Samsung elected to 5G Automotive Association board

Samsung has been elected to a board membership position following elections at the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) general meeting earlier this month. 5GAA will now be able to better leverage Samsung’s industry leadership in telecommunications as well as the telematics and infotainment technologies that it recently acquired through Harman International after Samsung’s election to the board.

Samsung joined the 5GAA back in January this year and it strives to support industry initiatives for standardizing approaches to research, develop, commercialize and develop technologies that will power connected cars.

Director of 5G Technology Strategy within Samsung’s Next-Generation Communications Business Team Dr. Jaeweon Cho is Samsung’s representative on the board. He says that this is a serious opportunity for both Samsung and its industry partners to leverage the work that it has been doing in spaces such as mobile networks, home appliances and chipsets and apply it to the expanding connected car industry.

“I’m really excited to explore the potential opportunities here and help the 5GAA Board set its future direction. What the 5GAA and Samsung are working on will be globally transformational,” he added.

Samsung has also been elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the 5GAA’s Working Group 4 which is tasked with exploring car-related standards and radio spectrum opportunities.

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Samsung will keep searching for companies to buy

Samsung has been on a bit of an acquisition spree lately. Late last year it announced the acquisition of Viv Labs, an artificial intelligence company founded by the creators of Siri. It also paid $8 billion to acquire Harman International, this was the company’s biggest acquisition yet. Samsung has now said that it will continue to look for companies to buy.

Peter Koo, a Samsung senior vice president, mentioned during an investor event in Hong Kong that Samsung is going to keep looking for acquisition opportunities that will help improve its products and services.

“We are going to be bullish on finding companies that fit our strategy,” he said. Koo did not provide any information about the technologies or targets that Samsung is thinking of acquiring.

There have been endless reports about another pricey acquisition by Samsung. We’ve been hearing since last year that the company has been thinking about acquiring Magneti Marelli, an auto parts giant that is a subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler.

Whether or not that ends up being Samsung’s next acquisition remains to be seen. The latest reports suggest that the talks are headed nowhere, but who knows, the situation may change down the road.

One thing is for sure, though, Samsung is willing to buy new companies to help it become more competitive in the market.

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Samsung working with South Korean government to increase protection against WannaCry

You may have already heard about WannaCry. This global cyberattack spread like wildfire last week, infecting hundreds of thousands of machines across the globe. It was a ransomware attack. Victims would be surprised to see their computers encrypted and they could only be decrypted if a ransom was paid.

Most of the victims of this cyberattack, and there were many, were running Windows 7. Microsoft quickly released security patches for the operating system and even released a special security for Windows XP, an iteration it no longer supports, to stop WannaCry from spreading any further.

Since then, various tools have been released for free which will help victims of this cyberattack decrypt their computers. They would certainly appreciate that, given that the ransom is initially set at $300 in bitcoin and then doubles if it’s not paid.

Sam Kim from Bloomberg News reports that Samsung says the WannaCry ransomware cyberattack has raised alarm over mobile phone security. The company has also said that it’s going to work with the government of South Korea to increase protection.

No further details about the steps that Samsung is taking are available at this point in time. However, we may hear about them in the days to come.

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World’s first stretchable display will be showcased by Samsung at SID 2017

Samsung’s display-making affiliate, Samsung Display, announced today that it’s going to showcase the world’s first “stretchable” display at the Society for Information Display 2017 in Los Angeles this week. SID 2017 runs from Tuesday to Thursday.

Samsung points out that the stretchable OLED display is unique as it can bend in both directions. It’s different from the flexible panels that we’ve seen from the company previously, they could only bend in one direction.

Industry experts are of the view that stretchable OLED displays call for more advanced technology compared to other display types in the market and can thus be considered the best product in flexible technology.

Samsung says that its stretchable OLED display can stretch by as much as 12 millimeters when pressure without losing a high degree of resolution. It’s going to showcase 9.1-inch versions of this display. Practical applications for this technology include Internet of Things devices.

Attendees at the Society for Information Display 2017 in Los Angeles will be able to check out Samsung’s latest display technology in person. Even though it’s demonstrating the technology now, it’s unclear when it will be ready for practical applications. So we may have to wait a while before devices with Samsung’s stretchable OLED display hit the market.

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Could this be our first look at the Galaxy S8 Active?

An image submitted to the Wireless Power Consortium on Monday appears to give us our first look at the recently-rumored Galaxy S8 Active (SM-G892A). As you can see, the handset is essentially just a flat version of the Galaxy S8, equipped with a thicker body that’s more resistant to knocks and bumps, and presumably compliant with the MIL-STD-810G standard of durability.

As far as specifications go, we’re in the dark. Although, we’re guessing the Galaxy S8 Active will sport almost identical internals to the standard model of the Galaxy S8, so it should come with a 5.8-inch AMOLED display (obviously not edge-to-edge), an Exynos 8895/Snapdragon 835 processor, a 12MP rear-facing camera, an 8MP selfie shooter and a 3,000mAh battery.

That’s about all we (think we) know about the Galaxy S8 Active at this precise moment in time. As usual, it’s expected to launch exclusively through AT&T in the United States. If this turns out be the case, it’s safe to assume that it could be unveiled as soon as next month, as the carrier typically launches the latest Active smartphones in June.

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This Galaxy Note 8 dummy shows a vertical dual-camera arrangement

Now that the Galaxy S8 launch dust has settled, it’s time for some Galaxy Note 8 leaks. Samsung’s next flagship phablet is expected to be unveiled sometime later this year. A dummy unit of the Galaxy Note 8 has now appeared on the Internet, showcasing its exterior design along with the placement of important bits like the camera and the sensors. Such dummy units are generally shipped by the company to accessory makers for timely launch of cases and covers.

As you can see in the images, the front of the device is mostly covered by the Infinity Display, similar to the Galaxy S8 and S8+. At the back, there seems to be a vertical dual-camera setup and an LED flash. There doesn’t seem to be a fingerprint reader anywhere on the device, which leads us to believe that Samsung might have been successful in implementing an in-screen fingerprint reader. However, you should take these images with a pinch of salt as nothing can be said for sure before the official unveiling takes place.

The phone is expected to feature a 6.3-inch display, an S Pen, a 12MP+13MP rear-facing camera setup with 3x optical zoom, and a slightly larger battery. What do you think of these images? There’s also a video of the dummy down below.

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Galaxy J7 (2017) breaks cover in leaked press render

It was first revealed that Samsung was working on a refreshed variant of the Galaxy J7 back in January when the handset was imported into India for testing. three months later, it cleared the FCC and received both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi certification — and now we finally know what the Galaxy J7 (2017) will look like, thanks to a leaked press render.

The image, which surfaced online over the course of the weekend, clearly shows that the Galaxy J7 (2017) will be available in four colors — black, blue, gold and pink — and sports a rather peculiar antenna design. Recent leaks also point towards it packing a 5.5-inch Full HD display, an octa-core 1.6GHz processor, 3GB of RAM and a 3,600mAh battery.

Sadly, we still don’t have any solid information with regards to a release date, but seeing as the Galaxy J7 (2017) has now received certification from all of the required authorities and already has a batch of press renders drawn up, we expect it to hit the shelves in the not-too-distant future, and when it does, it should carry a price tag of around €340 ($380) in Europe.

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