OS updates

Owners of Sony's Tablet S can expect a topping of Ice Cream Sandwich, but the company hasn't yet revealed a specific release date.

Posting on a Sony forum last week, a company rep confirmed that Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, will be available for the Sony tablet and added that the timing and other details will be "announced in due course."

Outfitted with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Sony's 9.4-inch Tablet S hit the market in September. As reviewed by CNET's Donald Bell, the Tablet S is a bit pricey, … Read more

Samsung dropped a bit of bad news last Friday when it announced on one of its Korean promotional blogs that it wouldn't be bringing Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) to its Galaxy S smartphone or its 7-inch Galaxy Tab.

Users understandably cried foul and chatter of Android fragmentation surfaced again, and the company may be feeling the heat. Though Sammy originally said that the native software on the devices would prohibit an optimal Android 4.0 experience, a report from MSN Korea said today that the company is now reviewing the upgrade process and may find a way … Read more

Oracle has been dealt a blow in its ongoing patent infringement case against Google.

Late last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected several of the claims in a patent that Oracle has cited in its infringement case against the search giant. According to Groklaw, which obtained the notice, 17 of the 21 claims in Patent No. 6,192,476 have been rejected by the USPTO, following a re-examination the agency conducted earlier this year.

The patent, called "Controlling access to a resource," describes how a so-called "principal" calls for access on a software … Read more

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system is trailing far behind Android in sales, and a former Redmond employee believes he knows why that is.

Charlie Kindel, a former Windows Phone honcho who left Microsoft earlier this year to launch his own startup, wrote in a blog post yesterday that "Windows Phone is superior" to Android. However, the issue for Microsoft is that it has an "impedance mismatch with the carriers and device manufacturers while Google's approach reduces friction with carriers and device manufacturers at the expense of end users."

Rough translation: Microsoft is … Read more

Sprint today announced that the Android 3.2 Honeycomb update is now ready for its Evo View 4G tablet.

Following closely on the heels of HTC's similar announcement for the Flyer, the update brings a number of important changes.

For example, the HTC Scribe digital pen will now work with all applications, essentially turning it into a navigation stylus. Additionally, the Evo View 4G now supports document signature capture, a feature that will surely please business users.

The carrier cautions that, once installed, users will find that the home screen has been reverted to the "out of box&… Read more

Sony Ericsson, after already promising Ice Cream Sandwich for the 2011 Xperia lineup, provided new details today for exactly how the software update will happen.

Specifically, the company's blog posted a timeline as to when various models will get the Android 4.0 update. And as we might have expected all along, the newer releases like the Xperia Arc S and Xperia Ray will see the update before older devices such as the Xperia Arc and Xperia Play.

The first batch, which includes the Arc S, Xperia Neo V, and Ray will get the update beginning in late March. … Read more

Now that it's launched Ice Cream Sandwich on its Galaxy Nexus, Samsung today became the latest hardware maker to outline Android 4.0 updates for its remaining smartphones and tablets.

A posting on the company's blog tells us that most, if not all, of its Galaxy device lineup from 2011 will see Ice Cream Sandwich. So if you're keeping track, that will include the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Note, and a number of Galaxy Tab models.

The Galaxy S II smarpthones and Galaxy Note should be at the head of the line for the first quarter … Read more

Google is serving up Ice Cream Sandwich with a new base version that promises several improvements and bug fixes for the Android operating system.

Detailed in Friday's Android Developers blog, ICS 4.0.3 is expected to roll out to production phones and tablets in the "weeks ahead," according to Google.

As such, the company is advising developers to test their mobile apps with the new flavor. Though it didn't get into specifics, Google is promising incremental improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, and Bluetooth, among other items.

Developers can also tap into other features with the … Read more

As we near the one-year anniversary of Honeycomb tablets, you might assume that Android 3.0 has led to a proliferation of devices and sales.

After all, considering it was written specifically with large displays in mind, it was sure to revolutionize the tablet industry, right?

Well, not exactly. According to new data from ad network Chitika, Honeycomb only accounts for 1 percent of the Android usage on their system.

Based on data collected from hundreds of millions of ads served over the span of a week, Chitika found that Gingerbread and Froyo still command approximately 95 percent of the … Read more