#1 is not a GS3 problem, it is a carrier problem specific to Vodafone, which had a marketing deal with Pizza Hut at the time of the GS3's release. Other carriers did not forcibly include undeletable Pizza Hut bookmarks.
All those complaining about Vodaphone S3 coming with a little bookmark which can't be deleted, and still somehow don't find Apple's crapware which can't be uninstalled too bad, two things:
1) That was really only the stock browser. You can very easily install much better browsers and make them the default - Chrome, Firefox, Dolphin browser. Isn't it amazing and unheard of in Apple's world?
2) And, FYI, you can still delete those bookmarks by a small trick, without rooting. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1707047
Is the Pizza Hut bookmark from Vodafone or Samsung? I have a Galaxy S 3 from T-Mobile and I don't have any bookmarks like that. It does have useless undeletable T-Mobile apps, but that's clearly T-Mobile's fault.
#2 is a link from September 2012. You mean this is still not fixed (as in >99% can update to a version that is fixed)?
Edit: "UPDATED 26 September: Samsung has told SlashGear that Galaxy S III users should ensure their phone is running the latest software as this resolves any issues:
'We would like to assure our customers that the recent security issue concerning the GALAXY S III
has already been resolved through a software update. We recommend all GALAXY S III customers to download the latest software update, which can be done quickly and easily via the Over-The-Air (OTA) service.'
Question: Is this OTA Update depending on whether providers let those updates through?
Regarding #2, that bug was fixed a year ago to the day, according to the very source you linked. I feel it's unfair to include what was clearly a mistake in the same category as deliberate malicious activity (#1 and the linked article)
I honestly thought this was a troll comment intended to show how ridiculous this sort of thing would be if region locking applied to printers. I was not pleased to find out that this is, actually, a thing.
My Samsung printer (ML2165W) has some similar stupidity.
I had to flash it to accept a toner bought elsewhere.
It caught me off guard, my previous laser printer (also Samsung) happily accepted other cartridges (I would have bought Samsung, but they were out of stock).
Reminds me of my Brother Printer/Fax/Scanner. Once ANY of the 4 ink carts is empty, you can no longer do ANYTHING. No scanning to a SD card, no outbound faxes, etc, until you replace the ink. Of course, there is a simple "tape over the holes" hack to get around this, but it's still lame.
Wow. This should be illegal or at least require labeling. Intentionally crippling a product in an obviously unexpected way should at least require disclosure.
I think that this is a great opportunity to clarify laws. There are a few EU countries that require phones to be SIM-unlocked at the end of contracts. The question is - will this fall foul of those laws, as people can use the device with other carriers in Europe but not outside? There will presumably be a court case around this (as it's the first one) and the result will probably force even more openness for EU citizens based on Neelie Kroes' previous successes.
Buy something else. Stat. It doesn't matter even if this is just a sticker put up by some product marketing idiot, it shows that they feel good about imposing these region-specific restrictions in a phone that operates according to a global standard.
The nexus devices are generally good about this sort of thing. Most of Samsung's other carrier-partnered phones are loaded with absolute crap anyway, this is another good reason not to buy them.
It shows that they are putting the interests of the carriers way above their customers'. Now, that's a business decision, they have their own priorities, and fiduciary duties to shareholders and all that, good for them. I'll just take my money elsewhere in the future (and I don't even care about being able to switch sim cards, really).
I recently went to the US for a few weeks. My Nexus 4 worked just fine with a US SIM from T-Mobile. $70 for a month for voice and data was worth it, and everything worked quite nicely. Big +1 for unlocked products!
And +1 for non-contract-friendly carriers like T-Mobile. Anytime someone bitches about their phone contract (here in US), I ask if they're willing to switch to TMO like I did.
Some have good reasons why (mainly coverage, tho TMO is getting better), others are forced to question their contract policy.
Right now I'm paying monthly at TMO what I paid on Verizon+AT&T for me and my wife - except I now get 3 other smartphones on the plan for the same price, all with their own 500M data pool.
Once the new phones are paid off (i.e. equipment loan), I'll be paying just a bit over what I did for just one of my lines for all five lines I'm paying today. And no other carrier in the US has HD Voice.
Pure speculation here, but my guess is that this has to do with different models being certified by different bodies. IE, perhaps the model sold in Europe is subtly different and hasn't passed FCC or some other certification for use in the states, ergo, they lock them to where they HAVE been certified.
Doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't buy it, but I don't think it is something that is done for some evil reason as some will jump to.
If it was a certification issue it would affect every mobile device by every device manufacturer. My guess is that this may be an attempt by Samsung to crack down on grey market imports of their devices. The author suggests it might be a requirement buy carriers, but again that would affect more than just one manufacturer. At the moment we're all just speculating.
Hmm.. Is that really a responsibility of a device manufacturer? If I build a weird radio here and get approval to use it, I can certainly take it to the US and operate there (unlicensed).
Heck, I can use just about every wifi device in 'EU' mode and operate outside of the limits of the US regulation, right?
If this is driven by carrier request, as the article speculates, then it is yet another example of how the mobile market is broken... Are phone manufacturers selling to consumers/end-users or are they selling to networks/providers? You can't do both, equally -- at least not at the moment -- because the carrier's interests and profit models generally directly conflict with the interests of consumers. Until the wireless industry works a bit harder to align themselves to the needs of their consumers, stuff like this is going to happen. The exception are models like Apple's where they've figured out how to consistently drive profits by focusing on the consumer and using the phone as a platform for selling other things (i.e.: apps and content like movies and music) -- the carriers are almost incidental in Apple's model. Almost.
> The exception are models like Apple's where they've figured out how to consistently drive profits by focusing on the consumer and using the phone as a platform for selling other things (i.e.: apps and content like movies and music) -- the carriers are almost incidental in Apple's model. Almost.
This is absolutely untrue. Apple's business model is to sell $650 phones to carriers, who then turn around and sell them to consumers for the same price as $350 dollar phones. This is why they have fantastic margins. If the carrier model ever goes away it would be bad news for Apple, who would have to compete on price to a greater extent than they do today.
Apple still works with the carriers quite a bit. For example, you can't turn on tethering unless the carrier allows it (often requiring you to pay more money), and most iPhones sold in the US are locked to a single carriers.
But who can blame them? Of the $650 cost of a new iPhone, the user only pays $200, while the carrier pays $450. Apple knows where their bread is buttered.
I own a Samsung Galaxy S4 - and had a similar message on my box - "This product is only compatible with a SIM-card issue from a mobile operator within the Americas (The North, South and Central Americas and the Caribbean)". However it works perfectly well with European SIM Cards (tested with both Spanish and UK SIMs).
I own a Galaxy Note 2 and decided quite soon after I would never buy Samsung again even though I think it is a great piece of hardware. The issue is they promised to release sources for certain drivers and never actually did, CyanogenMod said they would not officially support the device[1]. Samsung feel like an anti-consumer company, them pulling a stunt like this would not surprise me[2].
[1] Thankfully they did just recently release a stable version.
[2] I also made the same decision about Sony years ago when they released rootkits on their CD's.
Time for someone to create the most advance and far reaching global communication network using satellites, towers and other methods and charge everyone a small base fee for unlimited, global use. No contracts, no need for text, data etc packages, no need for roaming fees. Just one simple payment a month. Unlimited roaming, calling, data, texts, multimedia messages, voicemail, call forwarding, etc. Big communication companies of the day will die, as they should. Easy communication for all, no bs.
Looking at Twitter and at Google's first 50 results on Note 3, I can't help but wonder : is the marginal profit they expect from region-locking so high that it will pay for all the bad buzz?
At first sight, even though pricing differences exist between regions around the world, on this kind of products they are not that big, not to mention that that part of these price differences come from retailing alone...
So these differences must be big enough to justify alienating your early adopter userbase, thus endangering the whole adoption process, not to mention bad PR that will stick. When you try too hard to get every cent out of people and they start seeing it - and any locking of that kind screams "I'm going to get more juice out of this" - they generally don't like it.
It's probably to stop people from importing cheaper devices from other regions. Samsung wants the flexibility to price devices differently by region/market and that doesn't work if the consumer can import the cheapest one instead. This will probably continue to escalate because the way the market is heading prices have to get lower in expanding/poorer markets while customers in established/wealthier markets are willing to pay more. This is a side effect of trying to win the race to the bottom on price.
Samsung Germany issued a statement on the issue. Apparently, more flagships will be regionally locked, but users will get to unlock the phones at Samsung’s service centers.
I'm a software engineer and have worked on bringing some consumer products to market which have cellular radios. Even though the GSM standard is "Global", there are different frequency assignments in different nations. So getting the software to work on multiple carriers, and getting the antenna-array tuned to work on multiple frequencies are two unrelated tasks.
Usually the trade-off is device thickness. If you add another element to the antenna array you can make it work on both 700Mhz and 750Mhz. But if you try to tune for 725Mhz you'll get crap performance in all countries.
It isn't. The Note 3 has a list of blacklisted cellular operators outside your region, if you try to use a sim card created by one of them you get an error on the screen and it refuses to connect.
The leaflet is just a leaflet, the issue here is that Samsung have added software intentionally designed to block cross-region usage.
This is a great business model from the standpoint of making profits (less so from the standpoint of ethics or consumer satisfaction).
Most people don't travel internationally very frequently, and region locking is not something that's marketed, so they only discover it when they actually travel, and then they're forced to buy another phone!
Forget region locking, can't they inflate their profits further at their customers' expense if they just use GPS or tower location to deactivate the phone when the user gets 200 miles from home? That would increase your market from international travelers to domestic travelers...
[+] [-] nailer|12 years ago|reply
1. Galaxy S 3 includes undeletable Pizza Hut bookmark http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1707047
2. Galaxy custom web browser allows random web sites to make links that wipe and reset the phone: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/117422-samsung-galaxy-s-3-re...
[+] [-] gamblor956|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] piyush_soni|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eli|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m_mueller|12 years ago|reply
Edit: "UPDATED 26 September: Samsung has told SlashGear that Galaxy S III users should ensure their phone is running the latest software as this resolves any issues:
'We would like to assure our customers that the recent security issue concerning the GALAXY S III has already been resolved through a software update. We recommend all GALAXY S III customers to download the latest software update, which can be done quickly and easily via the Over-The-Air (OTA) service.'
Question: Is this OTA Update depending on whether providers let those updates through?
[+] [-] markbao|12 years ago|reply
Along with #1 and this article, I'm seriously baffled that any company can be this incompetent.
[+] [-] ZoFreX|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] panacea|12 years ago|reply
(Kinda Suprise banned in the US)
[+] [-] afterburner|12 years ago|reply
Never had the second problem.
[+] [-] edward|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rallison|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GFischer|12 years ago|reply
I had to flash it to accept a toner bought elsewhere.
It caught me off guard, my previous laser printer (also Samsung) happily accepted other cartridges (I would have bought Samsung, but they were out of stock).
[+] [-] georgeott|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] malandrew|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ISL|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bowlofpetunias|12 years ago|reply
Buying a new printer including cartridges would have been considerably cheaper.
[+] [-] rossjudson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] casca|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] parennoob|12 years ago|reply
The nexus devices are generally good about this sort of thing. Most of Samsung's other carrier-partnered phones are loaded with absolute crap anyway, this is another good reason not to buy them.
[+] [-] mercurial|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davidw|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reustle|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r00fus|12 years ago|reply
Some have good reasons why (mainly coverage, tho TMO is getting better), others are forced to question their contract policy.
Right now I'm paying monthly at TMO what I paid on Verizon+AT&T for me and my wife - except I now get 3 other smartphones on the plan for the same price, all with their own 500M data pool.
Once the new phones are paid off (i.e. equipment loan), I'll be paying just a bit over what I did for just one of my lines for all five lines I'm paying today. And no other carrier in the US has HD Voice.
[+] [-] nicpottier|12 years ago|reply
Doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't buy it, but I don't think it is something that is done for some evil reason as some will jump to.
[+] [-] simonh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codfrantic|12 years ago|reply
Possible, but it would still work in the states with a European Sim... So any problems it'd give the FCC wouldn't go away...
[+] [-] darklajid|12 years ago|reply
Heck, I can use just about every wifi device in 'EU' mode and operate outside of the limits of the US regulation, right?
I believe this is a dick move, nothing more.
[+] [-] incongruity|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Touche|12 years ago|reply
This is absolutely untrue. Apple's business model is to sell $650 phones to carriers, who then turn around and sell them to consumers for the same price as $350 dollar phones. This is why they have fantastic margins. If the carrier model ever goes away it would be bad news for Apple, who would have to compete on price to a greater extent than they do today.
[+] [-] mikeash|12 years ago|reply
But who can blame them? Of the $650 cost of a new iPhone, the user only pays $200, while the carrier pays $450. Apple knows where their bread is buttered.
[+] [-] oliverw|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrockway|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biafra|12 years ago|reply
But why Samsung? Why?
[+] [-] da_n|12 years ago|reply
[1] Thankfully they did just recently release a stable version.
[2] I also made the same decision about Sony years ago when they released rootkits on their CD's.
[+] [-] Fando|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antihero|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rapht|12 years ago|reply
At first sight, even though pricing differences exist between regions around the world, on this kind of products they are not that big, not to mention that that part of these price differences come from retailing alone...
So these differences must be big enough to justify alienating your early adopter userbase, thus endangering the whole adoption process, not to mention bad PR that will stick. When you try too hard to get every cent out of people and they start seeing it - and any locking of that kind screams "I'm going to get more juice out of this" - they generally don't like it.
[+] [-] Fuxy|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsz0|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sami36|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mikeb85|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UnoriginalGuy|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] th0br0|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biafra|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] livejamie|12 years ago|reply
http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-note-3-region-lock-s...
[+] [-] cbhl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mdcatlin|12 years ago|reply
Usually the trade-off is device thickness. If you add another element to the antenna array you can make it work on both 700Mhz and 750Mhz. But if you try to tune for 725Mhz you'll get crap performance in all countries.
[+] [-] UnoriginalGuy|12 years ago|reply
The leaflet is just a leaflet, the issue here is that Samsung have added software intentionally designed to block cross-region usage.
[+] [-] csense|12 years ago|reply
Most people don't travel internationally very frequently, and region locking is not something that's marketed, so they only discover it when they actually travel, and then they're forced to buy another phone!
Forget region locking, can't they inflate their profits further at their customers' expense if they just use GPS or tower location to deactivate the phone when the user gets 200 miles from home? That would increase your market from international travelers to domestic travelers...