Own a Samsung Galaxy S III on Sprint? If so, your Thursday is about to get quite a bit better. Sprint today announced that it will begin rolling out the Galaxy S III's update to Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean today, October 25. The update is software version L710VPLJ7 and brings with it Jelly Bean enhancements like Google Now and expandable notifications, as well as Samsung-added TouchWiz tweaks like camera enhancements and Blocking Mode. There are also improvements to the device's LTE system selection and Exchange interaction. Sprint's full changelog is available at the bottom of this post.
As Sprint proudly states (a couple of times, actually) in its announcement, it's the first U.S. carrier to roll out the Jelly Bean update to the Galaxy S III. It's good to see Android 4.1 hitting one of the U.S. Galaxy S III variants around a month after the international rollout began, especially when remembering some of the update woes that Samsung has had in the past. Here's to hoping that it's not long before other carriers follow in Sprint's steps and push out their own Jelly Bean updates. If you're rocking a Sprint Galaxy S III, be sure to give us a shout in the comments below when your update arrives!
Samsung Galaxy SIII Software Update - L710VPLJ7
Enhancements/Fixes
- LTE system selection improvements
- Exchange interaction improvements
Upgrade of the Google OS to Jellybean (Android 4.1.1)
- Accessibility
- Focus Feature
- Braille Support (via BrailleBack app)
- Calendar
- Event Colors supported
- Email guests with single tap when viewing event details
- Notifications display more event description
- Email guests without opening email app
- Quick response support ("Be there soon")
- User creation of customized quick responses
- Snooze event reminder from notification
- Data Usage
- Users can dismiss data warning usage warning without changing data threshold
- Disable background data usage on certain Wi-Fi SSIDs by designating them as mobile hotspots
- Face Unlock
- Improved accuracy via calibration of user face in different conditions (hat, glasses)
- Option to require a blink to verify user is not a photo
- Keyboard
- Dedicated language selector
- Swype
- Messaging & Talk
- Notifications now display full text of incoming messages
- Review full MMS from notification
- Notifications
- Notifications from same app are grouped together with first item expanded
- Pinch notifications to expand or collapse them
- Image preview in notifications after screenshot capture
- Share screenshot from notification
- Networking
- Wi-Fi protected setup supported with WPS push button and PIN support
- New setting allows user to stay on mobile and avoid Wi-Fi networks with poor connections
- People
- High-res photos from Google accounts are backed up and synced
- Add contacts to home screen from contacts details page
- Clear frequently contacted list from favorites tab in People app
- Phone
- Notification lets user return call or reply with SMS from missed call
- VVMs can be played from notification with single press
- One touch hang up during ongoing call via notification
- Settings
- Accounts displayed in primary settings view
- Google Privacy settings accessible from Settings
- System
- Long press Power Off to boot device to safe mode
- Reset App Preferences button added
- Text-to-speech
- Conversational text-to-speech voice in US English
- Voice Typing
- Voice typing without internet connection
Via Sprint
