Android Ice Cream Sandwich now rolling out to Nexus S (GSM versions)

Hope you’re hungry, Nexus S users: Google has just announced it’s rolling out Ice Cream Sandwich to your phones starting right now.

According to a note posted by the Android team on Google+, the Nexus S Ice Cream Sandwich rollout began on Friday, December 16 — and continue "over the coming month." Google says the rollout will reach all GSM/UMTS Nexus S devices worldwide; thus far, nothing has been said about upgrade timing for the CDMA version of the phone (i.e. the Nexus S 4G on Sprint).

The Nexus S Ice Cream Sandwich rollout comes just one day after the launch of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, the U.S. version of Google’s new flagship Nexus phone. Google had long promised the Nexus S would receive its ICS upgrade very soon after the Galaxy Nexus’s release. Google also announced a minor upgrade to the Ice Cream Sandwich platform this afternoon — Android 4.0.3 — which the company indicated would be the "base version" of Ice Cream Sandwich from this point forward.

For much more about Ice Cream Sandwich and how the upgrade will change your phone, check out my full Android Ice Cream Sandwich FAQ and my in-depth ICS review. And remember, you can find the latest ICS upgrade status for any Android phone in my Android 4.0 upgrade list. It’s always kept up to date with the most current info available for all devices.

As said by JR Raphael

Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0: It’s Finally Here

It seems like we’ve been waiting for the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich phone for eternity, but at last long last, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has arrived. At a press event Wednesday morning in Hong Kong (Tuesday night in the United States), Samsung and Google revealed the first phone with Google’s next generation operating system, Android 4.0.

 

Like the Samsung Nexus S, the Android Gingerbread flagship phone, the Galaxy Nexus has a curved, contour glass display. The idea is that the phone better fits the shape of your hand, making for a more ergonomic experience.

The Super AMOLED Plus display is rather large at 4.65 inches with a 1280-by-720-pixel resolution. This is the same display technology we’ve seen on Samsung’s Galaxy S II series of phones and on the Mototola Droid Charge.

The T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II, with its 4.5-inches screen, felt slightly too large for my hands, and text looked a bit on the fuzzy side. From what we saw, however, the Nexus Galaxy might not feel oversized, despite the larger display. The bezel around the phone is incredibly thin at only 4.29mm, so you get mostly display and very little bezel.

The Galaxy Nexus will come in both HSPA+ and LTE flavors. The only confirmed carrier was Japan’s DoCoMo. The Galaxy Nexus is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, making for one heck of a powerful, fast phone.

The Nexus has both a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Nexus also has zero shutter lag, meaning there’s no delay between when you hit the shutter button and when the photo actually processes.

Other features include Near Field Communication (NFC) as well as a Barometer. When Google first announced Ice Cream Sandwich at its Google I/O developer conference in May, the company placed a lot of stress on NFC technology. With it, you can exchange contact information, make mobile payments, play games, and do other tasks.

Pricing for the Galaxy Nexus has not yet been announced. The Galaxy Nexus will launch in November in the U.S., Europe and Asia–and we can’t wait to get our hands on it.

 

via PC World

Ice Cream Sandwich Nexus Prime event now 19 October?

Samsung and Google may get together to show off the Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) and its flagship Nexus Prime handset on 18 October, according to the latest murmurings.

Droid Life cites sources working on the new launch slot, who say that the companies plan to co-incide with the AsiaD: All Things Digital event in Hong Kong, taking place next week.

According to these shady characters, Google and Samsung will take to the stage in Hong Kong at 9AM on 19 October – rather inconveniently, that’s 2am on 19 October UK time.

A sleepless night ahead

After delaying the event from its original CTIA slot this week, it was rumoured that the two tech giants would schlep over to London to unveil the handset and software on 27 October.

But a loose-lipped Samsung exec then told T3 that we’d “have an announcement of the Nexus Prime very shortly” and that the handset would be “in shops sooner than you think”.

Neither Samsung nor Google has yet confirmed the rescheduled launch date, but if true, it will coincide with the launch of the Motorola Razr, which was shown in a teaser video earlier this week.

We’re pretty excited about the Nexus Prime – and well we should be, with rumours of a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED screen and next-gen Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Check out the rest of the rumours here.

 

 

via TechRadar