Samsung confirms another new flagship phone this year, Galaxy Note 8 anyone?

Samsung has released its first quarter financial results, and while it’s interesting that the company seems to have ridden the storm of the Note 7 debacle well, with profitability looking good, there’s something far more tantalising shoehorned into its future forecasts.

The firm has confirmed that, while the Galaxy S8 and S8+ have been critically well received, a new flagship phone is on the horizon.

“The company will strive to maintain profitability through robust sales of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the launch of a new flagship smartphone in the second half,” it said in a statement.

Surely that confirms the much-rumoured Samsung Galaxy Note 8. And it is likely to hit the August – September release slot as previous devices in that particular range.

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There are few other details on the Note 8, codenamed “Great”, at present. However, it is thought to look similar in design to the excellent S8 and S8+ handsets.

Samsung also confirmed that it will be launching new smartphones in the low to mid-range: “Samsung will also look to sustain profitability in the mid- to low-end segment by launching new products and streamlining the line-up,” it added.

“Streamlining” clearly means it will be releasing fewer different phones in those areas, maybe focusing on specific screen sizes.

Curved OLED iPhone 8 confirmed by Samsung?

Samsung released its first quarter financial results today and might have done its biggest rival a huge favour.

Within a statement released by the company, it reveals that OLED panel production for mobiles is set to increase dramatically later this year, and that perfectly matches numerous rumours about the iPhone 8.

It has long been said that the iPhone 8 will be a premium handset and sport a curved OLED screen, much like the Galaxy S8. It has also been said by many sources that Samsung will be manufacturing the displays to be used by Apple.

That’s why this seemingly throwaway comment is relevant: “For OLED, revenue is expected to grow [year-on-year] due to an increase in the supply of flexible panels in the second half.”

Samsung is expected to release another “flagship phone” of its own in the second half of 2017 – the Galaxy Note 8 – but the comment says “supply”, suggesting that it will make them for third parties.

It already does make OLED panels for other device manufacturers. The “increase” part means it will have more orders – perhaps from one new partner specifically. And “flexible” panels at that, matching all the previous iPhone 8 rumours.

Admittedly, we could be jumping to conclusions. But they do make sense.

• Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?
• Apple iPhone 8 in pictures: Renders and leaked photos

The iPhone 8 is said to be a standalone premium model. It is also rumoured to be accompanied by an iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus at launch.

Samsung’s chip business kept things looking up to start 2017

Samsung’s Q1 2017 earnings are in, showing the company’s highest quarterly profit since Q3 2013. That’s despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall, and a markdown in the price of its Galaxy Note 7, apparently because the company’s chip business (making memory, processors and camera sensors for phones) is booming. As a company, it brought home the $8.75 billion in operating profit expected, and looks forward to better results next quarter, since it will include sales of the new Galaxy S8 phones.

On a call with reporters, execs reaffirmed that reports of a reddish tint on some S8s are a “natural difference” in the OLED technology that it will let users tweak after a software update. Samsung also mentioned “the launch of a new flagship smartphone in the second half,” but didn’t tag the Galaxy Note name to whatever that presumably large-screened device will be. It also did not play into any expectations for an OLED iPhone that it could supply screens for, simply saying that “YoY revenue growth in the OLED business is forecast on the back of increased flexible panel shipments in the second half.”

Source: Samsung

Nintendo Switch could outsell the Wii U in its first year

Nintendo’s profits are up. It’s claimed an operating profit of $1.6 billion (178 billion yen) for the last quarter, which, while around the same level as the last earnings report, is almost a billion dollars more than the same quarter in 2016, when it made just $701 million. It’s Nintendo’s first financial results after its Switch console went on sale, and since March 3rd, it’s sold 2.74 million units. The company believes sales will stay strong, forecasting 10 million more Switch consoles sold by this time next year. That prediction, shy of 13 million, would put it toe to toe with the total sales of its predecessor, the Wii U, over its entire lifetime.

The company added that it’s pulled in around 50 billion yen from related entities like The Pokemon Company, as well as gains from selling its part ownership of the Seattle Mariners. During a Q&A session, CEO Kimishima said that its reNew consoles aside, it’s the company’s games that seem responsible for making money. The Legend OF Zelda: Breath of the Wild has sold 2.76 million copies on the new console. Yes, that’s more Zelda titles than there are Switch consoles, and doesn’t even factor in sales of the game on Wii U — that gives a true total of 3.84 million copies sold. Those figures pale in comparison to Pokemon Sun and Moon, which have sold 15.44 million games on 3DS. The Switch’s sales pitch as a combination home and portable console makes a whole lot of sense to Nintendo’s accountants.

B&O puts its smallest speaker in your pocket for $169

What’s next for high-end audio company Bang and Olufsen following last year’s handheld BeoPlay A1 speaker? Making a smaller model, of course. The Beoplay P2 fits in the palm of your hand and perhaps more closely resembles an earbud case than it does a speaker. But maybe don’t fret that sound quality diminished because the speaker’s size did. Like the A1, the P2 blasts sound out in 360 degrees and it inherited a tweaked version of the mid-woofer from last year’s model. 2016’s sound carries forward in another way as well — the P2 shares its 0.75-inch tweeter with the A1.

Oh, and if you were a fan of the A1’s leather strap and speakerphone capabilities, those return here as well. More than that, the P2 does away with all physical buttons; everything is controlled via the Beoplay App.

If you’d rather not pull your phone out to skip or pause a song every time, the P2’s aluminum shell responds to touch as well. “With just a double tap or shake, you can play, pause and skip tracks, launch your favorite personal assistant [and] change sound profiles,” the provided announcement says. Cool.

The smaller size comes at a smaller price, too. The P2 is available today and will set you back $169 (£149) versus the A1’s $249.

Source: BeoPlay

B&O Play Unveils $169 P2 Bluetooth Portable Speaker With Gesture Controls

Danish high-end audio outfit B&O Play unveiled its latest Bluetooth speaker today. The Beoplay P2 features a grilled aluminum and leather design similar to the company’s impressive $250 Beoplay A1 speaker, which we reviewed last year, but otherwise there are some notable differences.

First of all, the P2 is cheaper at $169, and it comes in a smaller housing than the A1, which the company hopes makes this a device “you don’t want to leave your home without”. The other big change is that apart from a power button hidden on the back, the P2 doesn’t have any physical controls to speak of.

Instead of using buttons, users change the volume, and play, pause, and skip tracks via a series of taps and gestures that can be customized using the accompanying Beoplay mobile app.

The P2 shares the same tweeter at the A1 unit, but B&O Play says it has redesigned the A1’s mid-woofer using an anodized aluminum cone structure to house it in a smaller chassis without compromising on bass performance.

Elsewhere, the P2 also has a microphone to take calls, a USB-C cable for charging, up to 10 hours’ battery life, and splash resistance.

The Beoplay P2 can be had in black, sandstone, and royal blue colors, and is available today on the B&O Play website.

Tag: Bang & Olufsen
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Xiaomi Mi 6 hands-on: Two steps forward, one step back

Xiaomi once again sets the bar for value, but the decision to remove the 3.5mm jack could backfire.

Over the course of the last year, we’ve seen phones in the mid-range segment close the gap on flagships from Samsung, LG, and HTC. The likes of OnePlus 3T, Honor 8, and Xiaomi’s Mi 5 showed that you don’t necessarily have to spend big to get access to high-end internals and dual camera tech.

Xiaomi has built its entire business model on selling phones that offer great value for money. The manufacturer doesn’t make much profit from initial sales, but gets a bigger cut over the lifecycle of a handset as component costs come down. The strategy has worked very well for the Chinese company over the last three years, and the Mi 6 represents its boldest move yet.

The Mi 6 has everything you’d expect in a high-end phone in 2017: a sharp display, Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB of RAM, 128GB storage, dual 12MP cameras, and a 3350mAh battery. What sets the phone apart is that it offers all of these features for just $420 (¥2,899), or half the cost of traditional flagships like the Galaxy S8.

The marquee feature on Xiaomi’s 2017 flagship is the dual camera setup, which includes a standard 12MP f/1.8 lens augmented by a secondary 12MP f/2.6 sensor that acts as a telephoto lens. The setup is similar to what Apple introduced in the iPhone 7 Plus, but Xiaomi’s implementation is far more elegant as there’s no ungainly camera bump at the back of the Mi 6.

The design is an evolution from the Mi 5 and Mi 5s, with Xiaomi adopting stainless steel to reinforce the frame and add much-needed heft to the device. The curves now extend out to all corners in what Xiaomi calls “four-sided 3D glass,” leading to a design that belies its price tag.

It’s hard to justify the price of an $800 phone when you can get 90% of the features for half as much.

The home button on the Mi 6 uses Qualcomm’s Sense ID, and is identical to that used in the Mi 5s. The sensor takes a 3D map of your finger’s pores and ridges using ultrasound technology, resulting in a much more detailed picture of your fingerprint.

On the software front, it’s great to see Xiaomi using Android 7.1.1 Nougat. There isn’t a global ROM for the Mi 6 yet, and as such I’ll only be able to talk about the software intricacies in the review. For now, the phone runs on MIUI 8, and other than the new camera modes to take advantage of the dual camera tech, there isn’t a whole lot that’s new from earlier this year.

Xiaomi is introducing several color options for the Mi 6 — the phone is available in blue, white, and black. There’s also a limited edition silver variant with a mirror finish that will be available in limited quantities, as well as a ceramic black option with 18K gold accents around the camera sensors.

Combined with stereo speakers up front, top-notch internal hardware, and a 5.15-inch Full HD display that’s one of the best in this segment, you’re getting a lot for your money. What you don’t get is the ability to plug in your headphones. With the Mi 6, Xiaomi is joining the USB-C audio bandwagon, and while the standard may well be the future of audio, in 2017, there’s no justification to ditch the ubiquitous 3.5mm jack.

LeEco was the first manufacturer to get rid of the 3.5mm jack last year in the Le Max 2, and Lenovo, Apple, and HTC followed suit. In that time, we haven’t seen any compelling audio products that are based on USB-C, so if you’re looking for good headphone options on devices that don’t have a 3.5mm jack, you’ll have to spring for Bluetooth-enabled products or use a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. The former includes an added investment, and the latter is just clunky to use.

It is particularly surprising that Xiaomi chose to ditch the 3.5mm jack, as the company makes a host of affordable audio products designed in collaboration with 1More. Like its phones, Xiaomi’s headphones deliver excellent value for money, and they’re the few accessories the manufacturer sells directly to consumers in Western markets.

Talking about distribution, Xiaomi has stated that it will not sell the Mi 6 in the U.S. or Europe. The company is a few years away from making its debut in Western countries, and that means that if you want to get your hands on the Mi 6 outside of Asian markets, you’ll have to do so from resellers.

For now, the Mi 6 is limited to China, but with Xiaomi looking to consolidate its position in India, the phone should make its debut in the subcontinent in the coming months. Xiaomi has seen a resurgence in the budget segment with the Redmi Note 4, and with the Mi 6, it will be looking to get some much-needed momentum going in the mid-range category.

Samsung posts record profits in Q1 2017 even as phone sales decline

Increased sales in the semiconductor business lead to Samsung’s second-most profitable quarter.

Samsung has published its earnings results for the quarter ending in March 2017, and as it forecast a few weeks ago, Q1 2017 was very profitable for the company. Operating profit saw a massive year-on-year increase of 48% to $8.8 billion (9.9 trillion won), leading to Samsung’s second-most profitable quarter ever and best-ever first quarter.

Net profit at $6.8 billion (7.68 trillion won) was also up 46% from the same period a year ago. Although profits increased significantly, overall revenue at $44.7 billion (50.55 trillion won) was a slight increase from Q1 2016’s $44.01 billion (49.78 trillion won). Sales from the mobile unit declined, with the business posting an operating profit of $1.8 billion (2.07 trillion won), down 47% from the $3.4 billion (3.89 trillion won) it netted a year ago.

With the termination of the Note 7, Samsung had to rely on the Galaxy S7 for longer than intended, and the company had to reduce its price to stay competitive. That said, the manufacturer saw healthy sales of the mid-range Galaxy A 2017 as well as increased momentum in the mid- to low-end segments in emerging markets. Looking forward to Q2 2017, Samsung is bullish on Galaxy S8 and S8+ sales leading to increased profits and revenues. In addition to maximizing sales of the Galaxy S8, Samsung will launch a second flagship — theNote 8 — in the latter half of the year.

A bulk of Samsung’s profits were from the semiconductor business, where the company saw increased demand for memory products. Overall profits from the division amounted to $5.57 billion (6.31 trillion won) on revenues of $13.8 billion (15.66 trillion won). Sales of DRAM and enterprise SSDs increased, as well as demand for 14nm application processors for mid-range phones and image sensors for flagships. Looking ahead, Samsung is counting on its recent 10nm node to drive growth, with the 14nm processors branching out into automotive, IoT and wearable segments.

Google becomes first foreign internet company to go live in Cuba

After former President Obama reopened America’s diplomatic relations with Cuba, businesses started looking for opportunities to make inroads to the island nation. Google was one of these, with Obama himself announcing it would come to help set up WiFi and broadband access there. Cuba’s national telecom ETECSA officially inked a deal with Google back in December, and today, they finally switched on the service, making the search giant the first foreign internet live on the island.

To be fair, Google already had a headstart when it made Chrome available in Cuba back in 2014. The servers Google switched on today are part of a the Google Global Cache (GGC), a global network that locally stores popular content, like viral videos, for quick access. Material stored in-country will load much quicker than Cuba’s existing setup: Piping internet in through a submarine cable connected to Venezuela. Many Cubans can only access the web through 240 public access WiFi spots scattered through the country, according to Buzzfeed. While this won’t bring Cuban internet near as fast as American access, it’s still a huge step forward.

Source: Buzzfeed

Microsoft wasn’t hammered by surveillance requests in 2016

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released its Transparency Report revealing that it had received “1,000 to 1,499 surveillance requests for foreign intelligence purposes (known as FISA) from January to June 2016.” There’s only one problem though — it didn’t. Today, Microsoft updated the report to say that stat was an error, and the number of orders it had received in 2016 is actually somewhere between 0 – 499, as it has been in previous years. Unfortunately, the company is not allowed to release more specific data, so we don’t know if it has actually changed or by how much. A spokesperson told Reuters the mistake was a “human error.”

Microsoft:

*Editor’s note on April 25, 2017: Our latest U.S. National Security Orders Report and accompanying blog post contained an error, reporting that from Jan. 1 – June 30, 2016 Microsoft received 1,000 – 1,499 FISA orders seeking disclosure of customer content. The correct range is 0 – 499 FISA orders seeking disclosure of customer content. All the other data disclosed in the National Security Orders Report was correct.

Microsoft corrected the mistake as soon as we realized it was made to ensure the accuracy of our reporting. We’ve put additional safeguards in place to ensure the numbers we report are correct. We apologize for the error.”

Source: Reuters, Microsoft