T-Mobile Galaxy S4 gets Android 4.3 upgrade; Samsung plans Galaxy Gear upgrade for improved notifications
Joining a long line of Samsung phones getting Android 4.3 Jelly Bean recently is T-Mobile’s variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4. The upgrade is rolling out over-the-air starting today, and will bring the premium suite upgrades we’ve talked so much about before. This includes improvements to the camera, support for the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch, minor tweaks to TouchWiz and more.
The 781 megabyte update file means you’ll want to hit up a WiFi access point before pulling this thing down, and getting your battery charged to about 50% isn’t such a bad idea, either. Of course, not everyone will be in line to receive the upgrade at the same time thanks to a staggered rollout process. Fortunately, there’s another option for those of you impatient enough to wait.
You can manually update using the latest version of Samsung Kies, but remember that you must be unrooted and on stock M919UVUAMDL firmware. The new version should show M919UVUEMK2 once complete.
With that news, we’ve also learned that Samsung will soon be pushing out the latest Galaxy Gear smart watch upgrade to those of us here in America. Already available in Europe, this upgrade will bring improved notifications support. Whereas before you could only see full notifications from certain Samsung apps, this upgrade will allow you to read the full contents of a notification from pretty much any app. It’s a welcome, much-needed change that should go a long way toward improving the oft-criticized smart watch experience.
Other enhancements will include improved Smart Relay functionality, and likely other minor bug fixes that Samsung felt weren’t worth mentioning. No exact word on when to expect the upgrade, but we should be dancing with joy by the time our big Thanksgiving dinners have settled in our stomachs.