Galaxy smartphones with UWB can be used as digital car keys for Genesis GV60

Samsung had revealed earlier this year that it is working with automobile brands to allow consumers to unlock their cars using UWB-equipped Galaxy smartphones. It looks like the first integration of the Digital Car Key feature is going live with the Genesis GV60 electric car that was released this week.

The South Korean firm has announced that Galaxy smartphones equipped with both NFC and UWB can be used as digital car keys for the recently unveiled Genesis GV60. The feature will be available on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy S21+, Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 2, and the Galaxy Z Fold 3. With the Samsung Digital Key feature, users can lock and unlock their cars. They can also share their digital keys with their friends and family, and even set a time limit on how long the digital car key will be available to them.

Samsung said that users can also start the engine, open the trunk, and activate personalized settings like adjusting seats and mirror positions before getting in their Genesis GV60. These features will debut in South Korea and users would need to use the Samsung Pass app.

TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, said, “We are proud to partner with Genesis as part of our mission to create exciting new mobile experiences that can make people’s everyday lives easier. As we continue to drive advancements in mobile technology like UWB, our priority is now to bring these new experiences to as many people as possible, in collaboration with our trusted ecosystem partners.”

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Why the Galaxy Watch 4 series launch is the greatest yet, at least in USA

Samsung got a lot of things right with the Galaxy Watch 4 series. Switching from Tizen to Wear OS appears to have worked in the series’ favor, and the new Exynos W920 chipset is better than the previous solution. The design was further improved, and speaking of which, one of my favorite things about the new Galaxy Watch 4 series is that it’s available in more design combinations than ever before.

The Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic are the only Samsung smartwatches that allow customers to choose a wrist strap design at checkout. Up until this series, Samsung smartwatch customers could pick a color for their wrist strap but couldn’t select a different style. This meant that Galaxy Watch 3 owners who didn’t like the default leather strap and wanted to pair the smartwatch with a silicone strap had to purchase one separately.

This year, Samsung is doing things a little differently by allowing Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic buyers to pick a wrist strap style and color before placing an online order. Thanks to this new philosophy, Samsung’s smartwatch series has never before been this customizable at launch, and the only issue is that the company isn’t treating every market the same.

Exclusive to Galaxy Watch 4 series customers in the USA

If you’ve purchased the Galaxy Watch 4 or Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and you’re about to yell at the screen that Samsung isn’t, in fact, allowing customers to pick a wrist strap style, that’s only because you probably bought the wearable outside the USA.

The option to pick a style isn’t available at Samsung’s online stores in every region. The service doesn’t even seem to be open in South Korea, where a dedicated Thom Browne Edition was recently launched. It is, however, available in the USA.

This could be a sign of things to come, as Samsung may eventually allow customers in other regions to customize their wrist strap options at checkout. For now, only customers in the USA have this privilege. Many Watch 4 enthusiasts may be looking across the pond with envy, but regardless, it’s a great initiative from Samsung, and hopefully, other markets will eventually get the same treatment.

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If this is how the Galaxy S22 Ultra looks like, Samsung needs to wake up

The Galaxy S22 series is rumored to consist of at least three models, the best of which might have a dedicated S Pen slot and other Note-like design elements. Early renders depicting what could be the Galaxy S22 Ultra emerged a few days ago, and all the promising bits and pieces aside (such as the S Pen slot and uniform metallic frame), I think it’s safe to say that most of us hate the purported camera housing design.

On one hand, early unofficial Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ renders indicate that the two phones will refine the existing camera housing design that was introduced by the Galaxy S21 series.

On the other hand, the Galaxy S22 Ultra will seemingly take a step back and revert to a less refined camera housing design that doesn’t wrap around the top-left corner of the phone. Instead, early leaks suggest that the Galaxy S22 Ultra camera housing looks like Samsung tacked it on to the back panel. It’s outdated, and it doesn’t make the Galaxy S or Note series justice.

Samsung had the right design formula already!

Samsung’s been toying around with various design languages over the years, but we felt like the company stumbled onto something great when it unveiled the Galaxy S21 series earlier this year. The new design language was refined and seemed more thought-out than any others before it.

Now, assuming that the recently leaked Galaxy S22 Ultra renders are even close to accurate, Samsung appears to have lost the confidence from its previous design decisions. Will Samsung ever be fully confident in this regard? We might never know, but if the company will indeed release the Galaxy S22 Ultra with a protruding, off-putting camera design, then someone will have to answer some questions because this indecisiveness we’re seeing every single year is becoming more than a nuisance.

Over the years, Samsung fans have only asked for a little bit of consistency from one generation of smartphones to the next, but sadly, Samsung doesn’t always seem to realize when it’s done something right and when it hasn’t. Case in point, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has one of the best camera housing designs in years (if not the best). But here we are, mere months away from the next Galaxy Unpacked event, worrying about Samsung possibly botching the design again.

Anyhow, feel free to let us know if you’re a fan of the Galaxy S21’s wrap-around camera housing design. Or perhaps you think that Samsung should indeed revert to an older camera housing design for the upcoming Galaxy S22 Ultra. If so, feel free to leave an explanation in the comment section and/or our social media platforms.

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Samsung gets Vanilla Ice to remix ‘Ice, Ice Baby’ for a new eco campaign

If you grew up in the ’80s or early ’90s, you already know that there are plenty of things in this world to remind you of your past teenage years and young adulthood. And if you get your kicks from walking down memory lane, Samsung’s latest campaign featuring Vanilla Ice might just teleport you all the way back to 1990.

Yes, you read that right. Vanilla Ice — the rapper — is back with a remix on the famous single “Ice, Ice Baby.” And in case you don’t know who Vanilla Ice is, don’t worry. It probably means that you aren’t in the target demographic for this campaign, as you might not be old enough to worry about your kitchen and/or BESPOKE refrigerator. But if you ask your parents, they’ll probably tell you all about Ice, Ice Baby and how hot the single was when it dropped a little over 30 years ago. (Dear Lord, has it been that long?!)

“Alright stop, long-term solution”

If you are a responsible adult who cares about the environment, then Samsung wants Vanilla Ice to tell you all about eco-friendliness. According to a recent study, if every household in Europe would decrease their freezer’s temperature by only 1 degree Celsius, it could lead to a decrease of over 1 million tons of CO2 emissions every year.

And yes, the campaign is launching primarily across Europe, where we suspect Vanilla Ice is more popular now than he is across the pond. You can check the remixed “Ice, Ice Baby” single below, though a word of warning: if you’re not a fan of Vanilla Ice or the famous single, this whole thing might backfire on you and could make you want to go out and pollute a lake.

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Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 get October 2021 security update in Korea

The Galaxy S21 series was the first to receive the October 2021 security patch earlier this week, and now, Samsung is rolling out a similar firmware update for its new range of foldable flagships, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3.

The new firmware update is rolling out for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 in South Korea, but we suspect that Samsung’s new foldable phones in other markets will join the party soon.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 update carries firmware version F926NKSU1AUID, whereas the Galaxy Z Fold 3 update can be identified by version F711NKSU2AUIE. The firmware numbers suggest that the update should include more than just the October 2021 security patch, and we’ll be able to confirm this — at the latest — once the update reaches the Galaxy Z3 series in Europe.

For now, the update appears to be rolling out across different networks in South Korea, including KT, SK Telecom, and LG U+. If you want to check for new updates, you can do so from the Settings app on your Samsung phone by accessing the Software update menu.

You can also download the latest update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in South Korea from our firmware database and install it manually on your phone using a Windows PC.

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Galaxy A33 in the works as sequel to the slow and laggy Galaxy A32

Chip shortages may be making things difficult for smartphone manufacturers, but Samsung isn’t letting anything get in the way of releasing as many new budget and mid-range phones as possible. For 2022, Samsung is working on making 5G more affordable with the Galaxy A13 5G, and it’s now been revealed that the company is also developing the Galaxy A33.

That’s pretty much it for what we currently know about the phone. There’s no information on its specs, release date, or pricing yet, though our friends over at GalaxyClub say that Samsung is well into the A33’s development, which means we could see some details surface over the coming weeks.

While it’s hard to speculate on specs at the moment, we hope the A33 will fix the biggest shortcoming of the Galaxy A32: weak performance. The Galaxy A32 suffers from a lot of stutter and lag that ruin what is otherwise a fairly good overall package, and Samsung would do well to make sure that isn’t the case with its sequel.

5G connectivity as standard instead of separate 5G and LTE models would also be nice to see. If Samsung intends on keeping them separate, then we hope the 5G model won’t offer faster network performance at the expense of other features, as many of Samsung’s 2021 mid-range 5G phones — including the Galaxy A32 5G — do.

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Samsung might be fined €39 million for illegally inflating TV prices

If you purchased a Samsung TV in the Netherlands between 2013 and 2018, you might have paid extra because of Samsung’s influence on local retailers. The ACM (Authority for Consumers & Markets) recently led an investigation on Samsung and determined that the company used unfair practices to pressure shopkeepers to raise prices. The ACM gave Samsung Electronics a fine of more than €39 million following the investigation. But according to De Telegraaf, the Korean tech giant plans to respond with legal actions to challenge ACM’s decision.

The ACM started the investigation and discovered that Samsung was using prohibited commercial practices after some shopkeepers complained. It turns out that Samsung Electronics was getting in touch with sellers in the Netherlands via email and WhatsApp to control prices regularly. If a retailer was selling a Samsung TV for lower than the company wanted, Samsung messaged the seller and explained that the price had to be increased.

Samsung claims to have followed all the rules, will fight ACM’s decision

The ACM investigated WhatsApp and email traffic between Samsung and shopkeepers and determined that “Samsung’s behavior distorted competition at the retail level and led to higher prices for consumers.” Samsung would constantly monitor its online TV range and pressure e-tailers to adjust their prices to match the Korean tech giant’s expectations, and therefore, Samsung was able to protect its margins and those of its partner retailers at the cost of the consumer.

But a few shopkeepers that were contacted by Samsung came forward. And with their help, the ACM discovered that Samsung coordinated sales prices in the Netherlands in an unfair manner towards the consumer.

On the other hand, a Samsung spokesperson said that the company has complied with competition rules and is disappointed with the ACM’s decision. Samsung will reportedly take legal steps to challenge the €39 million fine.

Beyond issuing this fine, the ACM lacks the authority to enforce Samsung to compensate customers who bought a TV between 2013 and 2018 and might feel like they got wronged. Time will tell how the story unfolds, but perhaps a law firm will prepare a class action lawsuit to represent the consumers.

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