Australian carrier Telstra pushing out Jelly Bean update to Samsung Galaxy S3

Australian Samsung Galaxy S3 owners on the nations Telstra network have cause for celebration today. The carrier has begun what is a staggered Jelly Bean rollout that will see all devices become 'eligible' over the course of the next 14 days. Over on the Telstra support forums the details of how the update will roll out have been posted.

Just a quick one to let everyone know that the Galaxy S 3 Jelly Bean 4.1.1 update has commenced deployment early (as at 2:30PM EDT today). As with all Samsung updates the FOTA deployment is staggered. The “staggered” deployment means that the FOTA update will be progressively rolled out to customers over a two week period. The deployment schedule is:

Day 1-3 : 10k of devices selected at random to be eligible for update, users are either alerted via FOTA Push Message or by manually checking

Day 4-13: An additional 10% of devices are selected per day

Day 14: All devices are now eligible for update

The FOTA update should be downloaded via Wi-Fi as data usage charges will apply if downloaded via the mobile network. The update will be available to all customers via Kies from 2:30PM EDT Wednesday 19 December.

If you're rocking one of these, be sure to check your updates in the settings menu on your Galaxy S3, or plug into Kies. If you manage to grab the update, drop into the comments below, or our Samsung Galaxy S3 forums and share your thoughts with us. 

Source: AndroidCentral

Google launches their own Santa Tracker complete with Android application

NORAD might have deserted Google Maps this year in favour of Microsoft to power their Santa Tracker, but Google has gone ahead and come out with their own apps anyway. Santa Tracker is available to download now for both Android devices and for Google Chrome. Perfect for the kids -- and the big kids.

Naturally, at the moment the apps don't do a lot. All we see is a countdown screen as to when Santa will be taking off. The app should start working from 02:00 PST on Christmas Eve, as jolly old St Nick begins his global journey. When the app does kick into gear, we'll be treated to all kinds of Santa based information such as the number of presents delivered, his route plan, and when he'll depart in your part of the world. All this is displayed using Google Maps. 

And, if that's not enough, through the power of Google Voice, you can go and request a personal call from the big guy himself. That does seem limited to North America though -- but then, if Santa's using Google Voice, North America is all he can call.

Source: AndroidCentral