Sprint became the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer an Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean upgrade to its Samsung Galaxy SIII customers Thursday.
The update is already rolling out to SIII owners, the company said in a press release. When users become eligible for the over the air upgrade, their devices will automatically start the download.
Once the download is finished, all that's left to do is approve the install and watch it load, a process that does render phones disabled for a few minutes.
Samsung announced last week Jelly Bean for S3 was hitting the U.S. in the coming months, but stayed vague on specifics. Sprint, it seems, was finally ready to spill the (jelly) beans.
Features
The upgrade bumps the Galaxy SIII up with a bunch of new features, including an enhanced TouchWiz experience.
Google Now, expandable and "actionable" notifications that let users perform functions directly from the notifications shade and Android Beam are all part of the upgrade.
Camera enhancements like a new live camera and camcorder filters - ranging from "warm vintage" to vibrant "color highlights" - are also accessible from the main camera screen.
Another photog feature is a low light camera mode that utilizes the SIII's high dynamic range capabilities and creates an optimized mode for low light and indoor photos.
Easy Mode - aimed at first-time smartphone owners - provides large home screen widgets that focus on the essentials, while Blocking Mode can disable incoming calls, notifications, alarms and LED indicators for as much time as users desire.
Jelly Bean on the SIII also supports the AllShare Cast Wireless Hub, which lets users wirelessly mirror their phone screen to any HDTV or HDMI display, plus offers support for licensed content TV and movie playback.
Last but not least, the upgrade also includes NFC One Touch Pairing Support that pairs the device with NFC Bluetooth accessories "in a single touch."
