Happy days in Australia! TouchWiz dock can finally be customized

posted by Alan F. / Jun 13, 2014, 3:12 AM

From the Samsung Galaxy S III up until now, the TouchWiz dock was fixed in Australia

For some strange reason that Samsung has never explained, the TouchWiz dock has been locked down in Australia, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S III. In the most remote of Islands, users can customize the TouchWiz dock to add Chrome, a third party SMS app, or a third party camera app. But the poor TouchWiz users in Austraia have been blocked from being able to do this, stuck with the Phone, Contact, Messages, and Internet icons, in that order.

We're happy to report that those days of tyranny are gone in Australia. A new update has been sent out, and while it isn't clear yet exactly which models will receive it, those that do will now have a customizable TouchWiz dock. Apparently, at least one of the handsets receiving the update is the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Previously, Samsung owners in Australia had to turn to third party launches, such as Nova Launcher, available from the Google Play Store. But there are many who would rather load the update from Samsung. If you're on Wi-Fi, you might receive a notification to update your phone to receive the new (in Australia) feature. Otherwise, you can try to coax it out of your phone by going to Setting Menu > About Device >Software update. After all, why should Australians miss out on the fun that the rest of the planet is having?

source: TechRadar

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16 Comments

1. Miracles

Posts: 560; Member since: Aug 31, 2013

Thats odd, someone was on too much "koolaid" down there.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 3:27 AM 4

2. uchihakurtz

Posts: 427; Member since: Nov 12, 2012

It must've had something to do with the people being upside down in Australia, lol JK. I noticed how you can't change the dock too on my Dad's Vodafone Galaxy S2. The Launcher customization is weird compared to my Ace 2.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 3:37 AM 1

3. Cyberchum

Posts: 1013; Member since: Oct 24, 2012

They mad or what? Even apple dock can be customized.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 3:40 AM 3

4. Jason2k13

Posts: 1448; Member since: Mar 28, 2013

samsung trolling us aussies?

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 3:47 AM 3

5. nlbates66

Posts: 328; Member since: Aug 15, 2012

yes this was retarded, not long after I got my S III 4G though put a different region firmware on it to get rid of the optus rubbish.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 3:49 AM 0

6. FingerMyApple unregistered

fandroid finally break the cage of rectriction, so much freedom now :)

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 3:59 AM 2

8. ArtSim98

Posts: 3535; Member since: Dec 21, 2012

You're having much fun lately.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 4:18 AM 3

10. shuaibhere

Posts: 1986; Member since: Jul 07, 2012

All of sudden ifans started to talk customisation, freedom now... Which meant nothing to them before...

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 4:58 AM 8

7. Krjal

Posts: 415; Member since: Dec 19, 2013

God that was stupid. I mean I pretty much used custom roms from day 1 on my s3 but I had plenty of mates using stock Samsung with this problem. Made it hard to recommend versus HTC and LG recently.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 4:00 AM 0

9. dtn_93

Posts: 5; Member since: Jun 08, 2014

I flashed custom software on my Galaxy S III when I first got it, never noticed this.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 4:54 AM 0

11. gigaraga

Posts: 1454; Member since: Mar 29, 2013

Strange. Australia has the most strict operations on Samsung devices, especially the part where the shutter sound can't be turned off (true for my European Note 3 - annoying...really annoying) and now the dock can't be changed? Glad I'm not in Australia...

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 5:01 AM 3

12. hassoups

Posts: 473; Member since: Jun 06, 2013

S3,note 2 and note 3 and now s5 and I've never had nor heard of a problem like this. Might be something in other territories.

posted on Jun 13, 2014, 5:20 AM 0

13. hassoups

14. WinC76 unregistered

Australian Samsung Galaxy phones are the worst. They've had so many downgrades compared to the rest of the world. A lot of these came into action after the lawsuit with Apple a few years ago where Apple won. After that, we've had the dock locked down to those 4 icons. You can't just simply move shortcuts or widgets just by press and hold, you have to press the menu button then press edit then be able to cutomise the homescreen stuff. Last of all, you cannot auto rotate on the gallery app, you have to rotate your phone, then press the rotate button on the corner. Samsung Australia currently also has a horrible reputation with updates. None of the 2013 and older Galaxy phones (S4, Note II and 3 for example) even has the Kit Kat update yet and none of the carriers have even received the test firmware yet which makes you question what's wrong with Samsung down here. But I'm glad they're finally allowing you to modify the dock.