The Galaxy S8 Active is once again coming to AT&T, just as last year and the year before that. If you are not exactly aware of what the "Active" version of Samsung's Galaxy S-series smartphones are, then know that they are fundamentally the same smartphones, with the only differences being a bigger battery and better protection against shock, dust and water. In that regard, the S8 Active will be the more durable version of the regular Galaxy S8. Considering how fragile the S8 and S8+ looks, we would say that's good news for AT&T users.

The news was leaked by SamMobile and although the site did not have any images of the Galaxy S8 Active, it did leak two important pieces of info to all of us. Firstly, the S8 Active will be codenamed Cruiser and secondly, the device will have the model number SM-G892A. The bigger battery which usually accompanies all Galaxy S Active smartphones is the main attraction for us and if you would like to get your hands on one as well, you may have to wait till June.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Terry Halvorsen was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the US Department of Defence till February this year, but right now, he has been hired by Samsung Mobile as their executive vice president. The ex-deputy commander of the US Naval Network's Warfare division will be working directly under the CEO of Samsung Mobile, Shin Jong-Kyun as an advisor. His main job will apparently be to assist the South Korean company in expanding their network security business across both the US and Europe.

This move is part of the company's ongoing venture to work with the military in different countries. Not to say that Samsung is an amateur in this field though, since they have had a business relation with the US Department of Defence for more than three years now. However, after the recent revelations and allegations regarding Samsung's own Tizen OS having a whole bunch of security gaps in it, things may seem a bit dicey right now. On that note, one can speculate that maybe Samsung hired Terry Halvorsen in order to make sure that such mistakes do not happen in the future?

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Via: SamMobile

It is official now, the much hyped Samsung Bixby won't have any voice functionalities whatsoever at launch. It was a surprising decision by Samsung to exclude a major part of the AI personal assistant experience from the S8 and the S8+, after marketing the missing feature as one of the main selling points of the Galaxy S8 series. We know that this cannot exactly be a voluntary decision as it clearly reflects very poorly on the company's recently tarnished image, but the question is; why advertise something that isn't even ready?

Samsung has promised that the missing features from Bixby will be making their way onto select flagship smartphones by spring 2017 in the US, but that is a vague and disappointing declaration to say the least. However, Bixby will still have Vision, Home and Reminder features active and working on the S8 and S8+ on launch. It makes you think if marketing Bixby in the way that they did was a mistake. I mean, to add an extra non-reprogrammable hardware button to your flagship device for a service that isn't even finished yet, sounds like a strange and somewhat stupid decision for a company as big as Samsung is.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The S5 was released back in 2014 and three years later, it still continues to be on top of America's favourite list of Samsung smartphones. One would think that after so much time and Samsung releasing significantly better smartphones since then, people would have moved on to something more recent, but you would be thinking wrong. According to Kantar World Panel, 15.6% of all Samsung smartphone users in the US are currently using the Galaxy S5. The second and third places are currently being held by the Galaxy S7 (11.5%) and the Galaxy S6 (11.4%) respectively. The Galaxy S7 Edge (5.8%) is surprisingly in the fourth place, in spite of the curved variant being reported as being more popular earlier.

If you are as surprised by this little revelation as we are, then consider the fact that these are the figures AFTER 28% of Samsung users in the country just shifted to a newer Samsung smartphone in the last 12 months! I always thought the Galaxy S5 wasn't much of an upgrade from my S4 back in the day; guess people don't exactly agree, at least not in the US anyway.

Via: Android Authority

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

It was only a few days ago that the Galaxy C7 Pro was launched in India and the device is already receiving the latest April security patch from Samsung in the region. This would be the first official update for the device from Samsung in India and it's a welcome one as it patches up the Android security gaps which pops up every month and subsequently needs to be patched in.

The SMALL package of 35.4 MB will reach all eligible smartphones in the region via OTA and the users whohave not been auto-notified to update their phones yet, should get the [prompt any time now. The build number of the firmware is MMB29M.C701FDDU1AQCA and doesn't seem to be bringing anything other than the SMR update to the Galaxy C7 Pro. We don't have any information about the Chinese variant receiving the same yet, but it is definitely a possibility. 

Via: SamMobile

Head over to our firmware section to find all the latest available updates for your Samsung smartphones.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)