Samsung Updates Android Nougat Beta For Galaxy S7 Devices

Samsung Updates Android Nougat Beta For Galaxy S7 Devices

Samsung announced the beta release of Android 7.0 Nougat for its 2016 Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge devices a week ago in three important smartphone markets: the United Kingdom, United States of America and South Korea. Beta programs are designed to allow customers or users to experience an unfinished product so as to provide feedback to the company. For a major software version such as Android Nougat, a developer – or in this case the smartphone manufacturer – will conduct a large number of internal tests, but because smartphones are both extremely complicated and customers can download and install large numbers of third party applications, it is useful to allow the pre-release version of the operating system to be tested “in the wild.” This way, Samsung can hope to capture many different device configurations and uncover bugs and glitches that might otherwise not be found until the software is officially released.

iPhone SE 2 Rumours

Apple might not release 2017 iPhone SE, says tech expert Ming-Chi Kuo

Back in 2015, we were worried that Apple had decided to ditch the 'C' range from its iPhone line-up and stop making 4-inch iPhone after a huge success of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus.

If you are Apple fan, you must know about the best Apple analyst in the world- Ming-Chi Kuo. In the latest reports from him hi tells, that Apple has cancelled the idea of the up-gradation of iPhone SE.

In the recent research note written by Kuo and obtained by MacRumors say that Apple won't be releasing the 2017 version of iPhone SE. For those who have forgotten about this mini 4 inch iPhone, it was a hit and after the launch of iPhone 7, reports The Tech Bulletin.

There are 2 reasons behind the dropping the idea of the iphone SE 2. One is to increase margins on the 2016 iPhone SE as its older components reduce in price. And other reason state that it will reduce risk of cannibalisation that a 2017 iPhone SE could have sales of the mare profitable iPhone 7.

Previously Apple did the same thing with iPads as well as MacBook Pro upgrades. People were waiting for the new upgrades but the company moved at its own velocity. However, in that time the already existing models worked perfectly well for all requirements.

Right now still there is no official statement from the company and Kuo is also not correct always. But every Apple leak or news has been accurate since last 18 months by Kuo.

Here's a quick highlights of Apple's iPhone SE which was launched in March this year:

1. Made of aluminium, with matt chamfered edges, the design is strongly reminiscent of the iPhone 5s.

2. iPhone SE is available with a Rose Gold finish, alongside silver, gold and Space Grey.

3. The 64bit A9 processor chip makes the SE, in Apple's words, "The most powerful 4-inch phone ever". The company further pledges "two times faster CPU and three times faster GPU performance compared to iPhone 5s

4. You can use Hey Siri in it

5. iPhone SE is having a rear-facing 12Mp iSight Camera and the 'Retina flash' feature - when you're taking selfies in low light you can make the display flash 3 times brighter than normal to light up the shot.

6. 4k video with the iPhone SE, and you can edit up to 2 streams of 4k video on the iPhone SE using iMovie.

7. iPhone SE offers LTE web connectivity that is 50 percent faster than the iPhone 5s. You also get 802.11ac and Wi-Fi calling.

8. Apple Pay is built in coming in iPhone SE






source: www.hngn.com

Facebook is finally getting serious about its

Facebook is finally getting serious about its ‘Snapchat problem’

For the past couple of years, Facebook has done nothing significant about its Snapchat problem.

Sure, Mark Zuckerberg and co. have tried to clone parts of Snapchat with failed apps like Slingshot. But Facebook has never really thrown its full weight behind taking Snapchat head on.

Until now.

During Facebook's quarterly earnings call this past week, Zuckerberg explained that Facebook now sees the camera as the future of how people share and communicate.

"In most social apps today, a text box is still the default way we share," he said. "Soon, we believe a camera will be the main way that we share."

While he didn't name Snapchat specifically on the call, make no mistake: Facebook's full attack on Snapchat has begun.

New MacBook 2017

New MacBook Pros might come in 2017 with lower price, 32GB of RAM

If you were underwhelmed by Apple's recent unveiling of the new, Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro laptops, you might want to wait until the second half of 2017.

According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (as reported by MacRumors), this is when Apple will update its MacBook Pros with an option to add 32GB of RAM memory (currently, they're capped at 16GB), and lower their overall prices.

How Samsung Has Tried to Minimize Damage After the Galaxy Note 7 Recall

How Samsung Has Tried to Minimize Damage After the Galaxy Note 7 Recall

Continued reports of defects undermine Samsung

Heated meetings, sacrificed holidays, and teams monitoring social media round-the-clock to track whether there have been any new smartphone fires: Samsung Electronics is still desperately trying to limit the damage of a record global recall announced more than a month ago.

Samsung SSNLF 3.23% said most of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7s have been recovered in major markets, including the United States and South Korea.

But the trouble is not over for either South Korea’s largest listed company or mobile division chief Koh Dong-jin, who bowed in a public apology last month, less than a year into the job.

Samsung’s hopes of finally getting ahead of the crisis took a knock on Wednesday. A replacement model began smoking inside a U.S. plane on Wednesday, the family that owns it said, prompting fresh investigations by safety regulators.

And on top of that, Samsung is being pressured by one of the world’s most aggressive hedge funds, Elliott Management, to split the company and pay out $27 billion in a special dividend.

Unlucky Turn

Ahead of the Note 7’s August launch, Koh told other executives how lucky he was: taking charge of the world’s largest smartphone business just before it began to reverse two years of declining sales and market share.

Instead, he was soon weathering international aviation bans on the phone, online jokes, and criticism over Samsung’s handling of the process. It initially wiped almost $16 billion off the company’s market value.

The crisis is worse than any other the company has faced, said one Samsung insider, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. “It directly impacts our products, our brand, and trust with consumers,” this person said.

Samsung told Reuters in a statement it was not thinking about management or organizational changes, and is focused on the Note 7 replacement process.

Samsung insiders say that the unassuming Koh needs to get sales moving again so that the company can salvage the fourth quarter and defend market share against Apple AAPL 0.12% and other rivals.

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“If this doesn’t get fixed quickly, everybody loses,” said a second Samsung source, who didn’t want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, adding that as yet there was no finger-pointing at Koh or other executives.

TV ads for the Note 7 resumed in South Korea last week, with additional incentives for those buying the device in October.

“We will give Note 7 all the support we were going to give it in the first place,” David Lowes, Samsung’s chief marketing officer in Europe, told Reuters. “There is no backing away from it.”

Too Much, Too Soon?

Some of the toughest criticism leveled at Samsung has been over its fumbling of the recall.

It warned affected users to immediately turn off their phones only after the same warning was issued by the U.S. consumer protection agency. The regulator criticized Samsung for not following proper recall procedures.

Some consumers also complained about the replacement phones, either saying they lose power too quickly or run too hot.

In China, where Samsung says its Note 7 uses safe batteries, some users claimed their phones caught fire, while it was forced to delay resuming sales in South Korea due to a slow recall progress.

Eric Schiffer, brand strategy expert and chairman of Reputation Management Consultants based in Los Angeles, said Samsung needs to woo its customers.

“They need to be very transparent. Invite customers who have been affected to the plants…let go of whoever was in charge of this debacle, and accept responsibility and show goodwill by sending new phones, giving discounts – anything to show the importance of the customer relationship,” he said.

Samsung has formed a dedicated team of public relations staff to speed up decision making and contain damage, the sources inside the company said.

“We share information instantly and far more widely than usual. We try to reply more promptly,” said one of them, who noted how complex it was to deal with a recall across 10 nations spread across the globe.

Samsung employees say the recall has dominated internal meetings since the Sept. 2 announcement, whether it be efforts to get the recalled phones off the streets or deal with a continued stream of claims and reports of damages or problems.

Long hours, weekends and canceled tie off are commonplace. The long Korean thanksgiving holiday—the biggest holiday of the year—coincided with the U.S. consumer protection agency’s mid-September recall of 1 million Note 7 phones.

Sleepless Nights

Koh, 55, is a Samsung veteran with previous roles in human resources and research & development. His elevation had been a shot in the arm for the mobile business, company insiders said, as he boosted morale by delegating more responsibility to subordinates and stressing a bottom-up approach.

At a Galaxy S7 launch event in March, he confessed to sleepless nights agonizing over how to rejuvenate a business battling falling profits and market share losses to Apple and others.

With signs of a recovery—first-half mobile profits grew by nearly half—Koh had started to focus more on how to ensure steady long-term profit growth, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

That all changed with reports of battery fires weeks after the Note 7 launch.

Missed sales and recall expenses could cost Samsung nearly $5 billion this year, analysts say. The risk to its brand is as yet unquantifiable.

Samsung’s quarterly earnings forecast on Friday will provide an initial glimpse of the recall impact.

For more, read: Samsung Won’t Cave Easily to Its Activist Investor

It has been particularly painful because many insiders thought the Note 7 could be a landmark product. Pre-orders for the 988,900 won ($895) device were stronger than expected, and the recall cost Samsung a month-long sales window before Apple launched its new iPhone.

The latest twist created by activist fund Elliott may be unwelcome to Samsung’s founding Lee family, which still controls the company through a complex web of cross shareholdings.

However, for investors generally it has been a shot in the arm as Samsung shares have recovered to be well above the pre-recall levels and hit all-time highs on Thursday.






source: www.fortune.com

When Will The Galaxy Note 7 Go Back On Sale?

When Will The Galaxy Note 7 Go Back On Sale?

Although there were indications from the South Korean company that it would put its phablet back on sale this coming Wednesday in its home territory, that date has been pushed back by another week (reports Sammobile). The company believes that the return rate of existing smartphones will drop sharply if the handset is put back on sale alongside a marketing campaign to say that the handset is now safe.

The situation looks to be even bleaker in Europe. Chief Marketing Officer David Lowes has told the site that “we fully expect [the Galaxy Note 7] to be available everywhere by the end of November.” No specific date for the resumption of sales he’s been given beyond “before the end of the fourth quarter.” I suspect that as Samsung gains more control of the situation the old maxims of ‘under promise and over deliver’ are kicking in.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (Image: Samsung Press)

The question about the level of damage to Samsung is going to play out over the next few weeks and months. The critically acclaimed Galaxy Note 7 is arguably the best Android smartphone currently on the market, and was expected to be one of Samsung’s biggest selling handsets of the year. Before the voluntary recall was initiated, it was on course to reach 125 percent of the sales of last year’s Galaxy Note 5. Some analysts are now predicting sales to struggle to reach sixty percent of the total shipments of last year’s phablet.

As the Note 7 rolls out again, the new period of initial sales will provide the strongest indicator of the damage caused to Samsung’s Note brand. October will also see Samsung reveal its quarterly earnings for Q3 2016, which covers the reveal, launch, and recall of the phablet. The industry is expecting to see an eight percent fall in the South Korean’s operating profits.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (Image: Samsung Press)

source: www.forbes.com

More Than 1.6M Galaxy Note 7s Could Have Bad, Explosion-Prone Battery

More Than 1.6M Galaxy Note 7s Could Have Bad, Explosion-Prone Battery

The latest Note 7 to explode, this time in Australia. credit: reddit user Crushader

The news just keeps getting worse for Samsung, and owners of its latest flagship, the Galaxy Note 7. You already know about the Note 7′s global recall due to some devices bursting into flames, but the number of potentially affected devices, which Samsung have claimed was less than 0.01%, may actually be a bit higher.

Try 64.99% higher (or more).

Both the Wall Street Journal and Korea Hearald reported today that Samsung have dropped its in-house battery-maker, Samsung SDI , completely from future Note 7s productions, going instead with Chinese company ATL, which had already provided the battery for some Note 7s (most notably the China and Hong Kong variants, which explains why Samsung Hong Kong is continuing to sell the Note 7). The reason for the decision is, of course, that Samsung SDI was responsible for the faulty batteries that led to the explosive devices.

Now figures differ between both reports, but the WSJ is reporting that Samsung SDI provided the batteries to 65% of the 2.5 million Note 7 units already sold, while Korea Herald said the the number is closer to 70%. Even if we go with the lower figure, 65% of 2.5 million is still 1,625,000.

Throughout the weekend, most Note 7 owners on internet forums (such as XDA, Reddit, The Verge and Android Authority), at least from what I’ve seen, were pretty openly “meh” about the potential danger of a faulty Note 7. Many users said 35 cases (at the time) out of 2.5 million is far too tiny a number to stress about, and quite a few actually said they’re considering ignoring the exchange process altogether (the reason? “I don’t like setting up my phone again”).

But since then, two more explosions have occurred, in Australia and Taiwan, with the latter phone supposedly combusting when it wasn’t even charging. That plus the new reports that Samsung SDI provided batteries for 0ver 65% of the phones out there? Yikes.

We probably should have seen this coming. Samsung wouldn’t have announced a global recall, of every phone in the world (except China and Hong Kong, apparently), which will cost the company a reported $1 billion, if the number of affected phones were indeed just 0.01%. The reality is, potentially 1.6 million phones could have faulty batteries.

So, Note 7 owners, please, be careful with it when charging, and don’t be foolish enough to skip the global recall program.

To paraphrase Ben Affleck in a really bad movie this year, “if there’s even a 1% chance of [the Note 7] being a threat, we have to treat it as an absolute certainty.”

source: www.forbes.com