Samsung is treating Galaxy Watch Ultra users to a big surprise
That's right, Galaxy Watch Ultra (2024) owners have suddenly and completely surprisingly started receiving notifications that the stable One UI Watch 8 promotion is now available for their Apple Watch Ultra-rivaling devices.
If you're interested in refreshing your wearable's user interface (which you absolutely should be), you'll need to exercise some patience, as the massive update tips the scales at close to 2GB, thus requiring quite a bit of download and installation time. Of course, your patience will be rewarded with a fittingly huge list of new features, functionalities, and performance improvements officially detailed by Samsung last month. Bedtime Guidance, Vascular Load, Running Coach, and Antioxidant Index are clearly chief on that list of tweaks and add-ons, bringing the first-gen Galaxy Watch Ultra perfectly in line with its (repetitive) 2025 sequel from a software standpoint. After fumbling a lot of updates for many of its best phones, tablets, and smartwatches over the last year or so, we all expected Samsung to turn a new software support leaf, especially after hearing that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 were planned to run One UI 8 at launch.
But this is still a much faster stable update than anyone hoped, following mere weeks on the heels of the Watch Ultra's One UI Watch 8 beta program kickoff. For the time being, we only have confirmation that the update is rolling out over the air in the US on carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile , but I'm ready to bet a global expansion will take place in a matter of hours. Days, tops.
Act fast and get the Galaxy Watch Ultra in White with $263 off its price. Only a few units are left, so this deal could expire soon. The watch offers great durability and packs a plethora of features. Don't hesitate! Buy at Amazon Alternatively, you can go for the Galaxy Watch Ultra in Gray, which is selling for $230 off on Amazon. Buy at Amazon With One UI Watch 8, the OG Galaxy Watch Ultra becomes even harder to turn down at hefty discounts across the nation... unless, of course, you think the non-rugged new Galaxy Watch 8 is the best smartwatch for you right now. Last year's frequently discounted Galaxy Watch 7 can also be a great option (with its own stable One UI Watch 8 update likely around the corner), while the Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025) is... unfortunately too expensive and too familiar-looking to prove a smart buy for a lot of people.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
GSM Arena
27 minutes ago
- GSM Arena
Dimensity 9500 GPU rumored to improve efficiency by over 40%, deliver 100fps ray tracing
Back in April, we heard that the upcoming MediaTek Dimensity 9500 will have an Immortalis-Drage GPU with reduced power consumption and improved ray tracing. As we get closer to the launch, leakster Ice Universe has some details to share. The GPU will reportedly improve energy efficiency by 'over 40% compared to the previous generation'. In addition to the GPU – which may be marketed as a Mali-G1-Ultra MC12 and may be clocked at 1.0GHz – there will be an all-big core CPU with 1x Cortex-X930 (Travis) core at 3.23GHz, 3x Alto cores at 3.03GHz and 4x Gelas cores at 2.23GHz. Peak performance of the GPU has also gone up, especially in ray tracing tasks – there the increase is a whopping 40%. According to Ice, this will allow the GPU to run ray tracing games at 100fps or above. The MediaTek flagship chip is expected to be unveiled before the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, meaning before late September. After that, we will see a surge in new flagship phone announcements. By the way, PC game emulation on ARM Mali GPUs recently got a major improvement, which will be interesting to see running on the more powerful Dimensity 9500. This GPU will be used in other chipsets, of course, but it will be interesting to see which ones – Samsung may or may not ditch AMD, while Google may be switching to an Imagination GPU for the Tensor G5. Source
Phone Arena
2 hours ago
- Phone Arena
One UI 8 to take Live Captions to another level
Samsung is adding a new Galaxy AI feature to the One UI 8 interface. The new feature, called Voice Captioning, takes Live Captions and moves it up to the next level thanks to AI. Live Captions in One UI transcribes speech into text in real time. Voice Captioning, found with the other Galaxy AI tools in One UI 8 , will also turn speech to text in real time. The difference is, with Voice Captioning, the speech can be translated into different languages. Since this is considered an AI feature, there has to be some AI magic involved-and there is. Voice Captioning will not only translate speech into text in different languages, but it will also provide users with a summary of what was said. If this sounds familiar, Pixel users can use their Live Captions feature, and with Live Translate enabled, have the captions appear in a foreign language that the user can choose from. Voice Conferencing takes Live Captions to another level in One UI 8. | Image credit-Android Authority The feature was discovered by GalaxyTechie who posted a tweet about it on "X." Voice Captioning is only available in China right now on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 models. However, if you're not in China, you can install Voice Captioning now using an APK if you have a Galaxy phone running One UI 8 (like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 ) or One UI 7. Once you install the APK, you can add the shortcut to the Quick Settings panel. Keep in mind that some on Reddit have complained that the APK doesn't work on all devices, so your best bet might be to wait for Samsung to officially roll this out. The Video Conferencing icon and how to pick the source of the voices being captioned. | Image credit-X If you can't wait for Samsung to disseminate Voice Captioning, and you decide to install the APK, you'll have to choose which languages you'll want to have supported by the feature. Social media reports claim that the APK won't work on phones running the One UI 7 beta and the One UI 8 beta although it will work with the stable versions of both. The audio being captioned can be sourced from the phone, from a microphone, or from both the phone and a microphone simultaneously. And since it will work with multiple languages, Samsung says that the feature is perfect for conference calls.
GSM Arena
5 hours ago
- GSM Arena
Ice Universe says the Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't getting a new sensor for the main camera
Peter, 04 August 2025 Ice Universe just poured cold water on people hoping for a sensor upgrade on the 200MP main camera on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. However, there is still a fairly important upgrade coming, says the leakster. The S26 Ultra will use the same ISOCELL HP2 1/1.3' sensor that Samsung has been using since the S23 Ultra. So, no 1.1' 200MP Sony sensor. However, Ice reports that Samsung will improve the lens with a wider f/1.4 aperture. This would let 47% more light reach the sensor, compared to the f/1.7 lens on the S25 Ultra. The Galaxy S10 series was the last from Samsung to feature a dual aperture An f/1.4 aperture may not be the best for daylight shots, however a solution for that already exists – remember when certain Galaxy S models had a dual aperture? The Galaxy S10e, S10 and S10+ were the last to have this feature and could switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4. Indeed, The Cat mentioned that Samsung is considering resurrecting this feature. And now we know why bringing back this feature would be necessary. However, it's not clear whether this means a dual aperture (i.e. two settings and nothing in between) or a variable aperture like we've seen from other brands. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 and One UI 8.5, a bigger screen and (possibly) bigger battery, with faster charging to boot, plus a number of camera upgrades, including a new telephoto module. Source
