Samsung’s launching the Galaxy Note 3 in Australia today, and sadly it’s got the same stupid firmware bug that affects other Australian Samsung handsets. Samsung says it’s working on it, however.
A quick recap: If you buy a Samsung device internationally, it allows you to move the icons around in the favourite dock. If you buy a Samsung device in Australia, you’re explicitly blocked from doing so unless you install an alternate launcher, at which point you lose any optimisations Samsung throws into its own UI.
I asked Samsung Australia’s VP of Telecommunications Tyler McGee about the limitation, and he very carefully said that Samsung was “working on it” to come up with some kind of solution for Australian users. This suggests — and I’m guessing here — that it’s something tied up in legal red tape, rather than a software bug that they just can’t solve. There’s an obvious company that Samsung has tussled with in the Australian courts — and elsewhere. I wonder if it’s to do with them?
Did he say when they’ll fix it? What are your predictions? Also did you ask if it will add the shortcut on lock screen feature back to settings?