Samsung Galaxy S III expected in February 2012

As the year comes to an end, it’s time to look forward to 2012 and mobile fanatics will be excited to hear about Samsung’s plans for early next year. Unwiredview is carrying a news that claims Samsung will most likely be launching their next big handset - Galaxy S III in February, this coming year. The hardware likely to power the S III will be a quad-core processor. The last round of rumours claimed that Samsung would use a dual-core processor, like the S II, but one that operates at 1.8 GHz. It’s known that Samsung is already working on a quad-core processor, which will be part of the Exynos series of SoCs. There are other improvements expected as well - a 1280x720 Super AMOLED display and LTE support. It will ship with the latest Android - Ice Cream Sandwich.

There’s more from Samsung. A 3D version of the Galaxy is expected and it’s likely to be called the Galaxy S 3D. A 3D display is likely along with support for 3D video and photo shooting. The 3D fever seems to be hitting mobile phones and Samsung hadn’t jumped onboard the bandwagon. LG was one of the few companies to make the move to 3D phones earlier with their Optimus 3D. A whole bunch of phones will be shown off at MWC 2012 (Mobile World Congress 2012) in early February and Samsung will most definitely show off their new hardware then.

Source : Samsung Galaxy S III expected in February 2012

Experimental CyanogenMOD 9 port brings ICS update for Motorola Defy

Motorola Defy users can now upgrade to the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform via an experimental build available at the XDA developers' forum. The experimental CyanogenMOD 9 port comes with various unfixed bugs, therefore users may have to wait to get a fully functional platform. Majority of important functions such as touchscreen, USB, Wi-Fi and hardware components are reported to be working fine excluding the camera and other some minor snags.

The build is recommended for only advanced users. To install the port, one needs CM7.1 stable ROM or nightly and then boot in recovery to flash the ICS build.

Users looking to update their Motorola DEFY devices should visit this forum at the XDA Developer’s site.

Source : Experimental CyanogenMOD 9 port brings ICS update for Motorola Defy

Android 4 ICS update for Sony Ericsson devices in early 2012

Sony Ericsson has officially confirmed its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule – it's arriving in early 2012. The first devices to receive the ICS update are Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray. Other Sony Ericsson devices such as the original Arc, the Xperia Play, original Neo and the Xperia Mini and Mini Pro duo - plus the Xperia Active and Live with Walkman are also slated to get the ICS update by March/April 2012.

"Our developers are now busy merging our current Xperia software with the new features in Android 4.0," Sony Ericsson said in a blog post. The company also points out that the update will be rolled out over several weeks. Thus, update will not be available at the same time, users will have to wait for their turn. Sony Ericsson has also posted a separate blog to explain the upgrade plans.

The Xperia users will receive a notification on their devices once the ICS is ready for the installation. The update would be made available for download via 3G or Wi-Fi. The update will also be accessible to users, who want to connect their device to the PC.

Moreover, Sony Ericsson will also be rolling out the update to its recently launched tablets – Sony Tablet S and Tablet P. However, the company has not yet revealed when the update will arrive for these tablets. Sony made the announcement at its U.K. community forums.

Source : Android 4 ICS update for Sony Ericsson devices in early 2012

Kindle Fire Hack Installs Ice Cream Sandwich

Amazon's Kindle Fire is not only a great way to access Amazon content, soon it may also be a cheap way to get your hands on a tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android. JackpotClavin, a hacker on the xda developer forum, has released what is being dubbed as a pre-alpha build of Ice Cream Sandwich for the Kindle Fire. But as the term "pre-alpha" suggests this release is still a little buggy and is really targeted for developers who want to help improve how Google’s operating system works on the Kindle Fire.

Some of the various bugs and issues popping up include a problem with mounting SD cards, and the blog Liliputing says Ice Cream Sandwich on the Fire has problems rendering video. Nevertheless, this latest Fire hack appears to be promising and if the project continues, the $199 Fire could be a better option for a cheap Ice Cream Sandwich tablet than the $99 Novo7.

If you'd like to give ICS on the Fire a try, keep in mind that this release is targeted primarily at developers. If you're feeling daring, you can find ICS for the Fire on this xda thread. JackpotClavin's version of Ice Cream Sandwich for the Fire is based on CyanogenMod 9, according to Liliputing. CyanogenMod is a popular version of Android for people willing to root (gain administrative control) over their devices. The current stable build of CyanogenMod is version 7 based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Ever since Amazon released the Kindle Fire in November, hackers have been hard at work getting the device to run unofficial software. Just two days after Amazon's media tablet started shipping hackers were able to root the Fire. A recently released app called Kindle Fire Utility, a command line interface for the Amazon tablet, can also be used to root your device

Source : Kindle Fire Hack Installs Ice Cream Sandwich

Samsung Galaxy devices to get Android 4 ICS update by Q1 2012

Samsung has already announced its plans to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich update to its Galaxy devices. However, it did not then provide any time-table for the roll-out. According to the latest reports, the company has now confirmed that it will update the Samsung S II and Galaxy Note to the latest Android OS by the first quarter of 2012. Apart from the S II and Note, Samsung will be rolling out Android 4.0 ICS update to the he Galaxy R, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7, and Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

Meanwhile, SlashGear reports that Samsung has held back Android 4.0 updates for Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus. It further says that the company was holding the update to “monitor feedback”, after several users complained about the high battery drain. The reported glitch can also be associated with a recent update to Android 4.0 Galaxy Nexus. The Galaxy Nexus users had earlier complained about similar problems.

Earlier this month, Motorola said that it would announce next month which of its devices would be getting the upgrade and when. Back in November, LG had announced that the ICS update would be available for the Optimus 2X, the Optimus Black, the Optimus 3D and the Optimus LTE, but did not reveal exactly when that would take place. Huawei Honor is also arriving in February with the ICS OS.

It appears that all the smartphone players are pushing for most of their top handsets to get the ICS. It will be interesting to see which of the manufacturers make most of the ICS update in near future.

Source : Samsung Galaxy devices to get Android 4 ICS update by Q1 2012

Ice Cream Sandwich for LG Phones in Mid-2012

Android 4, also known as Ice Crean Sandwich, will be coming to a number of LG smartphones sometime in the middle of next year, according to a post on the company's Facebook page. According to LG, the company will begin introducing updates to Ice Cream Sandwich in the second and third quarters of 2012 (that's April-September) to select smartphones, with a "global roll out" following sometime thereafter.

According to the posting, the following LG phones will get Ice Cream Sandwich during the second quarter (April-June) of 2012:

• Optimus LTE
• Prada by LG 3.0
• Optimus 2X
• Optimus Sol
• myTouch Q
• Eclipse

LG will update five more phones in the third quarter (July-September) to Google's latest tasty mobile OS treat:

• Optimus 3D
• Optimus Black
• Optimus Big
• Optimus Q2
• Optimus EX

One thing to note here: Armando Rodriguez, PCWorld's resident Android expert, points out that the phones LG lists are all European versions of the phones, not US versions. Some LG phones go by different names in the US, though (as Cnet notes, the Optimus LTE goes by the AT&T Nitro HD in the US, for instance), so it may be possible that US versions of these phones will get the update too.

Still, if you're in the US, you may want to double-check with your carrier to see whether or not your LG phone will be getting Ice Crean Sandwich.

If you don't want to wait for LG to release an update and you're not afraid to hack your phone, keep an eye out for the upcoming CyanogenMod 9, a custom variant of Android (also known as a "ROM") for rooted Android phones. CyanogenMod 9 will be based on Ice Cream Sandwich, and it should be out sometime in January. The catch: We don't yet know for sure what hardware CyanogenMod 9 will support--the current release supports only two LG models as of this writing. Check the CyanogenMod blog for ongoing updates on future releases.

Source : Ice Cream Sandwich for LG Phones in Mid-2012