Person Holds a Samsung Galaxy S4 Displaying a Twitter Error Message in Front of Turkish National Flag in This Illustration Taken in Zenica
A person holds a Samsung Galaxy S4 displaying a Twitter error message in front of Turkish national flag in this illustration taken in Zenica, March 21, 2014. Turkey's courts have blocked access to Twitter a little over a week before elections as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan battles a corruption scandal that has seen social media awash with alleged evidence of government wrongdoing. The ban came hours after a defiant Erdogan, on the campaign trail ahead of key March 30 local elections, vowed to "wipe out" Twitter and said he did not care what the international community had to say about it. REUTERS

Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE users will be pleased to find out that they can update their devices to both Android 4.4.2 and Android 4.4.4 KitKat. The Android 4.4.4 KitKat update is available via custom ROM whereas the Android 4.4.2 will be released as OTA. Access on the official Android 4.4.2 firmware may be varying as Android and Samsung always release the update in stages. Some users may get early access while others will have to wait for their carriers to issue the software.

The Android 4.4.4 KitKat update came from the ProBAM team. The team has been known for releasing custom ROMs. The new firmare is based on the AOSB (ProBAM) v1.3.6 ROM. It is compatible with the Galaxy S4 LTE (GT-I9505) international variant. The official firmware from Samsung should come sometime soon but for those who want to get a taste of it already can proceed with the ROM.

More importantly, the AOSB ROM provided follows the Open Source Blitz Project. This offers a combination of KitKat features based from well known updates or custom ROMS like AOSP, Slim, AOKP, Cyanogenmod 11 including ParanoidAndroid. XDA Developers forum provides some of the features that people can expect from the AOSB:

  • OTA Support
  • Android-4.4.3 r1.1 KTU84L
  • AOSB Feature: Custom SmoothProgressBar with v0.4 API
  • AOSB Feature: Control and customize "Toast Animation"
  • AOSB Recent App with HTC Style
  • AOSB Power Saver Manager
  • Battery Saver mode included what user do to saving the battery life
  • PA PEEK Notification with wake timeout && configurable timeout
  • Launch as Floating notification from anywhere
  • New CM Theme Engine

Users can head over to the XDA forum to view more details about the custom ROM. On another note, Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A users can also update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat. According to a report by Android Origin, Samsung will be rolling out the firmware gradually to the LTE-A models. So far, the roll out has started in Finland and Sweden. It should be just a matter of time before it hits other regions and users under other carriers. Users may have to clarify with their providers for additional fixes as some have reported experiencing battery drain and WiFi problems upon updating.