{"id":5841,"date":"2014-02-28T00:01:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T07:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2014-02-22T12:03:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T19:03:56","slug":"the-ordeal-of-updating-with-samsung-kies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=5841","title":{"rendered":"The Ordeal of Updating with Samsung Kies"},"content":{"rendered":"

It finally happened me. I’ve read about it, but didn’t believe it. Was it true? Do you really need to use a computer to update an Android phone? The answer is “yes,” if that phone happens to be a Samsung.
\n
\nI don’t know how I’ve escaped this misery until now. I’ve had my Galaxy Note II for a long time. It’s never needed an update as far as I could tell. But my new Galaxy Note 3, well, it tells a different update story.<\/p>\n

Normally, an Android phone updates itself. You can’t force an update, although you can check for updates by using the Settings app. That’s kind of fruitless, however, because unlike a computer, you<\/em> aren’t the one who choses when to update.<\/p>\n

Android phone updates are seeded either by the manufacturer or your cellular provider. The manufacturer mostly does firmware updates, which may not include a new version of the Android operating system. In fact, most manufacturers don’t update Android, preferring instead to install a new version with their newer phones.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, however, is that you can’t force an update. When it comes, it comes.<\/p>\n

My Galaxy Note III notified me of an update almost a week after I received the device. So I went about installing it by using the phone itself — you know, the normal way.<\/p>\n

It failed.<\/p>\n

\"Curse<\/a>

Curse you, Samsung!<\/p><\/div>\n

Apparently the only way to upgrade the device was to follow the suggestion on the screen and obtain the Samsung Kies program.<\/p>\n

I’m familiar with Kies, having written about it in several books. The Kies Air app is a nice way to synchronize files between your Samsung phone and a computer — without having to use the USB connection. It works well.<\/p>\n

Problem: The Galaxy Note 3 doesn’t come with Kies Air.<\/p>\n

To do any synchronizing and to update the phone, you have to connect it directly to a computer running the Kies 3 program, which must be downloaded from Samsung.<\/p>\n

Begin Rant<\/strong><\/p>\n

What the hell is the point of having a phone or tablet if you need a computer?<\/p>\n

I mean, seriously, Samsung: You just don’t get it. The phone should update itself. I realize that you probably want my name and email for your marketing purposes. Fine. Whatever. But a phone or a tablet should be its own unique device.<\/p>\n

End Rant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Granted, the Kies program is easy to get and install. It required a special USB driver for my PC, which I also had to download. Then, because the USB cable is slow (I don’t have USB 3.0 on my PC), it took over an hour<\/em> for the Galaxy Note 3 update to be downloaded, transferred, and installed.<\/p>\n

I like Samsung’s hardware. I don’t like Samsung’s silly apps. I refuse to sign up for a Samsung account. Again. I’ve already singed up once, but Samsung apparently lost my account — just like they lost the $40 worth of movies I purchased through the now-defunct Samsung Media Hub.<\/p>\n

Am I learning? What about other Samsung phone and tablet users probably enjoy the same hell I went through. How long can Samsung keep up this nonsense and maintain a stable user base?<\/p>\n

Oh, and the Galaxy Note 3 update ordeal killed the S Planner (Calendar) app. It also removed the feature that lets you sort the phone’s address book.<\/p>\n

Ugh<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike other Android phones, when you have a Samsung phone you’ll need a computer to upgrade the phone’s firmware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-android"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5862,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions\/5862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}