How to Get Samsung Software Updates Faster Using Smart Switch

There is another way.

We all have plenty to complain about when it comes to software updates landing on our Samsung phones. Right now it’s the slow rollout of Oreo, but we’ll soon feel the same way about the next one. But sometimes it isn’t Samsung’s fault that you don’t yet have the latest update — issues with carriers and even the current software on your phone can prevent your phone from downloading an update even when it’s actually “available” to your model.

That’s where Samsung’s own desktop software, Smart Switch, comes in. Despite its core feature being backing up and restoring data when switching phones, it has the added benefit of being able to download and update the software on your Samsung phone. Here’s how it works.

How to manually update your Samsung phone using Smart Switch

Go to Samsung’s Smart Switch website and download for PC or Mac.
Install and open Smart Switch on your computer and connect your phone via its USB cable.

If you haven’t plugged in to your computer before, tap Allow on the pop-up on your phone to give it access.

• If Smart Switch doesn’t recognize the phone, click the menu in Smart Switch and click Reinstall device driver then restart.

After a few moments, your phone will be recognized by Smart Switch and you’ll see several options on the main screen for backing up and restoring. You do not need to back up or restore your phone to initiate an update.
A software check is performed when you plug in, and Smart Switch will list your current software details. If there is a software update available for your phone, you’ll be notified on the main screen.
If available, Click Update to install the latest software. It will download first to your computer, then sideload to your phone.

• The phone will reboot, and the process will take roughly 10 minutes.

If this will be your preferred update method going forward, click the menu (Preferences on Mac) in Smart Switch, click Software Updates and check the box for Update Pre-Download.

• When a new software version is available for your phone, Smart Switch will download it and then apply the next time you plug in.

To be clear, this isn’t going to force an update onto your phone that Samsung has yet to release. Unless Samsung and your carrier (where applicable) have signed off on and released an update for your exact phone, there’s no way to get it.

Hooking up to Smart Switch can get you an update quicker, though, in cases where your carrier is slowly rolling out an update over the air (OTA) or the update checker on your phone for whatever reason won’t download an update. If you’re impatient, it’s absolutely worth having this tool at the ready.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

Update May 2018: Added fresh information reflecting Smart Switch’s usefulness for a variety of Samsung models, including the new Galaxy S9.

Do you use an always on display on your phone?

The pros and cons of an AOD.

There are a lot of benefits that come with AMOLED/POLED screens, but one of the most useful is that of an always on display. Always on displays keep a portion of your screen turned on to showcase the time, date, notifications, or other small bits of information, and allow you to quickly glance at your phone at any point to catch up on what’s new.

Having an always on display can be a great benefit to stay in touch with what’s going on while working away at the office or running around the house, but at the same time, also cause some extra strain on your battery.

Our forum users recently got into a discussion about whether or not always on displays were worth using, and this is what they had to say.

boltsbearsjosh
04-30-2018 03:22 PM

“

If you like it, use it. AOD doesn’t drain enough battery to make anyone be on the fence about using it.

Reply

eduardmc
04-30-2018 03:59 PM

“

I get 6-7 hour with aod on 24/7. Battery health won be affected cause of aod in any way. Overnight i lose around 3% battery cause of aod

Reply

Abbers727
04-30-2018 06:54 PM

“

AOD is usually on from 10am – midnight . So I do have somewhat of break after midnight. About a 10 hr break from AOD. I honestly can’t remember when I didn’t have AOD. My last phone was a S7 Edge.

Reply

MooMooPrincess
04-30-2018 07:37 PM

“

I used to have it on and was still getting 6-7 hrs before 20% but it’s too much of a hassle for me. It’s extra work to check notifications and stuff.

Reply

What about you? Do you use an always on display on your phone?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Galaxy S9 and 15W Qi wireless chargers: Does it actually charge faster?

Does more wattage mean faster speeds?

This year, Samsung’s Galaxy S9 series supports wireless charging. Same as last year, right? Except that there’s new hardware inside the phones to wirelessly charge at up to 15 watts, which is twice the speed of most phones (and more than double that of the Galaxy S8).

Charging speed is the only thing keeping some people away from wireless chargers, assuming their phone supports the feature. Even with advancements in the Qi standard and new charging pads, they’re still notably slower than wired charging. For Samsung’s phones, the sure bet for the fastest charging has always been its own chargers — product reviews for third-party chargers all over the internet are littered with people citing various problems using X phone with Y charger.

Now that Samsung’s phones technically support these new speeds, we wanted to see how that translates to real-world usage. Several manufacturers have debuted wireless chargers with 15W of output, a considerable jump over the 10 or 12W previously offered, and far more than Samsung’s own chargers that top out at 9W. They’re available from Ventev, Griffin, Belkin and Spigen, to name a few. So I bought that Ventev model to see just how much faster it is than Samsung’s own charger.

It was a simple test setup: run a Galaxy S9+ down to 0%, then turn it back on while on a charger and see how long it took to reach 100%, measuring every 15 minutes. The tests were done with the phone in airplane mode, to rule out extraneous network activity impacting charge time. For a baseline, I also recorded the charging speed from the in-box Fast Charge wall charger.

The results were disappointing.

Even with a much higher wattage rating, the charging times were identical.

You can see that Ventev’s wireless charger, running at a much higher 15W output, charged at a near-identical rate to Samsung’s 9W wireless charger. Doing two more rounds of testing, including a run with the phone completely off, yielded the same results within a couple minutes. Both chargers also charged the phone at a very linear rate, about 10-11% per 15 minutes, no matter the charge of the battery; the only outlier being the final 5%, which was unsurprisingly slow. Total charge time was 2 hours 30 minutes, which aligned with the estimate provided on the GS9+’s lock screen — turns out those numbers are generally accurate.

Compare that to the wired charger, which charges at almost double that rate, 20% per 15 minutes, up to about 75% before slowing down. The wired charger gets from 0-50% 30 minutes faster than wireless, and 0-100% 50 minutes faster — a full charge happens in 1 hour 40 minutes.

Pick your wireless charger for its design, utility and price — not for its claimed higher output.

After collecting all of this data, it looks like Samsung has done us a favor by choosing to not emphasize the wattage ratings of its own chargers and instead simply standardizing to a brand like “Fast Charge.” In this case, a purportedly higher-end and “faster” wireless charger didn’t yield charging speeds that were faster in any way, yet the Ventev charger is about $55 — more expensive than the current listing for Samsung’s latest charger and far more than other lower-wattage chargers.

Now it isn’t all bad news. Knowing that you can go buy a third-party wireless charger that charges just as fast as Samsung’s is great — and you get more options for designs, form factors and prices without giving up charging speed. And I don’t feel Ventev (and all of the other companies listed above) is attempting to mislead anyone — it’s simply trying to market its advantage in charging output … even though as I’ve shown here, that doesn’t translate into an advantage in charging speeds. It’s possible the Galaxy S9 series will be updated to support 15W charging (Apple’s iPhone 8 and X series was updated through software to increase wireless charging from 5W to 7.5W), and we’ve reached out to Samsung for details about this.

So after this testing, we know to pick your wireless charger for its design, utility and price — not necessarily its claimed higher output. And when in doubt, know that Samsung’s own wireless chargers will provide the fastest speeds for a Samsung phone.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint

Nokia is selling its Health business back to the former owner

Nokia has has entered negotiations to sell its Digital Health business to its original owner, Withings co-founder Éric Carreel. The move is part of the company’s plan to exit the consumer market and “focus on becoming a business-to-business and licensing company,” it said. The company paid $191 million for Withings back in 2016, but recently announced that it had written off $175 million in goodwill, and would do a strategic review of its wearable businesses.

Nokia originally bought Withings to take on Apple’s HealthKit, in what seemed at the time like a lucrative consumer market that could crossover to the business-oriented health industry. Nokia’s idea was to collect key health data like heartrate, blood pressure and weight from users and use it for its own medical business, WellCare.

Once it had purchased the French company, Nokia re-branded all the products, despite the fact that Withings did have some cachet in the digital health wearable business. Nokia effectively handed control of its health business to Withings. “We’re paying for the company, but in reality it’s Withings that’s going to be running the entire digital health business at Nokia,” Nokia President Ramzi Haidamus told Engadget at the time.

Nokia’s rebranded Withings digital health products

However, activity trackers and other health-related wearables have been tanking in the consumer market unless your company name is “Apple.” Fitbit, for one, has recorded four consecutive losses, despite having sold some 70 million devices to date.

It’s not clear if Nokia sought other buyers before it decided to enter negotiations with Carreel, but TechCrunch reports that Google’s Nest and Samsung looked at the company before today’s deal. A spokesperson for Carreel and Nokia told Engadget that the parties won’t comment about the price or any other terms of the deal, for now.

Haidamus was Nokia’s CEO when it purchased Withings, but he left the company just weeks after the deal concluded. “Given that progress, now is the right time for me to explore new opportunities to pursue my passion for building and transforming businesses,” he said at the time.

No deal has been finalized, and the sale is subject to certain terms and conditions, but Nokia said it expects to conclude the proceedings in late Q2 of 2018. Nokia’s Digital Health business consists of smartwatches, scales, and digital health devices, most of which (like the Activité) were originally developed by Withings.

Nokia said previously that up to 425 people might be laid off from its Digital Health business. Prior to Nokia’s purchase, Withings employed around 200 people, mostly in France, but also in the US, the UK and Hong Kong.

Source: Nokia

The Morning After: Facebook F8 Day 1

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

We’re getting ready for the second day of Facebook’s F8 event, but you can catch up with all the day-one announcements before the second keynote speech starts at noon ET. Oh, and there was a big Fortnite update.

We’re upgrading Engadget’s daily newsletter and want to hear from you.
Tell us exactly what you think by emailing us atthemorningafter(at)engadget.com.

And group video calls in WhatsApp.Facebook F8 Day 1

The first day of Facebook’s F8 event is in the books, and it might be easier to list what the company didn’t announce (like a smart speaker). Mark Zuckerberg revealed its new GDPR-ready Clear History feature, which makes it easier to find out what the company knows about your browsing habits, and if you choose, unlink that from your personal account. Other highlights included the Oculus Go launch, and Facebook’s plan for a dating feature that peeks through groups and events you follow for likely candidates. How could that ever go wrong?

The comet has landed.‘Fortnite’ update delivers destruction, new areas and meme emotes

In Fortnite v4.0, a comet struck, destroying certain areas of the game’s familiar map as new additions, like a drive-in movie theater, help mix things up. Naturally, there are also new DC-inspired superhero skins and an Orange Justice emote, while the crossbow has been removed.

What’s the opposite of a meet-cute?Sprint and T-Mobile: a coalition of also-rans

Pending regulatory approval, the two smallest national carriers are finally getting together. Cherlynn Low tells the tale of a union that’s been years in the making.

Cheap and easy VR for everyone.Oculus Go review

Compared to other headsets, the Oculus Go isn’t incredibly powerful, but it is cheap and easy to use, since it doesn’t require a PC or drop-in phone to work. For a hair under $200, average customers can dive into VR with Netflix, games and more.

SNES and NES.iam8bit and Capcom are re-releasing two ‘Mega Man’ classics on cartridge

Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X are coming back in playable cartridge form this September.

But wait, there’s more…

• HBO renews ‘Westworld’ for season three
• Nintendo faces Switch patent infringement investigation in the US
• Apple faces camera patent lawsuit over iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X
• The Big Picture: Projection is the ideal medium for Gustav Klimt’s electric art
• Snap’s redesign slowed down user growth
• Bluesmart shuts down following smart-luggage battery ban
• Netflix’s re-edit of ‘Arrested Development’ season four arrives May 4th

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.

Gibson files for bankruptcy to ditch electronics, focus on guitars

Yesterday Gibson Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Known for its famous guitars, the company is in a similar situation to Toys ‘R’ Us, owing as much as $500 million to creditors including private equity firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Silver Point Capital and Melody Capital Partners. It took on significant debt — which is about to mature — to finance a series of acquisitions to build up a Gibson Innovations electronics business that it’s now in the process of separating from. Other than buying a stake in TEAC, Bloomberg reports it bought Philips line of headphones and speakers, and until recently had close business ties with Onkyo.

According to the press release “The Company’s Gibson Innovations business, which is largely outside of the U.S. and independent of the Musical Instruments business, will be wound down.” While the headphones are likely done, other elements like its Gibson and Epiphone guitars, as well as KRK and Cerwin Vega studio monitors and loudspeakers will continue on. Hopefully, that includes its digital recorder-embued guitar cable.

Source: Bloomberg, PRNewswire

Nokia to Sell Digital Health Division Back to Withings Co-Founder

Nokia has revealed plans to sell its digital health business back to the co-founder of Withings, the French health tracking company Nokia bought in 2016.

Finland-based Nokia originally acquired Withings for $192 million in an effort to re-establish a presence in the consumer electronics market, rebranding Withings’ iOS-compatible smart connected home products as well as a range of health and fitness wearables.

However, it looks as if the acquisition simply didn’t pay off for the erstwhile mobile phone powerhouse. In 2017, the digital health division earned just $62.4 million in revenue, but the rest of the company posted sales of $27.9 billion. Now Nokia is handing back the business to Withings’ co-founder, Éric Carreel. The sale will likely be at a significant loss, although the Nokia press release didn’t mention figures:

Nokia announced a review of strategic options for the Digital Health business in February 2018. The planned sale is part of Nokia’s honed focus on becoming a business-to-business and licensing company. The transaction is subject to terms agreed in the negotiations and completion of the information consultation with the Works Council of Nokia Technologies (France) SA., with the deal expected to close in late Q2 2018.

The announcement follows recent reports of layoffs from the company, as well as a leaked memo that revealed the digital health division was in a bad way with little prospect of turning things around. Then in October, Nokia announced a $164 million write-down of the division’s assets. Google and Samsung were reportedly looking into taking the ailing health business off Nokia’s hands, but today’s announcement suggests nothing substantial came of the negotiations.

Tags: Withings, Nokia
Discuss this article in our forums

Facebook’s Free Basics quietly pulled from Myanmar, other markets

Facebook’s controversial Free Basics service quietly disappeared from several markets over the past few months, according to The Outline. One of those countries is Myanmar, where it was accused of supporting ethnic cleansing and where it became the target of criticisms for the way it handled a chain letter that caused widespread panic. The letter warned Buddhists that Rohingya Muslims were going to attack them, while Rohingya Muslims were told to be prepared for violence from militant Buddhist groups. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg used the incident as an example of the social network’s effectiveness in tackling hate speech to the consternation of Myanmar activists who said they had to repeatedly flag the letter to get the company to act on it.

The social network has confirmed to TechCrunch that Free Basics ended in Myanmar in September 2017, which was also when reports came out that it was censoring information related to ethnic cleansing. A spokesperson told the publication, however, that its shutdown was a result of a broader regulatory effort. Myanmar’s government and the state-owned telecom (Myanma Posts and Telecommunications) that Facebook teamed up with to provide free access to the social network apparently worked together to cut off access to all free services.

Myanmar isn’t the country that recently lost access to Free Basics, though. The Outline says it’s also no longer available in Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Congo, Anguilla, El Salvador, Saint Lucia and other Latin American markets. Facebook told TechCrunch that Free Basics shut down in those locations due to commercial reasons and not due to anything the company did.

It’s worth noting, however, that the service itself is pretty problematic. Since Facebook rolled it out in developing nations, where mobile internet isn’t always available and affordable, it has become the internet itself for a lot of people. Problem is, fake news is abundant on the website. As a result, it plays a major role in the spread of misinformation in many places around the globe, which is something it’s trying to combat with new features. As TC noted, though, Facebook continues to expand the service’s reach despite its issues, launching it in Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon in recent months.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: The Outline

EPA faces lawsuit from 17 states over reversing car emissions rules

The EPA under Scott Pruitt may have dreams of undoing Obama-era car efficiency targets, but it’s not going to go unopposed. A group of 17 states, including California and New York, is suing the EPA in DC over its bid to drop clean car emissions standards for model years between 2022 and 2025. The lawsuit accuses the EPA of violating the Clean Air Act, failing to follow its own rules and acting “arbitrarily and capriciously” without evidence to support its decision.

Moreover, the states contend these tougher standards are supposed to save both the planet and your bank account, cutting 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution and saving $1,650 per vehicle.

The lawsuit was virtually expected. Pruitt and the Trump administration have made their objections clear ever since taking office, and automakers have complained that the eco-friendly guidelines would raise costs and affect jobs. In particular, the Pruitt-era EPA has bristled over the Clean Air Act waiver that lets California set its own standards — as 12 states follow California’s lead, it can effectively thwart attempts to undermine existing guidelines. California finalized its own new standards in March 2017 knowing this would likely conflict with the EPA’s plans, so it was really just a matter of time before the EPA tried a rollback and prompted a lawsuit.

There’s no certainty that the lawsuit will succeed, but there’s a real chance it will slow down the EPA’s efforts. And that, in many ways, is the immediate goal. This could buy time for the participating states and would force car makers to develop their lineups on the assumption the tougher standards will remain intact for a while.

Via: Bloomberg, Electrek

Source: California AG, New York AG

‘Pac-Man’ on Amazon Alexa isn’t at all like ‘Pac-Man’

Pac-Man might never have left the public eye, but with Wreck-it Ralph, Pixels and Ready Player One, the iconic elder statesman of gaming is now in front of people that may have never touched an arcade joystick. To that extent, Pac-Man’s latest ‘game’ makes sense — it’s arriving on Amazon’s Alexa as a skill today.

Pac-Man Stories is more bed-time tale than arcade throwback, and will encompass several stories aimed at the family. ‘Pac-Man and the Ghastly Garbage’ is the first title, and as Lee Kirton, Chief Pac-Man Officer (real title), explained to me, it’s a “choose your own adventure” kind of experience. It’ll combine moral decisions, interactions with characters and lightweight, kid-friendly puzzles. There’s an educational tone to it all, but when most kids have a blank slate with regards to Pac-Man, why not?

“It is a story, but also a game. You’ll earn Power Pellets depending on the choices and decisions you make,” explained Kirton. I tested it out earlier this week, and it sounds like a kids’ audiobook, albeit peppered with occasional Pac-Man melodies and chip loops. Fortunately, the audio interface is pretty slick and it’s easy to figure out what you need to say to the speaker.

It’s smartly tailored to appear like you can say anything to some characters in the game, even if there are only a handful of genuine answers that will move the story along. (For example: you press an intercom and are allowed to say, well, whatever you want. Alas, the doorman can’t hear you. Cue sad trumpet noise.)

Alexa is reliably sensitive to what you say, and cartoon character-esque voices are inoffensive and appropriate: Bandai Namco has put some effort into this at least — even if it’s not really a Pac-Man game, pellets or no pellets.

Bandai Namco

According to Kirton, the stories will each be “unique in their own way” while featuring new real-world characters and other famous characters — hopefully that kids will recognize. Bandai Namco insists that “over 90 percent” of the population still recognize Pac-Man, and this project is aimed at maintaining that familiarity.

It’s the first launch for Bandai Namco’s Europe-based innovation department, and reaching people beyond another re-released arcade game is key. Kirton added: “All our stories will focus on something important that affects the world. Our aim is simply to provide a fun experience that is different to any other experience and on a platform we like a lot — Amazon Echo.”

The challenge will be figuring out what new fans are looking for when it comes to Pac-Man. Given how much gaming has evolved, the big yellow guy has at least gone in a different direction. The Alexa skill is English-only for now, and launches in the US, UK and Ireland today. More stories will roll out this summer.