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Lucky LG employees can reportedly buy the company's last unreleased phones, including the Rollable
"Lucky" so long as you don't value, like, software support or anything
LG's ignoble exit from the smartphone business made headlines last month. But an international electronics giant doesn't simply flip a switch and exit a market: there were plenty of in-development phones still floating around LG offices and factories when it decided to stop making them. According to one noted leaker, the company is selling off the last Android phones it will ever make straight to its employees.
These are LG's never to be released flagship phones for 2021
The LG Rollable was spotted going through regulatory agencies
Late Sunday evening the final nail was driven into the coffin of LG's smartphone business, when the manufacturer declared it was halting development of all hardware. One of the (many) areas in which LG fell behind was in the cutting edge of foldable phone development, but it did have at least one alternative: a rolling screen. LG showed off its prototype earlier this year, declaring its intention to make and sell it, and apparently sent it to multiple certification agencies for testing.
Samsung opens One UI 3 beta program for its Galaxy A and M phones
The budget Galaxy A51 5G and M31 are leading the pack
Samsung has so far kept up with its rollout schedule as almost all its recent flagships have already received (or have started to receive) the latest Android 11 update. One UI 3 builds are now trickling down to the cheaper Galaxy A and M series, starting with the Galaxy A51 5G and the M31. Samsung has now opened its beta program for these two phones, and those in eligible markets can already sign up for it.
Samsung Galaxy S20 series updates with July patch now rolling out in Europe
With camera zoom and video stablization improvements among other smaller fixes
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Samsung used to be known for updating its devices notoriously late, but gradually, it has become one of the most active manufacturers when it comes to software and security patches, often even outpacing Google itself. As such, SamMobile reports that the company has already started rolling out the Android July security patch to its S20 series, beginning in Korea. The new release brings zoom and video stabilization improvements to the camera and sunsets Samsung's Android Auto competitor.
It has been almost two years since Samsung revealed the Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker, and a smaller version was announced in 2019, but neither product has actually been released yet. Now it looks like at least the Galaxy Home Mini will see the light of day, according to a now-removed Samsung press release.
Out of all the messaging and communication apps Google published, Duo has arguably become one of the most successful and widely known one. It comes as no surprise that the company is trying to spread the video telephony app even further after integrating it into its Messages service and OnePlus' Phone app. Samsung appears to be the next partner in Google's quest to intertwine Duo with more OEM software.
Until now, 5G has been reserved for only the most expensive phones on the market. Recent flagships such as the Galaxy Note 10 don't even have it, there has to be a special version with a 5G radio that costs even more. With the announcement of the new Galaxy A90 5G, Samsung is betting that consumers are ready for mid-band 5G in a cheaper handset.
The 5G variant of the Samsung Galaxy S10 is a beast of a phone. It kind of has to be to fit in those hefty new 5G radios, but it's also got a humungous 6.7" display and a 4,500mAh battery. The 5G network has been live in South Korea since late last year, and now Samsung is ready to launch its first 5G device.
Google's efforts generally have a US-centric slant, but not always. Users can now set popular Korean streaming service Bugs Music as the default music provider for Google Assistant. To change your default music provider, go to Settings in the Google app, tap Settings again under the Google Assistant heading, scroll down to Services, and tap Music. Bugs is listed in the "More music services" section.
Back in May, Google announced that it would be bringing its Home smart speakers to seven new countries, including South Korea. Now, the wait is almost over as the Google Store in Korea has began listing the Home and Home Mini as coming soon. The official launch should happen next week.
Unless you've lived under a rock, you're probably aware of the existence of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Epic's Fortnite. The former has been immensely popular on Android and the latter coming soon to offer some competition. According to a recent report by The Korea Times, PUBG has filed suit against Epic Games in Korea alleging that the latter violates its copyrights with the game Fortnite.
In the past few years, Samsung has been launching new colors for its flagship phones a few months after release to keep things fresh. The company has just announced two new colors for the Galaxy S9 and S9+: Sunrise Gold and Burgundy Red. Unfortunately, neither is coming stateside.
One month ago, LG began a public beta test of Android 8.0 Oreo for the V30 in South Korea. The beta OTA was 1.2GB in size, and unfortunately did not include support for Project Treble. LG has announced that the final build is now rolling out to V30 owners.
In advance of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, Samsung and KT have deployed the first LTE-Railway network for the Wonju-Gangneung train line in Gangwon Province. This line, which is scheduled to start service this month, features trains which operate at 155 mph (250 kmh). This allows commuters to move between Gangneung on South Korea's east coast to Seoul within two hours. LTE-Railway (or LTE-R) is a new network technology which allows devices to maintain a constant LTE network connection in a moving train.
Samsung is no stranger to rolling out new colors for its phones even months after release. Most recently, the Note8 got an exclusive 'Deepsea Blue' color just for Best Buy. Now the older S8 is getting a unique color of its own: Burgundy Red.
Games are great. Cheap games are even better. But free games are the best of them all. We're now giving away ten codes for the latest Humble Mobile Bundle: the Made in Korea pack, which features seven games from developers based out of South (not North, for obvious reasons) Korea.
The latest mobile gaming offering from Humble Bundle is live and to continue the country theme after the recent Made in France set, this time around its celebrating games Made in Korea. As with every Humble Mobile Bundle, you get what you pay for, with pricing tiers this time giving you 2, 5, or all 7 games, depending how much you fork out.
Bixby was supposed to be one of the Galaxy S8's defining features, but it was far from ready at launch. Instead of the voice commands Samsung promised when it announced Bixby, we got a news feed, reminders, and some borderline useless computer vision gimmicks. Now, Samsung is aiming to endow Bixby with voice commands. They're only available in Korea right now, but it's a start.
Don't tell LG that Android tablets are dying: they're still working on a few. The latest is the G Pad III 10.1 FHD LTE. If you can't parse that mouthful of a product name, it's a 10.1-inch tablet with a full HD screen and a built-in LTE connection. Stop me if I'm going too fast for you here. Actually, since most 10-inch Android tablets use a 16:10 aspect ratio, this one has a 1920x1200 resolution. That's like "full HD" with a side of extra delicious pixels.
The international recall of the Galaxy Note 7 is becoming a full-fledged disaster for Samsung, with millions of early devices (and consumers) affected. But even with the negative press and a direct hit to revenue, Samsung would prefer its customers send their faulty phones in for a replacement rather than face even a small possibility of said phones bursting into flames. In the company's home territory of South Korea, it's going to use some more direct methods of encouragement.