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ELECTRONICS GIANT SAMSUNG unveiled its new Galaxy Note 9 smartphone earlier, its latest effort to address flagging sales of the high-functioning gadgets.
The consistent leader in the global smartphone market, Samsung nonetheless suffered a 22% drop in mobile technology sales in the second quarter.
The South Korean company blamed the drop in part to disappointing demand for the Galaxy S9, but it also has been pressured by growth in Chinese competitor Huawei.
At the launch event in Brooklyn, the company showed off the Galaxy Note 9, which will be available for purchase on 24 August, and contains a series of improvements but no radical new innovations.
The latest model boosts memory capacity, with options for 128 or 512 gigabytes of memory. Users also can insert a micro card to boost capacity beyond a terabyte, a record for a smartphone.
Samsung also enhanced the gadget’s batteries so it can now be used for an entire day without needing to be recharged — a common headache for mobile phone users.
Other improvements include tweaks to the device’s ‘S Pen’ feature, which can be used as a remote control for taking pictures or selfies using Bluetooth technology.
And the new model has enough capacity for video games. Samsung has set up a promotion with the popular Fortnite game that lets users download a special mobile version.
According to some trade media sources, the Galaxy Note 9 version with 512 gigabytes will be the most expensive smartphone geared towards the general public.
The price buy the model outright will be $1,1250 in the United States, while the 128 gigabyte version will go for $1,000. Apple’s iPhone X in a 256 gigabyte version sells for about $1,150.
Samsung also introduced the Galaxy Watch and a home speaker device, a first for the South Korean company in a market that already contains Amazon’s Echo and Alphabet’s Google Home program.
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I unfortunately had to register the death of a family member recently. Got the paperwork from the hospital in January and wanted to get it sorted quickly but was told the next available appointment at the registry office was in March. Five days is great in theory but good luck getting that go happen in practice
@Laura Diver: I’m very sorry for your loss. I hope you won’t mind me asking a genuine question? Why did you have to do it in person? My mam passed away 18 months ago and we were allowed to email, was that just a covid thing I wonder? You’d think if it worked they would allow it to continue. My dad passed away more than 10 years ago and I can’t remember how we registered his, though I know we waited 6 months for his death certificate as it was a sudden death requiring post mortem. Again my condolences
Beggars belief. Currently getting through probate is a nightmare (minimum 16 weeks), even with a will made. Can’t believe the system is efficient enough to get through this in a month.
OK so I don’t give a damn about the flipping records and what statistics they want to record (unless my loved one did die from plague or the likes). Hounding the grieving like that is disgraceful.
@Helen Downey: absolutely agree
@Helen Downey: we were waiting 19 months to get rhe inquest for my brother.
@Helen Downey: some families might want it done as soon as possible for their own reasons, it’s not just about stats.
Three months may be longer than necessary in most instances, but the suggested timeline here is disgracefully short for a grieving family, 4-6 weeks would be far more reasonable and compassionate
@Jo H: Presumably dependants will need this proof to access pension and death grants and so on?
@Fiona Fitzgerald: Yes, financial institutions etc. won’t do anything until they are provided a copy, but not everyone needs or is able to consider starting to organise that stuff within 10 days so that might not be a driving factor for many. I know people who have acted on it that day after a funeral, others who take longer. It’s a very personal thing. There should of course be a deadline, I just think the one being proposed is too tight.
The problem is that they need to fix the system behind the scenes first rather than reducing the time for families to register as the first port of call. What is the point of reducing that if it then becomes impossible to do? I mean really.
And as for triggering other services – that would be great but lets face it, departments in this country don’t talk to each other. Or else they get a bit too ahead of themselves – my dad’s pension from the Dept. of Education was stopped on his date of death based solely off his death notice in the paper. Which didn’t contain enough information to really identify him down to an individual. Absolute madness.
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