Android 4.3 for the Note II already in Samsung’s service centers, release imminent

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Published 11 Nov 2013

If your smartphone breaks, because either you dropped it on concrete or you just used it too hard, you have to take a trip to your local service center. According to SamMobile, someone in India recently had to get his Galaxy Note II serviced, so he took a stroll to his nearest service center and when he got it phone back, it was running Android 4.3. The build in question was signed on October 31st, which can only mean one thing: An over the air update should be days away.

What’s new in Android 4.3 on the Note II? From the preliminary screenshots, it looks like Samsung’s updated a bunch of icons to look more in line with what you see on the Galaxy Note III and the Galaxy S4. There’s also a transparent status bar, but the new “Air Command” feature that’s so loved in the Note III appears like it’ll be a Note III exclusive.

Was this a rushed release? Yes, and the answer has something to do with another Samsung product, the Galaxy Gear. Right now, that smartwatch can only pair with one smartphone, the Note III. This limitation isn’t arbitrary, it’s because Android 4.3 has additional APIs to handle notifications across multiple devices. Say you swipe away a text message on your Gear, you don’t want it appearing as new on your phone when you pull it out of your pocket later in the day, right?

Now as for the big question, when will your Note II get 4.3, like I said earlier, there’s a good probability it’ll happen by the end of this week. Those of you who are crazy about Android, however, are already rolling your eyes since you want Android 4.4 KitKat, and that’s probably going to take at least another two to three months.

Hopefully that update will have Air Command and more of the Note III features.