Galaxy A8s gets Wi-Fi certification running Android Oreo

The Galaxy A8s, which is confirmed for a December 10 launch, has been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The listing reveals the phone to be running Android 8.0 Oreo. The device sports the Infinity-O display and recently appeared on the FCC as well.

Galaxy A8s gets Wi-Fi Alliance certification

The Galaxy A8s will be the first Samsung smartphone to come with a hole in active display area for the front camera. It features a hole on the top left of the screen, which houses the selfie camera. The Wi-Fi Alliance certificate now confirms that the phone will come with Android 8.0 Oreo on board. And this was pretty much expected as Samsung would naturally want the Galaxy S10 to be its first phone with Android Pie out of the box. The company is still testing the One UI (Android Pie), and the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 may get it in late January.

As usual, the Wi-Fi Alliance certificate for the Galaxy A8s doesn’t reveal anything more apart from its Wi-Fi capabilities. However, previous reports suggest the phone to sport a triple-camera setup at the back and a 24-megapixel front camera. The phone could be packing a 3,400 mAh battery.

While these specs may make you think that the Galaxy A8s is basically the Galaxy A7 (2018) with a hole, it’s not entirely true. The A8s is expected to be the first Galaxy with the Snapdragon 710 SoC, coupled with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage space. Also, the 6.39-inch Infinity-O FHD+ resolution LCD display could come with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

The Galaxy A8s is slated for an early January release in China. Whether it’ll be exclusive to the country remains to be seen.

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Galaxy A6+ gets AR Emoji in the latest update

Samsung launched the Galaxy A6+ in May this year as a lower-midrange offering. Galaxy smartphones in this range typically don’t receive regular updates. Even when they do get an update, it is usually a bump in the security patch rather than new features. The latest Galaxy A6+ update, however, seems to be an exception as it brings more than just the November security patch.

The A605GDXU3ARK2 (may vary slightly by region) firmware, which started rolling out towards the end of November, brings the AR Emoji feature to the Galaxy A6+. First launched on the Galaxy S9/S9+, the AR Emoji feature has been added to many midrange and budget devices since then, and now it’s the turn of the Galaxy A6+.

You can find the latest firmware in our database

If your Galaxy A6+ received the above-mentioned update, then you will find the AR Emoji option in the camera app. If you haven’t received the OTA update yet, you can either try to manually trigger the update or download the latest firmware from our database. Since Samsung rolls out updates in stages, it is possible not all the regions and variants have received the update yet.

Those who haven’t heard about the AR Emoji feature before can read our post about what it is and how to use it. As we mentioned in the past, it doesn’t work well on budget and midrange phones, but it is still encouraging to see Samsung bringing software features from its flagship devices to less-expensive models.

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Samsung Electronics beats P&G to emerge as the world’s largest advertiser

According to a new report from Ad Age, Samsung Electronics beats consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) to emerge as the world’s largest advertiser in 2017. The rankings which are based on reported and estimated spending by companies on various forms of advertising, including sales promotions, placed Samsung’s spending at a whopping $11.2 billion last year, ahead of P&G’s estimated $10.5 billion in the year ended June 2018.

Samsung’s ad spending went up by 13% year-on-year, while P&G didn’t see much of a change compared to the previous year. Though there is no evidence of a direct correlation, the report observes that Samsung’s marketing costs increased as the company tried to put behind the Galaxy Note 7 disaster.

Samsung’s massive sales promotion budget

Interestingly, the report says P&G is still the largest advertiser in the world when you consider a “narrower definition of advertising.” The consumer goods company spent a reported $7.1 billion on TV, print, radio, internet, and in-store ads, while Samsung spent $4.8 billion on the same. This excludes Samsung’s “massive sales promotion budget” (freebies, discounts, contests, etc.) which is what catapulted the South Korean company to the top of the rankings.

Though Samsung Electronics continues to post record earnings in the recent quarters, most of it is driven by the stellar performance of the company’s semiconductor business, which doesn’t need or rely on huge ad spending. Consumer products like smartphones, tablets, television, PCs, etc. which require massive marketing costs haven’t been performing as well as Samsung would have wanted.

Due to increasing market saturation and competition from Chinese brands, smartphones sales, in particular, has turned out to be a major concern for Samsung. The company has already undertaken many measures to counter the slump in sales, but the results are far from satisfactory so far. A recent report stated that the company is now reviewing the performance of the PR agency looking after its mobile business in its latest attempt to turn around the smartphone business.

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Screen protector embodies the dual Galaxy S10+ front camera

The rumored dual Galaxy S10+ front camera has been embodied in this screen protector that has surfaced out of China today. The high-end model of Samsung’s next flagship is expected to come with two cameras up front.

It won’t have a notch, though. Samsung is reportedly going with its new Infinity-O display for the device. This means that there will be a hole in the active display area for the front camera. The display hole design will be different for the Galaxy S10+ because the other models will only have a single front camera.

Dual Galaxy S10+ front camera embodied in a screen protector

To be clear, there’s conflicting information about the Galaxy S10+ display. The possibility of this device featuring the Infinity-O display has been highlighted only recently. The purported Galaxy S10+ dimensions and unofficial renders that surfaced recently also pointed in this direction.

This screen protector makes a similar claim. The Galaxy S10+’s 6.4-inch display won’t have a notch but two holes in the panel’s top right corner. This will allow Samsung to stretch the display as much as it can without having to use a notch. It’s not completely averse to notches anymore, though. Samsung did reveal its notched displays at its developers’ conference last month.

Even if all models of the Galaxy S10 are to get the Infinity-O display, it won’t be the first device with a hole-in-display. That crown will go to the Galaxy A8s. Samsung confirmed yesterday that it will be unveiling the Galaxy A8s in Beijing on December 10. It will most likely be released before the Galaxy S10.

Samsung’s new flagship isn’t due to be unveiled before February next year. It will arrive at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona. Shipments may begin the following month. Do take these screen protectors with a grain of salt. It’s not particularly difficult for someone to whip up a couple of them to add to the rumor mill’s frenzy.

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Samsung Malaysia used a DSLR image to promote the Galaxy A8 Star’s camera

It is pretty much an open secret that companies often use DSLR shots as camera samples for their phones. Many top companies have been caught in such acts of crookery in the past, including Samsung. And it seems the Korean giant isn’t learning, or may be not even trying to learn from its mistakes.

Samsung Malaysia has been caught using a DSLR image to promote the camera capabilities of the Galaxy A8 Star. Interestingly, Samsung Brazil was also caught using stock images from Getty Photos as the camera samples for the Galaxy A8 earlier this year.

Samsung uses DSLR images to advertise its smartphone camera

The Galaxy A8 Star landing page on the official website of Samsung Malaysia has various images seemingly promoted as camera samples from the smartphone. However, at least one of them has turned out to be an image captured using a DSLR. The image was captured by Dunja Djudjic and sold via EyeEm. It was a portrait of herself “goofing around,” as she put it. Curious to find out who the buyer was, Djudjic performed a reverse image search only to find it on the Samsung Malaysia website with a different background.

Samsung Malaysia’s website has two heavily edited iterations of the image. One sports a sharp background, while the other has a blurred background supposedly demonstrating the Galaxy A8 Star’s bokeh abilities. Isn’t this false advertising, you may ask. Well, one can call it false advertising only if the company explicitly mentions that the images are captured using the actual device. Otherwise, it passes on as a reference image.

It was only yesterday an official Samsung account was caught tweeting from an iPhone, and not for the first time. An episode like this isn’t going to help the company’s image.

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Galaxy Note 9 One UI (Pie) beta has been released

Samsung prematurely opened up registrations for the Galaxy Note 9 One UI (Android Pie) beta in the United States last week. The update never came but it confirmed that Samsung would launch the beta program for the Galaxy Note 9 as well. It has now started rolling out the Android 9 Pie beta for the Galaxy Note 9.

We can confirm that the beta is being rolled out now in Germany and India. We have been able to install it on our devices. Registrations are now open through the Samsung Members app. Do hurry if you intend to reserve a spot because they tend to get taken quickly.

Galaxy Note 9 One UI beta finally released

Samsung is straying a bit from tradition here as it doesn’t normally offer a beta program for the Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy Note 8 wasn’t a part of the Oreo beta program launched last year. Not that we mind.

We did report two weeks ago that the Galaxy Note 9 One UI beta could be launched in South Korea and Germany. Seeing as how it’s out for India as well, clearly, Samsung is bringing it to all beta markets. The One UI beta markets include the United States, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Spain, China, France, India and the United Kingdom.

Samsung is rolling out firmware version N960FXXU2ZRKQ for the Galaxy Note 9. It features the November 2018 security patch but that’s not what people have been waiting for. This firmware update brings Android 9.0 Pie in addition to Samsung’s One UI. All of the features that are part and parcel of Android 9 Pie are included in this firmware. We have already detailed quite a few of them in our One UI feature focus series.

You can now try registering for the beta through the Samsung Members app in Germany and India. Galaxy Note 9 owners in other markets can try their luck through the app as well. It may only be a matter of time before the beta goes live there.

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December 2018 security patch details confirmed by Samsung

Merely a day after rolling out the December 2018 security patch early, Samsung has now revealed the details of the latest security maintenance release. The Galaxy Xcover 4 is the first smartphone to get this update. Samsung will be releasing the patch for more compatible devices in the coming weeks.

It has detailed the contents of this patch as part of its monthly security maintenance release process. The update includes patches from Google for Android in addition to patches from Samsung for its custom software.

December 2018 security patch details

The December 2018 security patch has fixes for six critical vulnerabilities discovered in the Android operating system. The most severe vulnerability in the framework section could enable a malicious app to run unapproved code in the context of a privileged process. The patch also has fixes for more than a dozen high-risk vulnerabilities. However, no moderate or low-risk vulnerabilities were required to be patched in this latest security maintenance release.

The update does bring quite a patches for 40 Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures (SVE) items. This includes a vulnerability in the Secure Folder app which could have allowed access without authentication. Another vulnerability in the app could have resulted in the exposure of the gallery app without authentication.

Therefore, Samsung will now get down to the business of rolling out the December 2018 security patch to supported devices. We should expect some handsets to start receiving it within the next few days. The company may start rolling it out to high-end devices first.

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