OS updates

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, the first phone with Google's Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, has gone on sale in the United Kingdom.

The phone--a dual-core model that retains the curved-glass look of Samsung's earlier Nexus S phone--is a flagship device in a crowded Android market. It went on sale today at Phones4U in the U.K. and will arrive at Vodafone, 3, and O2 stores "in coming days," according to a Google Nexus tweet today.

And Samsung UK posted a photo of the "world's first Galaxy Nexus owner."

Specifications don't matter anymore, … Read more

A treat for modders and developers, Google has released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich.

The source code for Android 4.0--the latest version of the mobile operating system--was released today as part of the Android Open Source Project, Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru, a software engineer in the project, said in a blog post that urged patience.

"Since this is a large push, please be aware that it will take some time to complete," Queru said. "If you sync before it's done, you'll get an incomplete copy that you won't be … Read more

Android's move from Droid to Roboto may sound like Google is just replacing one techie typeface to another.

But nerdy names notwithstanding, the font used in the new Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google's mobile operating system is designed to be more human as well as more practical.

"Our new typeface had to be...friendly and approachable to make Android appealing, and a little bit more human," Matias Duarte, who's in charge of Android design work at Google, said yesterday in a Google+ post.

Google clearly is pained by those who would position Android as … Read more

HTC, which rose to smartphone prominence with Google's Android operating system, will begin offering the new Ice Cream Sandwich version in "early 2012," the company said today.

Expect Android 4.0 on some, but not all devices. HTC offered this preliminary list on its Facebook page:

HTC knows how excited our fans are to get their hands on Google's latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, so we're thrilled today to announce the first wave of HTC phones that will receive upgrades: We can confirm the brand new HTC Vivid, on sale beginning today, is … Read more

As new Android handsets like the HTC Rezound are announced in the wake of October's Ice Cream Sandwich show, the question on everyone's mind is whether they will see the 4.0 release.

Of course, it's a very fair question. I mean, who wants to buy a phone that's not going to get the latest and greatest from Google? We know about the Galaxy Nexus, but as with most Android updates, the outlook is unclear for other devices.

During yesterday's announcement of the Verizon-bound Rezound, HTC promised that the dual-core Android phone is "ICS-ready.&… Read more

Android phones have a bad history of not getting the latest OS upgrades, often leaving them several versions behind, says a new study.

Tracking 18 different Android phones shipped in the U.S. through the middle of 2010, the Understatement's Michael Degusta found that most have not received major OS upgrades or even minor support patches, even though they're still under contract.

Pointing to one example, Degusta said that the Samsung Behold II on T-Mobile was supposed to be upgraded to Eclair, aka Android 2.1. But by the time the phone hit the market, it was already … Read more

While some handset makers are looking into Android 4.0 and evaluating the potential for updates, others are already making promises.

Such is the case with Sony Ericsson, which said this week that its entire 2011 product line will see Ice Cream Sandwich. Although the company hasn't outlined a specific time frame or soft expectation, it should go a long way to putting its consumer base at ease.

If the promise holds up, then Ice Cream Sandwich could arrive on smartphones like the Xperia Ray, the Xperia Play, the Xperia Play 4G, and the Xperia Arc. Updates for those … Read more

As we've learned today, Google expects that the first Ice Cream Sandwich updates will begin rolling out a few weeks after the Galaxy Nexus arrives.

Although HTC has yet to confirm my assumption, I assume that the Nexus S, which debuted with Gingerbread, will be among the first to receive the Android 4.0 upgrade.

But beyond the "Pure Google" phones, it's hard to forecast which handsets will see Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC, for its part, is already looking into the new release and is working to come up with a plan for updates.

Shortly after … Read more

The big, robust Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS that Google announced in Hong Kong last night makes Android 2.3 Gingerbread look like an old, stale cookie.

We first heard about Ice Cream Sandwich back in May at Google I/O, and even though there have been feature leaks leading up the big unveiling, there was a lot we didn't see coming.

Ice Cream Sandwich is packed with weird and wonderful new features, a dramatically changed interface and fonts, and improved camera software, plus tons more. We won't be able to get to every feature here, but we will cover the big stuff.

Operating systems unite! One of the very first clues we had from Google was that Ice Cream Sandwich would combine the best of Honeycomb 3.0 for Android tablets and the Android Gingerbread 2.3 OS to create a single, united operating system that developers would use for all Android devices going forward. We were promised Honeycomb's "holographic" user interface, more multitasking, a new apps launcher, and richer, resizable widgets. And, for the most part, we got them.… Read more