9/16/2016: Weekly Tech Update

Samsung Note 7, Pixel, iPhone                                   CTTO

This week's Tech update focuses on Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 battery issues and replacements, the update on the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL, formerly known as Google Nexus, and the week that followed the launch of Apple's iPhone 7s.

Almost 3 weeks ago, Samsung issued a massive recall of its new Galaxy Note 7 because of exploding batteries. After a couple of weeks, Samsung at least is making progress in dealing with the worldwide recall. However, the company is releasing the Note 7 replacements slowly around the world. A lot of users have not returned their smartphones for replacement prompting Samsung to issue a precautionary measure to consumers to charge the phone up to at least 60% to avoid overheating.


Because of the recent issue concerning the Note 7, a lot of users were outraged, calling it a "hand granade". This raises serious questions about the company's quality control. On top of that, there was news recently of another explosion involving a Galaxy Smartphone. But it was not the famous Note 7, it was one of the company's Galaxy Core Prime that allegedly exploded in a boy's hand. Because of these recent battery explosion incidents, a lot of users are switching brands.

The Note 7 incidents prompted some airline carriers to ban it on board, and some warned passengers to just turn it off and not use it during the flight.

Samsung started sending out Note 7 replacements worldwide and reassured users that their smartphones are safe:

"New Galaxy Note 7 units will have a giant 'S'on the boxes, to indicate that they’re 'safe' At least they’re there to indicate that they’re the 'new'units and not the [ones] recalled that many fear have defective, potentially explosive batteries embedded in them.
The New Galaxy Note 7 will have a 'GREEN'battery icon, not the white one."
(Source: zdnet.com)

Samsung Note 7 Photo                                             CTTO

This 4th of October, Google is set to unveil the new Pixel and Pixel XL, a successor to last year's Nexus 6P, manufactured by Huawei, and Nexus 5X, manufactured by LG. But this time, rumor has it that HTC is the manufacturer of both phones. This is going to be the first series of Pixel phones after Google decided to kill the Nexus line. The official specs have not been released to the public but speculation has it that both phone use bigger batteries and have the latest Snapdragon 821 processors from Qualcomm, 4GB of RAM, 32GB or 128GB of storage and a dual 12MP and 8MP camera setup. The bigger Google Pixel XL reportedly features a higher-spec 13MP rear-facing camera and a bigger display and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat.

A week after the unveiling of the iPhone 7s, Apple opened the pre-order online but reports say that after 3 minutes, more than a million phones were sold, prompting the company to close its online pre-order. This pissed off many customers. Speculation circulated that some of the smartphones were supposed to hit the shelves in Apple stores on September 7, but because all the iPhones were sold online, the company has had to hurry to meet deadlines to satisfy disappointed customers who weren't able to make it to the pre-order.