The South Korean variant of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is receiving a fresh Android software update to 4.4.4 KitKat over the air. We know, thanks to readers in the area who are witnessing the new notification alerting them. The 4.4.4 comes with a small number of goodies, including better battery performance, WiFi and email enhancements and minor bug fixes from the previous 4.4.3 MySQL issues. Thankfully all that and more is sorted in this update. Therefore, if you or anyone you know is suffering and in desperate need of some bug relief go ahead and install this OTA. However, remember to use the stable home WiFi connection instead of using the mobile data. The mobile data will come with lots of traffic from others users installing the same update. Loads of people are installing it from their homes, but the difference is each network from the home is unique and the traffic doesn’t matter as much since it is divided up to use unique bandwidth.
When you are ready, navigate over to the Settings > About Device > Software Updates > Check for Updates and install the fresh software that way. The new build number is E210SKSUKNI3. If you want to search for the file when it becomes available and install it manually you can do that also.
As you may know, we are all patiently waiting for the developer preview of the Android L software to get a name and a release date since it will blow any of these minor tweaks out of the water. We know heaps of spectacular features are coming our way so stay tuned for that. As for the galaxy S3, there are no guarantees it will be seeing any Android L love at all. Therefore if you want to see modern software updates past this point it may require upgrading to a newer smartphone or tablet.
Make sure you have enough battery life to see through the time it requires to finish. If the smartphone turns off before it finishes it may require a factory reset and they are prone to losing sensitive data. It’s also a great idea to backup all important data and files using one of the many applications from the Google Play Store such as helium for that same reason. If you want to make copies of those valuable SMS texts from your boyfriend or girlfriend to try using the SMS backup + app instead.
As usual, these updates roll out in periods before eventually finding the settings panel of everyone. Some of you will already begin seeing the firmware and others will be waiting for a matter of days or even weeks depending on how many people it must find within the region. The more people who own the flagship from a couple of years ago will mean longer delays.