If you’ve pre-ordered the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge you can now redeem your free Gear VR

If you’re lucky enough to have pre-ordered either the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge after their announcement two weeks ago, and you’re still not quite sure if you are eligible to receive a free Gear VR headset as the conditions were a little unclear at the time. Customers who have bagged themselves a device can now officially redeem the Virtual Reality headset via Samsung’s promotions page using details included on their receipt to have their new Gear VR shipped out as soon as possible.

The redemption process is compulsory for all customers who want to get their hands on a complimentary Gear VR headset, and, thankfully, it’s a straightforward procedure. All you have to do is navigate to the promotions page and fill in an online claims form using details from your receipt, then wait for a confirmation email notifying you that your claim has been approved. Once it has, it will take around 4-6 weeks for your VR unit to arrive in the mail.

The second you receive your Gear VR in the post, you’ll need to redeem your free 6-game bundle by creating an Oculus account as you only have up until 11:59:59 PM (PT) on April 20 to do so.

If you’re still planning on picking up the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, you’ll be glad to hear that the free Gear VR promotion is running until March 18.

 

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Short movie showcases just how good the Galaxy S7′s camera is

Earlier this week, we showed you how the Galaxy S7 blew the iPhone 6S out of the water when put head-to-head in a camera showdown, and today we’re getting a second look at Samsung’s upcoming flagships image-capturing capabilities. Aspiring filmmaker Ash Tailor spent some time with the recently-announced handset and created a short film entitled “12 Hours in London” to highlight just how powerful its camera really is. He then uploaded the short movie to his YouTube channel for us all to see.

The footage has been recorded in full 4K resolution, and it’s pretty safe to say that it’s extremely impressive for a mobile camera. Thanks to the Galaxy S7’s on board Optical Image Stabilization feature, the video is clear and crisp. The shooter appears to cope exceptionally well in low-light conditions, which is fantastic as this has always been a bugbear with Samsung smartphones.

Check out the full video below.

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Samsung remains on top as Apple overtakes Xiaomi in India

It’s no secret that Samsung has been coming under increasing pressure in the global smartphone market and it doesn’t expect things to get better substantially in the near future. Clearly the company has its work cut out and it’s safe to say that Samsung is going to give it everything it has got. Latest figures from the International Data Corporation for Q4 2015 show that Apple has overtaken Xiaomi and it’s now the sixth largest smartphone vendor in India. Samsung retains its lead in this crucial market with 30 percent of the share while local competitor Micromax comes in second place with 14.7 percent of the market.

IDC tracks the monthly smartphone shipments in the 30 leading cities of India, it says that these 30 population centers make up more than 50 percent of the entire smartphone market in the country. Samsung and Micromax occupy the top two positions on the list with Lenovo taking 10.1 percent of the market to come in third. Intex and Lava come fourth and fifth respectively with 8.2 percent and 7.1 percent respectively. Xiaomi is now down to seventh place with 3.5 percent of the market. Other OEMs such as BlackBerry, Microsoft, etc accounted for 22.4 percent of all smartphone shipments in the country combined in the last quarter of 2015.

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Activate Samsung Pay and get a wireless charger from Samsung

Samsung has previously offered incentives for activating Samsung Pay, incentives like free wireless chargers and even free cash, and it’s back with a similar promotion this week. The company is going to give you a free wireless charger once again if you activate Samsung Pay. This strategy appears to be working for Samsung as it looks to increase the user base of its mobile payments service.

To activate the service just add a supported credit or debit card to Samsung Pay on the handset and you can then redeem this offer. Users aren’t required to make a purchase to get the wireless charger because they just need to activate the service. Once that’s been done head over to the promo section of the app and receive the coupon code that can be used to get a free wireless charger from the Samsung store. This promotion is available until March 10.

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Samsung may side with Apple in FBI legal proceedings

If you’ve been following the news recently, I’m pretty sure you’re aware that Apple is currently involved in a lengthy legal battle with the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). If not, please allow me to explain the situation. To cut a very long story short, the FBI is trying to get the Cupertino-based company to permit it to create a tool to unlock an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects, but Apple claims that doing so could lead to a massive smartphone security issue as it’s a severe violation of consumers’ trust.

According to online publication Bloomberg, Samsung has taken Apple’s side in the dispute. The South Korean manufacturer published a statement on the subject earlier today, and although it did not mention the fruit logo company by name, it did make reference to the ongoing court proceedings and revealed that it’s currently undecided whether it will file an amicus brief.

The full statement can be seen below:

“Protecting our customers’ privacy is extremely important, but we have not decided whether to file an amicus brief in the current case. Ensuring trust in our products and services is our top priority. Our phones are embedded with encryption that protects privacy and content, and they do not have backdoors. When required to do so, and within the law, we work with law enforcement agencies. However, any requirement to create a backdoor could undermine consumers’ trust.”

 

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The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge prevent you from charging them when the microUSB port is damp

Although Samsung has warned users of its flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, not to charge them straight after they’ve been submerged in water to prevent any hardware issues from occurring within the handsets, it appears that the South Korean company may actually have integrated a safeguard into the units to stop any electrical harm coming to them, if a post over on the XDA Developer forum is anything to go by.

Senior XDA Member xxaarraa claims that four hours after plugging his shiny new Galaxy S7 edge into the wall following a brief submersion in water to capture an image, an error message popped up on the display informing him that “Moisture [has been] detected in the charging port”, thereby safeguarding his handset from being charged before it had dried out and preventing the device’s internals from being ruined by any moisture surging through the unit via the fast charger.

At the time of writing, xxaarraa’s S7 edge has not yet dried out and still won’t charge using a wall adapter, which has led members of the community to suggest that the safeguard is thankfully pretty sensitive.

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Galaxy A9 Pro passes through TENAA

Earlier today, an unannounced Samsung-branded A-series smartphone passed through China’s official certification database, TENAA. Information included in the filing shows that the handset bears the model number SM-A9100, which gives us reason to believe that we are potentially looking at the much-rumored Galaxy A9 Pro.

The documentation also reveals that the device ships running the latest build of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, packs a 6-inch Super AMOLED Full HD display, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable internal memory, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, a 16-megapixel rear-facing shooter and has compatibility for 4G LTE.

The TENAA paperwork also sheds some light on the design of the device. Judging from the renders attached to the application, the Galaxy A9 Pro features an identical design to its predecessor, the Galaxy A9, which means that it sports a rounded home button on the front of the unit, power/volume controls on the sides and a microUSB port at the bottom for charging.

Unfortunately, Samsung hasn’t disclosed any information with regards to when the Galaxy A9 Pro is set to be announced, but as always we’ll keep you up-to-date with all the news as and when we get it. In the meantime, if you’d like to view the full TENAA certification certificate, you can do so by hitting the source link below.

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