If you are a Samsung Galaxy owner here is some news for you that is definitely worth taking a look at.
A Security Flaw Could Potentially Put A Massive Number Of Samsung Galaxy Phones At Risk.
The worrying announcement comes in the form of a security flaw that lets attackers install malware on to your device or, alternatively, eavesdrop on your phone calls.
Chicago-based security firm NowSecure has published a report that claims the bug lives in the SwiftKey keyboard software, which is installed on more than 600 million Samsung devices. It states the bug can allow a remote attacker, which is capable of controlling a user’s network traffic, to execute an arbitrary code on the user’s phone.
The most worrying thing though is that there is no option to uninstall the SwiftKey keyboard, if it’s there, it’s there for good.
An attacker can secretly install malware on a user’s device, access the camera, microphone and GPS, and listen in on calls and messages, change the way other apps behave and even steal photos and text messages.
NowSecure also claims it notified Samsung on this problem towards the end of last year. Samsung did provide a patch to amend the problem to network operators earlier in 2015 but it’s not known if this patch was made available to many users by the networks.
Potentially effected devices include; Samsung Galaxy S6, S5, S4 and the S4 mini.
Not long ago, we passed along rumors of Samsung giving the Galaxy Note 5 phablet an early July launch in order to get a lead before Apple’s iPhone announcements in September. Acting swiftly, Samsung’s JK Shin dismissed them, saying that no, the Galaxy Note 5 is not going to be a summer hit. He didn’t say, however, that there are absolutely no other announcements coming in this quarter whatsoever! And if the latest rumors are anything to get by, Samsung might, in fact, throw Android fans a bone.
According to hdblog.it, a Galaxy S6 Plus is being primed for an announcement in the coming weeks. Allegedly, Samsung called this one “Project Zero 2” internally, but this will actually be a larger version of the Galaxy S6 edge, which will retain the dual curved screen edges. Other ties to the Note line-up, such as S-Pen functionality, haven’t been mentioned.
What’s essentially a Galaxy S6 edge “Grand” strikes us as a rather odd product choice from Samsung, especially considering the rumors of a dual-edged Galaxy Note 5 announcement in September. While the latter sounds logical, the former is plain weird, but Samsung wouldn’t release such a thing if it didn’t make sense inside the company.
With this in light, the Galaxy Note 5 is still expected to show up around the IFA Conference in September, wielding a thin profile, an S Pen, and possibly a 4K resolution display. The rumored spec sheet has already made the successor to the Galaxy Note 4 one of the most hyped smartphones this year, with virtually no advertisement from Samsung.
Marvel’s second movie about the Avengers titled Age of Ultron is out in the theatres and the company shook hands with Samsung for some special projects. After teasing the Iron Man-themed Samsung Galaxy S6 edge last week, the Korean giant has formally launched it for select markets.
This limited edition Galaxy S6 edge bears the same internals as the regular variant with 64GB of storage. It has been given the Iron Man look with red colored front and back, and gold colored metal frame. The phone will have a custom Avengers theme pre-installed and will be packaged in a limited edition Avengers box.
Samsung has packed an arc reactor-themed wireless charger in the retail package. The latter will also contain a clear protective cover.
A new rumor has surfaced claiming to give us the full spec list for the S6 Active. And to start with display size, saying it will sport a 5.1-inch QHD (2,560×1,440) panel as the ‘vanilla’ Galaxy S6.
Moving on, we should also expect the successor to the Galaxy S5 Active to feature all of the other hardware innards of its non-rugged siblings, the S6 and S6 edge. So the same Samsung Exynos 7420 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 16MP rear camera, and 5MP front snapper.
The one thing that will reportedly change is battery capacity, rumored to come in at a whopping 3,500 mAh. That’s more than what’s inside the Galaxy Note 4 phablet, so we’re a little wary of this particular detail – but hoping it will turn out to be right in the end.
The added ruggedness of the Active handset, coupled with the bigger battery has led to an increase in size compared to the Galaxy S6. The S6 Active will measure 146.9 x 73.6 x 8.8 mm, as opposed to 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm for the S6.
What isn’t clear yet is if the S6 Active will come with a microSD card slot and a removable battery, unlike the S6 and S6 edge. Though since it’s identical in every other respect, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath. No detail has been revealed about how rugged it will be, but these things should surface soon now that the leaks have started in earnest.
Today’s rumor also confirms that AT&T will sell the Galaxy S6 Active, and that the model number of the device for that carrier will indeed be SM-G890A. The other versions should therefore be SM-G890x, with the final letter being different depending on region and/or carrier.
The Samsung Unpacked event at the MWC 2015 is all about the next generation of Galaxy smartphones – the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge. Samsung seems to be pleased with the limited edition Galaxy Note Edge market success and will be keeping the “edged” devices around.
Samsung Galaxy S6 duo have been in the rumor mill for quite some time and we already knew pretty much everything there is to know. The devices are now official and we can clear up every tiny detail.
The new Galaxy S6 series is a departure from the previous series, switching from an all-plastic shell to a dual-glass design enhanced with a metal frame. The new combination of materials works great indeed and the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge are arguably, the most beautiful Galaxy smartphones to date. We’re sure, many will forgive the camera hump on the back for sure. This time around the Galaxy S6 isn’t dust and water proof though.
Samsung Galaxy S6 packs a 5.1″ Super AMOLED screen with Quad HD resolution resulting into the amazing 577 ppi density. It is protected by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The hardware Home key once again doubles as fingerprint sensor and supports the new Samsung Pay service.
Samsung Pay relies on NFC and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) for mobile payments. It has already been certified by Visa, MasterCard, and Samsung is employing key partners worldwide to participate in the service, including American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank.
Unlike the Galaxy Note Edge, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge has the display glass bent on both sides of the phone. While the curve isn’t as impressive as on the Note Edge, being bent on both sides makes it feel like an entirely different device. The 5.1″ Super AMOLED display also utilizes at Quad HD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. It is protected by a curved Corning Gorilla Glass 4, too.
The rumors turned right and Samsung chose not to opt for the Snapdragon 810 chip, probably due to the overhearing issues. So, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are powered by the company’s Exynos 7420, built on a 14nm process and thus more energy-efficient and producing less heat compared to 20nm Snapdragon 810.
The Exynos 7420 chip offers much similar processor to the Snapdragon 810 – an octa-core 64-bit CPU with four Cortex-A57 cores ticking at 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.5GHz. The Exynos 7420 chip uses a Mali-T760 GPU and comes bundled with 3GB LPDDR4 of RAM. The new generation of RAM has already premiered on the LG G Flex2 and we expect the 2015 flagships to feature LPDDR4 RAM chips.
Samsung Galaxy S6 duo comes with a new ISOCELL camera sensor with 16MP resolution. The camera is enhanced with optical image stabilization, phase detection autofocus and has a single-LED flash. Quite expectedly, 4K video recording is supported.
The front camera is 5MP, capable of 1080p video capturing.
The new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge feature 32GB / 64GB / 128GB storage, expandable via a microSD slot. The storage is of the new UFS 2.0 variety, which uses “Command Queue” tech used in SSDs for accelerating the speed of command execution. The end-result is 19,000 input/output operations (IOPS) per second for random reading – that’s 2.7x faster than the performance of the eMMC 5.0 memory found in the previous crop of flagships.
The all-round connectivity package includes LTE Cat.6, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, GPS with GLONASS and Beidou, IR blaster and FM radio. The Galaxy S6 is powered by a 2,550 mAh battery, while the Galaxy S6 egde has a 2,600 mAh unit.
Finally, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge run on Android 5.0 Lollipop enhanced with the latest TouchWiz UI with Material design and cleaner interface. The TouchWiz on the Galaxy S6 Edge offers various features and apps working on the edges of the display, including a newer and better version of the Quick Glance info for the lockscreen.
This time around Samsung has partnered with Microsoft, instead of Dropbox, and will be offering 115GB OneDrive storage for 2 years to each Galaxy S6 user.
Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will launch this spring (quite possibly this very month) in Charcoal Black, Copper Gold, Electric Blue, and Shimmery White. The pricing is yet to be detailed.
Marvel’s second movie about the Avengers titled Age of Ultron is out in the theatres and the company shook hands with Samsung for some special projects. After teasing the Iron Man-themed Samsung Galaxy S6 edge last week, the Korean giant has formally launched it for select markets.
This limited edition Galaxy S6 edge bears the same internals as the regular variant with 64GB of storage. It has been given the Iron Man look with red colored front and back, and gold colored metal frame. The phone will have a custom Avengers theme pre-installed and will be packaged in a limited edition Avengers box.
Elie Chahine 