Samsung to sell refurbished Galaxy Note 7 units: reports

SEOUL - Samsung will start reselling refurbished Galaxy Note 7 devices next week, after a humiliating recall over exploding batteries last year, news reports said Tuesday.

Samsung Electronics declined to comment on the reports.

The recall debacle cost the Korean giant billions of dollars in lost profits and hammered its global credibility.

Around three million Galaxy Note 7 devices were returned to the firm, but campaign groups including Greenpeace expressed concern that discarding them could harm the environment.

Citing industry sources, South Korea's Yonhap news agency and other news reports said Samsung would start selling refurbished devices with new batteries and updated software under the name Galaxy Note Fandom Edition (FE).

They will be priced below 700,000 won ($616) and sales are slated to start July 7, Yonhap said.

The recall was deeply embarrassing for Samsung but it has just launched a new flagship device, the Galaxy S8, to positive reviews and strong orders.

In April it posted its biggest quarterly net profit for more than three years, although it has come under pressure on wider fronts.

Lee Jae-Yong, the Samsung group vice-chairman and heir to its leadership, is on trial for bribery in connection with the sprawling corruption scandal that brought down former South Korean president Park Geun-Hye.

Lee is accused of bribing Park and her secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil with millions of dollars to seek government favors.

He has effectively been at the helm of the group since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014.

His indictment in February sent shockwaves through the firm and triggered the announcement of a major reform of its top-down management style.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Samsung unveils 8-inch tablet with phone capability

SEOUL - Samsung on Sunday unveiled an eight-inch tablet with phonecall capability to rival Apple's recently launched iPad mini and to cement its market dominance by offering devices in a variety of sizes.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 features an eight-inch screen and, where it may steal a march on its rival which measures 7.9-inches, the ability to make phone calls.

The new device, now being marketed by Samsung as a "tablet", is powered by Google's Android software and will be showcased at the four-day Mobile World Congress in Barcelona beginning on February 25, the company said in a statement.

Like previous incarnations of the Galaxy Note, the device comes with a stylus pen allowing the user to write or draw on the screen, which can be split in two to run various programs at the same time.

Global sales will begin in the second quarter, the firm said.

Samsung is the world's top maker of smartphones and mobile phones in general.

The latest device -- the first from the company to feature an eight-inch screen -- is set to fill a gap in the firm's wide product lineup, which ranges from the flagship smartphone Galaxy S to the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 and the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab tablet PC.

The firm has recently shifted its focus to its Galaxy Note, which turned out to be far more popular than the larger Galaxy Tab, offering the Note in various sizes in a move that blurred the lines between smartphones and tablet PCs.

Samsung said the launch of the Galaxy Note 8.0 will "reignite the mid-size tablet category" -- a segment increasingly crowded by rival products including the iPad mini that launched last November and Google's seven-inch Nexus 7.

Samsung and Apple accounted for more than half of all smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2012 -- 29.0 percent for Samsung and 22.1 percent for Apple -- according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Modern Gadget Becomes Filmmaking Tool

MANILA, Philippines — For movie producers, brilliant ideas for their next big film strike during unexpected moments. These fragments of thoughts often come sporadically until they unite to form a concrete storyline. Atty. Annette Gozon-Abrogar, president of GMA Films, is all too familiar with such instances and could only be thankful for always having her Samsung Galaxy Note conveniently on hand.

“I’m a ‘notes’ type of person,” Annette beams. “Ever since my college days, I always like being able to jot down my thoughts and ideas. Being in a creative field, I get inspiration from observing people, and ideas just pop out in the most unexpected time and places. With Samsung Galaxy Note, I can capture these ideas instantly and I don’t need to carry a bulky notebook around.” Samsung Galaxy Note features the revolutionary S Pen technology that captures a user’s actual handwriting rather than tapping away on a QWERTY keypad.

“There are times when the production team wants us to review particular scenes,” Annette declares. “Before I had my Samsung Galaxy Note, I would have to wait for the rushes (the production term for rough preliminary video edits) to be sent to my office, and that takes time.

“Samsung Galaxy Note has excellent video support. And I love its 5.3 inches HD Super AMOLED screen! It allows me to review footage sent to me through e-mail to the finest detail, and give feedback right away. No time is definitely wasted given the fact that it takes so much time to set up a scene during a shoot.”

source: mb.com.ph