galaxy-note – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Samsung expects its record-breaking profits in 2017 will continue

After stumbling in 2016 Samsung appears to be back on track in 2017, as it just announced projected earnings for the second quarter that would show its highest operating profit ever. The company won’t provide a detailed breakdown for a few more weeks, but it’s estimating an operating profit of 14 trillion Korean won ($12.11 billion US). Analysts cited by Bloomberg and Reuters believe the figures got a boost from the well-received Galaxy S8 , as well as the RAM, processors and display components Samsung makes. This means the company is likely to continue the record-breaking streak from Q1 , and that’s before it launches the Galaxy Note 8 later this year. Plus, it could be in line to build OLED screens for a new iPhone, which could be a lucrative endeavor. If things keep going like this, we may have to pull an old image out of the archives . Source: Samsung

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Samsung expects its record-breaking profits in 2017 will continue

USB-C’s new audio spec could get rid of your headphone jack

Like it or not, the effort to get rid of the headphone jack is well underway. The USB Implementers Forum has published its long-expected Audio Device Class 3.0 specification, giving device makers the standard they need to pipe sound through USB-C ports on everything from phones to PCs. And the organization isn’t shy about its goals, either — this is mainly about letting companies removing the ages-old 3.5mm port, according to the Forum. In theory, that means slimmer devices, better water resistance and opening the “door to innovation” through room for other features. We’re not sure everyone will buy that last argument, but there are some advantages to the spec that are worthwhile even if the headphone jack is here to stay. Aside from offering better digital audio support (such as headphones with custom audio processing), the USB-C sound spec improves on earlier USB approaches with power-saving measures and keyword detection. In other words: a company could take advantage of USB audio without hurting your battery life as much as before, and it should be easier to implement voice recognition. This doesn’t mean that every company will embrace 3.5mm-free hardware with the same enthusiasm as Apple or Motorola . After all, Samsung used its Galaxy Note 7 introduction to make a not-so-subtle dig at Apple’s then-rumored decision to drop the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. However, the USB-C spec may nudge vendors who were thinking about ditching the conventional audio socket and were just waiting for official support to make their move. Via: AnandTech Source: USB Implementers Forum (PDF)

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USB-C’s new audio spec could get rid of your headphone jack

Samsung loses $26 billion of market value after Note 7 recall

Samsung was having a great year , thanks to the S7 and S7 Edge, enticing investors to toss their money into the pool. Unfortunately, the rest of 2016 hasn’t been going according to Samsung’s forecast. The Korean chaebol has lost a whopping $26 billion (with a B) of its market value since it announced the Galaxy Note 7 recall, according to financial data provider Factset. Its shares apparently dropped 6.9 percent between the Korean Exchange’s close on Friday (September 9th) and Monday, and its stock is currently priced at a bit above $1, 300. That’s the lowest it’s been in months, although as you can see in the graph below the fold, the company has recovered a bit since yesterday. Since around 2.5 million devices were shipped before the recall started, it might have alarmed investors and made them question Samsung’s future in the mobile business. Perhaps in an effort to assuage their fears, the company announced on Monday that Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee will officially take over his father’s role as the company’s chief. Samsung expected to maintain its high-end smartphone sales in the second half of 2016 with the Note 7’s release. And it probably would have succeeded — we called the latest in the series the “best phone Samsung has ever made.” However, the corporation had to issue a recall after reports came out that some units’ batteries were faulty, making them prone to overheating and exploding. There are now over 70 reported cases of Note 7 devices overheating in the US alone. The government even stepped in and asked people to stop using their phones until they get safe replacements scheduled to come out on September 19th. Ordinary consumers have become so wary of the device, tech analyst Rod Enderle told Inquisitr that the company might have to announce the Note 7’s successor ahead of time in order to bounce back. Source: Quartz

Latest Firefox update will help stop your browser from crashing

If Microsoft’s anniversary update and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 launch weren’t already enough excitement for you in one day, then hold on tight. Mozilla’s rolling out an update that brings a multi-process version of Firefox to some users. Trust us, it is exciting. The most potentially useful update here is Firefox’s new ability to split its workload into multiple processes. By splitting up Web content and Firefox’s own UI processes, the toolbars and buttons should never become unresponsive. Mozilla’s also tweaked the Awesome Bar to offer up more suggestions and to make it easier to read, redesigned the Discovery Pane and improved security for downloads. This last feature means that new classes of downloads are now protected — potentially unwanted software and uncommon downloads. Meanwhile, on mobile, Firefox for Android is getting a couple of worthwhile tweaks, like a merging of Reading Lists into Bookmarks, and moving Synced Tabs to the History Panel. If you’re watching a video while you receive a call, it’ll now pause automatically too. All in all, both the Android and Desktop updates are worth checking out, but don’t get too excited about that multi-process just yet — Mozilla’s rolling it out in a very cautious way that starts with around 1 percent of users and will shortly ramp up to around half, providing there are no major problems. Source: Mozilla

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Latest Firefox update will help stop your browser from crashing

Samsung’s world-first UFS memory cards are crazy fast

We’ve heard arguments for and against removable storage on smartphones, but we can all agree on the fact that the more the merrier. And we’re not just talking about memory space here, as the speed becomes more crucial when it comes to capturing higher video resolutions on our smartphones and drones. To satisfy our need for speed, Samsung is the first to announce a series of UFS (Universal Flash Storage) removable memory cards, with its 256GB flavor boasting an SSD-like sequential read speed of 530MB/s — that’s about half a gigabyte per second and almost five times faster than the top microSD cards these days. It can also do 170MB/s sequential writing, which is almost two to three times faster. More importantly, Samsung claims that its upcoming 256GB card is rated with a random read rate of 40, 000 IOPS, which is 20 times higher than that of a typical microSD card; and likewise, it has a random write rate of 35, 000 IOPS, which is a whopping 350 times higher. But of course, we’ll believe it when we see it, which may be a while since we’ve yet to come across devices that support this new standard . It’s also worth noting that even though UFS cards closely resemble their microSD counterpart, you can see that the new pin layout means the two aren’t cross-compatible. We’ll just have to keep an eye out for future announcements — here’s hoping that the upcoming Galaxy Note 7 will be one of the first devices to support these awesome memory cards.

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Samsung’s world-first UFS memory cards are crazy fast

Samsung Plans Bendable Plastic OLED Display for a New Galaxy Note III

Samsung may well be the first company to actually deliver on the endless promise that flexible displays are on the way, with a limited edition Galaxy Note III with a plastic OLED screen said to be in production. Read more…