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Even though it's been over a month since Google rolled out Android 13 on the stable channel, the update is officially only available on a handful of phones. But since the company has also uploaded the Android 13 source code to AOSP, the aftermarket development community has released custom ROMs based on Android 13 for quite a few devices. Earlier this month, developers on our forums released Android 13 custom ROMs for the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S8, and Galaxy Note 8. The ancient Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II are now getting the same treatment.
A developer got Android 12 booting on the legendary Samsung Galaxy S III
A developer achieved the amazing feat of booting an unofficial build of LineageOS 19.0 based on Android 12 on the Samsung Galaxy S III.
In recent days, we’ve informed you about a variety of official Android 12 updates. They all had one thing in common: Every update was delivered to devices that are currently supported by the respective OEM. But what happens with much older and unsupported smartphones? Do they gather dust? Not a chance at XDA.
After releasing official LineageOS 18.1 builds for the Google Pixel 5a, POCO M2 Pro, Moto One Vision, and Moto One Action in September, the LineageOS team has added several new phones to the official LineageOS 18.1 build roaster.
LineageOS 17.1 adds support for the OnePlus Nord, ASUS ZenFone 5Z, and more
Official LineageOS 17.1 builds are now available for the OnePlus Nord, the ASUS ZenFone 5Z, the Fairphone 3, and the Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo.
As the team behind the popular LineageOS distribution prepare their Android 11-based release, they continue to add new devices to the LineageOS 17.1 build roster. Today, the team added support for the OnePlus Nord, but in recent days, they've also added support for the ASUS ZenFone 5Z, the Fairphone 3, and the Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo.
The Samsung Galaxy S III & Galaxy Note II may succeed the legendary HTC HD2
The HTC HD2 was a legendary device that could run almost any operating system. The Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II may be the next devices to achieve the HD2's immortality.
Technology-oriented websites tend to focus only on the latest smartphones (and that includes us), but a large number of users choose not to upgrade their devices for one reason or another. Perhaps for financial reasons, there are hundreds of thousands of users who stick to older devices. Custom ROMs such as the now-defunct CyanogenMod have kept older smartphones alive for ages, but there comes a time when even unofficial support must end—for most devices, at least. The legendary HTC HD2 was launched in 2009 with Windows Mobile 6.5 at a time when Android 2.1 Eclair was the latest Android release, but the device has received ports of every version of Android up to Android 7.0 Nougat (not to mention multiple other operating systems.) Now, it appears that the HD2's torch will be passed on to the Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II.
Samsung Galaxy S III Receives a KitKat Update in Official and Unofficial Flavors
Samsung Galaxy S III gets a KitKat update: official version for Korean variant and unofficial for the international one.
A few months ago, Samsung decided not to update the Samsung Galaxy S III to the latest version of Android. The reason of this shameless behavior was pretty trivial since they were having issues with TouchWiz and its bloat-related heaviness. The international variant of S III has only 1 GB of RAM and we have seen KitKat ports running flawlessly on devices with 512 MB of RAM.
If you’ve been looking for a more interesting battery charging animation to replace the rather dull and conventional battery icon you have now, there are a wealth of options available ranging from battery mod compilations to 3rd party apps, and even a Windows tool. But if these options just don't seem to cut it for you and you’d rather create your own battery animation from scratch, you may want to check out XDA Recognized Contributor erikalin’s tutorial.
If you own a Samsung device, you have undoubtedly heard of the EFS partition. If you haven't, let me explain. EFS is a partition where quite a bit of important radio data is stored. Without this data, you won't be able to use your phone correctly. It's extremely important to keep a local copy of your EFS partition, and we've already presented a Windows utility and application to backup the EFS partition on Samsung devices.
Not many feature omissions have drawn as much ire in recent memory as the lack of USB Mass Storage. While Media Transfer Protocol has numerous advantages such as safer removal and simultaneous access from both your computer and mobile device, it's just not quite the same as directly mounting your device as standard USB storage. This is on top of the hoops that non-Windows users have to go through to access the storage in the first place.
It is not very often that we throw around the words "game changer." There have been a great deal of impressive developments here at XDA over the years. However, game changers are indeed a rarity. There have been a couple of recent breakthroughs on the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Camera, and other Samsung Exynos-based devices.
One of the first things many developers and users do when obtaining a new device or a new firmware update is figure out what's wrong with it. Fortunately for bug hunters (and unfortunately for everyone else) there is always something wrong, even with the most popular and polished devices. However, there is almost always a fix made available. Now, there is a fix for at least one of the WiFi roaming bugs for the Samsung Galaxy S III.
We brought you news of the international Samsung Galaxy S3 getting a leaked update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and it wasn't long before Samsung began the official Android 4.1.1 roll out to what is undoubtedly among the most successful smartphones of the year. Today, Samsung has released the latest official 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update for the device. It brings several new features, most notably one which we've already seen on the Galaxy Note II.
In this episode of XDA Developer TV, we show you how to root your Samsung Galaxy S III. The popularity of the Samsung Galaxy S III and its variants have produced a few rooting methods. There are many features you can gain by rooting your device. We present three step-by-step instructions on how to gain root access on your Samsung Galaxy S III using tools from the XDA Developers Forums.
The last time we brought you news about TWRP, it was to announce that TWRP 2.2.2 had been released. It had fixed a lot of bugs from the initial release of TWRP 2.2 and added a few new features. Very recently, TWRP has been updated again to version 2.3.
When it comes to fixing bricks, be they hard or soft bricks, we usually have our own way of doing things. Whether it is creating jigs to force phones into download mode or unbrick mods that bring dead phones back to life, we've always operated in such a way that we haven't really needed OEM support. That isn't to say that we wouldn't like OEM support, but they rarely hand out their repair guides.
Many Galaxy S II and III owners who do a lot of heavy gaming on their phones have run out of space for game data in internal storage. While both of these devices support external SD cards, there is no official method available to use that instead for the storage. Fortunately, there is an easy solution for this problem now with free tool DirectoryBind.
Having your SIM locked doesn't usually cause a lot of problems. Sure, it means you're stuck on whatever carrier you're currently on, but otherwise it doesn't really hinder things like root, flashing ROMs, etc. That isn't to say that unlocking the SIM isn't useful. Those who travel or simply want to remove carrier restrictions can benefit from SIM unlocking a device. Now, Samsung Galaxy S III owners can have their SIMs unlocked so that they may do as they please.
When flashing an AOSP ROM on a CDMA phone, it's a win-some lose-some affair. You gain the functionality that comes with a pure Android experience. However, you traditionally lose USB Modem and Diagnosis Mode on your device. For those who are unaware, USB Mode and Diagnosis Mode are accessed via codes you enter into the dialer. This is not only required to activate the phone on some networks, but also helpful in alleviating some problems like restoring your IMEI using QPST. However, for many Samsung devices, that is no longer a problem. Now, you can get all this functionality back without flashing back to a stock ROM.
Now that the bootloader has finally been unlocked for the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III, developers can focus on other things now. Namely, ROMs, kernels, mods, and coming up with fixes for bugs. One such bug that's been plaguing Verizon Galaxy S III users is a wipe bug, which can cause some issues with permissions set improperly.
That last thing you want to hear when submitting your device for a warranty repair is, "You rooted your device and broke the warranty so I can't help you. Enjoy your bricked device!" The tech in the store or at the repair center rarely knows exactly what was done, but they tend to pay attention to the status of your bootloader and if you have a rooted device and/or custom firmware. In the case of newer Samsung devices, after flashing a custom kernel, the screen displays a nice yellow triangle on boot signifying you've done something that the manufacturer didn't want you to.