If you subscribe to Sprint service and you own a Galaxy Note II, chances are you’re still stuck on Android 4.2(rooted or not). If that is the case than today is your lucky day because Samsung has pushed the updates for Jelly Bean out to Sprint model Galaxy Note II devices as of this morning, and that’s not all.
Along with the over-the-air update to the latest version of Jelly Bean, Samsung and Sprint are also rolling out device support for the Galaxy Gear so you can adorn yourself with a supercool new smartwatch, and actually be able to use it with your device. In addition to those two major updates, you’ll also receive Samsung Knox compatibility which is part of Samsung’s solution to workplace and enterprise security for their Android smartphones. You can learn more as well as check out the KNOX keynote from the Samsung developers conference here if you’re interested.
Some smaller but still undoubtedly noticeable tweaks and fixes that you can expect to see with these updates are HD voice enhancements which should give you better sound quality with calls, as well as some minor UI tweaks at an attempt to bring the Galaxy Note II forward in the design department. Samsung wants your Note II to look more like the Samsung Galaxy S IV and Note III, and why shouldn’t they? It gives their products a more mainstream look within the phones UI, and lets face it you probably won’t be complaining about the UI updates either.All of this information is great news for everyone who has been patiently waiting for the update, for some though it may fall on deaf ears as you might have updated to the newest version of Android some time ago via the root and ROM process. Not everyone is comfortable with diving into those waters however so the update is certainly a welcome one. Speaking of root users, just like all OTA updates, make sure to do yourself a solid and backup your phone image ASAP, before you update as it’s to be expected that your root will be wiped clean off the map afterwards.
You can do your backups a number of ways, but the easiest and most familiar is probably through your custom recovery or through an app like ROM manager. It’s also worth noting that while this update is starting today and rolling out incrementally, there may not be a workaround yet to get root back after the update if you lose it in the first place. Waiting until a fix pops up from someone in the development community isn’t required obviously but it is a strong recommendation if you want to keep your root privileges. To all others, spam those update buttons in settings if you have nothing better to do. 4.3 updates imminent!!!