If you’re a T-mobile user and you own a Galaxy S IV, chances are you might have had to deal with your friends on US Cellular or AT&T rubbing it in your face that they’ve already gotten the update to Jelly Bean 4.3. Well today is your lucky day because the T-mobile Samsung Galaxy S IV has begun receiving the rollout of the 4.3 update as of this morning. Just to be completely clear, even though the update has begun rolling out, that absolutely does not mean that your device will start to see the update notification pop up in your status bar. It’s possible, and even likely. Not a guarantee though.
Now that that’s all covered let’s go over what the update brings with it. First off, it comes with shiny new galaxy gear support. So for those of you that have already purchased a Galaxy Gear smartwatch or are patiently waiting for the moment your phone will be able to talk to one before you buy, your time is now. Add the galaxy gear to your Christmas list, go out and splurge, or retrieve it from its box and turn that bad boy on because as soon as your update is finished, the Galaxy S4 will now support the galaxy gear.
Aside from galaxy gear support, this update (which is labeled as M919UVUEMK2) also brings with it KNOX security which makes things a whole lot easier for companies to accept your device as something secure enough to handle anything that needs to be encrypted. We wrote about KNOX before when the Note II on Sprint began receiving its 4.3 update, which included pretty much the same stuff. You can learn more about KNOX here if you wish at this link, which also has the KNOX keynote from the Samsung developers conference for those who are interested.
The update itself is a rather large one, so be prepared to give it some time if you begin the update and make sure that you have some decent battery life so it doesn’t die in the middle of the process. At 781 MB, either connect your phone to WiFi for a speedier download if possible or be prepared to wait. If you are like me and don’t care for the waiting game sometimes, you can still load this update onto your device via the Samsung KIES software which is relatively painless and user-friendly, instead of waiting for the OTA to show up on your phone. Congrats S IV users, welcome to the 4.3 club. It’s about time.