AT&T and Sprint Disabling Samsung Galaxy S III Universal Search with OTA Updates

Bad news for those of you who own a Samsung Galaxy S III on either AT&T or Sprint (for now, at least). It looks like updates are being pushed out to both carriers’ versions of the device that remove the ability to use Google Search to search for on-device content.

Of course, we can more than likely thank Apple for this, as the two electronics makers have been engaged in a heated ongoing legal battle to contend for sole ownership of the smartphone world and everyone’s souls who live in it. I’m sure the on-device search functionality caused somebody to act like somebody else pissed in their Corn Flakes along the way, so now the consumer is forced to suffer.

For now, I’d suggest holding off before you update your phone, unless you don’t really care about this functionality; in that case, update away. We’re hoping someone over at XDA will come up with a workaround, but only time will tell there.

Now, that only leaves T-Mobile and Verizon, both of which we’ve heard nothing about any OTA updates for just yet, but we’ll definitely be sure to let you know if we do. Stay tuned.

Via: The Verge