14 DAY TRIAL // This week, South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung started to deliver a software update for the owners of Galaxy S III handsets around the world, providing them with a series of stability improvements.
Unfortunately, as soon as the update landed, users found out that they were no longer able to take advantage of the phone’s local search capabilities.
Basically, the search function would no longer find contacts, messages, files and the like on the smartphone, although it should have.
Many believed that Samsung did this on purpose, but it appears that it was all an error, and that a fix will arrive soon.
According to TechRadar, Samsung officially confirmed that the universal search (local + web) function on this Android-based device was removed by accident.
"The most recent software upgrade for the Galaxy S III in the UK included the inadvertent removal of the universal search function. Samsung will provide the correct software upgrade within the next few days," a company’s spokesperson reportedly said.
One thing that is certain is that the move seemed odd right from the beginning, as Samsung had no reason to remove the feature from the International flavor of the device.
In the US, however, things are a bit different. The universal search feature in Android was found to infringe on Apple’s patents in the country, and Google and Samsung had to remove it from a series of devices.
While no specific info on how the update accidentally landed on Galaxy S III units in Europe and elsewhere has emerged so far, the good news is that things will get back to normal very soon.
The fix should be delivered to all Galaxy S III owners via a new update, most probably set to land in the coming days over the air. As soon as it is be available for them, users will be informed on its availability.