The Android 4.4 KitKat firmware update has begun to roll out to Samsung Galaxy Note 3 owners in Poland and Russia last week. Owners with the SM-N9005 and SM-900 model can now download the new software update by accessing the systems settings on the phablet smartphones. (Settings > More > About Device > Software update > Update.)
The Android 4.4 software rollout for the Galaxy Note 3 has finally begun, but it may be weeks, even months, before users in the United States receive this update. Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will have their own timeline respectively on when the firmware will be available on its network.
While the official international update to the Note 3 has already started in Poland, there is still no word on when the firmware upgrade will be available to Galaxy S4 or S3 owners. However, French carrier SFR stated that the Android 4.4 KitKat update will begin rolling out either in January or February.
So far, the only the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition has received the official Android 4.4 firmware update.
Nexus HTC One, Google's Nexus 4, 7 and 10, Moto X and Sony XPeria Z owners have all received the Android 4.4 update.
LG G2 owners can expect to receive an upgrade as early as March, according to LG Italy. LG France also confirmed that the update will be available in the first quarter of 2014.
The new features of Android 4.4 Kit Kat are as follows:
- Refreshed interface with translucent status and navigation bars on home screen and white status bar icons/text, ability for apps to trigger the translucent appearance.
- Optimizations for performance on devices with lower specifications, Low RAM device API
- Printing framework
- NFC Host Card Emulation for emulating smart cards
- WebViews based off Chromium (feature parity with Chrome 30)
- Expanded functionality for Notification listener services
- Public API for developing and managing text messaging clients, ability to specify a default SMS app.
- New framework for UI transitions
- Storage access framework for retrieving content and documents from other sources
- Sensor batching, Step Detector and Counter APIs
- "Immersive" full screen mode, software buttons and status bar accessed with an edge swipe gesture
- Audio tunneling, audio monitoring, loudness enhancer
- Built-in screen recording
- Native infrared blaster API
- Expanded accessibility APIs, system-level closed captioning settings
- New experimental runtime virtual machine, ART
