Galaxy Fit is receiving its first firmware update

It has been a few weeks since the Galaxy Fit landed on shelves. Samsung unveiled this new fitness tracker alongside the Galaxy S10 in February this year. Samsung is now rolling out the first firmware update for the wearable device.

Reports of the roll out first came in from France. Users have reported receiving a new firmware update for the device which weighs 20.72MB. Don’t expect much more than the usual slew of tweaks and improvements.

Galaxy Fit gets its first firmware update

The Galaxy Fit features a 0.95-inch full-color AMOLED display and a 120mAh battery. It’s powered by Samsung’s Realtime OS with MIL-STD-810G ruggedness certification. It also has 5 ATM water resistance rating. Its features include sleep and stress monitoring, automatic motion detection for walking, running, cycling, and more. The wearable device can also pull in notifications from a connected smartphone and even let users respond with preset messages.

Samsung is rolling out the first firmware update for the Galaxy Fit today. Firmware version R370XXU0ASG1 is now rolling out for the device. The changelog mentions that the update brings stability improvements and tweaks the battery charging algorithm. The only other addition is a new button in the heart rate widget to get a measurement.

Galaxy Fit owners can get the update on their wearable device right away through the Galaxy Wearable app on their smartphone.

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Galaxy J4 starts receiving July 2019 security patch

Samsung has started rolling out the July 2019 security patch to the Galaxy J4, making it the third device from it’s stable to receive the latest monthly update. The company kickstarted the July patch rollout a couple of days back, beginning with the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The Galaxy J4 update is currently available only in India and bumps the software version to J400FODM4BSF3 when installed. The release doesn’t seem to bring any new features to the budget device from last year and includes just the security fixes detailed in Samsung’s July security bulletin. It contains Google’s patches for ten critical and over a dozen high-risk vulnerabilities in Android and fixes from Samsung for 13 vulnerabilities that are specific to its devices.

To check for the update, go to Settings, select Software Update, and tap on the Download updates manually option. Doing so should trigger the update if its available to your device in your region. Alternatively, you can also download the latest firmware for your device from our database and manually flash it.

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Galaxy A80 video shows Samsung’s clever engineering of the rotating camera

There are already a few handsets on the market with pop-up cameras. Manufacturers are using them to eliminate notches and holes for truly edge-to-edge displays. Samsung had a slightly different idea with the Galaxy A80. It created a sliding, rotating mechanism for the camera. So there’s just one single camera system on the device that rotates to let you take selfies as well.

Have you ever wondered how Samsung has made this happen? A video of a disassembled Galaxy A80 shows us how cleverly Samsung has engineered the entire mechanism. It only uses one motor to both raise up the slider and rotate the camera.

Samsung’s clever engineering is on display in this Galaxy A80 video

The Galaxy A80’s triple camera setup has a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. It can rotate 180 degrees so the entire setup can also be used for selfies and video calls. Samsung has rightly been highlighting this prominently in marketing materials for the Galaxy A80.

The video first posted on Weibo shows how the motor first raises the slider out of its housing and then continues to push it further to rotate the camera. This shows that the mechanism Samsung is using for this rather unique idea is not too different or more complicated compared to a normal pop-up camera. It’s just extracting a little bit more out of the same hardware.

Samsung has even built in a fail-safe into the mechanism in the event of a malfunction. The camera rotates even if the pressure in only exerted on one side. This means that even if there’s a hardware defect on one side, the camera would still rotate. Impressed? We certainly are!

This is the mechanical structure of the Galaxy A80 camera, which is very complicated but takes up space.
Video from a Chinese Samsung engineer pic.twitter.com/YTdLfyqIFI

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) July 3, 2019

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Exclusive: Galaxy Watch Active 2 features include ECG and Fall Detection

We exclusively revealed the very first images of the Galaxy Watch Active 2 soon after confirming that this smartwatch was being developed. We now have some more information about the wearable device, particularly about the new health-related features that it’s going to offer.

As previously mentioned, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 will be available in both 44mm and 40mm sizes. The design is going to be the same and both won’t have the rotating bezel like previous Samsung smartwatches. The decision that Samsung made with the original Galaxy Watch Active to remove the bezel wasn’t a one-off.

Our sources reveal that the Galaxy Watch Active 2 will take a page out of the Apple Watch Series 4’s book and feature an ECG app. It will enable users to take an electrocardiogram from their wrist. The app will let users capture their heart rhythm when they experience symptoms such as rapid or skipped, low or irregular heartbeat. The data could then be shared with physicians for an expert opinion.

Galaxy Watch Active 2 will provide Afib notifications too

The device will also be able to provide users with atrial fibrillation or Afib notifications by occasionally checking heart rhythm in the background. It’s the most common kind of irregular rhythm and if it’s not treated, it could result in a stroke. So this functionality will be a welcome addition to the smartwatch. Given that Apple was required to obtain FDA clearance for these features, it’s highly likely that Samsung would require it as well. This would mean that the features may not be available at launch.

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 will also have Fall Detection. The feature will work much in the same way that it does on the Apple Watch Series 4. If the device detects a hard fall while it’s on the wrist, it will display an alert on the screen and also vibrate to nudge the user. They can use one-tap options to either contact emergency services or dismiss the alert. If the smartwatch doesn’t get a response in a pre-determined period time, it will automatically call emergency services and also send messages to the user’s emergency contacts.

It’s unclear as yet when the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is going to be released. Some are suggesting that perhaps it might be launched alongside the Galaxy Note 10 on August 7. Samsung hasn’t confirmed anything about a new wearable device at this point, though. We’ll update you if more information about the Galaxy Watch Active 2 comes in.

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Samsung accused of false claims about smartphone water resistance

Samsung has been making water-resistant phones for a while now. The Galaxy S5 from 2014 had an IP67 rating and could withstand being submerged for up to 30 minutes in depths of 1 meter or less. The Galaxy S7 was its first IP68 phone which can withstand being submerged in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. All of its flagship phones have kept the same IP rating since.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken issue with Samsung’s claims. The consumer watchdog says that Samsung has made “false, misleading and deceptive” claims in advertising the water resistance of several Galaxy smartphones. Therefore, it has decided to take Samsung to Federal Court.

Samsung accused of misleading customers

As we have previously explained, phones with an IP-rating are water resistant, not waterproof. There are certain limitations that must be kept in mind. Furthermore, an IP68 rating certifies that the device can be submerged in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. However, the official classification mentions that it must be fresh water since the tests for assigning these ratings are conducted in lab conditions. The devices are not tested in a swimming pool or the beach.

The ACCC’s issue is that Samsung’s advertisements show that the devices will be fine with exposure to all types of water, including ocean water and swimming pools, and that they “would not be affected by such exposure to water for the life of the phone.” The claim here is that Samsung showed people in its ads using the devices in pools and beaches even though the IP68 certification explicitly mentions fresh water. It has collected 300 examples of such ads.

The consumer watchdog adds that Samsung has denied warranty claims for customers whose phones were damaged after being used in water. It then points out that Samsung’s own website mentions that the new Galaxy S10 series is “not advised for beach or pool use.” Thus the ACCC is now initiating court action against Samsung and will be seeking penalties.

“Samsung stands by its marketing and advertising of the water resistancy of its smartphones,” the company said in a statement, adding that “We are also confident that we provide customers with free-of-charge remedies in a manner consistent with Samsung’s obligations under its manufacturer warranty and the Australian Consumer Law.”

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Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8 (2019) specs revealed in new leak

Samsung is preparing to launch a new low-cost tablet as part of the Galaxy Tab A series. According to a WinFuture report, there will be two versions of the tablet; one with the model number SM-T290 which will be limited to Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as an LTE-enabled variant identified as the SM-T295. It runs Android 9 Pie so it’s nice to know that One UI will be part of the experience.

A lower-resolution display and a switch to Qualcomm’s SoC

All of the purported specifications place the upcoming Galaxy Tab A 8 (2019) model in the low-end segment. It retains the 8-inch display diagonal and 16:10 aspect ratio from the Galaxy Tab A Plus 8 model launched earlier this year but has a lower-resolution display with a pixel count of 1280 by 800. The overall design is nothing to write home about, having hefty bezels all around, but that’s to be expected from a product that’s supposed to target the budget market.

Samsung also appears to have switched from an in-house Exynos chipset to a low mid-tier Qualcomm solution, namely the Snapdragon 429. The SoC has four ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz and an Adreno 504 GPU with Vulkan 1.1 support. It was the company’s first SoC to be built on a 12nm FinFET process and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.

Affordable across the board but a larger battery is included

The upcoming low-cost Galaxy Tab A 8 (2019) is said to feature 2GB of RAM and at least 32GB of onboard storage expandable through a microSD card slot. There may be other storage variants available at launch, but as yet it’s not entirely clear whether this will be the case.

Unsurprisingly, the camera setup also underwent a downgrade from the earlier 2019 model. The rear-facing unit might still have an 8-megapixel resolution, but the front-facing sensor has been demoted to 2-megapixels. Other expected features include a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity as opposed to Bluetooth 5.0. A plastic body will wrap around the components and the entire package should tip the scale at roughly 347 grams.

There is at least one area in which the low-cost Galaxy Tab A 8 (2019) has been improved, and that is the battery capacity. The upcoming model is said to rely on a 5,100mAh unit, which is a considerable increase from the ongoing model’s 4,200mAh internal battery.

The tablet should be officially introduced in the coming days, according to the source, and will be launching in two color options including black and gray.

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Daily Deal: 29% off this Samsung Sound Bar

A sound bar can be a good solution if you don’t want a full home theater setup but want better sound than what your TV is able to offer. Sound bars can produce impressive sound quality so that you can enjoy your movies or games as they were meant to be enjoyed. On top of that, sound bars are easy to set up, you can be done with the process in just minutes. The HW-R550 sound bar from Samsung even has smart sound technology, so it will automatically detect what you are watching and adjust the sound for the best experience.

You can now get this Samsung sound bar for 29% off at just $197.99, making it a good alternative for more expensive surround sets, while not sacrificing sound quality. Use the Buy Now button below to order one before the price changes again!

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