 2019 Samsung smart TVs will come with Google Assistant and Bixby. It’s going to announce a partnership with Google for this at CES 2019. The report also mentions that Samsung will put a bigger emphasis on audio quality with the new TV lineup.

It may offer technology that works in a similar fashion to the Apple HomePod in tuning music to its environment. It has filed for several audio-related trademarks in recent months, protecting terms such as “audio scenic intelligence,” “audio spatial intelligence,” and “volume intelligence.”

The filings describe audio spatial intelligence as technology that’s used for “optimizing sound quality depending on the surrounding environment, such as space size and ambient noise.” That’s what speakers like the Apple HomePod do. They tune sound based on the surroundings by listening to it with integrated microphones.

Samsung hasn’t completely laid out its TV plans for 2019. It has only announced new models of its Frame and Serif TV lineups for next year. The 2019 Samsung smart TV lineup will obviously be one of the things on its CES 2019 agenda.

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