Skip to Main Content

U.S. Cellular's Samsung Galaxy S III Gets Jelly Bean Friday

U.S. Cellular will ring in the holidays with Friday's roll out of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to all Samsung Galaxy S III smartphones.

December 17, 2012

U.S. Cellular will ring in the holidays with Friday's rollout of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to all Samsung Galaxy S III smartphones.

The upgrade, U.S. Cellular said, "enhances the wireless experience by making the device faster, smoother and more responsive."

Jelly Bean comes with a number of new features, including a refined camera with built-in filters and a pause-and-resume option while recording video, as well as Easy Mode for first-time smartphone users and improved usability with multiple keyboard options.

Additionally, the new Google Now feature offers information any time — check rush-hour traffic or the subway schedule before leaving work, or find out the latest score of a sports game, delivered as a notification to your phone. Google Now also serves as a personal assistant, providing users with weather, maps, navigation, search, flight status, and other information, and can be launched directly from the lock screen shortcut, or with a long press on the menu button, from any screen.

Galaxy S III owners will soon have access to rich notifications, which can expand and shrink with a pinch, showing as much or as little information as the user wants. Other enhancements allow actions to be taken directly from the notifications platform, without having to launch an app first.

Customization will also get easier, with automatically resizing widgets to fit on the screen with other icons.

U.S. Cellular is the latest Samsung's carrier partner to receive the upgrade. Since the phone maker that it would be pushing Android 4.1 to its flagship Galaxy S III, , T-Mobile, , and have all begun offering their customers the latest Google OS.

On Friday, Galaxy S III users can visit the U.S. Cellular website for details on the upgrade process. Owners can upgrade wirelessly, or by connecting their device to a computer via USB cable.

For more, check out PCMag's . Also, see our smartphone and the slideshow above.