Samsung Galaxy A8 will feature a 16-megapixel camera with f/1.9 aperture and Real-Time HDR

Samsung has not officially announced the Galaxy A8 yet, but the device has been leaked a number of times, revealing its design as well as some of its specifications. Now, a new image has surfaced on the Internet, which seems to be a brochure that lists all the specifications and special features of the device.

According to the brochure, the Galaxy A8 (SM-A800S) will feature a 5.7-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display, an octa-core processor (probably a Snapdragon 615), 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, a microSD card slot (up to 128GB), and a 3,050 mAh battery. Other specifications include a new 16-megapixel primary camera sensor with f/1.9 aperture and Real-Time HDR similar to the camera in the Galaxy S6, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

This particular variant of the Galaxy A8 features LTE (Cat. 6), VoLTE, and DMB. A 5.9 mm, it will be the thinnest smartphone from Samsung yet. It will also feature a newer version of TouchWiz that will be running on top of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. This brochure doesn’t reveal any detail about its pricing or launch date, but we will report it as soon as Samsung announces it officially.

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Samsung served with a lawsuit over bloatware in China

The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge allow users to disable a lot more pre-installed apps than was possible on existing Samsung phones, but it looks like the company’s penchant for bloating its devices has gotten it in trouble over in China. The Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission has filed a lawsuit against Samsung (and local manufacturer Oppo) alleging that the Galaxy Note 3 does not allow users to uninstall a lot of pre-installed apps.

According to the commission, the Galaxy Note 3 (the Chinese model) comes with 44 apps installed out of the box, and it wants smartphone manufacturers to state on a product’s box what apps have been installed and how users can remove those that they do not need. The commission is also alleging that some of these apps steal cellular data, thought out of the 20 smartphones tested, it did not lay the blame for this particular wrongdoing on Samsung’s phone.

Maybe this is what we all need for manufacturers to stop putting apps that can’t be uninstalled on their smartphones, but it remains to be seen if this lawsuit will bear any fruit for what has been a major evil in the smartphone industry for a long time. A Chinese court ruled in favor of Apple in a similar case last year, and it’s very likely Samsung will come out of this without any repercussion.

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Samsung Pay enters final testing with eight card companies

Despite formally announcing Samsung Pay back in March the company is yet to launch its new payments service, Samsung Pay is slated to go live in South Korea and the United States initially by September this year. According to a new report the payments service has entered final testing with eight local card companies in South Korea as Samsung puts it through strengthening tests to ensure that the service is properly ready for the public.

Citing financial industry sources the report claims that Samsung is facing issues with its technology to beam information to conventional card readers at checkout counters through magnetic fields because the system isn’t working as smoothly as initially believed, hence the need to conduct multiple technical tests with card companies to ensure that things are up to the mark before launch. Samsung Pay works by replicating the card’s magnetic information and creating a magnetic field which is used to activate a Credit Authorization Terminal but only after the user authorizes it through the fingerprint sensor.

Apparently magnetic field formation and fingerprint verification isn’t quite up to the mark as older card readers at merchants are facing difficulties in recognizing the magnetic fields generated by the payments system. Thus it’s imperative for Samsung to continue running these tests to minimize error rates and ensure that the Samsung Pay launch goes off without a hitch this September.

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Samsung goes behind-the-scenes with its ‘Over the Horizon’ brand theme

Regular Samsung smartphone (and tablet) users are no doubt familiar with the Over the Horizon track that comes preloaded on all of the company’s devices (and is the default ringtone.) Over the years, Samsung has used this theme for its marketing campaigns, and even played it at launch events for some of its flagship smartphones. The Galaxy S5 had possibly the most memorable version of Over the Horizon, and with the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, the Korean manufacturer had the theme recomposed to be more sleek while still keeping the classical orchestral elements of previous versions.

This was clearly done to mirror the futuristic designs of the S6 devices, and Samsung has now come out with a story on how the 2015 iteration of Over the Horizon came to be. Originally composed by Samsung Senior Designer Joong-sam Yun, the latest version of the track was recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville USA, which has contributed orchestral recordings to many famous artists (including country singer-songwriter Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen.) Everything was recorded live, and the mixing was done by Al Schmitt – a 21-times Grammy Awards winner who has worked with artists like Frank Sinatra – over at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.

A 40-piece orchestra was used for the theme, with the six-note piano melody at the beginning and end played by Jamie Christopherson, another well-known musician that has contributed to plenty of movies and video games. Personally, I’ve found Over the Horizon to be an amazing piece of work, especially for a track that comes preloaded on a smartphone, and Samsung’s blog post is an interesting look at how the “familiar uplifting melody” has evolved into its 2015 form.

Hit up the source link below for all the details, and let us know what you think about Over the Horizon!

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Follow Team USA on the Road to Rio with Gear VR

Folks who are interested in The Olympics and particularly Team USA can now catch up with their favorite team’s training regimen using the Gear VR as Samsung has partnered up with the United States Olympic Committee for the Road to Rio tour which starts July 4th in Philadelphia. Fans will get multiple experiences that leverage the power of the Gear VR virtual reality headset. Samsung is an associate sponsor of Team USA.

Samsung Milk VR will play host to the 2015 USOC Road to Rio Tour Virtual Reality Experience which brings four videos captured using camera rigs capable of recording 360-degree footage, the videos offers fans a closer look at how the athletes of Team USA are training and preparing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Athletes featured in the video include beach volleyball team members Lauren Fendrick & Brook Sweat, gold-medal winning diver David Boudia and gymnast John Orozco. Matt Apfel, vice president of strategy and creative content at Samsung Media Solutions Center America said “The whole idea was making sure this action could unfold all around you, You would have to turn your head and turn your body to really experience what these different sports are.”

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Samsung will reportedly start mass producing Mirror OLED displays this year

Samsung showed off the industry’s first Mirror and Transparent OLED display panels last month at the Retail Asia Expo 2015 in Hong Kong during a showcase for informational browsing and personalized shopping. The company showed off this technology as a proof of concept which puts these products in retail environments that incorporate advanced commercial OLED panels for the first time. Samsung didn’t reveal last month when this technology would come to market but it appears that the company might start mass producing Mirror and Transparent OLED display panels later this year.

A report published today claims that the Chow Sang Sang Group, which operates large jewelry stores in Hong Kong and Macao, is going to introduce commercial displays in its stores that are powered by Samsung’s Mirror and Transparent OLED displays. The group runs some 190 stores across Hong Kong and China. Since Samsung has secured clients beforehand it’s reportedly moving up production of these OLED panels, with the first customer being a global digital marketing agency called Mirum which is going to sell commercial displays based on this technology under the moniker “Magic Mirror 2.0.”

Samsung’s Mirror OLED display has 75% reflectance which is quite similar to conventional mirrors while also being able to provide digital information services in the same space, for example in a jewelry store customers will be able to see themselves virtually wearing a particular piece without actually having to put it on, this augmented program will run on the Mirror OLED displays when Samsung’s Media Player is integrated with Intel’s Real Sense technology.

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AT&T’s Galaxy S5 gets a 296 MB update that is not Android 5.1

Users of the Galaxy S5 on AT&T are being treated to a new software update today, but for anyone hoping the carrier will be taking after T-Mobile and updating the phone to Android 5.1 will be disappointed. AT&T’s update seems to be a run-of-the-mill affair despite its 296 MB download size, with the changelog only mentioning performance and security enhancements.

The update has a build number of G900AUCU4BOF2, requires a Wi-Fi connection for download (at least initially), and will keep the phone on Android 5.0. Any update to any device is always a good thing in our books though, so go ahead and check your Galaxy S5 for the update by heading into the Settings » About device » Software updates if you haven’t already received a notification telling you about its arrival.

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