Samsung acquires sizeable stake in China’s largest electric vehicle company

The Samsung Group announced earlier this year that it has formed a new team to grow its automotive-related business. Samsung is also said to be interested in electric and smart cars, it has even modified a race track it owns to test autonomous cars. The company has already teamed up with SAP and SEAT to develop projects for connected cars and has been actively seeking partnerships with iconic German automakers to improve its position in the market. Samsung has now taken a sizeable stake in China’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.

Samsung has confirmed that it has acquired a stake in BYD, China’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, however the company has not revealed the financial terms of this deal. Reports suggest that Samsung has invested 3 billion yuan ($449.10 million) in the company which gives it a 4 percent stake in the company. Samsung did say that this deal does not mean it’s going to participate in BYD’s management, the company sees its latest investment as a means to improve its partnership with BYD on automotive and smartphone parts. Samsung SDI is a major supplier of battery cells for electric cars but this deal is not linked to the conglomerate’s battery-making arm in any way.

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Samsung Pay to launch in Brazil on July 19

It has been revealed today that Samsung will launch its mobile payment platform in Brazil on Tuesday, July 19; just in time for the Olympic Games that kick off on Friday, August 5. This news comes one month after the manufacturer commenced a pre-launch trial of Samsung Pay in the region, and a mere two days after the service went live in Puerto Rico.

“Samsung Pay reinforces the company’s focus to bring value to both consumers and partners by bringing innovative services to your smartphones,” said Thomas Ko, Vice President of Samsung Pay in a statement. “We are always exploring creative technologies and use cases to provide consumers with an immersive and holistic mobile wallet experience.”

Unfortunately, it’s currently unclear what banks will support the service when it launches. However, we suspect that the top three — Banco do Brasil, Itau, and Caixa Economica Federa — are likely on board. Those traveling to Brazil from a country that already has compatibility for Samsung Pay will also be able to use their registered credit/debit cards to make payments.

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Gear IconX launched in a handful of countries today

It was only yesterday that Samsung launched its first wireless activity tracking earbuds in South Korea. The company has announced today that the Gear IconX is also available in a handful of other markets including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Canada and Australia. It has said that the Gear IconX will be gradually launched around the rest of the globe in the coming weeks.

The Gear IconX is a new kind of wearable fitness device from Samsung. It has an in-ear heart rate monitor and is capable of functioning as a standalone music player. The Gear IconX is capable of tracking and providing instant feedback for fitness data such as speed, duration, distance, heart rate and calories burned all of which is synced with S Health. The Gear IconX is available in black, white and blue colors. Pricing varies by market.

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Samsung’s content collaboration with The Players’ Tribune will bring your favorite athletes to virtual reality

Samsung has announced a content collaboration with The Players’ Tribune that’s going to bring some of your favorite athletes to virtual reality. As part of this collaboration, The Players’ Tribune is going to create short-form 360-degree videos focusing on athletes using Samsung’s Gear 360 camera. TPT contributors Von Miller and Hassan Whiteside will capture content using Samsung’s affordable VR camera at exclusive sporting events, content that will be published on The Players’ Tribune platforms, its social media channels and Samsung’s Gear VR headset. This collaboration kicked off with VR content from the 2016 ESPYS.

The Players’ Tribune is a new media company that provides athletes with the tools they require to create premium and innovative content. It publishes first-person stories from athletes and provides unique insight into the daily sports conversation. Now it will be able to provide some of that content in immersive virtual reality courtesy of its collaboration with Samsung.

“The infinite canvas of 360-degree storytelling is a content revolution that Samsung is not only embracing, but supercharging with collaborations like this one with The Players’ Tribune, empowering content creators to tell stories in new and unique ways,” says Marc Mathieu, Chief Marketing Officer at Samsung Electronics America.

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AT&T sweetens its Samsung BOGO deal with free Gear S2 smartwatch

AT&T is offering a new buy one get one free deal on Samsung smartphones starting tomorrow. Customers who purchase one handset on AT&T Next Every Year or AT&T Next plans will get one for free. That’s not all, AT&T is also sweetening the deal by throwing in a free 3G Gear S2 smartwatch. Smartphones eligible for this offer include the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7 Active, the entire Galaxy S6 series and the Galaxy Note 5.

Customers have to purchase both phones on either of the two plans mentioned above. The first phone can be a new line or upgrade but the second phone has to be a new line. Customers will also need to add both phones to a qualified service plan and pay taxes for both handsets at checkout before they start receiving bill credits for the second phone after three bill cycles or fewer. There’s an option to either get a Gear S2 for free or have the Gear S2 classic discounted to just $50. Both smartwatches support AT&T NumberSync which means customers can use them to make or receive calls using their mobile number even if the smartphone is not nearby. Do hit up the source link to read all of the terms and conditions of this deal on AT&T’s website, this promotion is valid until August 31.

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Themes Thursday: Here are this week’s seven best Samsung themes

Welcome back to Themes Thursday! Samsung has released a whopping 153 themes this week, but not all of them are good looking. In fact, we liked only seven of those.

If you’re a fan of Material themes, have a look at Eminence UI, [Kendi] Material Red, [Kendi] Material Red Light, and Perfect Note UI themes. The Sailing theme has subdued colors, but it still looks great. Which theme did you like?

If paid themes aren’t available in your country, there’s a workaround that you can use to download paid themes from the Theme Store using PayPal.

Eminence UI

Korea MINDON Design

[Kendi] Material Red

[Kendi] Material Red Light

Perfect Note UI

Sailing

Serendipity

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Samsung shares all the details surrounding the development of Gear Fit 2′s GPS capabilities in new interview

Three weeks ago, Samsung shared an interview it conducted with its leading designers shedding some light on the work that went into making the Gear Fit 2 as comfortable, secure and sleek as it is, and today we’re getting an opportunity to find out exactly how the engineering team used the band’s integrated GPS chip to create a new standard of fitness recognition amongst wearables.

A total of six questions were answered during this latest interview, including: how the team managed to embed full GPS capabilities, the secrets that went into improving battery efficiency and the technology behind the industry’s first automatic workout recognition sensors. If you’d like to find out the answers to these questions, hit the source link below to view the full Q&A over on Samsung’s website.

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