There’s only one correct way to insert the S Pen back into the Galaxy Note 5 but soon after the handset was launched last year it was discovered that inserting it the other way around ended up damaging the pen detection feature of the Galaxy Note 5. It was the first time that a Note series handset featured Samsung’s patented push-to-eject mechanism for retrieving the S Pen.

Samsung first came up with a simple and very obvious solution to this problem, it recommended that users follow the instructions included with the Galaxy Note 5 to ensure that they don’t reinsert the S Pen the other way around. That didn’t help much though so it started shipping new units of the Galaxy Note 5 with a warning label that explained the right way of inserting the S Pen.

It appears that Samsung has now taken a concrete step to ensure that users don’t end up killing the pen detection feature on their phablet by inserting the S Pen the other way around. A new report points out that Samsung is producing new circuit boards that have a safer detection mechanism, the greyish white tab on the new circuit boards appears to have been designed to allow safe ejection of an S Pen inserted backwards without damaging the pen detection feature. From the looks of it, the fix involved adding an external cap piece over the original design and according to the source mentioned in the report, this little change makes a significant difference.

You’re still out of luck though if you purchase the Galaxy Note 5 before this change was made, and since Samsung hasn’t really made this change with much fanfare, it really can’t be said for sure from when it has been shipping units with the new circuit boards. Continue to exercise caution and common sense when ejecting and inserting the S Pen in the Galaxy Note 5.

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Two months ago Samsung launched the Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 (2016), sequels to its Galaxy A series, and the handsets were released only in China initially but it was confirmed that they will be released in other markets as well gradually. The new Galaxy A handsets provide a respectable package of powerful hardware, premium features like a fingerprint sensor and optical image stabilization as well as a glass and metal build that lends an overall premium look and feel to the handsets. Interested folks based in the United Kingdom will now be delighted to know that the pricing of these handsets for their country has finally been confirmed.

The Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 (2016) can now be pre-ordered at retailer MobileFun in the United Kingdom, prices start at £269 for the Galaxy A3 (2016), £319 for the Galaxy A5 (2016) and £399 for the Galaxy A7 (2016). These prices are for SIM-free and unlocked units, they’re obviously not carrier-subsidized handsets, so customers will need to pay upfront to get any one of the new Galaxy A series handsets.

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Samsung has a plethora of phones and tablets in its lineup, and regularly releases firmware updates for various devices. These can include major updates, which bring a newer version of the OS to a particular device, or minor ones that improve performance and stability and fix bugs. Software updates for Samsung devices roll out in various regions every day, and you can find out which firmware updates were pushed out by the company over the last 24 hours through our firmware list.

As usual, you can download each of these firmware from our firmware section (simply enter your device’s model number to view all firmware for that device) in order to update to a new firmware manually, or as a means to return to your phone or tablet’s stock software.

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An investigation conducted by Amnesty International and Afrewatch, a non-govermnet organization based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has revealed the possibility that suppliers of some of the biggest tech companies and car manufacturers might be employing child labor in Africa. Cobalt, believed to be mined by children as young as seven, might be entering the supply chains of tech companies like Microsoft, Apple and Samsung aside from car manufacturers like Volkswagen and Daimler AG.

Samsung SDI, the division which makes batteries for Samsung as well as other clients including Apple, said in a statement that it’s “impossible” to determine if its cobalt is sourced from the DRC, adding that both CDM and Huayou are not in its supply chain. However it acknowledged its relationship with L&F Material, a battery maker based in South Korea that has also been implicated in the report, but Samsung says that its materials were sourced from Japan.

According to the report, cobalt mined by children is sold to Congo Dongfang Mining International, a DRC-based subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt. The cobalt ore is processed and then sold to companies in China and South Korea who use it to make lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and electric cars. Amnesty International contacted several companies, and while Apple and Microsoft said that they were evaluating their supply chain, Amnesty says in the report that none of the companies it contacted gave enough information which would allow for their origin of cobalt supply to be independently verified.

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Samsung and Apple’s patent lawsuit has been ongoing for several years now, some of Samsung’s devices were found to be infringing on Apple’s utility patents, and even though the company is still trying to fight its rival despite agreeing to pay over half a billion dollar in damages this time around it’s a win for Apple. Its wish for a sales ban on infringing Samsung devices has been granted as a result of which the company can no longer sell those devices.

Apple may have won a sales ban but it’s effectively useless since all of those devices are outdated anyway and Samsung doesn’t sell them anymore. The devices that it can no longer sell in the United States include the Galaxy Nexus, the first Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Note 2, the Galaxy S2, the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, the Galaxy S3 and the Stratosphere. Samsung is trying to get the US Supreme Court to take up the matter and reform patent law to fit modern devices and many have thrown its weight behind the company, but until that happens this ban will remain in place.

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It has only been about six months since the Galaxy J5 was released but from the looks of it, the successor is already in the pipeline. We reported about a week ago that the Galaxy J5 (2016) is being tested at Samsung’s R&D facilities in India and now the handset as appeared on GFXBench, reiterating some details about this device that previously surfaced online and revealing some more.

The benchmark shows that SM-J510x, the Galaxy J5 (2016), has a larger 5.2-inch display with the same 1280 x 720 pixel resolution of its predecessor. There appears to be a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor under the hood with 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera. The handset will be powered by Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. It can’t really be said for sure right now when Samsung is going to formally launch the Galaxy J5 (2016) so if you’re in the market for a robust mid-range device perhaps you should check out Samsung’s recently revamped Galaxy A (2016) series.

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Samsung wants to end its patent lawsuit once and for all by trying to get the US Supreme Court to take up the matter. It has already been through a very lengthy legal process that involved lawsuits, payment of about half a billion dollars in damages and also a sales ban on some of its devices. It’s up to the apex court to decide whether it wants to take up this case and in order to convince it to do so, many non-profit organizations, tech companies and legal experts have filed amicus (friend of the court) briefs requesting that the Supreme Court consider this patent infringement case.

It’s not that all of them support Samsung’s position against Apple, rather they are aware of the implications of a Supreme Court decision on matters of patent infringement, particularly related to design patents and the damages associated with infringement. The judicial system often comes under fire for not doing enough to stop patent trolls so a decision by the Supreme Court will be a potential game changer. The idea is to throw their weight behind this patent infringement case and ultimately convince the federal government to bring about patent reforms that will prevent patent trolls from making money off of intellectual property. Newegg, a major electronics retailer, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court alongside major tech companies including Facebook, Google, Dell, HP, eBay and Pegasystems. Even farmers and small businesses have done the same. Samsung and Apple have not commented on these amicus briefs.

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Samsung likes to be the first in the world to produce memory and storage products with new technologies. It has now become the first in the world to start mass producing 4GB DRAM chips that are based on fast HBM2 interface, which will help in high-performance computing, gaming, and network systems.

These HBM2-based DRAM chips can sift data at a pace of 256GBps, making them seven times faster than current generation DDR5 DRAM chips. The company said that it will supply these chips to enterprises server manufacturers, who value performance more than anything else.

Samsung said that it will also supply these 20nm-based chips to NVIDIA and AMD, which will help these companies in churning out graphics cards with extremely high-performance and reduced power consumption. Samsung is currently making 4GB modules with four layers of 8-gigabit cores, but it will soon start making 8GB modules with eight layers.

Sewon Chun, senior vice president of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics, said, “By mass producing next-generation HBM2 DRAM, we can contribute much more to the rapid adoption of next-generation HPC systems by global IT companies. Also, in using our 3D memory technology here, we can more proactively cope with the multifaceted needs of global IT, while at the same time strengthening the foundation for future growth of the DRAM market.”

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The Dutch Consumers’ Association has filed a lawsuit against Samsung over device support, stating in its lawsuit that the Korean giant doesn’t provide support for most of its devices in a given calendar year nor inform customers as to when they can expect their device(s) to receive subsequent Android updates.

Consumers are not sufficiently informed on the purchase of a Samsung Android device about how long they will receive software updates. The Dutch Consumers [are] demanding that Samsung [make] this matter clear and [provide] unambiguous information to customers…Samsung also does not provide sufficient information on critical security holes in its Android phones like Stage Fright (translated by Google Translate).

As for device support, a study from last year details that Samsung doesn’t update 82% of its devices, leaving only 18% of its devices as update-eligible.

Samsung does seem to have an erratic update policy, but it’s also true that many of its devices are budget-friendly and do not necessarily meet the demands that warrant an update. At the same time, however, many Samsung users are buying budget-friendly devices and want to see them updated for some time. Samsung is looking to bring fingerprint sensors and other high-end specs such as improved cameras into its budget-friendly lineup, so we could very well see Samsung’s update policies progress to include more budget-friendly devices. Google could help in this regard as well by not releasing so many incremental updates that only add emojis, for example.

We have reached out to Samsung for an official comment on the matter and will update when it gets back to us. Do you think this lawsuit is fair? Is Samsung right or wrong, or is this just another frivolous lawsuit? Speak your mind in the comments.

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The Galaxy J7 (2016) just passed through GFXBench, and there are a lot of surprises here. The Galaxy J1 (2016) has already been quietly revealed, so it makes sense that the South Korean giant will be releasing a new J series device soon, and it could be the Galaxy J7 (2016).

One of the surprises about the Galaxy J7 (2016) is the fact that the RAM has almost been doubled to 2.7GB from the previous model, which had 1.5GB of RAM. Another surprise is that this device won’t arrive with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, or at least according to GFXBench. The device will arrive with Android 5.1.1 by default, which isn’t bad at all.

It will pack a 5.5-inch 1080p display, an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor capped at 1.5 GHz, 2.7GB of RAM, and 16GB internal storage. It will feature a 13-megapixel rear shooter with 1080p video recording, and a 5-megapixel front shooter. Finally, the Galaxy J7 (2016) does have a couple of minor downsides such as a lack of gyroscope and the lack of barometer, but this isn’t anything major.

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Samsung has reportedly initiated a large-scale inspection into contract chip business, System LSI, that ran into a $820 million loss during 2014. This unit manufactures mobile application processors, images sensors for cameras, and TV displays.

According to a report from The Herald Business, Samsung’s inspection aims to have a close look at the division’s spendings and investments over the past six to seven years. However, a company official was quoted saying that such inspections are carried out regularly.

This division grew rapidly since 2007 after securing supply deals from Apple, but its revenues fell sharply when Apple decided to shift its orders to TSMC in 2012 following disputes with Samsung. As a result, its revenue fell to 9 trillion won in 2013 from 13 trillion won in 2014.

System LSI has since made a great progress in terms of technology and started manufacturing second generation of its 14nm FinFET process, and it is manufacturing Apple’s A9 chipsets that are used in the current generation iPhones, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus.

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Samsung UK is conducting a winter sale right now, and some great deals are listed on its official website. These deals include discounts on smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, camera accessories, televisions, wireless speakers, as well as home appliances. However, two deals stand out, the Gear S2 and the Galaxy A5.

You can grab a pair of Gear S2 Classic smartwatches for just £449 instead of a regular price of £598. The 16GB variant of the Galaxy A5 is being sold with a reduced price tag of £279.20 instead of its regular price of £349. The 55-inch J6300 6 Series Curved Smart LED TV with Full HD resolution is listed for £999, which is a discount of £251 over its regular price.

There are a couple of great deals on washing machine and microwave oven bundles. You can have a look at the full list of deals that are being offered by Samsung UK and get details about them by hitting the source link below. You should hurry if you want to grab some of those deals.

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The Galaxy S7 edge was spotted on AnTuTu a few days ago, and now, it’s the non-edge sibling’s turn. That particular Galaxy S7 edge was powered by the Snapdragon 820 (for AT&T), but this time, the Galaxy S7 features Samsung’s own homegrown Exynos 8890 processor instead.

The specs are nothing new, but serve to remind us that the rumors are bearing out. First, the same 5.1-inch, Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440p) display is present, as well as the 4GB of RAM, 12MP main camera, and 5MP front camera. The model number for this device is SM-G930F, matching model numbers we exclusively leaked earlier last year.

We don’t have an AnTuTu score for this device (presumably the Galaxy S7), but we tend to think that the Exynos 8890 will have a higher score in synthetic benchmarks than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. But then again, the score can only be settled when both devices are put through the paces, and both of them should offer stellar performance.

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The BBC will soon be delivering its micro:bits mini-computer, that’s quite similar to Raspberry Pi, to all 6th-grade students in the United Kingdom. As they wait for the mini-computer to arrive, teachers can take this time to get familiar with a new partner app that Samsung has released for micro:bits. It’s part of Samsung’s mission to use the Internet of Things to plug the digital skills gap in the United Kingdom.

The app works through Bluetooth allowing students to code on the micro:bits using a smartphone or a tablet, or even control digital devices using the mini-computer. The BBC says that during tests for this app kids have used it with micro:bits for a variety of tasks such as controlling the music on their phones and even for taking selfies. Samsung has launched this app today at the Bett Show education conference in London.

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Another model of the Galaxy S7 appears to have made its way to the benchmarks, the Galaxy S7 (SM-G930W8) has been spotted on Geekbench, possibly revealing some specs of the Galaxy S7. The benchmark result shows that this model is also powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 processor instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which is being manufactured by Samsung, and features 4GB of RAM. Last month one Snapdragon 820-powered model of the Galaxy S7 was spotted on Geekbench and just yesterday the Galaxy S7 with Exynos 8890 also appeared on AnTuTu benchmark.

Additional Galaxy S7 specs mentioned in this latest benchmark include a 5.1-inch display with 1440 x 2560 Quad HD resolution, 12-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera as well as Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. We have already exclusively confirmed the different screen sizes for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge aside from the fact that both handsets will feature a microSD card slot as well. It’s common for us to see different benchmarks and conflicting reports about specifications and features that are expected in an upcoming flagship, that’s usually because all of this unofficial information is often based on different prototypes, and that means there’s always the possibility of the final product turning out a bit different than what everybody expected. Samsung is likely going to unveil the Galaxy S7 at Mobile World Congress 2016 next month.

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Samsung is no stranger to taking swipes at Apple in its advertisements and it’s sticking with that strategy in the latest ad for its mobile payments service Samsung Pay. The ad follows comedian Hannibal Buress to New York’s iconic Katz’s Deli where he purchases the infamous pastrami sandwich and things get interesting when he asks to pay with his phone.

“You mean like Apple Pay?” asks one of the employees at the deli, “We don’t have that,” he says. Buress replies “No, like Samsung Pay,” and then proceeds to show how he can make the payment using Samsung Pay by just hovering his phone over the conventional credit card machine. It works like a charm even though the deli staff insist that it won’t work since they don’t have any of the fancy terminals that are required for most mobile payment services.

This really is one of the biggest reasons why Samsung Pay’s adoption has increased significantly ever since it was launched, it does work with fancy NFC payment terminals, but it also has support for magnetic secure transmission. That’s the technology used to process credit card swipes through POS machines, so Samsung Pay is able to process payments even if the merchant only has a regular card machine. Samsung has been pushing this point in all promotional activities for the payments service, the fact that it’s widely accepted as opposed to rivals like Apple Pay, all users need to have is a card from any of the countless supported financial institutions and a Samsung smartphone and then they’re good to pay with just their phone anywhere they can pay with a credit or debit card.

[iframe width="680" height="383" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/czcb5dXjlZA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen]

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As we reported earlier this week, it was expected that Samsung would launch its latest smartwatches and its virtual reality headset in India before the end of this month. Today, the South Korean smartphone giant has launched the Gear S2, the Gear S2 Classic, and the Gear VR in India.

The Gear S2 and the Gear S2 Classic will be available online exclusively through Flipkart for INR 24,300 (~ $357) and INR 25,800 (~ $379), respectively. They will also be sold through company’s retail stores across the country. The company said that the Platinum and the Rose Gold variants of the Gear S2 Classic, which were unveiled during CES 2016, will be launched in India by the end of this month.

Read More: Gear S2 Review: Samsung finally understands a smartwatch should be round

These smartwatches are compatible with Android smartphones running Android 4.4, and featuring 1.5GB RAM (or higher) and Bluetooth 4.0 L.E. The company has pledged to bring support for iOS devices later this month. However, some features will only work when paired with a compatible Galaxy device from Samsung.

The Frost White variant of the Gear VR, which will be available online through Flipkart exclusively as well as at select stores from offline retailers Croma and Reliance Digital, has been priced at INR 8,200 (~ $120). The virtual reality headset from Samsung will be compatible with the Galaxy S6, the Galaxy S6 edge, the Galaxy S6 edge+, and the Galaxy Note 5.

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A new report out of Korea reveals that Samsung Pay will soon allow users to use their credit and debit cards from issuers based in South Korea for transactions in the United States and China. It’s said that Samsung is going to link up the foreign payments system with Samsung Card, Lotte Card, KB Card and Hana Card and enable Samsung Pay to accept these cards at foreign merchants in the aforementioned countries by the end of this month.

The aforementioned card issuers have negotiated with global card companies such as MasterCard and Visa who have agreed to link payment networks, negotiations with another major issuer, American Express, are said to be in the final stages. It took three months for the payment system to be linked and the conversion of fixed token with international card companies. In the first stage, the ability to pay using cards issued in South Korea will be provided to Samsung Pay users in the United States and later in China when the service eventually goes live in the People’s Republic. Samsung will continue to expand this as its mobile payments service goes live in additional markets later this year.

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Have you watched the first two episodes of ‘GONE’ on your Gear VR? It’s a movie that is available through Milk VR, and involves a mother and her nine-year-old daughter who goes missing. It’s been about six weeks since the first episodes were released, but the Korean giant is starting the year off right by bringing more of this specific experience to Milk VR users.

While the next three episodes of GONE are more than sufficient to keep VR users happy, there’s also some footage on what life has been like behind the scenes, including the technological challenges that a team faces when shooting VR movies. Whereas normal movies tend to focus on a specific experience of what the screen allows, VR is designed to allow more of the experience – with a “look around” experience that helps you see more of the scene and gather more clues.

While you don’t have to solve the case, however, GONE is unique because it gives you a mosaic of perspectives, including those of the little girl and her mother. The pilot episode of GONE, released in December, rose to fame to become the top content available on Milk VR. We have no doubt that these next three episodes will do the same.

Samsung has decided to showcase the next three GONE episodes at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival alongside of the first-ever VR comedic short comedy with Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer. In a world in which some VR critics are claiming that virtual reality is a lonely experience, Samsung’s is bringing people together with the Gear VR.

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Samsung was the first to release a mobile processor, the Exynos 7420, based on 14nm FinFET technology, and now its already competing with TSMC to mass produce chips based on third-generation 14nm semiconductor process. Improved technology brings reduced power consumption as well as production cost.

Samsung recently started mass producing chips based on second generation 14nm FinFET process known as Low Power Plus (LPP), which is claimed to be 15 percent power efficient than first generation (LPE) 14nm chips. The upcoming Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820 processors will be manufactured using LPP process.

Bae Young-chang, Vice-President, Department’s Strategy Marketing Team, System LSI, said, “We are going to develop a derivative process that will follow Gen.2 14-nano process and lead mobile chip and foundry markets.” The 14nm and 16nm processes are expected to become ‘longevity’ processes, because it has become quite difficult to further reduce the line width.

Read More: Samsung formally adds 10nm FinFET in its foundry’s process roadmap

According to a representative in the chip manufacturing industry, Samsung and TSMC will develop third generation of 14nm and 16nm derivative processes, and focus on securing customers before starting to develop 10nm technology. Even if they successfully develop 10nm technology, there will be a lot of fabless firms that will still use 14nm or 16nm designs.

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