AT&T and Sprint are rolling out an update for the Samsung Galaxy S III that will remove the universal search bar, limiting the search functionality to web and not including locally-installed stuff like apps, contacts and messages.
It is said that the move is related to Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung, which prompted Google and the Korean giant to release a software patch for the Galaxy Nexus that removes the very same feature. So it’s likely that Samsung is acting before Apple lawyers make them do the same thing.
Now, I understand Apple needs to protect its intellectual property, but this hurts Android users. Then again, thanks to the platform’s openness, you can easily get back the universal search capability with good folks of XDA-Developers already releasing the app which can be installed on any Galaxy S III. Proceed to this page and carefully read instructions before doing anything stupid. It should be a quick process but you never know. 😉
[Via: TheVerge]