If you are carrying around a Motorola XYBOARD Wifi Edition version 10.1 or 8.2, the update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is now available. Motorola has started rolling out the update today so when you have time go ahead and connect to Wifi (as if you have another way) and get the update. The update seems to be a standard Android 4.0 ICS update although if you want more information read on.

Motorola XYBOARD Android 4.0 ICS Update Features:

• Updated Browser with faster rendering, zoom and pan: Users can also now save pages for offline reading and request desktop versions of websites.
• Swipe to dismiss notifications and recent apps: You can now dismiss individual notifications and apps from the Recent Apps list with a simple swipe of a finger.
• Redesigned app launcher: In All Apps launcher, you can now simply drag an app to get information about it, immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.
• New System Font for Improved Readability: An entirely new typeface (called Roboto) optimized for high resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished feel to the user interface.
• Updated “People” Application: Replaces contacts and integrates seamlessly with Google+ and other social networks.
• Improved text input and spell-checking: The keyboard now features improved accuracy to make text input faster. It also now includes an in-line spell checker to make corrections easier.
• Type with your voice: Now you can simply touch the microphone on the keyboard and start talking to write emails, or any other text—more than 20 languages supported. Text appears in real time, so there’s no waiting for server processing.
• Richer and versatile imaging capabilities: For new flexibility and convenience while shooting video, you can now take snapshots at full video resolution just by tapping the screen as video continues to record. For capturing larger scenes, the camera introduces a single motion panorama mode. You can also launch camera directly from the Lockscreen. When you shoot videos, you can now choose from a number of silly faces and other fun effects which recognize individual facial features so you can give your friends big eyes, squeeze heads, make noses bigger, or change the scenery with background replacement.
• Redesigned Gallery app with photo editor: To help pictures look their best, the Gallery now offers a powerful photo editor so you can crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and much more.
• Richer, resizable widgets: You can expand widgets to show more content, or shrink them to save space.
• Quicker screen rotation
• A new setting to choose whether the power button immediately locks the device or not: shows up only when you have a pattern, PIN or password lock, it then lets you set a timer for how long it takes to lock after pressing the sleep button.
• Microsoft Exchange improvements with additional EAS policies
• Improved stability
• Face Unlock: Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets you unlock your device with your face. It takes advantage of the device front-facing camera and state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face during setup and then to recognize it again when unlocking the device. Just hold your device in front of your face to unlock, or use back up PIN or pattern.

Along with the enhancements to the 10.1 and 8.2 Wifi versions of the Motorola XYBOARD you should notice quite a few bug fixes on both devices. There is still no date given for the Verizon 4G LTE version of the XYBOARD although if your waiting for it there should be more information soon. If you have received the update to your XYBOARD please let us know what you think via comments below.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is currently getting the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich update even with the release of the Galaxy S III. Samsung has started pushing out the Android 4.0.4 update to the Galaxy S II which has been running until now Android 4.0.3.

With the push of Android 4.0.4 it brings the Samsung Galaxy S II to the most up to date version of Android without taking Jelly Bean into account. Those that are hoping for the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update will likely see it on the S II although will still have a while to wait before its available.

This update to the Galaxy S II will not be pushed over the air although it can be easily obtained via Samsung Kies. Currently the update is available via Kies in a few countries for the International and Global versions of the S II. Once the update is verified to be successful on these devices the US variants of the Galaxy S II will start to see the update.

If you have an International version of the Samsung Galaxy S II open Kies and get updating. After you update let us all in the US know how its going and any bugs or new features you see.

If you still have an HTC Droid Incredible S then your wait is finally over, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update is now rolling out. You should see the OTA (over the air) update on your Incredible S within the next few days. This update will bring your HTC Droid Incredible S to Android version 4.0.4 and Sense 3.6. Of course as always be sure that your battery is at 50% or better before updating and you will also need at least 250MB of free space on the device.

Currently the update is only available for the GSM version of the Droid Incredible S. While we should see it rolling out to all other devices shortly its in the process of Verizon adding their bloatware. If your in a hurry and don’t have a GSM Incredible S you will likely not have to wait long for the update to be ported for everyone else to use.

There has been a new leak found for Verizon’s Motorola Droid Bionic to install Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Droid Bionic bringing it to 6.7.2233. This leak unlike many in the past requires no special setup besides having a stock Droid Bionic that is updated to the current official ROM. Be sure before starting the process below that your Droid Bionic is running the stock Android OS version .905.

How to Install Android 4.0.4 ICS on the Droid Bionic:

1. Download the leaked ROM (Download Link)
2. Reboot Bionic into stock recovery (vol up + vol down + power)
3. Tap Vol Down until you see Recovery and Volume up to select it
4. You should now see the Exclamation point
5. Press both volume buttons at the same time
6. Now choose update from SDcard
7. Be patient for the process to complete
8. Congrats your Droid Bionic is running Android 4.0.4 ICS

Again I have to stress the fact that your Droid Bionic should not be modified in any way for the process to be clean. If your running anything besides the stock ROM and stock recovery then you will need to flash your Bionic back to stock before completing the instructions above. We are as always not responsible for the use of this leak or any damage to your device for attempting it. Please feel free to ask any questions or just tell us how you like the new ROM via a comment below.

Those of you with a Droid RAZR or RAZR MAXX who have been patiently waiting for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update will not have to wait much longer. The Android 4.0 update for the Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX have already started rolling out to testers bringing the software version to 6.16.211 and the Android OS to version 4.0.4. Motorola promised the update to hit the Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX by the end of June and with almost 2 weeks left they will likely hit their date.

Verizon has already sent out text message notifications to RAZR and RAZR MAXX owners to give them a heads up about the upcoming update. With both Verizon and Motorola letting everyone know about the update and testers already getting it average users are likely to see the update within a week assuming there are no major bugs during testing.

Sony promised that most of their 2011 Android devices would be getting the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update this year and it seems they are making good on this promise. The two devices that are now getting the update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich are the Sony Xperia Arc and Sony’s Xperia Neo. Both devices will still be on Kernel version 2.6.32. These will likely be the last devices to get the upgrade from Sony with any new device coming with it out of the box.

The update brings many UI improvements and all of the features that we have grown to love in Android 4.0. Sony will be updating these devices as needed from ICS to newer builds of the same OS for bug fixes and such.

via: Xperia Blog

We recently posted the leaked version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the HTC Amaze 4G but now it will finally be officially released May 21. While we expected the official release to have Sense 4 that has been seen on the HTC One its not there yet. The update brings the OS to Android 4.0 ICS and Sense to version 3.6. This also brings the HTC Amaze 4G to software version 2.14.531.3710RD.

HTC Amaze 4G 2.14.531.3710RD Update Featurs:

• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Sense 3.6
• System bar enhancements to easily view recent apps.
• Re-sizeable widgets
• Lock screen actions including pull down notifications and adjust volume while device is locked.
• Data usage controls.
• Face Unlock
• Home screen folders
• Improved battery life
• Improved text input and spell checking
• Improved menu structure

If you don’t get the OTA (over the air) update on May 21st you can manually install the update to your HTC Amaze 4G. To manually update go to “Settings -> About Phone -> HTC Software Updates -> Check Now“. The update is pretty big and will take about 20 minutes according to HTC over your data connection so you may want to connect to WiFi.

The Archos line of Android tablets may be mid line tablets but they have been a big player in the Android tablet game from the beginning just under the radar. They have made an impression with their G9 tablets by putting an almost pure version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the devices. Archos is now pushing out an update to their G9 80 and 101 tablets to bring the firmware version up to version 4.0.6.

Archos 80/101 G9 4.0.6 Firmware Update features:

• Wi-Fi: fix more disconnect cases happening on some access points
• GPS: increase stability of GPS
• HDMI: do not propose overscan setting when TV supports underscan
• muSD: improve reliability of card insertion detection
• muSD: fix read/write permission issue occurring with some applications
• Applications: fix platform reboot occurring sometimes after a while when using high CPU demanding applications

Don’t confuse Archos and their firmware version 4.0.6 with the Android OS version, it can be confusing. We hope that Archos at some point decides to change their firmware version to not be as close to Android version numbers. The firmware update it rolling out now so let us know when you get it and what you think about it.

Acer has confirmed the release of Android 4.0 for their Iconia Tab A500 and A100 tablets. The current date set for the update to be available is April 27th with the updates starting in the US and Latin America followed closely by Canada by May 3rd.

Since these 2 tablets are almost identical the updates are releasing at the same time. Specs on the devices are an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chipset with 1GB of memory. The difference between the two devices however is screen size and resolution with the A100 a 7 inch 1024×600 display and the A500 with its 10.1 inch 1280×800 display. There should be no hardware issues with the devices running Android 4.0.

AT&T’s HTC Vivid is now receiving the Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich update. This update will bring the HTC Vivid to Software version 3.26.502.56.71ORD and HTC Sense 3.6. We were hoping for Sense 4.0 but it looks like this isn’t the case yet but may be included in a future update.

If you haven’t had the update pushed to your device yet you can dial out *#*#682#*#* and manually force the update from your Vivid. You should go ahead and get it now while you can since we have seen a few updates get pulled for one reason or another. Let us know how you like your HTC Vivid on Android 4.0.3 via comments below.

The Toshiba Thrive which comes in a 7 inch and 10 inch version will be getting the Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich update by the end of Spring 2012. There has been no official word but the announcement was made via Eric Paulsen’s Twitter account saying the update will hit the Toshiba Thrive by the end of Spring (so by June).

Since Toshiba does not have that many Android devices to keep up with we would assume that the update would have already been here. If your an Android manufacturer pushing out a high end Android device this Ice Cream Sandwich update should not take this long. Devices that are supported well tend to do much better in the market these days as users want a device they know will not have to be replaced year after year to stay up to date.

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