Samsung pulls Galaxy S3 update as users moan: It's PANTS Samsung has suspended the Android 4.3 software upgrade for Brit Galaxy S3 owners after the over-the-air update borked a bunch of mobes. Irate Galaxy users took to the usual forums to complain noisily about the screwy upgrade, which has apparently been draining batteries like water through a sieve, kicking apps to the kerb and …
I'm not having any issues. Of course, that may be because I replaced my OS with cyanogenmod. Battery life improved, performance improved, and I don't have to put up with a huge bundle of crapware.
Samsung may be able to make nice phones, but they can't program their way out of a wet paper bag. I can't fathom why everyone is so gung ho about Samsung products. Seems to me that they're the new 'fashionable' company to buy from, in the same way that iPhone was so fashionable a few years ago.
+1
i find thier phones cheaply built. But also expensive. I think there rise to prominance was a combination of the galaxy s2, which for the time, was amazing and keenly prised and there sponsership of chealski football club.
There TV's are pretty damn good however.
Yes you are your Samsung spellchecker has died.
Please it is 'their' not thier, again 'their' not there, 'priced' not prised, again 'their' not there, 'sponsorship' not sponsership, again 'THEIR' not there and finally the plural of TV is TVs and not with an apostrophe.
Their TVs may have a decent picture, mine has, but the software and reliability is very poor IME. Of two Samsung TVs I have had or was responsible for. one LCD, one plasma, both failed in little more than a year in each case.
I replaced 4 boards in the 32in LCD to no avail (almost certainly the connection to the physical display was compromised). The plasma failed (just the HDMI inputs), the tech couldn't fix it, £250 required for a new motherboard. I bought a replacement and did it is myself for £50.
And, as for the software, the 'paper bag' comment above was correct. It can take 10s for the initial input selection dialog to appear sometimes. The 'Smart TV' system is truly garbage, hardly any apps are actually useful, they are slow to load for instance - I never use it, considerably more sensible to connect a laptop/PC with HDMI and just have the TV as a second display. Since the TV cost £1600 a couple of years ago, I would have expected considerably better performance and reliability.
IMO Samsung make great products from a hardware perspective, but their software is uniformly shockingly bad. The bloated, bug-ridden POS that is Kies is a case in point. It's a pity that more people don't know about CyanogenMod and just how easy it is now to install it, or other great custom ROMs like Paranoid Android, and get the Samsung crap off their phone.
Ah yes, Kies.
Seems like every time (which isn't that often) I find myself trying to use that it's got another bloody update waiting to install.
And when I say use...
Functionality. Virtually non-existent.
But yes, they do make good TVs (hardware-wise anyway), but their 'Smart' interface is decidedly slow.
Really s l o w.
I'd be on cyanogenmod too for my 9305 but the cyanogen app says my phone isnt supported :(
So My buggy s3 lte carrys on self dialling after sending a text, and being generally screwed up while my old cynaogenmod loaded San Francisco is still happily running.
Samsung software has certainly made me question if my next handset will be one of theirs!
Are you sure there isn't a version of Cynanogen for your phone? There may not be an official Cynanogen ROM, available from the Cyanogen website, but have you tried the S3 I9305 section over at XDA Developers? There is [ROM][GT-I9305][KitKat][4.4] CyanogenMod 11.0 Unofficial and [ROM][GT-I9305][JB][4.3.1] CyanogenMod 10.2 official nightlies which are just the first two I've plucked from the first page of that section of the forum so there may be many more, as well as other custom ROMs.
There was never an official Android port for my HTC HD2, as it came with Windows Mobile, nor a Cyanogen ROM for it, but thanks to the guys over at XDA Devs thats exactly what I've got on it now. Incidentally it gave my phone a new lease of life and its still going strong now.
Yeah I have the cyanogen software downloaded but when rooting the handset via busybox/odin (following the instructions to the letter) it wouldn't play nice. It just wouldn't - even someone who had a pain-free root session with his 9300 couldn't see why mine was being a total bitch. I have other things that have a huge call on my time right now so the project has stalled till the xmas break.
My advice to Android owners that I know is still the same... wherever possible... cyanogenmod is THE route to go.
Samsung Tvs are banned from this house, a low use 40" fried its motherboard @ 13 months and was replaced with the set I should have chosen first time round a Panny Plasma
Samsung just released one bad update.
Apple has released at least a dozen to correct numerous WiFi, camera, and manufacturing flaws over the years. They in turn caused more issues than they solved. I found these in 2 minutes. There are MANY more.
IOS7
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/worst-ios-7-features_n_3983244.html
http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/19/buyers-remorse-heres-how-to-go-back-to-ios-6-while-you-still-can/
IOS6
http://ios.wonderhowto.com/how-to/ios-6-broke-your-wi-fi-heres-fix-connection-problems-your-iphone-ipad-0139288/
http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4329482?start=45&tstart=0
IOS5
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3374367?start=120&tstart=0
IOS4
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/apple-should-advise-against-upgrading-iphone-3g-to-ios4/3640
I'm glad you have an iPhone. It marks you in the pub and lets me avoid you.
BTW - Definition of Smug: "self-righteously complacent:"
"Samsung just released one bad update."
i think that should read : Samsung released just one update and its bad."
no update issues before because they don't exist.
They might be able to pack a lot of bits into a plastic case, but they have never been a software company.
Watch them fall on this sword.
> I'm glad you have an iPhone. It marks you in the pub and lets me avoid you.
Excellent, job done. Yet another benefit of the iPhone. Gets better every day.
And my iPhone has got all the latest patches, as over the last two years and still not had any problems, not needed some alternative o/s.
Anonymous just to make sure you carry on avoiding me.
While you might be sitting there smugly with your modded Galaxy the other 95% who bought this device that think cyanogenmod is something from the Superman films have potentially had their device bricked.
The fact remains the top end Android handset manufacturers dont give a rats ass about the buyers once the phone has been sold or they've released a later model. As someone points out 4.4 is already out and they are only just releasing a very buggy and unstable 4.3 and Samsung are one of the better ones. Don't get me started on Sony....
Google should start trying to get more manufacturers on to stock android rather than their custom always outdated rubbish. The nexus 4 felt faster than my galaxy s4 due to all the crap running on here and god knows when I'll see the 4.4 upgrade. I could root it and use cyanogenmod but I shouldn't have to at these prices... I'd use the stock Google image they provide but that renders the hardware buttons like menu obsolete which is crazy...
Seriously tempted by Jolla for my next phone. Competition is what android needs right now
> after all, isn't that one of the advantages of having a replaceable battery and carrying spares around with you?
along with a replaceable 'phone and lots of pockets. hee-hee.
Just an idea: Get a decent quality 'phone that you can be reasonably confident will not need spares while you are out and about. Do you drive cars with a complete spare exhaust pipe, spare battery, spare brake linings in the boot too, when going to the shops or the seaside? I have had cars like that; never again and I do not ever want a mobile 'phone like that.
No, but when we go out in to the desert exploring, running GPS mapping ... it is quite handy to have a spare battery or 2 for INSTANT 100% recharge. Much like it is to carry a can of extra gas!
I guess not everyone lives in the desert though. But then you could always just go camping...
Whilst issues like this shouldn't really happen, and when they do the solution should be quick in coming, I'd be interested to get an idea on how many people are having trouble. My wife's phone was updated on the day the update was released with no issues. It wasn't until during the update I became aware of people having trouble, so was a bit nervous, but as I said no issues here.
... or at least the "shake to update" and "cover to silence" - my GS3 early morning alarms are fine but that's probably because the phone is open on the bedside table - I had noticed other audio notifications like diary reminders, messages and ring tones silenced early in with the case closed in my pocket, plus the battery drained about twice the speed as on 4.1.2. Then checking the Settings I found that the majority of the Motion options had been reactivated. Since turning most off I've not had any issues with audio notifications and the battery life is back up to nearly normal (still not perfect, but I don't have to charge twice a day unlike in the days after 4.3 arrived).
I experienced similar problems with my S3, particularly the 'slow to wake' issue where you are never sure if its going to wake up after pressing the power button.
Still, I've managed to fix it. Just had to goto the CyanogenMod website, download the new Windows installer and associated app from the play store, letting it install CM10 (4.3.1) in about 5 clicks. Plus, it doesn't have all the Samsung crapware which is only a bonus.
Well, it ought to be because the rigorous testing regime takes a bit of time and means they can't always have the latest version of the OS ready in a guaranteed-to-work package.
But seeing as they are just shovelling out a load of phone-wrecking crud I just don't know.
As is so often the case the user community is faster and better than the profit-making supplier.
Honestly samsung promised updates for the S3 so many times and they never came, yes we got a leaked copy of 4.2.2 which didn't have half of the stuff it was suppose to and was never made OTA official.
Then we get a 4.3 leaked update, which then were told the leak is the offical update, and guess what it doesnt work and half the apps promised were not there.
Ive upgrade to 4.3 (rooted) and burned through roms trying to find one that actually works properly hoping some developer had worked out samsungs mistake and patched it... sadly its not the case, so rather than downgrading back to 4.1.2 and sorting the head ache of an effs modem downgrade/restore out, im holding out hope samsung will actually pull their finger out and give us a 4.3 that works seeing as this was actually released to carriers and it started to get pushed out.
Honestly worst case they give us a stable 4.3 without all the extras from the s4 we were promised and i would be happy, but a little disappointing. If they give us the apps great, if they give us 4.4 even better, but this has to happen ASAP ie in the next week.
If they tell us they dont have the time to make 4.3 work and instead are going to release 4.4 in the first q next year im going to stop buying anymore samsung phones, recommending them to people and do everything i can to watch them burn....
Considering the S3 has the largest user base, how samsung has time and time again failed to give us updates to now finally slap is in the face with a half finished update that everyone who has flashed it have a problem that i can see is terrible.
I moved to samsung after htc stopped making phones that i wanted and instead tried to make android ishineys...
Im hoping the delay means they have decided 4.4 is a smart move and will instead bring the update release forward and forgo the awful 4.3 update, where as sadly a large part of me suspects the reason its taking so long to fix is they only have one developer working on the fix.
Pay attention samsung, your about to a very large percentage of your android userbase, make a proper statement and issue a fix... sooner rather than later..!
Sorry ran over.
May i just say that the amber update for nokia windows 8 phones went without a hitch....
Could this be because MS are on an uphill struggle and cant afford mistakes like this where as android and samsung, really dont give a rats arse. They will happily expect you to wait potentially months for the fix. Betcha there is no recompense for affected customers though...
Hopefully the fall out from this will teach them not to disregard their customers... Doubt it though now i have removed my rose tinted spectacles.
You mention android, but what has android got to do with this? Given that I have an i9300 and regularly update my AOKP ROM and haven't had issues. Is my phone hardware magically different to other people? Try looking at the crap installed by Samsung and others who put their crippleware on top of android. AOSP is android, don't confuse this with buggy bloatwared versions.
I'm having all the problems that others are getting. Battery life is screwed, wake up from lock takes forever (if it works at all) and apps are crashing or just generally refusing to work. I can't listen to music, watch videos or take pictures. The one thing it can still do, thankfully, is make calls and send texts, so its not a complete brick. If Samsung don't release a fix in the next few days I'll take it back to Phones4U and insist on a swap out.
This is DIABOLICAL behavior for a multinational hardware company.
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