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KitKat now rolling out to Sprint’s Samsung Galaxy S3

Sprint-GS3

If you’re a Sprint customer still rocking a Samsung Galaxy S3, you’ll be glad to know that Android 4.4 is on its way. Today, the carrier is rolling out a new software push for the legacy smartphone, but warns customers that it may take several days for the update to reach every Galaxy S3 on its network. Sprint’s changelog didn’t provide many details about this new release, only noting that software version L710VPUCND8 will bump the handset up to KiKat.

If you’re somehow unfamiliar with Android 4.4, you can expect a snappier performance, improved memory management, translucent status bars, and a snazzy immersive mode that puts a device in a fullscreen view. If you haven’t received an over-the-air notification, you can try to manually initiate the update process by tapping Settings> System Update> Update Samsung Software> Check Now. 

Remember, all updates aren’t created equally, so if you’ve already pulled down this new software, be sure to let us know how it’s treating you and your GS3.

(via Sprint)

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Study suggests Samsung smartphone owners avoid pre-installed apps like the plague

S Voice

Samsung’s smartphones might be selling like gangbusters, but consumers don’t seem to care much for the company’s homegrown app suite, according to a new report. Research firm Strategy Analytics recently polled over 250 Galaxy S3 and S4 users and concluded that Samsung device users spent around seven minutes a month using their phone’s pre-installed bloatware.

In comparison, GS3 and GS4 owners used Facebook for around 11 hours per month alone. Samsung’s S Voice software averaged less than five minutes of monthly use across both devices, however the least used of Samsung’s native applications was the company’s ChatOn messaging service. It only averaged six seconds of use per month, which means that a large portions of its users could have accidentally launched the app.

Despite their lack of popularity, most of Samsung’s pre-installed apps cannot be uninstalled without a serious workaround or the purchase of a Google Play Edition device. There’s no denying that Samsung has sold a lot of smartphones, but the company may want to revise some of its software or at least give consumers the option to remove unwanted applications from their devices.