Samsung announces Developer Edition of Galaxy S III on Verizon

Recently, Samsung and Verizon had angered Android enthusiasts, as customers who had pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy SIII and received them early had noticed that their phones came with a locked bootloader. This prevented the users from rooting their phones and installing custom unsigned ROMs. Though, an exploit was later discovered that allowed users to work around the protection and allowed them to root the phone.

Samsung announced that it will begin selling an unlocked Developer Edition of the Galaxy SIII that can be used on Verizon Wireless. The device costs $599 (about Rs. 32,899). The landing page for the Developer Edition is up on Samsung’s website.

Developer Edition coming soon.

There has been an isolated event in the past where Samsung’s flagship phone exploded, though later investigations revealed that an external energy source was the cause for the explosion of the device, which appeared to have heat-related damage. Samsung contracted Fire Investigations UK (FIUK), an independent third-party organization, to determine the exact cause of the damage inflicted on a Galaxy S III unit, which had allegedly been affected by heat. The damaged device and additional accessories were examined and exposed to a series to tests. The investigation summary states “the energy source responsible for generating the heat has been determined as external to the device” and “the device was not responsible for the cause of the fire.” Additionally, the investigation results state, “The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner’s damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave.”

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Besides this one off case, there has not been any other such issue with the Samsung Galaxy S III and to understand more on this device, here is a look at our review.

If one has missed out or just wants a quick look, here are the highlighted specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S III:

• Android 4.0 with TouchWiz
• 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos 4212 processor
• 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720
• 8MP camera with AF, LED flash, BSI sensor and 1080p HD video recording
• 1.9MP front camera with a resolution of 720p for video chat
• 16/32/64GB Internal memory, expandable upto 64GB
• 1GB RAM
• NFC, Wi-Fi, DLNA, GLONASS, micro-USB 2.0, HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0
• 2100 mAh battery