The Galaxy Note 3 finally received an official upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat earlier this month, but it appears that the latest software update may come at a price. SamMobile reports that the upgrade Samsung recently began pushing out not only improves the software, it also blocks third-party accessories from syncing with the phablet.
In an official statement to German tech blog AllAboutSamsung, the South Korean company denies intentionally blocking non-official accessories, but also recommends buying its own products to avoid future issues.
To ensure a pleasant and smooth user experience with Samsung products for our customers, we recommend that only original accessories from Samsung should be used. Of course, customers can continue to rely on third-party accessories. The full functionality of our devices and accessories, however, can only be ensured with genuine Samsung components, since only in this way is it ensured that equipment and accessories are perfectly matched. A correlation between the Android version 4.4 and the supposed incompatibility of third-party accessories does not exist.
Samsung may deny purposefully blocking third-party accessories in an attempt to sell more of its own, but the evidence appears to be stacked against it. Either the company purposefully pushed out the block or it accidentally released a buggy version of a major software update for one of its most popular smartphones. Neither option is great.
Thankfully, one intrepid hacker has already uncovered a fix for the issue, which is detailed in a post on the XDA-Developers forum. Then again, if you’re not comfortable modifying your phone, and don’t feel like throwing out your Galaxy Note 3 accessories, you can also just ignore the update entirely. TechnoBuffalo reached out to Samsung but a representative was not immediately available for comment.
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