It was sort of awkward today when Samsung's Mobile Chief DJ Koh had to recognize the disaster that was the Note 7 of last year. That being said Samsung has taken many steps to fix this and will be rewarding Note 7 buyers for their continued patronage. If you purchased a Note 7 you will be able to trade in your current device for a $425 credit towards your Note 8 purchase which seems pretty generous of Samsung. It seems like the Note lineup is as popular as ever, and that most people who suffered the recall have stuck with Samsung. Will this trade in credit be enough to draw you back in if you had decided to no longer do business with Samsung after the recall?

Earlier today during the Note 8 Unpacked event Samsung wasn't very specific in terms of the specifications of their new flagship device. We heard that it would come with a wide angel lens and telephoto lens, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, a 6.3" QHD display, and 3300mah battery, but as far as the processor and other specs Samsung was a bit vague. They included the full specs list in the press release email they sent out earlier. Overall this looks like a pretty beefy device!

Pre-Orders for the Note 8 go live tomorrow August 24th. There were rumors earlier that some markets would get some freebies with their Note 8 as long as they were able to get in on the Pre-Order. That has been confirmed today. Those who pre-order the Note 8 between August 24th and September 24th will be able to choose between a free Samsung Gear 360 or a Galaxy Foundation Kit which includes a 128GB EVO+ memory card and Fast Wireless Charging Convertible. The promotion is limited and will only run as long as supplies last. You will want to jump on this pre-order quickly if you are interested in these freebies!

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was announced earlier today at the Unpacked event in NYC this morning to much fan fare! The device was pretty much everything we had anticipated and more. They were pretty vague about pricing and availability throughout the event, and you are probably wondering how you can pick up the device for yourself.

The phone will be available for in store purchase beginning on September 15th. It will be available for purchase on that date at AT&T, C-Spire, Cricket, Sprint, Straight Talk, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, and Xfinity Mobile. It will also be available for purchase at Samsung.com, Best Buy, Target, and Wal-mart. Pre-Orders begin August 24th.

The Note 8 will set you back $930 on T-mobile. We are still waiting to hear pricing from other carriers. Who is ready to grab up one of these!

You can watch the Unpacked 2017 Live Announcement!

Watch Unpacked 2017 Live at 11 AM EST in New York, 8 AM on the West Coast, 4 PM in London, 5 PM in Paris and midnight in Seoul.



Galaxy UNPACKED 2017 - The Official Samsung Galaxy Site

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Yesterday at a press event directly following the solar eclipse in the US Google officially announced the new name of Android 8.0 Oreo! The late dark horse was orolette, which would have been pretty lame since no one has actually ever heard of that. Google decided to team up with a very well known existing brand in Oreo. Nabisco seemed pretty excited about the pairing as they tweeted the news following Google's official announcement and statue unveiling. The statue represents a super hero shaped like an Oreo with a cape! Google also announced availability through the Android Open Source Project. You can get the update for your Nexus or Pixel devices as we speak. What do you think of the new name? Are you pleased with Oreo or were you hoping for something else?

Huawei is sending out save the date invites for an event where they will likely unveil the Mate 10 flagship phone! The press event will be held in Munich Germany on October 16th at Small Olympic Hall. The invite is pretty vague about what will be announced stating this is a "global unveiling of a new flagship device". The tagline for the event is "Meet the device worth waiting for". There is a giant transparent 10 in the invite's background which seems to be a pretty big hint that we will be seeing the Mate 10 at the event. It would be nice to see a US version of the device as well.

One of the most anticipated handsets of the years just got some hands on photos! The Moto X4 is breaking cover just a few days before the August 24th release. We can see it from a few different angles in blue. We have not seen a new version of the Moto X series since 2015 so you can see why fans of the series would be excited. The Moto X series is known for bringing high end specs and features at an affordable price. Rumors suggest the Moto X4 will come with a 5.2" Full HD display, Snapdragon 630 processor, Adreno 508 GPU, 3GB of RAM/32GB of storage option and 4GBRAM/64GB of storage option, and dual lens camera setup. This is the midrange device for Motorola this year and will be priced competitively.

via Slashleaks

Samsung is pretty good about giving out freebies for those early adopters who pre-order their latest flagship devices. I have gotten all sorts of free stuff over the years including 2 free years of Netflix, a set of Samsung OnLive headphones, two GearVR headsets, Samsung fast charging battery bank, Samsung fast wireless charging pad, cases and more! That list doesn't even include the free apps and in app purchases that have come with some of the phones.

The details regarding Note 8 pre-order freebies have leaked. Apparently Samsung will begin taking pre-orders for the Note 8 on August 24. In the US you can choose between a 256GB microSD card, convertible wireless charger, or Samsung Gear 360 camera. In Europe you will apparently get a DEX when you preorder. I am glad that Samsung does include the freebies, but sometimes it feels like you are paying a premium and they are just trying to ease the blow by giving away free stuff when they could just reduce the price a bit.

via SamMobile

There is one word that has been synonymous with Android for the past several years and that word my friends is fragmentation. Apple fan boys love to utter the word. While Apple has to work to get a handful of devices running the latest version of iOS there happen to be thousands of Android devices made by hundreds of OEMs. Getting all the Android devices on a singular version of Android is impossible. That being said Google is currently working on a project to make the process easier for OEMs to get their phones on the latest version of Android. The project is called "Project Treble".

Google has already done the work make the Pixel and Pixel XL compatible with the project but says they can't force other OEMs to do the same. The project will be in place for any device shipping with Android O. Treble makes it easier and less expensive for OEMs to update their flagships and other devices but won't guarantee that everyone will be on board or do their part. Google says they are currently working with "some companies" to get their flagships upgraded to Android O and are even helping to "treble-ize" some devices. Hopefully companies like Samsung will jump on board. My Galaxy S8 is still running Android 7.0 even though 7.1.1 has been around for a while and Google will be announcing Android 8.0 Monday!

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