As Samsung had promised, the Android 10-based One UI 2.0 beta program for the Galaxy S10 5G is now live in South Korea. The 5G Galaxy S10 model’s hardware is a little different from the LTE Galaxy S10 models, which is why Samsung is holding a separate beta program for it, although it doesn’t look like Galaxy S10 5G owners outside South Korea will be getting beta access.
Galaxy S10 5G owners in South Korea can register for the beta from the Samsung Members app. A beta registration notice should be available in the app’s notices section, where one can enroll into the program after going through some terms and conditions. A backup via Samsung Smart Switch is recommended before installing the beta, as returning back to Android Pie requires a full reset of the device.
Samsung also released a second beta update for the LTE Galaxy S10e, S10, and S10+ in South Korea, Germany, and the US today, and we have our fingers crossed a beta program for the Galaxy Note 10 duo will be launched later in the day. We’ll keep you posted as things develop, so stay tuned.
After expanding the Android 10 beta program for the Galaxy S10 to new markets yesterday, Samsung has started rolling out a second beta in countries where the program debuted earlier this month: the US, Germany and South Korean. As expected, the second beta brings fixes for a slew of bugs in the first beta release; it comes with software version G97*USQU2ZSJF.
The first bullet point in the list of bug fixes is the most important one: The second beta includes the patch for the fingerprint flaw that enables the phone to be unlocked by any fingerprint when a certain type of silicone case is installed on the screen. This patch is available for those on Android Pie as an over-the-air biometrics update. The new beta update also fixes battery consumption and heat issues, force closes in Bixby Routines and the camera and keyboard apps, a bug that enables Dark mode even when it is deselected when a power saving mode is active, and a crash of the android.process.media process, among others.
The changelog for Germany mentions that the update adds some new features, such as slow motion for the front camera and a Auto Hotspot functionality, but all of these are already available in the first beta. In any case, if you own a Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, or Galaxy S10+, you can download the second beta update — ranging from 500 to 650 MB in size — from the Settings » Software update menu on your phone.
Samsung has announced that it’s putting Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) alongside regular apps in the Galaxy Store. For those who are unaware, PWAs are web apps that can provide many of the same features as native apps, including notifications and offline support.
The company has been prioritizing them for its Samsung Internet web browser, allowing users to install them from within the browser using a single tap. In a bid to further integrate PWAs into the Samsung experience, it has decided to start adding Progressive Web Apps to the Galaxy Store as well.
The Galaxy Store is getting Progressive Web Apps
Progressive Web Apps will be listed in the Galaxy Store alongside conventional apps. Developers who are interested can send the URL of their web apps to pwasupport@samsung.com. The company will help them list the app on the Galaxy Store in addition to providing assistance with all the necessary paperwork.
Developers could previously submit PWAs to the Galaxy Store inside a WebView wrapper, for example, but Samsung’s sanctioned implementation is a bit different. It only wants developers to provide URLs of their web apps and doesn’t want to make them write a separate APK for them. This can save a few hours’ worth of work for developers. Whether or not Samsung changes this down the line remains to be seen.
Progressive Web Apps are currently visible to Galaxy Store users in the United States for now. It’s looking to roll them out to the rest of the world at a later date.
The One UI 2.0 beta program for the Galaxy Note 10 series is going to launch in India soon, according to yet another teaser image that emerged through the Samsung Members app.
Much like it was with previous teasers for South Korea, the US, and Germany, no exact launch date for the Galaxy Note 10 One UI 2.0 beta in India was mentioned, but progress is being made and prospective beta testers should be able to join the program sooner rather than later.
Galaxy Note 10 One UI 2.0 beta commencing soon in India
We’ve hoped that Samsung’s customer care representatives were correct when they mentioned an October 24 release for One UI 2.0 beta on the Galaxy Note 10. Then again, this information channel didn’t always prove to be accurate, and it turned out that the Galaxy Note 10 beta program did not start today after all.
At the moment, One UI 2.0 beta is not available on the Galaxy Note 10 series in any region, but in theory, Samsung sending out these notices means that it shouldn’t take more than a few days for the roll-out to officially commence.
The sooner Samsung will be able to release the first stable Android 10 update the better. The company has so far done a decent job with the One UI 2.0 beta, and even Google praised Samsung for launching the Android 10 beta earlier than it released Android Pie beta last year. There’s even a good possibility that Samsung will push out the first stable One UI 2.0 update based on Android 10 by the end of the year.
The Galaxy S10 5G will join the One UI 2.0 beta program in South Korea tomorrow, October 25. This has been confirmed by a teaser posted in the Samsung community forums in Korea. Just a couple of hours ago, Samsung launched the Android 10 beta for the LTE Galaxy S10 variants in India, France, and Poland; it was expected to start the Galaxy Note 10 beta program today as well, and though we’re getting tired of speculating all the time, we are assuming the Note 10 beta will be released alongside the Galaxy S10 5G beta tomorrow.
If you own a Galaxy S10 5G (or a Galaxy Note 10 or Note 10+), be sure to check back with us tomorrow for news on the beta program. Also keep an eye on the Samsung Members app on your phone, as that is where you will see the notice for beta registration. And while you wait, check out the new features you will see on your device once it has been updated to the Android 10 beta in the video below. We also have a huge number of side-by-side comparison images that show you how Samsung is improving the usability of the One UI interface with version 2.0.
Update: The Samsung SpaceSelfie campaign kicked off with the world’s first space selfie featuring English model, actress, and singer, Cara Delevingne. It’s the “first of many” selfies that will be sent into the Earth’s stratosphere. Of course, Samsung fans can also participate in the campaign for a chance to send their own selfies. Check out the video below and keep reading for more details on how to participate.
Original story follows:
Samsung Electronics is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an exciting space-themed marketing campaign/contest called SpaceSelfie. The company will launch a Galaxy S10 5G into the Earth’s stratosphere using high-altitude balloons, and Samsung fans will have an opportunity to send a selfie along with it.
One of the reasons why SpaceSelfie is exciting is that contest winners will receive a photo captured in the stratosphere featuring planet Earth as the background. Said Galaxy S10 5G will display selfies on the screen and will serve as the foreground. It’s basically a photo of your photo shown on a Galaxy S10 5G, captured in the Earth’s stratosphere.
Send your selfie, or your cat’s, into the stratosphere with SpaceSelfie
You can check the video below for an official introduction to the idea of SpaceSelfie, but in short, it’s a contest with 65.000 randomly-picked winners. That’s the number of user-sent images Samsung will send into the stratosphere once the winners will be determined. The video suggests the contest is not limited to selfies and that other types of photos are allowed, such as group shots or pet photos.
Also interesting to note is that Samsung has involved football player Zlatan Ibrahimović in this campaign. He’s presently playing for Los Angeles-based soccer team LA Galaxy. The team isn’t owned by Samsung, despite the moniker, but the coincidental names make this partnership seem fitting. The Swedish professional footballer had this video to share on his Instagram page:
Readers who may want to participate in the contest can visit the official SpaceSelfie page and fill out a form. Do check the terms and conditions as there are quite a few and can differ from country to country. The sign-up period will run until October 31, giving fans a couple of weeks to capture the perfect selfie for the occasion.
Samsung will announce the winners on November 1. Until then, why not customize your phone with some space-themed Galaxy Note 10 wallpapers that embrace the ‘punch-hole’ design? In any case, good luck if you decide to participate in SpaceSelfie, and feel free to share your thoughts on the contest in the comment section below.
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The Galaxy S10 Android 10 One UI 2.0 beta program has now been launched in India. Owners of the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, and Galaxy S10+ can enroll into the beta program through the Samsung Members app by tapping the One UI registration notice in the Notices section of the app.
We had incorrectly reported earlier that Samsung is rolling out the second Android 10 beta for the Galaxy S10 series, but that is not the case. The beta program has simply been launched in India today; this means Samsung has kicked off the second phase of the beta program and should soon be launching the beta in Spain, France, the UK, Poland, and China.
Android 10 beta rolling out in India
We have received the update notification for the beta on a Galaxy S10+ in India. The firmware version is G975FXXU3ZSJF and it comes with the November 2019 security patch. The update weighs in at just under 2GB. Our Galaxy S10e received the notification as well – the update for the S10e is yet to be released, but that should change soon.
There is considerable interest in when Samsung might release the second Galaxy S10 Android 10 One UI 2.0 beta. The company was expected to do that today. However, it sent out some notices in Samsung Members earlier today which suggested that there might be a delay for the second beta.
As it turns out, there’s not going to be a delay. Samsung is now rolling out the second Galaxy S10 Android 10 beta. We’ve received the notification on two of our devices in India. Users can now register for it through the Samsung Members app.
Latest Galaxy S10 Android 10 beta build is out now
We have received the update notification for the second beta build on a Galaxy S10+ in India. The firmware version is G975FXXU3ZSJF and it comes with the November 2019 security patch. The update weighs in at just under 2GB. Our Galaxy S10e received the notification as well.
We’ll be sure to put the new beta through its paces to find out everything that’s been changed or improved since the first beta. More to follow.
Samsung announced the launch of the Enterprise Editions of the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy A40, Galaxy A50 and Galaxy Xcover 4s in the UK today, and it seems some publications have focused on the part that says ‘4 years of regular firmware updates’ in their coverage, making some folks question why the same courtesy is not extended to the standard editions that Samsung sells to customers. Well, if you read Samsung’s announcement carefully, you will realize the customer editions do get the same software support.
In the footnotes at the end of its press release, Samsung mentions this: “S Series and Note Series updates are available monthly for the first three years, then quarterly for the final year.A Series and XCover 4S updates are available quarterly for the full four year term.” If you have following your recent coverage, you probably know that the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge were shifted to a quarterly update schedule when they entered their fourth year on the market, after getting monthly updates for the first three years. That’s exactly what Samsung will do for the Enterprise Edition devices, instead of giving them special treatment.
The enterprise variants of the mid-range devices, meanwhile, will get quarterly updates from day one. That is actually worse than the support their regular consumer variants get, at least for the Galaxy A50 and Galaxy Xcover 4s, which are eligible for monthly security updates. Enterprise and consumer editions are also on an equal footing as far as major Android OS updates are concerned. Both get two OS upgrades, although that’s one aspect we keep hoping Samsung will change at some point now that its flagship offerings have broken the $1000 barrier and even reached $2000 when you consider the Galaxy Fold.
Samsung has started work on the software for the Galaxy S11. As you would expect, Samsung’s next flagship will come with the latest version of Android (Android 10) out of the box. As we had exclusively revealed, it will also introduce us to One UI 2.1, with Android 10 for existing devices like the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 to be accompanied by One UI 2.0.
For now, firmware development has been kicked off for the SM-G986B, which should be the Galaxy S11 that falls in the middle of the lineup. The SM-G986B will be the global 5G-equipped model, just like the SM-N976B, the Exynos-powered Galaxy Note 10+ 5G that’s sold worldwide. The other two Galaxy S11 models are SM-G981 and SM-G988, which should be the successors to the Galaxy S10e and Galaxy S10+. Right now, Samsung doesn’t seem to have any non-5G Galaxy S11 variants in the works, although that could change later down the line.
Samsung is likely to hold the Galaxy S11 launch event in the third week of February, possibly on February 18. If Samsung sticks to the same schedule as it did for the Galaxy S10 series, the Galaxy S11 should go on sale in early March. That leaves the company around four months to get the software completely ready for shipping on retail units, and while we probably won’t hear about any new software features until the Galaxy S11’s unveiling, we should start seeing leaks that detail the phone’s hardware much sooner.
Samsung will source ToF (time-of-flight) camera modules for the Galaxy S11 from three different suppliers, according to a report from Korean tech publication The Elec. Two of these will be South Korean companies Namuga and Patron, who supplied ToF modules for the Galaxy Note 10, and the third will be Sunny Optical from China, which was responsible for the ToF cameras seen on the Galaxy S10 5G alongside Patron.
Samsung may have pulled out of China as far as smartphone manufacturing is concerned, but it is still sourcing components from the country. Sunny Optical has reportedly been getting a bigger and bigger share of the pie as a supplier of camera modules for Galaxy devices in the last year or so. None of this means anything for the end consumer, who will see the same performance from the phone’s ToF camera no matter who the supplier is, but Korean suppliers are said to be worried about the exponential rise of Sunny Optical.
The ToF camera on the Galaxy S10 5G and Galaxy Note 10+ is what makes features like 3D scanning and size measurement of real-world objects possible, but it doesn’t really help with photo and video quality in general. It should technically help add better background blur in photos and videos compared to what is possible with a single camera or dual cameras, but 2019 Galaxy flagships that don’t have a ToF sensor do just as well at bokeh through software tricks.
That said, Samsung is likely to continue equipping its flagship phones with ToF cameras just for consistency’s sake, and the Galaxy S11 should have it as well, at least on the plus-sized variant. The Galaxy S11 is also expected to have 5X optical zoom, along with a 108-megapixel camera for regular photos. Samsung doesn’t usually focus on a high megapixel count for its flagship phone cameras, but with its newest Exynos chip offering support for 108MP cameras, it’s possible the company could change that philosophy next year.
