Articles about Samsung

Unless you've been living under a rock, the disastrous launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note7 cannot have escaped you. We've already seen the company pushing out updates in some countries to prevent the phones from fully charging in the hope that this will convince owners to take advantage of the exchange or refund program.

Now reports suggest that a new OTA update could be on its way to handset owners in the US. Rather than just limiting charging, the word is that the update will prevent charging completely, rendering the phone useless.

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Over the years, some people have accused Samsung of copying Apple with its designs. While that criticism was certainly more valid early on, the Galaxy-maker has carved out its own design style in recent years -- silencing some pundits. Its smartphones are wildly popular, and for good reason -- they often have great build quality and are chock-full of many outstanding features. They are not mere clones or imitations.

One of Samsung's most popular smartphones is the wonderful Galaxy S7 edge. While you would never mistake it for an iPhone, today, the Galaxy-maker does seem to copy Apple just a little bit -- even if it is unintentional. How? By introducing a new color called 'Pearl Black' which is very reminiscent of the iPhone 7's 'Jet Black' option. While there may not be any proof, do you think there is any copying going on?

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Samsung is currently deciding whether or it not it should follow the advice of the US hedge fund management firm Elliott Management that has proposed that the company split its business in two, with one holding company for ownership and another for operations.

Elliott first proposed the split in October with the aim of boosting shareholder value. However, this move would also benefit the Lee family that owns Samsung as it would grant them tighter control over the company.

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Following on from the Note7 battery farce, Samsung is understandably keen to reassure customers -- and would be customers -- that its other phones are safe. Having lost untold billions of dollars because of exploding Note7s, the Korean company has taken the strange move of advising people that the Galaxy S7 family is safe.

In a weirdly proactive post in the Samsung Newsroom, the company points out that there have been no instances of internal battery failure in these devices. It does concede, however, that there have been instances of battery failure following external damage.

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US chip maker Qualcomm today announces a new flagship mobile processor that will power next year's generation of high-end smartphones and tablets. Called Snapdragon 835, it is the company's first 10nm offering and promises increased energy efficiency and performance in a smaller package.

To build the Snapdragon 835, Qualcomm has teamed up with Samsung to take advantage of its 10nm FinFET manufacturing technology. This is not the first time that the two players have worked together, as Samsung also makes the Snapdragon 820. Let us take a closer look at the new kid on the block.

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In an effort to expand into the auto market, Samsung has announced that it will purchase Harman for $8 billion to gain access to both its automotive and audio offerings.

The American company Harman is best known for its audio equipment, though it also has a large presence in the automotive market. Last year, the company earned over $7 billion, of which its connected car devices and audio systems accounted for 65 percent of the total sales.

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Those who have followed me over the years know that I came somewhat late to the mobile computing party. I didn’t buy my first smartphone until 2014 -- an el-cheapo Samsung Galaxy Avant running Android 4.4.2. However, after languishing in the hinterlands of abandoned devices (Samsung never bothered to updated the Avant’s OS past "KitKat"), I finally bit the bullet and this past August splurged on a Galaxy S7 (I went for the nondescript black model to discourage phone thieves).

No question, the Galaxy S7 is a wonderful "piece of kit" (as my UK friends would call it). It’s fast, has plenty of RAM (4GB), and is expandable via microSD card (unlike its immediate predecessor, the Galaxy S6). But while it runs circles around my old Avant in terms of performance, I found the phone’s TouchWiz-enhanced Android 6.0 Marshmallow UI to be uninspiring.

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Just when you thought the Samsung Galaxy Note7 saga was over, there's a new twist. The Korean smartphone manufacturer placed a full-page ad in US newspapers yesterday, apologizing to customers for the problematic handset.

The ad appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post and the company says it is "truly sorry" for failing to deliver "best-in-class safety and quality".

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Samsung's Galaxy Note7 fiasco has been in headline for some weeks now, most recently when it emerged that the company was working with telecoms companies to cut off the phones from networks in New Zealand. Now Samsung has announced that it is pushing out an update to US users that will limit how much the battery can be charged.

This is not so much a case of limiting the charge to make the phone safer, rather an attempt to annoy Galaxy Note7 owners who have not yet taken advantage of the 'refund and exchange' program to do just that. The hope is that by limiting phone charge to 60 percent, and showing a popup, stubborn Galaxy Note7 owners will give in and relinquish their handsets.

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The Samsung Galaxy Note7 was one of the -- if not the -- most disastrous phone launches of all time. After numerous reports of handsets catching fire or exploding, Samsung was forced to recall the device -- but some people have been reluctant to give theirs up.

The phone may have been banned from planes, and Samsung has even offered a financial incentive to hand over the Galaxy Note7, but despite the potential danger many users are hanging onto their phones. In a drastic move to prevent them from being used, some mobile providers -- incoordination with Samsung -- are disconnecting Galaxy Note7s, rendering them all but useless.

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When it comes to the exploding batteries on Galaxy Note7 models, Samsung has been lauded for its crisis management approach and how it’s accepted responsibility for the problem. Now setting up exchange booths at airports around the world so users can exchange their Galaxy Note7 phones is yet another example of its exceptional crisis management approach.

But while it’s commendable how swiftly Samsung is taking action to replace the faulty handsets, the company has left one crucial component out of this plan. That is, erasing the data from those Galaxy Note7 devices that are turned in at its exchange booths at airports around the world. There’s no mention of whether the data is being securely and permanently erased from the Galaxy Note7 phones that are taken back at the exchange booths -- and if it’s being done so before they’re handed off to Samsung’s chosen recyclers.

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After the whole Galaxy Note7 fiasco, some folks believed that Samsung would put an end to the Galaxy Note series. The electronics giant has lost a lot of money thanks to a single faulty device, not to mention that the damage this has caused to its reputation will be very hard -- if not impossible -- to repair, so such a decision would make some sense.

However, as it turns out, Samsung is not ready to throw in the towel just yet. The Galaxy Note series will live on, because the company just announced the introduction of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note8 in 2017. What's more, Galaxy Note7 customers will be able to take advantage of a special offer to upgrade to one of its upcoming flagships.

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The tablet market has gotten a bit stale lately. While Apple keeps chugging along with its innovative "Pro" iPad devices, the Android community hasn't seen much in the way of quality offerings. Sadly, many tablets running Google's mobile operating system are low-quality with scant support -- OS updates are often non-existent.

If you do want a quality Android tablet, Samsung is still cranking them out, and today it announces a new such model for the US market. The 'Galaxy Tab A 10.1" with S Pen' -- yeah, that is actually the full name -- will be in stores later this week at a very affordable price.

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Pretty soon it will be common for high-end smartphones to have as much -- if not more -- RAM than your PC, as Samsung just unveiled a new 8GB LPDDR4 module for mobile devices featuring large, UHD displays.

Samsung believes that mobile devices equipped with 8GB of RAM will be able to handle 4K video playback with ease but also virtual machines. The latter scenario is not a common on smartphones and tablets, but Samsung wants to bring mobile devices on a similar level to desktops and laptops, at least in consumers' minds.

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I sold my sister's T-Mobile HTC M9 earlier today. Nan lives in Vermont, where Verizon delivers consistently better coverage and where the market for a used smartphone is much smaller than here in San Diego. The buyer had previously owned the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which she really enjoyed. While waiting until late November or early December for her matte black iPhone 7 Plus order, the woman has a Samsung Galaxy J7 loaner and hates it. She is familiar with the M9 because her mom owns one.

This lady is the fifth person I've met in just a few days who had bought Note 7. They're everywhere—and a sorry lot of disappointment, too. Every one switched to an iPhone. What? Has no one read reviews claiming Google's Pixel handsets are the Android iPhones everyone waited for?

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