Samsung heir appears in court as the retrial begins in the bribery case

Samsung Group’s vice-chairman and the de facto chief Lee Jae-yong appeared in Seoul’s High Court on Friday as the retrial in the high-profile corruption scandal began in the country’s capital. In August this year, the country’s top court ordered a retrial in the case, overturning parts of the ruling by the lower court that went in Lee’s favor.

“I feel very sorry that I caused concerns to many people,” Lee told the press (via Reuters) before entering the court amidst protests from some citizens demanding his arrest.

During the hearing, presiding judge Jung Joon-young said the case pertains to a crime planned and committed by the high-ranking officials in the conglomerate and that an effective monitoring system could have prevented it. “Please take this trial with an attitude to humbly accept whatever results of the trial will be,” the judge told Lee before wrapping up the hearing.

Samsung heir’s lawyers said they will not fight the top court’s decision and will only ask for leniency in sentencing. The next hearings in the case are scheduled for November 22 and December 6.

Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 by a lower court for paying bribes to Choi, a longtime friend and confidant of impeached former president Park Geun-hye. He spent nearly a year in jail before the Seoul High Court reduced his sentence by half and suspended it for four years. It was parts of this verdict that the Supreme Court disagreed with and ordered a retrial.

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Galaxy Note 10 One UI 2.0 beta release has been delayed

We have known for a while now that the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ will be joining Samsung’s One UI 2.0 beta program. The company did start rolling out the Android 10 beta firmware for the Galaxy Note 10 earlier today. We were able to get the firmware on one of our devices in Germany.

However, it appears that someone had pulled the trigger on it ahead of schedule. We’re now hearing that Samsung has delayed the Galaxy Note 10 One UI 2.0 beta release. It’s a disappointing development for those who have been waiting for it.

The Galaxy Note 10 One UI 2.0 beta release will take place next week

Registration for the Galaxy Note 10 Android 10 beta program was open for a brief period earlier today. A SamMobile team member was able to register for it through Samsung Members in Germany and received firmware version N975FXXU1ZSJF. Not long after that, we started hearing complaints from users that they were unable to get it through Samsung Members.

It became clear that something wasn’t right. This seems to be a repeat of what happened four days ago for the Galaxy S10 Android 10 beta release in the UK. The option to join the beta became available briefly on October 21 and some users were able to get the beta firmware. Samsung later sent out a notice in the Members app confirming that the beta wasn’t meant to be released yet and that it would arrive at a later date.

We have been told that this is indeed the case. Samsung has delayed the Galaxy Note 10 One UI 2.0 beta release and the firmware that was available for a short period today was sent out by mistake. Samsung now expects to release the beta for the Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy Note 10+ next week.

It seems Samsung is in a rush to get the beta out quickly and is then having to pull it when it realizes that not everything is as it should be. While one can appreciate the sentiment, it would be much better if Samsung took all the time it needs so that it doesn’t have to go through all of this back and forth.

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Samsung India partners with Dixon for feature phone manufacturing

Samsung could soon start selling new feature phones in India, according to a recent report from The Economic Times revealing that Samsung Electronics India and Dixon Technologies have entered a new partnership that extends beyond the South Korean tech giant’s home appliances division.

Samsung to launch new feature phones in India

According to the report citing Dixon Technologies’ Managing Director, Atul B Lall, his company has been associated with Samsung’s home appliances division for the past two years. Now, both companies are ready to push this partnership to another level. ‘There is tremendous scope and potential in the feature phone market. We are confident that this relationship will go a long way‘ revealed Atul B Lall. Meanwhile, Executive Chairman Sunil Vachani promised that customers will have ‘an enriching experience‘ thanks to ‘Dixon’s manufacturing expertise and Samsung’s innovative solutions.’

The report didn’t mention any concrete details or hardware specs regarding any future Samsung feature phones, but they are going to be budget devices, through and through. They will reportedly be manufactured in Dixon Technologies’ new facility which has an area of 224,000 square feet (68,275 square meters).

Samsung is the top feature phone manufacturer in India, according to recent market analysis. Its market share grew by four percent from a year ago. However, other brands like Itel, Lava, Nokia, and Karbonn are gaining traction as well, even though the segment, as a whole, seems to be diminishing. The Samsung-Dixon Technologies partnership marks an effort to maintain leadership in India’s feature phone market.

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Daily Deal: 35% off USB C 3A Fast Charging cable

Most of us have experienced broken charging cables. This is frustrating as this means you’re not able to charge your smartphone when you want to. It’s also equally frustrating when you forget to bring your charging cable with you, for example, when you head off to work. It’s always convenient to have some extra charging cables around places where you are often like your living room, bedroom, office and car. At 35% off, this is the perfect time to get some peace of mind and make sure to lay your hands on a couple of USB-C carging cables!

Hit the Buy Now button below to use this discount today.

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Galaxy Fold will soon be available in the Netherlands and other markets

The Galaxy Fold is gradually making its way to more markets across the globe. It was first released in South Korea last month. Samsung has carefully controlled the release of this device so as to keep up the hype.

It has certainly succeeded in doing that. The Galaxy Fold has been quickly selling out in markets across the globe. Samsung has even begun retail stores of the device in South Korea. It’s now gearing up to bring the device to the Netherlands.

Galaxy Fold will be available in the Netherlands soon

We can confirm that Samsung will finally begin selling the Galaxy Fold in the Netherlands. Customers in the country will no longer have to purchase one from the other European markets where the device is already available.

This is hardly surprising. The device has already been released in most major European markets. So it was only a matter of time before the device was made widely available in the region. We also confirmed previously that the Galaxy Fold is also going to be released in Nordic countries soon.

Samsung is believed to have sold more than 500,000 units of the Galaxy Fold so far. It’s apparently seeing considerable demand for the device, so much so that it has decided to increase its foldable display output.

The company is also working on a new Galaxy Fold smartphone which is likely to be more affordable. Samsung may not launch this device before next year, though. It could be powered by the new Exynos 990 premium mobile processor that Samsung unveiled earlier this week.

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Samsung’s market share declines in India as Chinese brands continue to grow

Samsung has been facing cutthroat competition from Chinese brands in the Indian smartphone market for many years now. To avoid a repeat of its China debacle, the Korean company has undertaken many measures to better compete with its rivals. Despite the company’s best efforts, it appears Chinese brands continue to make a dent in Samsung’s business.

According to the Q3 2019 smartphone shipment data from Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi retained its position as India’s biggest smartphone vendor with 26% market share. Samsung came in second with 20% market share, a drop of 3% compared to last year. Vivo, Realme, and Oppo, all of which belonged to the same parent company, occupied the next three spots, respectively.

As you can see from the table, Vivo and Realme were the biggest gainers in Q3. Realme, in particular, saw the biggest jump in market share among the top five brands from 3% to 16% year-on-year. Making matters worse for Samsung, Counterpoint Research says OnePlus almost doubled its shipments and emerged as India’s top premium smartphone brand in the third quarter. Apple also entered the top 10 vendors’ list, which is bad news for the Korean company’s high-margin Galaxy flagships.

Samsung tops feature phone shipments

Smartphone shipments in India, overall, reached a record-high 49 million units in the third quarter, recording a 10% year-on-year increase. The feature phone market, on the other hand, declined by approximately 37% year-on-year, which is attributed to the slowdown in shipments from Reliance Jio. Samsung increased its market share in feature phones from 17% to 22% year-on-year and emerged as the largest vendor in the feature phones category.

As evident from the data, it’s bad news for Samsung in the subcontinent. Worst of all, there doesn’t seem to be a path to growth given the nature of the Android ecosystem. The Korean tech giant’s challenges are not limited to smartphones either as many of these Chinese brands have ventured into other Samsung-dominated product categories as well.

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Galaxy Fold stock replenished in Russia for its official October 25 release

Galaxy Fold sales in Russia have officially begun today, October 25, after a three-week-long pre-order period. The Galaxy Fold became available for pre-order in Russia on October 4, and Samsung’s first foldable device was just as sought-after in Russia as it was in all the other markets where it became available for pre-order. The initial stock was depleted in just a couple of days.

Samsung Electronics officially confirmed today that an additional batch of Galaxy Fold units has been shipped to Russia so that prospective buyers can have a chance of buying one on launch day.

Galaxy Fold arrives on store shelves in Russia

The Galaxy Fold is selling in Russia for 159,990 rubles or the rough equivalent of $2,506. The foldable device has quite a premium over the original $2,000 price in other markets, but this hasn’t stopped the first pre-order batch to sell in record time. Even if the Galaxy Fold is expensive, it’s also relatively rare and difficult to find. This feeling of scarcity contributed to an inflated sense of demand.

Samsung didn’t reveal how many units have been made available at launch in Russia so there’s no way to guess how long the current stock will last. Either way, the device is not available through the Samsung Forward program, meaning that prospective buyers must pay the phone’s full price up-front to acquire it. Hopefully, the Galaxy Fold is going to survive the cold Russian weather as well as it did the hot sandy shores of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Are you going to buy the Galaxy Fold in Russia? Let us know in the comment section.

Galaxy Fold

• Model: SM-F900F
• Dimensions: Unfolded: 160.9 x 117.9 x 6.9 mm Folded: 160.9 x 62.9 x 15.5 mm
• Display: 7,3" (185.4mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
• Camera: 16 MP, CMOS F2.2 & 12MP, CMOS F1.5/F2.4Wide & 12MP, CMOS F2.4 Telephoto

More specifications

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Is your Galaxy Note 10/S10 fingerprint reader safe? Here’s how to find out

There’s been a bit of a security scare recently for Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 owners, as it was discovered that the in-display fingerprint reader on these flagships can be fooled when certain silicon cases that cover both the front and back of the device are used. Such cases have a textured pattern that can be recognized as a fingerprint instead of the user’s actual fingerprint, and that allows anyone to unlock the device by simply pressing down on the fingerprint reader.

This particular vulnerability only becomes a problem if someone registers their fingerprint on their Galaxy Note 10/10+/10 5G/10+ 5G or Galaxy S10/S10+/S10 5G for the first time with such a case installed, but it’s still a serious flaw that Samsung quickly acknowledged. The Korean giant announced that it would soon be patching the issue via a biometrics update over the air, and that update is now available worldwide for all Galaxy S10 and Note 10 owners.

The biometrics update will show up as a notification that will not go away until you have installed it. The notification, as you can see in the screenshot below, is called Performance and security – just tap it and then hit the Update button to install the biometrics update. However, just installing it is not going to be a complete safeguard against the vulnerability; there are a couple of other things you need to do.

Restart phone, then delete and register your fingerprint(s) again

The first thing you should do once the update is installed is restart your phone. Then, whether your previously registered fingerprints were added with a silicon case installed on the screen or without the case installed, you should proceed to delete them all from your phone.

To do that, open the Settings app, navigate to Biometrics and security, then tap Fingerprints and enter your PIN/password/pattern to see all your registered fingerprints. Tap and hold on one of the fingerprints, select all fingerprints, then tap the Remove button on top to delete them.

Then, make sure you don’t have a silicon case installed and register your fingerprint on the device again by tapping the Add fingerprint option. As Samsung notes, it’s best to scan all the edges of your finger when registering a fingerprint for the best protection. And, well, it’s best to stop using cases that cover the top of your device and simply opt for an official screen protector from Samsung.

How to be sure you have the necessary biometrics update installed

Once you have deleted your fingerprints and added them again, if you want to make sure that the necessary biometrics update is actually installed on your Galaxy S10 or Galaxy Note 10, here’s what you need to do. Open the Settings app on your phone, navigate to Biometrics and security, then tap the Biometrics preferences option. Here, check the version number listed in front of the word Fingerprints at the bottom.

As shown in the screenshot below, on Android Pie, the version number should be 2.0.24.20 for your device to be safe against the fingerprint vulnerability. If you’re testing the Android 10 beta, the version number should be 5.0.0.1. If the version numbers are different, it means you have not installed the biometrics update, in which case you should check your notification shade and do the needful, then follow all the advice we have given above.

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Breaking: Galaxy Note 10 Android 10 One UI 2.0 beta program is a go!

Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus owners can finally join their Galaxy S10-owning brethren in testing out Android 10, as Samsung has kicked off the One UI 2.0 beta program for its latest Note flagships. The beta is confirmed to be live in Germany and should also be coming to the US and South Korea later in the day. The beta update released for the Note 10 and Note 10+ is the same build as the second beta released for the Galaxy S10 series yesterday and includes the November 2019 security patch along with all the new One UI 2.0 features.

Developing…

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One UI 2.0 feature focus: Now take slow motion selfie videos!

Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 11 last month saw the company talk a lot about the camera features on its latest iPhones, and one of those features is the ability to shoot slow motion videos with the front camera. If you were jealous that you would be left out as your iPhone 11-toting friends went around taking what Apple is calling “slofies”, don’t worry, Samsung has your back.

Our favorite phone maker has added a slow motion mode to the front camera with One UI 2.0 and Android 10. Like the slow motion mode for the rear camera, you don’t get any customization options for slow motion videos with the front camera. You just hit the record button and go crazy, although you can edit recorded slow motion videos and reduce their playback speed to make everything even slower.

The slow motion videos we shot have a bit of jitter, but we’re assuming Samsung will fix that for the stable Android 10 update. And, in case you’re wondering, you cannot take Super Slow-mo videos with the front camera. That’s okay, if we’re being honest, since Super Slow-mo videos only capture very short moments, are hard to time right, and require well lit environments because of the high frame rate they are shot at.

What do you think? Do you see yourself taking slow motion videos of yourself with the front camera? Tell us in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our One UI 2.0 feature focus series to discover more of what’s new on Android 10 for Galaxy devices.

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