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It’s not often we see a phone’s release date pushed forward, especially when that phone is under the control of Verizon. That’s exactly what just happened for the carrier’s Samsung Galaxy S4, though, as a Verizon rep has announced that the phone would be launching in Verizon stores nationwide May 23rd, a full week ahead of its previous May 30th launch date.
This news is sure to please many who felt left out of the fun, as most other carriers have long had their versions available. Heck, AT&T even had enough of a head start to launch its 32GB version already. There’s no need to look on in envy anymore, however.
And, believe it or not, this news affects every Galaxy S4 owner on every other carrier. The bootloader unlock method discovered by Dan Rosenberg is being held until Verizon’s version launches, so the development community won’t have to wait two and a half more weeks for that to make its way to the forefront. There’s still another week and a half to go, but that should be much more bearable of a wait.
Pre-sales are still being accepted over at Verizon’s site so make sure your bank accounts are in order and purchase one if our Samsung Galaxy S4 review convinced you to buy one.
[via Twitter]
Whats that bar of apps at the bottom of the screen there? IS it the multi-window feature because i thought that only went on the left or right side not top or bottom
That’s the native samsung browser.
Not the app itself, the row of 5 icons on the bottom of the screen. I’m typing this on my s4 in the stock browser and don’t have it
Multiwindow at the bottom maybe?
I don’t have an option to move multiwindow to the bottom only on the left side. It also natively has a white background not black and in the screen shot above it also does not show the tab to grab and minimize/maximize. Defs not multi window.
It’s a tool bar of sorts, or a shortcut to share with those apps… My HTC One has it in its stock browser too. I disabled it in the settings tho, don’t need it
Looked in the settings and i don’t have a “quick share” toolbar or anything like that to be enabled. Is it a third party app or something? I’m very curious.
I have the Note 2. You can move it around all over the screen. Just tap and hold the bar and move it!
Ahh i see, it has to be expanded to move it around. However i can only move it from the left side to the right side not top and bottom. so it can’t be multiwindow in the picture above.
Maybe its the dock from a customer launcher or something that lets you have an always on top mode? It says apps in the center.
i wish they would just respond to the comments and say what it is lol
it’s called lumen toolbar and I think it comes pre installed only on Sprint phones
Are there any CDMA versions out yet? I’d like to know how well the radio works on this. My GNEX is horrible and I’m afraid to preorder without seeing some reviews.
But then I risk supply issues….
Sprint is cdma
The GS4 should be better. I’ve had a crapload of 4g phones on Verizon, the Galaxy nexus is terrible on 4g, speeds suck and it drops 4g a lot. I had a GS3 which held signal all the time, and had much better speeds on weak signal. As for 3g, the galaxy nexus, is a bit weak, but it still holds signal just fine overall, it isn’t like it drops 3g on me anywhere.
Great…thank you!
On the Gnex, I rarely use 4g because the battery is horrid but it does fine when I do toggle it on.
We were in the mountains recently and my buddy was able to flawlessly stream a radio station over I-Heart with 3G on his GS3 and I could barely get 1x. That’s when I made my decision to upgrade.
4G LTE was still relatively new to Verizon when the Galaxy Nexus came out so it isn’t a surprise it was a little lackluster in terms of reception. There’s no excuse now.
THIS WORLD WOULD BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT SO MANY IGNORANT MONKEYS!
But they’re so damn adorable!
Any word on the 64GB versions?
Hopefully they put the 32 GB out too since they’re so late.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. As some’ve said it’s possible that Verizon will spring that much later. As good as this phone is, and as good as it is purported to be, I think it is starting to look like a stop-gap device; especially if the 32 Gig and 64 Gig devices don’t get here until the Next Big Thing, whatever It turns out to be, is just about to debut.
I would normally be looking forward to this, but unless a 32GB S4 to replace my 32GB S3, I will have to pass on this. Nine gigs is not enough for me, since got only five gigs free on my S3. I sure hope all the posts suggesting there will not be a 32GB version are all drama. Must admit though that I also have been told by Verizon sales people the 16GB version is fine, since you can put apps on the external micro card. Even I know that is not true.
rooted yeah but normally no
I’m not even American, by why the hell does Verizon take so long? Also, if they’re renowned for being so slow why don’t they do something about it?
They’re also believed to be the best network nationwide, when it comes to signal strength and coverage zones. So they don’t need to do anything, most people will stick with them just because of this.
Thanks for that info.