Well, this is awkward. While it was recently reported that Samsung removed the universal search feature from its international Galaxy S III devices, it turns out Samsung didn't mean to. Oops. According to the Korean manufacturer, the company only intended to remove the feature from certain US variants of the handset. Samsung told TechRadar, a UK-based tech publication, that the feature would be returning to the UK variant of the Galaxy S III. It's unclear if this means that it will only be returning to the UK variant, or if Samsung is simply informing TechRadar and the BBC of the versions relevant to their readers. The feature may very well reappear in all of the other countries where Samsung isn't currently facing bans on the sales of its products (read: anywhere but the US and probably Germany because those guys will ban anything, it seems).

It's a little confusing as to how Samsung could accidentally pull a feature from the entire world. While obviously the devices are very similar, it's unclear if it's simply that easy to accidentally apply a regional update worldwide, or if the company indeed was preparing to remove the feature just in case it became necessary in any other patent dispute with Apple. However, the larger takeaway is that Samsung isn't simply packing up its toys and going home. At least in some countries, the manufacturer not  only believes it has the right to use universal search, but also is not facing enough of a threat to back down on that belief just yet.

Source: BBC, TechRadar