Galaxy Note 7 sales for pre-order customers in South Korea will resume tomorrow

As the Galaxy Note 7 replacement program is moving along nicely to meet its objectives, Samsung can now start thinking about resuming sales of its 2016 flagship. The company has confirmed when sales will be resumed in its home country of South Korea. Today, it has been confirmed that sales of the Galaxy Note 7 are going to be resumed tomorrow for customers who placed a pre-order for this device.

Major South Korean carriers SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus have all confirmed that they are going to resume sales of the Galaxy Note 7 for those who placed a pre-order in August and have not yet received their units. Samsung is going to officially resume sales for all customers in the country starting October 1. The company has also extended the timing for promotions so all those who purchase the handset before October 15 will receive a Gear Fit 2 as well as 50 percent cost support for repairs. Samsung will gradually start selling the Galaxy Note 7 once again in all markets across the globe in the coming weeks.

 

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Samsung says 90 percent of Galaxy Note 7 owners have opted for a replacement

Samsung confirmed the Galaxy Note 7′s battery cell issue on September 2 and immediately suspended sales of the handset. The company also said that it will voluntarily replace all Galaxy Note 7 units across the globe. Customers were given the option to either obtain a full refund for the price or simply hand in their existing Galaxy Note 7 and get a new, safe one. In some markets Samsung even allowed customers to exchange their Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge and obtain a refund for the price difference. The company has provided some figures today which showcase the progress of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 replacement program.

“Just over three weeks ago, Samsung committed to a global replacement program for the Galaxy Note7. Last week, that program began for the majority of markets and the progress is encouraging” said DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our focus now is to make sure that all affected devices are replaced as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he added.

Samsung says that since the replacement program was initiated around 90 percent of Galaxy Note 7 owners across the globe have opted to hand in their unit for a new one. It also says that more than 60 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 units in the United States and South Korea have been exchanged through the program and that in Singapore more than 80 percent of customers have already participated in this program.

“We are humbled by our customers’ loyalty to the Galaxy Note7 device,” said Koh. Samsung reiterates that people who still have an old Galaxy Note 7 unit should power it down and take part in the replacement program to ensure that they have a safe device which is not a fire hazard.

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Samsung to work with Mobile TeleSystems to develop 5G technologies

Samsung wants to bring 5G networks to consumers by the year 2020 and to be the global top-three player in 5G networks. To that end, the South Korean electronics giant has been working with various cellular operators around the world including SKT, KDDI, and T-Mobile to explore, develop, and test 5G networks. Now, Samsung and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) have joined hands to explore and advance next-generation telecommunication technologies.

Samsung and MTS have signed an MoU to jointly explore and improve 5G networks including Carrier Aggregation, Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), LTE Broadcast (eMBMS), and Multi-path TCP (MPTCP) technologies. Thanks to Samsung’s experience in the field of IoT (Internet of Things), MTS will also collaborate with the South Korean electronics giant to test NB-IoT and LTE-Machine technologies. As a part of this newly signed MoU, these companies will conduct multiple tests on these technologies to improve the speed of data communication.

MTS is Russia’s leading cellular operator, and it has been working with Samsung since 2013 to establish LTE networks in cities across the North-West Federal District of Russia, including St. Petersburg and the Leningrad regions. These companies will continue their long-term relationship with a view of commercialising 5G networks within the next few years.

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Samsung pushes out September security patch for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge in Europe

Samsung has today started rolling out this month’s Security Maintenance Release (SMR) to all unlocked variants of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge that were purchased in Europe. The upgrade itself is weighs in at approximately 140MB and transports a handful of much-needed patches for both the Android operating system and the individual devices to make them more stable and secure.

As we’ve come to expect from all major and minor firmware updates, the OTA is being pushed out in stages. However, if you’d like to see if it’s ready for your device simply follow these steps: Settings » About Device » Software Update » Update Now. Alternatively, you can always wait until you receive a push notification prompting you to download the upgrade.

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Future Samsung devices may have hydrophobic displays

The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has announced today that Samsung has exclusively licensed its optically clear superhydrophobic film technology which it’s going to use to improve the performance of glass displays on its smartphones, tablets, and other devices. ORNL has developed a transparent coating which repels water that carries away dust and dirt. The coating also reduces light reflection and resists fingerprints, it was developed after three years of superhydrophobic research on glass-based coatings.

Water will literally bounce off the display of a device which features this coating. A surface is said to be superhydrophobic if it has a water droplet contact angle of more than 150 degrees. ORNL’s coating has a contact angle between 155 and 165 degrees which means that water basically bounces off of it and takes dust particles with it. This superhydrophobic technology was developed by depositing a thin glass film on a glass surface and then heating the coated glass to turn the surface into two material compositions. A selective etching process is then used to produce a porous three-dimensional network of high-silica content glass which is pivotal for the antireflective and the hydrophobic properties of this coating.

Samsung already makes water resistant phones so hydrophobic displays align nicely with that capability of its high-end devices. It’s unclear when we’ll start to see this coating on Samsung’s mobile devices, the company itself hasn’t detailed any plans as yet.

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Samsung looking to supply the Z3 Tizen handset to students in Russia

Samsung is carving a niche for its Tizen platform in Russia where it’s already used by many government bodies and corporate customers. The company also recently started supplying the Samsung Z3 handset to Gazprom which is one of Russia’s largest companies. It was hinted at the Internet of Things forum hosted by the Moscow Tizen Association that Samsung is in talks with multiple government agencies in Russia to supply the Z3 to school students.

School students are generally not encouraged to use their handsets at school while some education institutions have also banned them as the general belief is that these devices could expose children to threats, cyberattacks and inappropriate content. Samsung believes that the Tizen OS will properly protect children against these risks as it’s the only operating system that has passed high-security FSTEC and FSB certification in Russia. It’s unclear right now whether or not the country will allow Samsung to start distributing Z3 Tizen smartphones to school children.

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Samsung launches a new startup incubation centre in Tel Aviv

Samsung has revealed that it has launched a startup incubation centre in Tel Aviv, Israel. The scheme, dubbed Samsung NEXT, is the latest in the firms efforts to help startups expand their presence in the region.

Startups operating in Tel Aviv will have the facility to base their operations out of the Samsung NEXT centre after they’ve received funding of up to $1 million from the South Korean company.

Over the course of the past three years, Samsung has invested in a total of eighteen startups in the region. It has also acquired a handful of venture firms with cutting-edge technology through mergers and acquisitions.

This news comes just two months after Samsung’s Creative Lab (C-Lab) division launched five projects that started as startups as independent companies, including the Idea Printer and Welt.

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