LG G6 will have Google Assistant built-in, rumor says

Samsung's Galaxy S8 has long been rumored to feature a revamped virtual assistant called Bixby, and LG's G6 can't afford not to play the AI game. A new rumor out of both companies' home country of South Korea now claims that LG has done something that's pretty surprising in the Android world.

Instead of building its own sub-par virtual assistant, LG has apparently turned to Google for help. As such, the G6 will come with the Google Assistant built-in. Previously, the Google Assistant was exclusive to Google's own Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones (at least in the form that's integrated into the Android system, since it also lives in the Allo chat app and the Google Home device).

The Google Assistant is also an integral part of the upcoming Android Wear 2.0 release, which will be running on the LG Watch Sport and Watch Style, the first wearables to have the new OS version on board. These were co-developed with Google in a program not dissimilar to what the Nexus line used to be for smartphones. The two smartwatches will be unveiled on February 9, it's been rumored.

The LG G6 will be made official on February 26 at MWC in Barcelona. It's reportedly going to become available in early March, beating the Galaxy S8 to the market by about a month.

Sleeping man wakened by heat and flames from Samsung S5 phone

A Toronto man says he woke up to "massive flames shooting out the sides" of his Samsung S5 phone on Tuesday morning.

Mario Jakab went to bed around midnight on Tuesday, and woke up from the heat and firework-like sounds coming from his bedside table. 

"I jumped out of bed, alerted my girlfriend because I wasn't sure if anything was going to catch fire," said Jakab. "I waited for the fire to go out, because I'm not touching a flame."

In a statement to CBC Toronto, a spokesperson for Samsung said customer safety was their highest priority. 

"Upon being made aware of the reported incident we began working with Mr. Jakab to investigate the matter. Until we have had an opportunity to analyze the phone we are unable to comment on the matter further."

'There were two-foot high flames pretty close to my face, shooting upwards.' - Mario Jakab

Samsung has recalled batteries on the Galaxy Note 7 models, after the devices started catching fire. The S5 model is not included in the recall. This appears to be one of the first reports of an S5 catching fire, though a lawsuit filed in the U.S. alleges the problem extends to several other smartphones.

Jakab said a Samsung engineer picked up his device on Wednesday morning. When asked if he had modified the phone, he told them the battery and charging cable were all originals that came with the phone he bought in 2014. 

"I couldn't pick up my phone or take a video of what it was doing, or even call 911," he says.

Jakab doesn't want to think what might have happened if he didn't wake up, or if the phone was in his pocket.

He wants people to learn from what happened to him and protect themselves, but said he would likely not change his own habits when it comes to charging his phone at night. 

He also worries about children playing with Samsung phones.

"Just a battery heating up can burn a young child's hands, just from holding it," he said. "Apparently they're not toys, like we thought they were."

Samsung Note 7 Fiasco

The fiasco of Samsung’s fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphones — and its stumbling response to the problem — has left consumers from Shanghai to New York reconsidering how they feel about the South Korean tech giant and its products.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said this week that it would stop making the Note 7 for good, after first recalling some devices and then recalling their replacements, too. Now, like the makers of Tylenol, Ford Pintos and other products that faced crises in the past, it must try to restore its relationship with customers as it repairs damage to its brand.

Samsung shares plunged as much as 8 per cent in Seoul, their biggest one-day drop since the 2008 financial crisis, after the company apologized for halting sales of the Note 7.

“I’m in a state of ‘I don’t know,’” said Pamela Gill, a 51-year-old who works at Pratt Institute, a college in New York City, and likes her replacement Note 7.

“You’re thinking, ‘Do I have to turn it in? Is it going to blow up?’” she said.

Samsung, South Korea’s biggest company by far, announced a global recall of the devices last month. It said a subtle manufacturing error in the batteries made the phones prone to catch fire. It offered to replace the devices.

But South Korea’s safety agency says a new, still unidentified problem with the replacement devices makes them also likely to overheat.

Some consumers blame Samsung for not dealing decisively with the issue. Hahm Young-kyu, a 43-year-old South Korean office worker in Seoul whose wife is still using the Note 7, exclaims in frustration that the manufacturer tried to “cover up” the Note 7’s failings.

Samsung’s initial recall had a rocky start. After the first reports of overheating devices, it offered replacements, but not refunds. It waited a week before advising consumers to stop using the affected devices. And critics complained that some retailers didn’t have up-to-date information until Samsung made a co-ordinated announcement with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“Ultimately they did the right thing, which was to announce a full recall,” said Jan Dawson, a tech-industry analyst with Jackdaw Research. But when the replacement devices ran into trouble too, he added: “That all goes out the window. Samsung’s claims about fixing the problem are no longer reliable.

“Now they’ve got to demonstrate why potential buyers shouldn’t worry about future Samsung devices,” Mr. Dawson said.

As one of the world’s largest tech conglomerates, Samsung can afford to discontinue the Note 7, which was not its biggest-selling phone. While the cost of recalling devices and halting production will be enormous, it makes far more than that every quarter on sales of components for smartphones and computers.

But analysts say the new, unexplained Note 7 problems will still inevitably hurt.

On Wednesday, the company slashed its forecast for third-quarter profit to 5.2 trillion won ($6.1-billion Canadian), down from the 7.8 trillion won estimate it released on Friday. If Samsung’s full financial results due later this month are in line with that forecast, Samsung will log its lowest quarterly profit in two years.

“A company’s brand is their promise to consumers,” said John Jacobs, an expert on reputation and crisis communications at Georgetown University. “If you break that promise, you lose the customers, you lose their loyalty.”

Initially, the Note 7 got glowing reviews for its size, features and big battery capacity. Now the company is struggling to figure out what exactly is wrong.

“They have to comprehensively check everything from the very basics, outside the battery and inside the phone,” said Park Chul-wan, a former director of the next generation battery research centre at the state-owned Korea Electronics Technology Institute.

Mr. Park has long argued that the Note 7’s problems appeared to be more than a simple battery defect. “This is a truly difficult problem. It was Samsung’s mistake to have underestimated it,” he said.

South Korean safety regulators say they are examining components other than the batteries to try to puzzle out why even the replacement phones Samsung, made using different batteries, are so fire-prone.

“The improved product does not have the same defect. That’s why we think there is a new defect,” said Oh Yu-cheon, a senior official at the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards.

Samsung needs to win back consumers’ trust by the time it launches its next high-end phone, the Galaxy S8, likely early next year, Mr. Dawson said. “They have that time to come up with a convincing story and a set of actions that will reassure customers that when they buy an S8, it’s going to be safe.”

Kim Young Woo, a tech analyst at SK Securities, believes Samsung could accelerate the launch of the S8 to make up for abandoning the Note 7, but it cannot afford to start from scratch, and it has to find the cause of the overheating.

The Note 7 has cutting-edge features such as an electronic stylus and an iris-scanning security feature seemingly suited for a James Bond movie. “Samsung’s best, latest technologies are all in the Note 7,” Mr. Park said. “If it releases the next phone, it has to use the technologies in the Note 7.”

Samsung unveils smartphone with bent side display, virtual reality headset

BERLIN—Samsung’s new smartphones aren’t getting bigger, but one will have a side display for quick access to the flashlight, Twitter, news and frequently used apps.
The Galaxy Note Edge was announced at a trade show in Berlin on Wednesday, alongside the new Galaxy Note 4 phone, which lacks the side screen, and a virtual-reality headset called Gear VR. They are due for release this fall, in time for holiday shopping, and aim to compete with Apple’s new iPhones due to be unveiled next week.
The Edge uses Samsung’s flexible-display technology, which came out with much fanfare last year but has seen little use beyond a phone and a fitness device with displays that were slightly curved.
With the Edge, the Korean electronics company is offering a practical use for the curvature. While the main screen remains flat like previous phones, the right edge extends and curves until it reaches the back. That creates a side display so information such as weather and time can be seen from the side when the phone is laid on a table — such as a nightstand next to the bed.
With the side display, the phone’s camera functions more like a stand-alone, point-and-shoot camera, as the shutter button and other functions appear on top when the phone is held horizontally. Developers of other apps will be able to specify how the side display gets used.
The side display also provides one-tap access to various apps normally found on the home screen, as well as to functions such as the flashlight and the stopwatch, akin to what Apple offers in the iPhone’s Control Center with a swipe up from the bottom.
Samsung didn’t announce prices or specific release dates. In the U.S., last year’s Galaxy Note 3 went for about $700 without a contract, or $300 with one. Prices are likely to be similar when the Note 4 comes out in October through all four national carriers in the U.S. The Edge will likely cost more. The Edge and the VR will be out some time in the fall.
Analysts said the new display feature could cut both ways.
“An edge-based display will give Samsung’s smartphone clear differentiation in a crowded market,” said Ian Fogg, an analyst covering the mobile industry at IHS in London. “But for Samsung to maximize the potential of an edge display it needs third-party apps to support the display with additional Samsung-specific functions,” he said.
If the South Korean giant wants to avoid paying developers to kick-start the development of such apps, it might have to make the feature standard across its broad smartphone portfolio, said Fogg.
Samsung made the announcements at the IFA trade show, one of the world’s longest-running showcases for consumer electronics and home appliances.
In recent years, the German capital has become a popular home for technology startups, making the IFA a popular location for companies to launch the latest mobile gadgetry as well as innovations in more traditional fields such as home entertainment systems.
The new phones were announced amid expectations that Apple will unveil new iPhones next week. The iPhone 6 is expected to feature a 4.7-inch screen, up from the current 4 inches, to make it more competitive with larger smartphones made by Samsung and other companies. There has been speculation that Apple may also unveil an iPhone with a 5.5-inch screen.
Samsung’s Galaxy S5, which came out in April, has a 5.1-inch screen. The Note is Samsung’s line of larger phones and emphasizes note-taking with an included stylus. The Note 4 will have a 5.7-inch screen, the same as the Note 3. The Edge’s screen is 5.6 inches.
Both will have a 16 megapixel rear camera and 3.7 megapixels on the front. The front camera will be able to take sharper selfies than the typical camera phone. They also will let more people fit into selfies by stitching multiple images together.
Meanwhile, Samsung will sell the Gear VR headset as a companion to the Note 4. It won’t work with the Edge or other phones. The Note 4 attaches to the headset, which has sensors to gauge the head’s position and tells the phone which part of a 360-degree image to display. It can be used to give people an immersive experience with concerts, aerial footage and games.
But video and other content will need to be adapted for the device. Samsung says it expects to have content partnerships in place by the time the device goes on sale.