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Fitbit released its first true smartwatch in 2017, and it was solidly "okay." I didn't love it at first, but Fitbit provided some much-needed wearable progress at a time when Wear OS was dead in the water. The Ionic isn't aging gracefully, though. Fitbit is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall the Ionic due to overheating batteries that have caused burns in some cases.
Ring recall reminds owners to install 2nd-gen Video Doorbell correctly
Don't use a wood screw to install the thing, please
If you own a second-generation Ring Video Doorbell and haven't installed it yet, check to see if you've got the right screws for it: the Consumer Product Safety Commission in conjunction with Health Canada are recalling a total of more than 350,000 units. But unlike a lot of recalls, customers won't need to return their bells to the store.
Amazon is recalling six models of power banks in its AmazonBasics line, totaling about 260,000 units, due to 53 reports of overheating in the US. One of these reports caused chemical burns, and four caused property damage.
Oh, look: another Samsung battery recall. Though not as widespread as the Note7 debacle, this one is still important to pay attention to. If you received a refurbished AT&T Galaxy Note 4 (like for an insurance replacement) between December 2016 and April 2017, listen up.
Some European AC wall adapters are being recalled by NVIDIA as they risk causing an electrical shock. We've had tips from readers of the GeForce forum, where a post by an employee linked to an official recall page with instructions for identifying and returning the faulty equipment.
Samsung has finally announced the results of the company's investigation into the Note7 accidents today, and it has come to an interesting conclusion. In addition to its own internal investigation, Samsung brought in safety consulting firms UL, Exponent, and TÜV Rheinland to help determine the root causes.
Before November of last year, we had thought that Barnes & Noble's Nook line - one of the first real Android tablets when it launched back in 2010 - was more or less dead. The bookstore had been selling Nook-branded Samsung tablets as ostensible loss-leaders for its digital bookstore, but the $50 Nook Tablet 7" was the first truly unique device under the brand in years. Now, according to an unverified Reddit post, it looks like there might be something seriously wrong with that new reader-tablet.
A prudent person doesn't ever joke about bombs in an airport. After today, you might want to extend those warnings to a certain flagship Samsung smartphone. According to a BBC report, a passenger on a Virgin America flight from San Francisco to Boston last week labelled his phone's Wi-Fi hotspot as "Galaxy Note 7." Hijinks, of the not particularly entertaining variety, ensued.
Samsung is pulling out the big guns to encourage Note7 holdouts to turn in their phones. In the coming days, it will send out an OTA to all Note7s in the US that limits the battery to a 60% charge. So, it's not just T-Mobile. The new software will also nag you incessantly about returning the phone.
The Galaxy Note7 has been an absolute disaster for Samsung; although it was an excellent smartphone, its tendency to catch fire pretty much negates all of the praise that was heaped onto it. Case in point: Samsung's now estimating that the Note7's recalls and subsequent cancellation will cost them about $3.1 billion over the next two fiscal quarters.
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- Following Verizon yesterday, Sprint and Best Buy have also announced that they are to halt sales of the Note7. Like Verizon, Sprint will also allow customers to exchange either original or replacement devices for another handset, as will Best Buy. For more information, including statements from both companies, head over to The Verge's article on the matter.
After AT&T and T-Mobile confirmed they are both halting Samsung Galaxy Note7 sales, and reports claiming Samsung is temporarily halting production of the device, Verizon has followed suit and halted its selling of the handset as well. The phones - both original and replacement models - can still be exchanged for something less, um, likely to explode, though.
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- Samsung has instructed current owners of all Galaxy Note 7 models, including replacements, to power down their phones. The company and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission are currently investigating the latest fires.
At this point I think it's safe to say that Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 is the most embarrassing failure in the history of Android hardware. A spate of statistically high battery fires caused a worldwide recall of millions of Note 7 units, followed by multiple reports of explosions from the allegedly "fixed" replacement phones. American carriers T-Mobile and AT&T are no longer selling the device, all four major carriers are accepting unconditional exchanges, and we at Android Police are officially recommending that consumers not buy the phone for now. It's an unmitigated disaster for Samsung.
AT&T, speaking to The Verge, has confirmed the US's second-largest mobile operator will no longer sell the Galaxy Note7 smartphone because of recent incidents with units catching fire (i.e., on planes). AT&T did not provide any window as to when or if sales might resume, but you can probably assume the halt is indefinite, contingent upon the result of Samsung and various agencies' investigations. Bloomberg reported AT&T was considering the move on Friday.
It's been a terrible year for Samsung's Galaxy Note line - ironic, considering how widely praised the Note7 has been. It's bad enough that around a hundred units of the phablet have caught on fire and nearly all of them were recalled, but the fact that a revised unit managed to make flames on an airplane made the whole situation even worse. Now, following all four major US carriers' promises to allow customers to swap their Note7s for any other phone they carry, there have been reports that AT&T wants to cancel sales of the flagship.
As you probably already know, the Galaxy Note7 hasn't exactly had a great launch, thanks to its tendency to explode. As a result, Samsung was forced to quickly redesign and produce millions of Note7s to send to owners with affected models. The Korean company prioritized replacements for owners with defective Note7s, and new sales were reported to restart on October 21st. However, things are moving more quickly than that; T-Mobile will resume sales on October 5th.
As it turns out, people don't want to hang onto exploding phones. Samsung initially started the Note7 Exchange Program earlier this month in the United States, offering owners of affected Note7 devices the choice of a fixed Note7 or a S7/S7 edge. Over a week later, the CPSC officially began working with Samsung to handle the recall.
Although the Galaxy Note7's tendency to explode has been a disaster for Samsung, it's hard to deny that they're doing a good job with damage control. A few days ago, the Korean company promised that replacement devices would be available no later than September 21st. Tomorrow's the 21st, so Samsung's evidently kept their word.
Earlier this month, Samsung began an exchange program for Note7 owners in the United States after a global recall was announced. The United States program allowed customers to exchange their affected device and either receive a fixed model when stock was available, or buy a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge and receive a refund of the price difference.
The Galaxy Note7 roller coaster is not quite over yet. After reports of the phone's internal battery exploding, Samsung ordered the immediate recall of all Note7 devices worldwide. The Note7 Exchange Program was announced alongside the recall, asking Note7 owners to return their phones to receive fixed stock when it became available. Samsung is placing a high priority on replacing every damaged device first, before continuing sales of the phone to new owners.
To differentiate potentially dangerous Galaxy Note7s from the safe, revised models, Samsung was reported as changing the battery indicator in the status bar from white to green on new models. However, that's not the only change the Korean company is making; Samsung Newsroom is now saying that the new indicator will also appear in other areas of the OS as well. Verizon's software update page for the Note7 confirms this.