Samsung rolls out an update to the Galaxy Note, and no, it's not Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Samsung issued an update for the Galaxy Note 5.3" monster of a phone, and some usability tweaks are in store, taking advantage of that massive screen real estate.

The most clever change is a new five-row virtual keyboard, which has the numbers constantly on top, instead of having to enter punctuation mode every time you need to key in the bid in your eBay shopping spree.

There are shrunk keyboard and dialpad modes now as well, which helps immensely when you are struggling to use the phone with one hand, and, lo and behold, it's a struggle with a phone like the Note.

Other enhancements include a larger lock in the lock screen, which you now have to move only slightly to get to the homescreen, instead of having to drag the thing across half the entire giant display before.

There are also arrows that point which way to move it to unlock, in case you are a first-timer.

The laundry list continues with separate settings for brightness and background color for the browser, which should help with battery life, additional date display modes in Calendar, and a dedicated torch widget for your homescreens. This way you can easily use the phone's screen as a torch, with three levels of brightness available by pressing the torch button.

Well, it's not the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update, but it shouldn't be far behind, as Samsung mentioned it will be out this quarter.

source: Theunwired