Daily News Update: Galaxy Folded

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Samsung—the first Galaxy Fold hands-on posts looked promising, but then review units started breaking. Now, the company has canceled launch events in China and delayed the Fold’s release indefinitely. Ouch.

The Fold, which went on sale to customers last week, was slated to be released just three days from now, on April 26th. But with all the display issues on review units, Samsung is pushing back the launch. It a statement, it confirmed that it would announce a new release date “in the coming weeks.” That means anyone who pre-ordered the Fold will wait for at least another month, most likely more.

While this isn’t as disastrous as the exploding Galaxy Note 7 fiasco from a couple of years ago, it’s still a pretty bad look for Samsung—especially because we all remember the Note 7 situation pretty clearly. It’s been nearly three years, but that’s still not long enough to undo the damage.

The issue is that this is the second time something catastrophic points back to Samsung’s quality control. The Note 7’s battery problems should’ve been found internally before they became the public’s problem. And while the Fold’s display issues were found before the public release, it’s incredibly troubling that it wasn’t noticed during Samsung’s testing. It took the device getting into reviewers’ hands before it became apparent.

The statement from the company points out that “initial findings from the inspection of reported issues on the display showed that they could be associated with impact on the top and bottom exposed areas of the hinge.” Do they not do any sort of impact testing during development?

Either way, the company claims it’s going to fix these issues before releasing the device to the public. It’s also going to “enhance the guidance on care and use of the display including the protective layer”—you know, so people don’t remove the screen protector that isn’t a screen protector. Oof.

But on to other news now. Apparently, the Nokia 9’s fingerprint reader can be fooled with a pack of gum, AT&T settled the lawsuit over its 5G E network, OnePlus sets a date for the OP7 announcement, and more!

• A sticky situation for Nokia: A recent update to the Nokia 9 jacked up its in-display fingerprint reader, causing everyday objects like a pack of gum to bypass it. What a stupid problem to have. [ZDNet]
• AT&T’s 5G E logo is still go: Sprint sued AT&T over its crappy 5G E network logo (because, you know, it’s still just 4G). The companies have settled—but the 5G E logo isn’t going anywhere. -__- [9to5Mac]
• The OnePlus 7 is coming: The company announced a May 14th event to announce the OP7, of which there are rumors of a couple of models. Interesting. [Engadget]
• Linux on your phone: Linux on DeX, the software that allows users to run Ubuntu from their phone using DeX, is coming to the Galaxy S9, S10, and Tab S5e. It’s like a desktop in your pocket. [Android Police]
• iOS apps to get external storage access? The word on the street is that iOS 13 will give apps like Lightroom access to attached external storage. That could be a game changer for creators. [The Verge]
• Bing Maps gets traffic cam access: A new feature added to Bing Maps will let users access real-time traffic cameras. Also, Bing Maps is apparently a thing. [MSPowerUser]

ASUS has long been one of the last holdouts making high(er)-end Android tablets, but the writing is on the wall for its ZenPad line. As its ZenFone line continues to get more popular, it’s going to move its focus away from Android tablets—which have long been dying, anyway—and onto something that, you know, actually makes money. I guess if you want an Android tablet now, Samsung is one of the last options for decent large-screen devices. The end of an era.