Samsung Canada brings Seoul to Toronto at the new Samsung Experience Store

Chef Kristen Kish

 By Sonya Davidson

Samsung Canada officially announced the grand opening of the largest Samsung Experience Store in Canada with a splashy event last night for consumers, media and VIPs. Located in the Eaton Centre (Yonge & Dundas) guests were invited to walk through a tunnel of mirrors and discover heart and "Seoul" of Korea while exploring the various interactive spaces in the store. 

Samsung brought in Chef Kristen Kish, winner of Top Chef Season 10, to create her interpretation of classic Korean dishes for guests to enjoy at hte Samsung Chef Collection Kitchen. Visual artist Song Dahae live painted large murals which guests could take pieces of their choice and create phone cases. KPOP station gave the opportunity for visitors to drop in and get styled for a fun experience. Aerial acrobats suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the store.

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Huawei surpasses Apple as 'world's second-biggest smartphone maker'

Huawei has overtaken Apple Inc. as  the world's second biggest smartphone maker in terms of sales. Huawei surpassed Apple in sales for June and July, breaking the duopoly enjoyed by Apple and Samsung for at least five years according to figures from Counterpoint Research.

Apple has moved to third place, a position it hasn't seen since the heyday of BlackBerry and Nokia. Apple has held one of the top two spots since 2010 after unseating BlackBerry and later on Nokia, companies that are no longer considered serious platforms and merely serve as Android OEMs today.

Huawei's reign, however, is expected to be short as Apple is planning its biggest iPhone release in years starting next week. With multiple models expected to hit the market, the company is expected to rally in terms of sales even as initial supplies are expected to be constrained. 

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Samsung Gear Sport gets leaked ahead of rumoured IFA debut

With IFA just a few days away, we get a look at what looks like another wearable coming from Samsung. The Gear Sport (SM-R600) will supposedly have 5ATM waterproofing, which makes it suitable for taking on a swim. In the FCC schematics, you can see that it’s still similar looks-wise to other Gear smartwatches with its round screen. Not much is known from the leaked image. But it’s expected to be the first smartwatch to run on Tizen 3.0 and have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It’ll supposedly also have a heart rate sensor, as one would expect from a fitness tracker. We should be hearing more about this next week.

Source: GSMArena

Samsung stresses improved battery safety during Galaxy Note8 launch event

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

In case you missed it, Samsung has launched a successor to the doomed Galaxy Note7 phablet. The Galaxy Note8, an enormous 6.3-inch smartphone featuring all the latest Samsung technologies, is coming on September 15 and will be sold in Canada through Bell, Eastlink, Freedom, MTS, Rogers, Sasktel, Telus and Videotron. Off contract price is a whopping $1,200.00! Making this the most expensive Samsung handset in recent memory.

The big question many consumers have is, how safe is the Note8 given its predecessor's battery defects and subsequent $5.3 billion dollar recall. Samsung seems to have addressed this during today's launch.

"Samsung continues to uphold its commitment to lead the industry in battery safety. The Galaxy Note8’s battery has undergone our Samsung 8-point battery check," Samsung explained.

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