Samsung’s old S Voice assistant is being discontinued on June 1, 2020

If you have been using Samsung devices for long enough, you may remember S Voice. It was a voice assistant available on Samsung devices long before Bixby. The company never really built it up to any meaningful potential but it sort of hung around for many years and then just disappeared after Bixby.

That’s why Samsung’s decision to discontinue S Voice doesn’t come as a surprise. We’re told that the company has decided to discontinue its old S Voice virtual assistant on June 1, 2020.

S Voice bites the dust on June 1, 2020

S Voice wasn’t a conversational virtual assistant like Bixby or Google Assistant. It could, however, perform a variety of tasks in response to voice commands. You had to launch the app and then give commands like “Call Andy Samuel” or “Remind me to call the doctor at 9 am today,” etc. It could also launch navigation apps with directions to the desired location, tell the time, run an internet search and more.

This assistant was then confined to history when Samsung launched Bixby with the Galaxy S8. It was a much more capable assistant even though many still believe that even version 2.0 can’t hold a candle to the likes of Siri and Google Assistant, but that’s a debate for another day. Bixby’s launch had sealed S Voice’s fate as it obviously didn’t make sense for Samsung to support two similar features.

Samsung has thus decided to discontinue S Voice from June 1, 2020. If you try using the assistant after that, it will return the “I’m unable to process your request. Try again later” message. If you have a fairly recent Samsung phone then this change need not concern you as Samsung hasn’t shipped S Voice on new devices for a few years now.

The affected models that have the S Voice icon on the app screen include the Galaxy A3, A5, A7, A8, A9, Galaxy Note FE, Galaxy Note 2, 3, 4, 5, Galaxy S3, 4, S5, S6, S6 edge in addition to the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, Galaxy W, Galaxy Tab 4, Galaxy Tab 4 8.0/10.1, Galaxy Tab S8.4 and S10.5.

The discontinuation of S Voice won’t affect how those who own these devices use them. S Voice wasn’t really popular in its day so there’s likely not a lot of people using it anyway. A viable alternative on some of these devices for users who would like to use a digital assistant will be the Google Assistant. Bixby isn’t a standalone service so unless you’re planning on upgrading your device, you’ll have to stick with the alternative from Google.

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Galaxy M31 owners stuck without a working phone after latest update

It looks like Galaxy A70 owners might not be the only ones faced with major issues after a recent update, as numerous Galaxy M31 owners have flocked to Twitter and Samsung Members to complain about the April 2020 security patch bricking their smartphones during the update process.

The firmware update containing the April 2020 security patch began rolling out to the Galaxy M31 in India earlier today. We were able to update the device without a hitch, but it looks like not everyone is as lucky. As yet, we have no information as to why some Galaxy M31 units appear to be getting bricked post-update. The issue with Android 10 for the Galaxy A70 was caused by a hardware mismatch, so it may not be the same for the Galaxy M31.

For now, it looks like the safest way to get the April 2020 security patch for the Galaxy M31 is to download it from our firmware archive and flash it manually using a Windows PC. However, since we don’t know why this apparent issue exists in the first place, we advise you to proceed with caution regardless of the update method you may want to follow. If you don’t want to risk bricking your Galaxy M31, you should wait until more details emerge and Samsung clears things up. Especially now that Samsung’s service centers in India are shut down due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as we know more. Fortunately, these types of situations will be avoided beginning next year when Samsung will be forced by Google/Android 11 to adopt seamless updates.

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The Galaxy Watch Active is at its lowest price with this discount

If you’re in the market for a Samsung smartwatch and you wouldn’t mind owning the original Galaxy Watch Active as long as it’s available at a discount, here’s an opportunity for you to acquire it for $50 off.

Amazon US and Best Buy offer the Galaxy Watch Active at a 25% discount, bringing the price down from $199 to $149. Best Buy even throws in a $25 e-Gift Card.

Samsung lets you pair the smartwatch with the Galaxy Buds for a better deal

If you’d rather buy the Galaxy Watch Active directly from Samsung’s website in the USA, you won’t have to pay full price either. You can buy the wearable for $20 off ($179). On one hand, Amazon and Best Buy offer better deals for the smartwatch itself, but Samsung USA lets you pair the Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Buds to get an additional $50 discount on the TWS, bringing the price down to $80.

Samsung and Best Buy offer the Galaxy Watch Active in all of the four color options including black, green, rose gold, and silver, but Amazon is missing the latter option. Either way, prospective buyers have plenty of choices in terms of colors and retail channels, so now might be the right time to jump on the smartwatch bandwagon if you haven’t already done so.

Galaxy Watch Active Review | Galaxy Buds Review

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Galaxy Watch Active

• Model: SM-R500
• Dimensions: 39.5 x 39.5 x 10.5mm
• Display: 1.1” (28.1mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 9110
• Camera:

More specifications

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Samsung halts Galaxy A70 Android 10 release likely due to a serious issue

Samsung recently starting rolling out the Galaxy A70 Android 10 update. The firmware update had already been released in a few markets before we discovered that it may have a serious issue that bricks the device and doesn’t allow it to reboot.

There hasn’t really been a public acknowledgment from Samsung about this issue. However, the company has now halted the Galaxy A70 Android 10 release in markets where the firmware had been released. This issue has most likely caused Samsung to halt the release and develop a fix before sending the update out again.

Galaxy A70 Android 10 update is no longer available

We heard from our sources yesterday that certain Galaxy A70 units had experienced the issue after being updated to Android 10. Apparently, two different printed circuit board (PCB) versions have been used for the Galaxy A70, it’s the bit that handles screen control and device charging. The PCB update doesn’t complete with the Android 10 update because the firmware seemingly didn’t have the required code for Galaxy A70 devices that have the older version of the PCB.

This means that once Android 10 is installed on these devices, there’s a software mismatch between the motherboard and the charging PCB. The phone then thinks that the battery isn’t charged so it doesn’t allow the phone to boot up. The way to fix this on devices that have been bricked is to replace the older PCB with the newer version and that’s not possible without taking the phone to a Samsung service center, a tall order considering the current state of the world.

It’s unclear how widespread this issue might be. Most of the reports that we have heard of Galaxy A70 units facing this issue have been from the Netherlands. Nevertheless, Samsung has halted the Android 10 update release for the Galaxy A70 in all markets where the firmware had previously been released.

We may have to wait a few days before Samsung starts rolling out the Galaxy A70 Android 10 update once again, that will be only after it’s done fixing this issue.

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Samsung dominated the smartphone memory market in 2019

Samsung dominated the smartphone memory chip market in 2019, even though industry-wide revenues have declined for both NAND and DRAM. However, Samsung maintained its top spot in the smartphone memory segment throughout the year and has secured 47% revenue share.

Samsung’s smartphone memory solutions account for roughly 50% of the market

According to Strategy Analytics, demand for smartphone NAND Flash declined in 2019, and likewise, revenues saw a drop of 29% year-over-year. But Samsung remained the top dog in the smartphone NAND Flash segment and has recorded a revenue share of 42.1%. The Korean tech giant was followed by Kioxia and SK Hynix in 2nd and 3rd places.

Similarly, demand for smartphone DRAM also saw a decline of 27% year-over-year. An oversupply led to a fall in memory chip prices, but according to market analysts, Samsung’s successful design drove the company’s revenues. Samsung recorded a revenue share of 50.9% in the smartphone DRAM segment in 2019 and was followed by SK Hynix (29.2%) and Micron (18.5%).

Demand for newer memory technologies should rise

2020 will be a more difficult year for Samsung and its rivals, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt businesses big and small. The global smartphone production is expected to decline, but the lower demand for existing memory solutions could be offset by increasing demand for LPDDR5 and UFS 3.0 memory chips. Samsung also began mass-producing 512GB eUFS 3.1 storage chips last month, so the company’s memory business is as future-proof as it can be at this point.

Samsung’s data center chip sales also seem to have cushioned the lower demand for smartphones over the past few months, but time will tell if this trend will continue in the following quarters.

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Galaxy Tab S6 Lite Wi-Fi/LTE price details emerge

The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is definitely on its way, and according to new bits of information revealed on Twitter, prices for the European market will be a little bit lower than initially expected, at least for the Wi-Fi model. Instead of €399 for the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite Wi-Fi, Samsung will reportedly launch the device with 64GB of storage for €379.

Meanwhile, the source reveals that the 64GB Galaxy Tab S6 Lite LTE should go on sale for €439, or roughly €10 higher than the price spotted on a premature Amazon Germany listing a couple of weeks ago.

Samsung is gearing up for release in multiple regions

Support pages for the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite have cropped up across multiple European markets, including Germany, the UK and Ireland, Poland, and Bulgaria. Likewise, the upcoming tablet was also spotted in the USA in a B&H listing, and it’s already been listed by multiple retailers in South Korea.

With all this activity surrounding the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite in recent days, we can assume that Samsung is preparing for an imminent release of both the Wi-Fi and LTE models across all of these regions and more. Most of the tablet’s specs are known from a previous leak but we’ll get into more details about its capabilities as soon as Samsung makes the official announcement.

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Galaxy A5 (2017), A30, and M31 get new update, April 2020 security patch

Three more Samsung smartphones are getting firmware updates including the April 2020 security patch, namely the Galaxy A5 2017 (SM-A520F), Galaxy A30 (SM-A305F), and Galaxy M31 (SM-M315F). The updates arrive as firmware versions A520FXXSDCTCA, A305FDDS5BTC1, and M315FXXU1ATD1, respectively.

Oddly enough, the new firmware version for the Galaxy M31 suggests that additional features should be included with this latest release, but the changelog only mentions security improvements. As of this writing, the Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A30, and Galaxy M31 are getting the firmware update with the April 2020 security patch in Singapore, Thailand, and India, respectively.

The new security patch addresses 34 SVE items

As detailed by Samsung earlier this week, the April 2020 security patch fixes 14 critical vulnerabilities in the Android operating system, as well as 34 Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures. Therefore, even if new features are not included with this firmware, it’s arrival is still welcomed if you want to keep your device secure and free from potential malicious attacks.

Evidently, the firmware update will expand to encompass additional markets, but until then, eligible customers residing in the aforementioned countries can download the update by opening Settings on their phones and tapping Software update, followed by Download and install. We also have the updates up for manual download in our Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A30, and Galaxy M31 firmware archives (click the links for each device).

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Galaxy A51 is now available stateside via Sprint and Verizon

The Galaxy A51 finally launched in the USA where it’s presently available for purchase via Sprint and Verizon. There’s no option for buying the factory-unlocked model, and AT&T and T-Mobile have yet to offer the phone on their networks.

Verizon and Sprint are selling the Galaxy A51 for $399, but you can get an instant credit of $50 if you trade-in another smartphone. As expected, buying the Galaxy A51 will also guarantee you 2 months of YouTube Premium for free.

T-Mobile and AT&T will also release the Galaxy A51

The Galaxy A51 is not yet available through AT&T or T-Mobile, but the two carriers are very likely to offer it later down the line. The mid-range smartphone was certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance a few months ago, revealing that the firmware was being developed for all four major US-based carriers. It’s only a matter of time before AT&T and T-Mobile join the party.

Should you decide to buy the Galaxy A51 in the USA, you can check our review for all the details you need. In short, it offers a solid build with a great finish, it ships with Android 10 and One UI 2.0, it has an excellent Infinity-O AMOLED display, and it carries a 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s not perfect though, and it has its shortcomings. The speakers leave something to be desired and the macro camera has limited usability, but overall, the Galaxy A51 is a great smartphone for its segment.

Galaxy A51 Review

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Galaxy A51

• Model: SM-A515F
• Dimensions: 158.5 x 73.6 x 7.9mm
• Display: 6.5" (164mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 9611
• Camera: 48 MP F1.8, 12MP Ultra-wide F2.2, 5MP Depth F2.2 & 5MP Macro F2.4

More specifications

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Galaxy A71 secures 84 points in DxOMark, 1 point shy of beating the A50

The Galaxy A71’s camera setup got an overall score of 84 from DxOMark. It’s one point shy of equaling the Galaxy A50 which scored 1 point lower in the photography department and 5 points higher in video tests. That is after they’ve reviewed the original Galaxy A50 score of 83 points (now sitting at 85).

DxOMark gave the Galaxy A71 a score of 89 in photo and 74 in video. Concerning the former category, the smartphone’s camera setup was praised for delivering accurate exposure with wide dynamic range, well-controlled noise, vivid colors outdoors, and nice bokeh. What doesn’t work in its favor is the low detail in all conditions, low detail on zoom shots, slow autofocus, strong ringing, and blue color cast on outdoor images.

The Galaxy A71 edges out the S6 Edge by a couple of points

As far as video is concerned, the Galaxy A71 delivers good exposure in bright light, along with effective stabilization. However, videos also suffer from visible ringing, poor autofocus, limited dynamic range, as well as noise and low detail in all conditions.

The Galaxy A71 is equipped with a main quad-camera setup comprising a 64MP wide-angle lens shooter with f/1.8 aperture, an ultra-wide 12MP sensor (f/2.2), a 5MP macro sensor (f/2.4), and a 5MP depth sensor (f/2.2). It benefits from dual PDAF; it can record 4K videos at 30fps and capture HDR photos. Head down to DxOMark for the full analysis and an in-depth explanation as to why they gave the Galaxy A71 a total of 84 points.

Galaxy A71

• Model: SM-A715F
• Dimensions: 163.6 x 76.0 x 7.7mm
• Display: 6.7" (170.1mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730
• Camera: 64 MP F1.8, 12MP Ultra-wide F2.2, 5MP Depth F2.2 & 5MP Macro F2.4

More specifications

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Daily Deal: 27% off Letscom Wireless Charger

Wireless Charging is slowly becoming the new standard. It could very well be that future smartphones don’t even come with a conventional port for charging. This means that everything will be wireless, from data transfer to charging. Charging your smartphone wirelessly has a lot of benefits: you’re less likely to damage your device from ripping out the cable in a hurry and it won’t wear as much as you’re not plugging something in on a daily basis. This Wireless Charger by Letscom supports fast charging (up to 15W) and works with all Qi-Certified devices. Now available at 27%, this is one of the most affordable Wireless Chargers available.

Hit the Buy Now button below to get one while still available!

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Samsung irrelevant among U.S. teens, most own an iPhone

Samsung smartphones appear to be irrelevant among teenagers in the United States, with the vast majority of them owning an iPhone, and even more planning to go with Apple for their next handset.

New data gathered by Minneapolis-based Piper Sandler suggests the South Korean tech giant is missing out on hundreds of billions worth of annual sales. What’s more, Generation Z’s indifference with Samsung’s Android smartphones also has alarming implications for the company’s long-term operations in the U.S.

Why Samsung should care about U.S. teens

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, there were 41.7 million stateside adolescents in 2016, which amounts to just under 13% of the (legal) population. Even as that demographic is projected to stagnate over the next 30 years, Samsung still has reasons for concern seeing how this particular age group is a prime target for breeding lifetime customers. Combined with the fact the U.S. is the world’s largest market for premium smartphones, it’s easy to see how Samsung’s current failings could snowball into a greater issue down the line.

Not that things aren’t already looking bleak; the Stock With Teens survey reveals a whopping 85% of American teens currently own an iPhone and 88% of them intend for that to be their next smartphone purchase. In terms of direct revenue, that’s $830 billion in sales, the study estimates, falling back on previous data from Fung Global Retail & Technology. Ultimately, it appears Samsung will have to come up with something better than Fortnite skins if it hopes to improve its prospects with this key consumer demographic.

While all of that’s bad news for Samsung Electronics, the bright side is that the conglomerate as a whole is still positioned to make money from Apple’s domestic dominance given how Samsung Display has been a key iPhone supplier ever since the Cupertino-based firm switched to OLEDs in 2017.

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Samsung Biologics clinches deal to manufacture coronavirus treatment

Samsung Biologics announced earlier today that it has clinched a deal to manufacture a candidate treatment for the coronavirus treatment. The biopharmaceutical arm of Samsung Group has signed a $362.2 million contract with the U.S. drug firm Vir Biotechnology.

The company will start full-scale production of candidate COVID-19 treatment that is known to quite powerful in neutralizing the novel virus. The treatment is based on therapeutic antibodies developed by Vir Biotechnology. The manufacturing will take place at Samsung Biologic’s Songdo plant in Incheon.

Vir Biotechnology is said to have developed the antibodies from the blood samples of patients who completely recovered from the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) illness, which is caused by one form of coronavirus strain. The US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is currently reviewing to grant a fast-track designation to the antibody as a possible therapy to cure COVID-19 patients.

The deal is worth 63 percent of Samsung Biologic’s annual 2019 revenue, setting the biggest single manufacturing revenue for the company. The company’s shares jumped 18.7 percent to KRW 568,000 (around $469) after the announcement today.

The company is planning to begin the first engineering run in October and commence the mass production of the drug in 2021. Samsung Biologic CEO Kim Tae-han said, “Vir’s candidate molecules supported by Samsung BioLogics’ production scale have the potential to bring hope to countless lives across nations suffering from COVID-19.”

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