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Samsung will kill Note7s with software update soon (except on Verizon)

Written by James Delahunty @ 09 Dec 2016 4:48 User comments (6)

Samsung will kill Note7s with software update soon (except on Verizon)

Samsung will make Note7 devices that have not been returned effectively useless with a software update later this month, though Verizon has announced it will opt out of the update.
Having already pushed out an update that limits the charge level to just 60 percent and nags the user about the recall, Samsung is going to go further later this month and disable the charging of a Note7 device entirely. The South Korean firm says that 93% of Note 7s sold in the United States have already been returned as part of its global recall.

"Consumer safety remains our highest priority and we've had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program so far, with more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note7 devices returned," reads Samsung's recall page.

"To further increase participation, a software update will be released starting on December 19th that will prevent U.S. Galaxy Note7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices."



"If you have not yet returned your device, you should immediately power it down and contact your carrier to obtain a refund or exchange."

After Samsung revealed the update, Verizon released a statement announcing that it will opt out of the update, pointing out that there are other safety considerations to take into account.

"Verizon will not be taking part in this update because of the added risk this could pose to Galaxy Note7 users that do not have another device to switch to. We will not push a software upgrade that will eliminate the ability for the Note7 to work as a mobile device in the heart of the holiday travel season," wrote Jeffrey Nelson, Vice President, Global Corporate Communications, Verizon.

"We do not want to make it impossible to contact family, first responders or medical professionals in an emergency situation."

Sources and Recommended Reading:
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Recall Details: www.samsung.com
Verizon statement regarding Samsung Galaxy Note7: www.verizon.com

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6 user comments

19.12.2016 18:05

Any idiot that has not exchanged their phone by now deserves to lose contact with everyone.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 09 Dec 2016 @ 6:06

29.12.2016 20:38

HA HA HA!

I so agree with al92lt1

This just makes me laugh my ass off.........and blatantly in the faces of others too!!!

Couple weeks back I call for a UPS tech to help configure their software on my network and the guy still has a Note 7.

I ask him "aren't you gonna turn that in? You can't take it with you on flights or rely on that".

He replied with "eh......i love it and don't fly anywhere anyway and use my Note 4 if I do"




...Can you all say "accident waiting to happen!"?


IDIOT! The lot of 'em to be honest!


UPDATE:

Okay...so I just read the rest of the article and now I'm really pissed.

What kinda crap is this???

"Verizon will not be taking part in this update because of the added risk this could pose to Galaxy Note7 users that do not have another device to switch to."

I'm sorry but cell phones, while they do have some necessity to some people, are a luxury that can be done without!! This prick VP is just the type of person that coddles his kids, patronizing personality and makes decision out of emotion rather than logic.

So his punkass pussy mentality bows to the pressure of others


Jeffrey Nelson needs to be terminated with extreme prejudice and then bitch slapped!

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 09 Dec 2016 @ 8:46

310.12.2016 11:01

While there is definitely a serious problem with the Note7 and people definitely should return them, it's not Samsung's property and it's really BS that they are killing them. I'm not sure if this sets a precedence or if one already exists but I buy something I expect to own it. The Ford Pinto was far more dangerous on a percentage basis and on a "what would happen" basis but Ford didn't send guys around with acetylene torches to cut them up in people's driveways.

This may sound a bit like a conspiracy theory at first, but I'm not saying this is necessarily their intention right now, just that when lawyers see something they can use they end up using it sooner or later: What keeps Samsung/Apple/anyone else from declaring devices dangerous after 2-3 years and issuing forced kill updates to force people to buy new phones? Yesterday I would have said that doing such an update would be destruction of private property and highly illegal, the kind of thing that most black hats wouldn't even want to do...today it seems most people take it as a public service.

This might actually be worse than what Apple is doing with the iPhone7...denying the problem is certainly more dangerous physically but in terms of property rights Apple is (amazingly) better than someone for the first time ever.

hearmo0 - Cell phones have become more than a luxury item to many people. My 80 year old grandmother only has a cell phone...no PC/Mac, no land-line. If verizon did a push update and her battery dies in the middle of the night while it should have been charging you better believe I'd sue them if she suffered injury or death due to not being able to call an ambulance. It may seem like a small percentage of people would have such issues, but the percentage of people who would have battery issues at all is much smaller. At the very least there should be an intermittent warning like, "in 7 days your phone battery will stop charging" so they don't just suddenly stop working in the morning, in the middle of driving 1000 miles, etc.

410.12.2016 16:18

I thought they were exchanging an unsafe product for a safe one.
I think if your grandmother was charging her unsafe phone one night and it burst into flames you would try to sue Samsung.
Samsung is doing this because stupid people think "this won't happen to me" when it just might.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 10 Dec 2016 @ 4:19

511.12.2016 17:08

Originally posted by ilikefree:
I thought they were exchanging an unsafe product for a safe one.
I think if your grandmother was charging her unsafe phone one night and it burst into flames you would try to sue Samsung.
Samsung is doing this because stupid people think "this won't happen to me" when it just might.
Up until now they were just exchanging/refunding; now they are destroying. No, I couldn't sue if grandma refused to participate in a recall (well, technically I could sue for anything but they would throw such a case out). Once a recall is issued and the consumer is notified they cannot sue. Actually, I really wonder how much legal risk an exploding battery is...I've had a ~9 year old HP laptop that had a battery rupture while charging, I kept it thinking it would be recalled but they never did...recalled other batteries from the same laptop but not that serial number. I'm pretty sure the real damage to the company is just reputation (and HP doesn't have one).

612.12.2016 12:58

Originally posted by KillerBug:
While there is definitely a serious problem with the Note7 and people definitely should return them, it's not Samsung's property and it's really BS that they are killing them. I'm not sure if this sets a precedence or if one already exists but I buy something I expect to own it. The Ford Pinto was far more dangerous on a percentage basis and on a "what would happen" basis but Ford didn't send guys around with acetylene torches to cut them up in people's driveways.

This may sound a bit like a conspiracy theory at first, but I'm not saying this is necessarily their intention right now, just that when lawyers see something they can use they end up using it sooner or later: What keeps Samsung/Apple/anyone else from declaring devices dangerous after 2-3 years and issuing forced kill updates to force people to buy new phones? Yesterday I would have said that doing such an update would be destruction of private property and highly illegal, the kind of thing that most black hats wouldn't even want to do...today it seems most people take it as a public service.

This might actually be worse than what Apple is doing with the iPhone7...denying the problem is certainly more dangerous physically but in terms of property rights Apple is (amazingly) better than someone for the first time ever.

hearmo0 - Cell phones have become more than a luxury item to many people. My 80 year old grandmother only has a cell phone...no PC/Mac, no land-line. If verizon did a push update and her battery dies in the middle of the night while it should have been charging you better believe I'd sue them if she suffered injury or death due to not being able to call an ambulance. It may seem like a small percentage of people would have such issues, but the percentage of people who would have battery issues at all is much smaller. At the very least there should be an intermittent warning like, "in 7 days your phone battery will stop charging" so they don't just suddenly stop working in the morning, in the middle of driving 1000 miles, etc.
I did say that they do serve as a necessity to SOME people so I'm with ya on that.

Just saying that MAJORITY of uses are elective.

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