As owners of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 LTE look forward to the scheduled 5.0 Lollipop update happening in March – April 2015, T-Mobile are deciding now’s the perfect time to release the official Android 4.4.4 KitKat OTA update to selected devices around the US. Since the US-based phone carrier network didn’t provide us with any change-log, we aren’t anticipating a feature-rich experience. Traditionally, 4.4.4 comes with a revamped phone dialer with a different shade of blue and a security patch for the OpenSSL issue found in the previous 4.4.3 KitKat build. However, none of that is confirmed as the features alter between manufacturer and carrier networks.
We are interpreting this installment to come with security patches, fixes in for known bugs, minor UI tweaks and some changes made to the Samsung stock applications. We see most individual manufacturers including HTC, LG and Sony come up with unique tweaks for theirs, therefore, we predict Sammy applying the same treatment.
The new Android 4.4.4 Kitkat comes with the build number of T337TUVU1BNI8 and it is rolling out over the air to tablets right around the United States. We cannot predict the order in which it rolls since it’s done behind the scenes with a secret algorithm likely including your details and date of purchase. That’s what makes it so difficult to predict. Additionally, since there’s a great deal of tablets waiting it can take several days before it reaches everyone. Stay patient until it arrives for you.
Furthermore, you want to download and install the system update using the WiFi network from your home or office and not the mobile data plan. The file size is 277 MB and that comes directly away from your mobile data allowance for the months. Moreover, since heaps of people are using the network and downloading the same thing as you it creates high traffic and therefore a less-stable connection that is more prone to requiring a factory reset. Factory resets can result in data loss.
If the system notification comes OTA and you choose to put it in hold, you can stopover at Settings > About Device > Software Updates > Check For Updates and manually start the installation that way instead.
The aforementioned software update rolling is tending towards being the last we view under the chocolate name unless we see another extremely minor upgrade coming to fix supplementary bugs.