Samsung's Galaxy S8 Active ditches curves for brawn

MANILA - Samsung took the wraps off a rugged version of its flagship Galaxy S8, ditching the edge-to-edge screen in favor of drop-proofing and a larger battery.

The Galaxy S8 Active will be initially exclusive to US carrier AT&T. There was no initial word on availability in the Philippines, though past "active" versions of the "S" line of premium phones have been sold locally.

The company claims the device's metal-framed 5.8-inch screen is shatter resistant up to 5 feet and can withstand specific levels of dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, high altitude.

It also packs a larger 4,000 mAh battery compared to the standard S8's 3,000 mAh cell. Samsung did not announce a rugged version of the 6.3-inch S8 Plus.

The S8 Active was announced just weeks before Samsung unveils the successor to last year's Galaxy Note 7, which was recalled due to faulty batteries.

Rival Apple is expected to announce the 10th generation iPhone in September, with the top-tier model reported to adapt the edge-to-edge screens of the the S8 and LG's G6.

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Samsung to update Galaxy S8 after 'red screen' complaints

SEOUL - Electronics giant Samsung will this week offer an unusually early software update for its newly-released Galaxy S8 phone, it said Monday after some consumers complained of red-tinted screens.

The launch of the device is a key step for the South Korean tech firm as it seeks to move on from last year's humiliating withdrawal of the Galaxy Note 7 over exploding batteries, which hammered the firm's once-stellar reputation.

The Galaxy S8 started over-the-counter sales in the US and its home market but South Korean users who pre-ordered the phones complained their screens displayed an unusually reddish hue.

Online images of their phones went viral on social media but Samsung denied a hardware flaw and maintained that users could manually adjust the colour range according to their preferences.

As more users voiced doubts, Samsung said Monday that a software update would fix the problem by allowing them to readjust colours over a wider range than at present.

"Samsung... has decided to release a software update starting from this week which will provide consumers with a further enhanced ability to adjust the colour setting to their preference," it said in a statement.

Samsung -- the world's largest maker of smartphones -- has pinned its hopes on the Galaxy S8 to compete against archrival Apple's iPhone after last year's Note 7 disaster.

The recall debacle cost Samsung billions of dollars in lost profits and hammered its global credibility, forcing it to apologize to consumers and postpone the S8 launch.

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Samsung faces 'biggest test' with Galaxy S8 launch

SEOUL - The world's biggest smartphone maker Samsung will unveil its latest flagship, the Galaxy S8, on Wednesday in New York as it seeks to move on from last year's humiliating recall crisis.

Samsung Electronics was forced to discontinue the Galaxy Note 7, originally intended to compete with Apple's iPhone, after a chaotic recall that saw replacement devices also catching fire.

The debacle cost the South Korean company billions in lost profit and hammered its global reputation and credibility, during a torrid period when it has also been embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Its vice-chairman Lee Jae-Yong, heir to the parent Samsung group, has since been arrested and indicted for bribery, along with four other senior executives, in connection with the graft scandal that saw ex-president Park Geun-Hye impeached.

Samsung blamed the Galaxy Note 7 crisis on faulty batteries, apologized to consumers for causing concern and was forced to postpone the S8 launch.

 The Verge, a US-based online news network specialising on technology, described the new device as Samsung's "biggest test ever".

"It now needs to reassert its reliability while also rebooting its technological advantage," it said.

On its website, Samsung says the latest addition to the Galaxy lineup represents "the start of a new era", but has offered little information about its new hardware features.

Some leaked images of the new phone suggest the Galaxy S8 will sport a larger curved display than its predecessor the S7, at 5.8 inches, while maintaining a similar body size.

The home button on the front of the phone appears to have been replaced by a fingerprint scanner on the rear, while it is also speculated to have an iris scanner, most likely used for unlocking the handset and authorising payments.

Samsung announced last week that its new voice-powered digital assistant Bixby will debut with the phone, which will have a set of pre-installed applications that will work with the interface.

The South Korean electronics giant late last year bought Viv, an artificial intelligence startup with co-founders who were part of the team that built virtual assistant Siri, which Apple bought some seven years ago.

While Samsung has yet to confirm a release date and pricing, the Galaxy S8 is expected to be available in late April with a price range of around $900 to $1,000.

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Face recognition for payments coming to Samsung Galaxy S8: report

MANILA - Samsung users will soon be able to verify mobile payments by looking at their smartphones as the the company is planning to include facial recognition technology in its upcoming Galaxy S8 handset, according to a news report.

Face recognition for mobile payments will be a first for smartphones and the Galaxy S8 will also come with fingerprint and iris scanners for added security, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources.

The South Korean company is building Samsung Pay to challenge rival Apple Inc's Apple Pay, which is available on the iPhone and Apple Watch.

The Galaxy S8 is expected to be launched in late March. Leaks suggest that its headline feature will be a screen that wraps around the sides and occupies almost the entire front of the handset.

It will the Samsung's first premium handset since its recall of the Galaxy Note 7 late last year, after some units caught fire. The company blamed the fires on faulty batteries.

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Samsung's Galaxy S8 teased in more leaks ahead of launch

I think this is what you've been waiting for. pic.twitter.com/FvYfsLOy0R

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 1, 2017


MANILA - Alleged renders and pictures of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 have leaked, providing a glimpse at the South Korean giant's attempt to recover from the recall of its Note 7 handsets last year.

Following the lead of rivals LG and Xiaomi, the eighth iteration of Samsung's flagship will feature a screen that occupies almost the entire front face of the phone.

The curved display, which wraps around the sides of the device, will come in two sizes, 5.8 inches for the regular model and 6.2 inches for the larger "plus" model.

Venture Beat writer Evan Blas, who has a track record for accurate leaks, posted a computed render of the device on his Twitter page.

Tech website BGR posted a photo of what it claims to be a working S8 handset.

The S8 has ditched physical keys in favor of on-screen buttons to make way for the large screen. The fingerprint sensor was moved to the back, beside the camera lens, according to BGR.


 Samsung is scheduled to announce the S8 on March 21 and the handset is expected to launch on April 21

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First look: Samsung S8 leak shows big changes

This is the Samsung Galaxy S8, launching March 29 https://t.co/lQZ0K0q2MA pic.twitter.com/dlusRMX4YH

 — Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 26, 2017

 MANILA - A supposed image of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 that leaked on Friday showed a screen that covers almost the entire face of the phone, displacing navigation buttons.

Tech journalist Evan Blas of Venturebeat, who has a reputation for accurate leaks, posted an image showing the front and back of the S8, which he said will come in 5.8 and 6.2 screen sizes.

The display will occupy 83 percent of the phone's front, Blas said. The screenss are larger than the 5 and 5.5 inches on the S7 and S7 Edge, respectively.

The fingerprint sensor appeared to have been moved to the back of the phone, beside the camera lens.

Samsung's trademark home button on the phone's front appeared to have been discarded. The S8, however, has a headphone jack, an industry standard that Apple removed on its iPhone 7 and 7 plus.

The S8 is the South Korean electronics giant's first flagship release since the Galaxy Note 7 late last year, which was recalled after the handsets spontaneously caught fire.

Samsung said this week said an internal investigation revealed that faulty batteries caused the Note 7 to malfunction.

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Samsung skips Barcelona unveiling for Galaxy S8

SEOUL - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said on Monday it would not unveil its Galaxy S8 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show this year, suggesting the flagship model's launch may be later in the year than its 2016 version.

Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin said the phone would not get a launch event at the MWC event in Barcelona, which begins on Feb. 27, unlike the previous Galaxy S smartphones.

Koh did not comment on when the company planned to launch the new handset, the first premium model Samsung is due to release since the failure of its Note 7 flagship device in October over safety issues.

The firm showed off the Galaxy S7 on the sidelines of MWC in February 2016, and started selling the phones in March.

Samsung reported a 50.2 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday despite the humiliating Galaxy Note 7 recall.

In a statement, Samsung said it posted operating profits of 9.22 trillion won (US$7.9 billion) during the October to December period.

Earnings were "driven by the components businesses, mainly the memory business and the display panel segment," it said, with the stronger US dollar also boosting profits.

Revenues were largely unchanged at 53.3 trillion won for the three months, the South Korean tech giant said.

For the full year, it said in a statement, "Samsung achieved solid results despite the Note 7 discontinuation in the second half" -- the only reference to the debacle that saw the company withdraw its flagship device.

Earlier this week it blamed faulty batteries from two different suppliers for the incidents.

Operating profits for 2016 reached 29.2 trillion won, up 10.7 percent year-on-year, the firm said, even though revenues were almost flat at 201.9 trillion won, up 0.6 percent.

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Samsung to launch AI digital assistant service for Galaxy S8

SEOUL - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said on Sunday it would launch an artificial intelligence digital assistant service for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone, seeking to rebound from the Galaxy Note 7's collapse and differentiate its devices.

The world's top smartphone maker in October announced the acquisition of Viv Labs Inc., a firm run by a co-creator of Apple Inc.'s Siri voice assistant program. Samsung plans to integrate the San Jose-based company's AI platform, called Viv, into the Galaxy smartphones and expand voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices.

Samsung is counting on the Galaxy S8 to help revive smartphone momentum after scrapping the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7, which will hit its profit by $5.4 billion over three quarters through the first quarter of 2017.

Investors and analysts say the Galaxy S8 must be a strong device in order for Samsung to win back customers and revive earnings momentum.

Samsung did not comment on what types of services would be offered through the AI assistant that will be launched on the Galaxy S8, which is expected to go on sale early next year. It said the AI assistant would allow customers to use third-party service seamlessly.

"Developers can attach and upload services to our agent," said Samsung Executive Vice President Rhee Injong during a briefing, referring to its AI assistant.

"Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease."

Technology firms are locked in an increasingly heated race to make AI good enough to let consumers interact with their devices more naturally, especially by voice.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google is widely considered to be the leader in AI, but others including Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft Corp. have launched their own offerings including voice-powered digital assistants.

Samsung also hopes to differentiate its devices, from phones to fridges, by incorporating AI. Competition from Google's new Pixel smartphones, armed with the US firm's voice-powered digital assistant, adds to the urgency.

The South Korean firm has said it plans more acquisitions to bolster its AI and other software capabilities.

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