Even though the Android N Developer Preview was released yesterday, Marshmallow is only on 2% of devices. The number should only increase as more OEMs release updates to last year’s flagship devices and starting today, Sprint is updating its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge variants to Android 6.0.
Now that Samsung, LG, Sony and Alcatel have announced their flagship phones for 2016, its competition won’t be far behind. HTC is expected to announce the One M10 soon and Huawei will unveil the P9. While new phones are exciting, perhaps even better news is that last year’s best phones are now available at lower prices, and they’re still great smartphones.
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Samsung has announced officially — at long last — that its Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge is rolling out from today. This news follows weeks after the company made it available for some Galaxy Note 5 beta testers on AT&T and some UK beta testers with the S6/S6 Edge. The rollout will begin in Korea from today, with other markets and carrier-locked models to come in the near future. Samsung also notes that the software update for other Galaxy models is “soon to follow”…
Samsung is historically a little behind its Android-making competitors when it comes to rolling out major software updates for its smartphones. So it’s no surprise to see that Marshmallow hasn’t yet officially landed on any Galaxy series devices. If a leaked roadmap is anything to go by, that could be about to change…
According to a tweet from renowned smartphone leaker Evan Blass, Samsung is targeting Friday, March 11th as the release date for the Samsung Galaxy S7. The phone’s announcement will almost surely be happening during a press conference before the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, giving the South Korean company just a couple of weeks to get the phone pushed out to retail after it’s shown off on stage…
Speck is one of the best-known smartphone case manufacturers. Its products normally combine practicality and durability with attractive designs in a way not many other companies manage. Its Candyshell Grip case is one of the most recognizable around, thanks to the grippy, (usually) brightly colored stripes on the outer shell. Now, the company has decided to dive in to the world of virtual reality with its latest product: Pocket VR.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will be the first phones on Verizon to get WiFi calling through a software update rolling out now. Other Verizon Android and iOS phones will get WiFi calling early next year. In addition, the Samsung updates also includes other new features and bug fixes.
WiFi calling is a part of Advanced Calling, a branded feature set of Verizon’s LTE network that also includes HD voice calls and video calls over cellular. The feature is available for free to customers calling US numbers through the stock dialer app.
Today’s update to Samsung devices also includes enhanced conference calling, HiFi audio, and Live Video Broadcast. There are also fixes to wireless charging and ALM. Owners of these two phones should head on to Settings > System Update > Check for new to get the new update. Go to Samsung’s page for more details about the update.
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With Verizon’s logo notably absent from the list of Samsung Pay U.S. launch partners, it had been unclear if or when the company might allow its customers to use the service. That uncertainty has now ended, with the app available to Verizon customers in the Google Play store. Customers on other carriers have been able to download the app since August.
You’ll need to have a compatible device, which currently means either a Galaxy S6/edge/edge+ or a Note 5. It is so far supported by cards from American Express, Bank of America, Citi and US Bank …
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According to a report this morning out of the well-sourced SamMobile, the South Korea-based Android OEM is planing to push Android 6.0 Marshmallow to a whole slew of its most popular handsets. Among those making the initial list are most variants of the Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 4, and Galaxy Note 5. For good measure, Samsung threw in the Verizon variant of the Galaxy Note Edge and the Galaxy S5 Neo. Why not?..
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With several companies having recently announced brand new flagship phones in time for the holiday season, you may be tempted to go all out and get the latest, biggest and best phones available. Samsung released the Galaxy S6 Edge plus and Note 5, LG announced the V10, and Google’s Nexus range got an update. But, with those new, shiny phones out at full price comes the depreciation of slightly less shiny and new phones which are still very much flagships in their own right.
We’ve rounded up some of this year’s flagships, all of which have seen discounts (some more generous than others) with the arrival of the newest devices…
If you don’t want to spend $50 for a case every time you upgrade your smartphone, you still have great options: cases with comparable quality are available for much less money if you do your research. One of the best brands for that is Poetic, maker of many accessories we’ve reviewed in the past and loved, and now the company’s high quality, sub-$20 cases are available for the latest lineup of flagship Android devices including the Galaxy S6 Edge and S6 Edge Plus, the S6 Active, and the new Galaxy Note 5.
The two new cases are updated versions of well-reviewed products that Poetic had available for previous generation devices, so unlike many other affordable cases, we already know what we’re getting into in terms of quality.
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A Galaxy S7 render that’s not real at all
Samsung brought the Galaxy Note5 (sic) and Galaxy S6 Edge+ to market faster than expected (maybe to beat the Apple hype train?), and it looks like they’re pushing the next flagship Galaxy S handset — assumably the Galaxy S7 — through production just as fast. A Samsung device simply labeled as “Lucky-LTE” made its way through Geekbench yesterday, and now a report from the usually-reliable SamMobile claims that the device is indeed an early prototype of the Samsung Galaxy S7…
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Leading up to Apple’s eagerly anticipated keynote presentation last night, Sony had a jab prepared for the iPhone-makers before they unveiled the iPhone 6s, Apple TV and iPad Pro. It seems, however, Sony wasn’t the only manufacturer attempting to rain on Apple’s parade. Arguably Apple’s biggest competitor, Samsung had a few of its own jibes to share with us and took to its UK Twitter handle to publish them…
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The service may not be launching until next month, but owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are now receiving an over-the-air update which includes support for Samsung Pay. The update, which you’ll need approximately 303MB of free storage to install, includes some other additions as well.
For starters, there’s support for live video broadcasting over YouTube, which has been a highly-requested ability from the video hosting platform ever since the launch of the competing Meerkat and Periscope apps. This is possible thanks to WatchMe, an open-source project by Google that allows app developers to integrate with the YouTube Data and YouTube Live Streaming APIs, among others. There’s also higher quality audio output to Samsung headsets (those new Level On headphones, perhaps?), UI updates, and the usual bug fixes.
Samsung Pay is Samsung’s mobile payments app and service that is different from other solutions from Google and Apple because it includes the ability to pay at nearly any credit card terminal. It does this through the use of MST technology, the same thing used in the magnetic strips on the back of all credit and debit cards.
While Samsung Pay is expected to work in far more places than Android Pay and Apple Pay currently do, Verizon Wireless here in the States is still evaluating whether or not to allow the service onto the Samsung devices it sells, according to a representative from the company speaking to 9to5Google.
The update could take several days to hit devices. You can check manually by visiting Settings > About phone > System updates.
After starting to rollout updates to its Galaxy Note Edge and Note 4 variants earlier this week, Verizon today has begun pushing updates to its Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and Tab 4 10.1 with a fix for the Stagefright exploit in tow. Verizon has shared official update changelogs on its website for all three updates, noting that it bumps the Android OS to version 5.1.1.
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