According to Tweakers.net, Samsung is reportedly aware of a “sudden death” issue with its flagship Galaxy S3 phone. For those not familiar, the “sudden death” issue popped up on forums like XDA a month or so ago in forum threads that have now exceeded the 100-page mark. “Sudden death” refers to the device dying out of no where, with no one initially able to figure out what the cause was. Most assume it has something to do with the motherboard of the device shorting out, leading to a depressing initial conclusion that there may not be a possible fix. That conclusion may not be correct. 

A couple of hours ago, Samsung’s USA Facebook page posted up a deal that could land you a free flip cover and set of TecTiles. All you have to do is register your Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2 through their Owners Hub Facebook app and they’ll send you an email with instructions on how to claim the freebies.

Along with the free goods, they’ll also toss in a coupon code to land you 50% off of accessories. Might want to take them up on this one.

Register Device

Via:  Samsung Mobile Facebook

Cheers Jim!

If for some reason our reviews weren’t enough to help you make your next smartphone or tablet purchase, feel free to check out this new video series that Verizon uploaded this morning. Each video runs about 2-minutes long and covers all of the top features of their most popular smartphones. You’ll see highlights for the Note 2, RAZR HD, DNA, Galaxy S3, etc. 

If you are the ROM developer type and you own a Galaxy S3 on Verizon, you’ll be pleased to learn that Samsung has made the source code available for it. And that’s about all there is to say about that. Developers, do work. ROM flashers, wait patiently.

Via:  Samsung | Android Police

In 2012, we saw the Android smartphone world reach heights that I don’t imagine many predicted. On a spec front, 2012 was the year of quad-core processors, 2GB of RAM, HD displays, longer battery lives, and incredibly thin bodies. It seems like just yesterday that we were asking DL readers if they had a dual-core or single-core phone, yet here we are, with dual-core phones already becoming a thing of the past.

On a manufacturer front, 2012 was the year that Samsung proved that it really was the only big fish in a bowl full of minnows. We saw Motorola kick off its life as a Google-owned company, HTC struggle to make money even while releasing amazing phones, and LG take its turn as the face of the Nexus phone program.

In this post, I thought we’d talk a bit about all of that by listing out my top 10 phones of the year. 

An official or “genuine” 3000mAh extended battery for the Samsung Galaxy S3 made an appearance today over at MobileFun, a UK smartphone retailer. It’s listed at $65, which isn’t cheap, especially since you can pick up a backup standard 2100mAh battery off of Amazon for as little as $10. But hey, if you aren’t in a position to carry around backup batteries, then maybe this beast is something you can’t put a price on. The version being sold has the matching blue back and is NFC-ready.

Anyone interested?

Via:  MobileFun | Phandroid

Yesterday, we saw some of the first CM10.1 nightly builds go live for devices like the Galaxy Nexus, with fingers crossed that we would start to see other devices join the list in the near future. Sure enough, other devices have joined the party, most notably is the Galaxy S3 in a variety of versions. If you cruise over to the Cyanogenmod site, you’ll find builds for the Galaxy S3 on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, along with the international i9300 version.

In order to flash CM10.1, don’t forget that you’ll need to be rooted with an unlocked bootloader. As a reminder, we posted the newest version of those instructions yesterday, a set that should help everyone that recently updated to Jelly Bean.

Via:  Cyanogenmod

Cheers jdhas!

The ongoing notification on most of Verizon’s new smartphones, oh how we despise you so. We still can’t figure out why Verizon decided to eliminate the quick WiFi toggle on some phones in favor of this pesky, non-removable ongoing notification, but that’s exactly what they have done. As long as you are away from home or work, even if you are miles away from the nearest WiFi network, Verizon has decided that your phone should constantly remind you that turning on WiFi would be awesome.