It has become a trend now for cases and covers to leak well before a popular smartphone model is revealed officially and since the Galaxy Note 8 is inarguably one of the most anticipated Android phones till date, this trend is proving true in this case as well (no puns intended!). The case in question is made by Olixar and the news was brought to attention by a post on SamMobile. It's now up for preorder at Mobile Fun as you read this.

What it means for us enthusiasts is that we get to have a first look at how the Galaxy Note 8 will look like when released in about two months' time. As case makers usually receive information regarding the design of a smartphone well in advance since they have to start manufacturing the cases well before the smartphones are launched, we are hoping that this is a pretty reliable look at how the Galaxy Note 8 may look like. Then again, nothing is for certain unless more reliable sources reveal the actual handset. If the design does turn out to be true, then the good news is that while the fingerprint scanner will still be placed at an awkward position, the flash and the heart rate sensor has been placed in-between the dual camera module and the fingerprint sensor to eliminate any chances of smudging the lens.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

While the Galaxy S8 is without a doubt a pinnacle of achievement for Samsung Mobiles, it isn't without its flaws. However, I think one of the biggest flaws in the Galaxy S8 is not the fingerprint scanner but the way they managed the whole affair with Bixby. After investing so much into marketing their AI assistant and giving the phone a dedicated hardware button which just simply cannot be remapped to anything else, the S8 and S8+ were launched with a voice assistant that had no voice capabilities! Unfortunately, as per the Korea Herald, if you own a Galaxy S8/S8+ in the US or in any of the other English speaking nations around the world, you will likely not be seeing Bixby anytime soon.

In order to understand what exactly went wrong here, take a note of the following points.

• Samsung did not have sufficient Big Data available to them at that time to enable the voice functions of Bixby

• This happened because Samsung adopted Big Data integration much later than its competition

• There's a huge language barrier in between Samsung's English speaking developers and Korean developers which is making communication difficult

If you are wondering when you can expect Bixby voice communication to finally make its appearance on your S8 or S8+, the time is expected to be somewhere during the fourth quarter of the year.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

As per reports coming online, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have lost a lot of popularity in the last few months. While that is to be expected as the Galaxy S8 and S8+ have already been released to replace them, the speed at which the two smartphones from last year are losing popularity is quite unexpected. Apple outsold Samsung in June mainly because of this reason and it can be considered quite a bit of an upset in terms of expected sales figures.

In other news, the Galaxy S8 is gaining ground on the Galaxy S8+ as the smaller version of the S8 is now selling more than the larger one. This is news because in the initial weeks, the S8+ was leading the race prominently in the US. The various buy-one-get-one free offers that were launched in the US by various carriers recently are doing a lot to keep the sales numbers up in the country. If you live in a nation like India though, you will be paying the exorbitantly high price of roughly $900/$1,100 for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ respectively; not to mention there are no bogo offers going on in the country either.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

When the face recognition feature was unveiled with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, the last thing that we expected Samsung to do was introduce it onto a smartphone that costs one-fourth of the S8's retail price tag. However, as it turns out, that has indeed happened and the newly launched J7 Max can currently be unlocked with your face, if you wish so.

The J7 Max (recently launched in India only), which looks and feels suspiciously similar to the Galaxy J7 (2017), is the only phone in the J series at the moment to have face lock security but it wouldn't be surprising at all if Samsung decides to roll this out to some of the other mid-range devices as well via OTA updates. It is to be noted that the security offered by the face recognition software is far from perfect and certainly not very secure. Nevertheless, it's a fast and fun tool for unlocking your phone. It's nice to see some of Sammy's lower end devices getting some love as well.

Via: SamMobile

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

According to a report by Korea Herald, Samsung is all set to release a new batch of "explosion proof batteries" by the end of roughly two years at most. Yes, the irony of Samsung trying to make batteries that don't explode is not lost on us and let the Note 7 jokes rain! However, it's exactly that blunder which led Samsung to try and develop this solid state, stable battery in the first place.

The batteries are being researched and developed at Samsung's own Samsung SDI division and if they do manage to churn these batteries out like they are hoping to, you can rest assured that Samsung will be the first company to sport them. However, one point to be noted is that an executive at the SDI told Korea Herald that there's no guarantee that those non-explosive batteries will be used in future smartphones. He mentioned that is a call which will be made by Samsung electronics. On a side note, LG Chem is probably on the same track as well and it wouldn't be surprising to see both the companies come up with these safer batteries at nearly the same time.

Via: Korea Herald

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)