Samsung Galaxy S III gets its first OTA update, improves stability

Samsung’s latest flagship phone, the S III, has received its first official OTA (Over the Air) update, which improves stability. The phone’s firmware version is now updated to LF2 and the update is first being pushed to the UK unlocked handsets, so expect it to arrive here soon. The update is also being pushed through their Kies desktop client, so in case you’re not able to find an update OTA, be sure to install Kies and check if you have it. Samsung hasn’t dished out too many details about the update, other than the fact that it brings with it stability improvements. We didn’t really face any major stability issues when we reviewed the S III, so perhaps this is more of a ‘behind the scenes’ improvements.

Updates enroute

The successor to the very popular Galaxy S II, the S III ups the ante, not only for Samsung, but for Android smartphones as well. One of the main features of the S III is the Siri-esque voice recognition system, called S Voice. It also features Smart Stay, a technique that uses the front facing camera to track your eye movement, so it keeps the screen on for as long as you're looking at it. Pretty cool. Social Tag uses face recognition that scans the faces in your gallery and maps them to your friends on Facebook or other social media sites. S Beam lets you bond and share data instantly between two S III devices using a combination of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. AllShare Play uses DLNA to share your photos and videos on compatible TVs. Coming to the camera, it’s an 8MP shooter in the rear with a BSI sensor and a 1.9MP front facing camera. The camera also features new modes, like Burst Mode and Best Buddy mode. The S III will have TouchWiz running on top of ICS, so extra multimedia features, like DivX playback is possible out-of-the-box.

Here are some of the specifications of the phone:

• 3.8-inch capacity touchscreen display with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS and Wi-Fi capabilities for net access
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
• Bluetooth with A2DP and USB 2.0 (Micro)
• 8MP camera with LED flash and secondary camera up front
• FM radio
• 16GB internal + microSD card support for up to 64GB more memory