Samsung's popular Galaxy S3 smartphone was hit by a wave of bad publicity recently when it was found to have a major security flaw as well as motherboard issues. Luckily, the South Korean manufacturer seems to have taken note and has released a software update that supposedly patches up both problems.
The update, I9300XXELLA, has started rolling out OTA in certain regions around the world, according to reports, and is also available for download through Samsung KIES. Website SamMobile states that it can confirm the update fixes the Exynos security exploit and believes that the "sudden death" motherboard issue is fixed as well.
The Exynos security exploit was discovered back in December when it was found out that a loophole in the Exynos chipset meant apps could access private data with little hassle. The security problem only applies to international Galaxy S3 variants, as the U.S. Galaxy S3 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
The motherboard issue caused Galaxy S3s to suddenly die, and it looks like the update takes care of that as well. For more details on the "sudden death" issue, visit the XDA thread where users reported the problem. Dutch Samsung representatives have essentially confirmed the issue, and SamMobile claims that update I9300XXELLA fixes it since it ships with new bootloaders.
Samsung has been addressing other Galaxy S3 concerns as well by releasing an official bigger battery for the Galaxy S3. The battery, available for $65, is larger than the stock Galaxy S3 by around 43 percent, allowing for a full day's use.
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