Archos shows off official Ice Cream Sandwich on 101 G9 tablet

Well lookie here: Archos isn’t letting anyone beat it to the Ice Cream Sandwich party. The French hardware company showed off an early build of Android 4.0 running on its economical 101 G9 tablet. The latest build from earlier today is demonstrated on what looks like a retail unit. Archos is planning on releasing the update sometime in Q1 2012.

From the demonstration, it looks like Ice Cream Sandwich is running extremely well on the 10-inch tablet, with nary a stutter or hiccup in its performance. By now we’re pretty familiar with the ICS tablet interface (basically a cleaner, faster version of Honeycomb) but this is a nice confirmation of other sources, like Nvidia’s demonstration of the Transformer Prime. It still needs a little work to get to a lag free experience, but you can see that Archos is well on its way.For the most part, ICS seems to be clean and free of bloatware.
For Ice Cream and French accents, check out the video below:




If you’re tempted by new software on current hardware, the 10-inch G9 tablet is currently going for about $350 at most retail locations. Extensive codec support and low price makes Archos a favorite among Android enthusiasts, so you’re likely to see a lot of community-authored ICS builds both before and after the official release.
[via ARMdevices.net]

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Intel says smartphone and tablet hardware will run Android 4.0 next year

In an attempt to win back its place in the mobile market, Intel is hyping up its upcoming hardware designs with some Android flair. According to PC World, Intel-based smartphones and tablets running Android will be ready for next year. A version of Ice Cream Sandwich for the upcoming Atom Medfield system-on-a-chip is already at the production stage.

Intel is no stranger to the mobile market, though ARM and Qualcomm have been dominating it as of late. The chip maker hopes that x86 versions of Android will help revive its presence in the mobile space, allowing it to expand to the low-power netbook, tablet and smartphone markets. According to Intel, the first smartphones using its designs will hit the market in the first half of 2012. Intel has been working with Google behind closed doors on Gingerbread and Honeycomb products, none of which have made it past the experimental stage thus far.
Manufacturers already have pretty wide array of system-on-a-chip choices, though it’s all dominated by ARM’s underlying architecture. If Intel can extend its sizable presence into the mobile world with x86 and ARM-based products, it’ll be in a good position to stay healthy when the first ARM-based Windows 8 machines begin to surface, reportedly in 2013. Being part of two of the fastest-growing segments of the technology industry wouldn’t hurt, either.

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6-year-old HTC Universal gets Ice Cream Sandwich port

A few days ago I joked with my fellow Android Community writers that I’d like to see Ice Cream Sandwich ported to the Atari 2600, so I could use it to run an Atari 2600 emulator. That hasn’t happened, but in terms of wow factor, the latest ICS port isn’t that far off. The HTC Universal, the Taiwanese company’s gigantic flipping QWERTY Windows Mobile megadevice from 2005, has been given a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich via (where else?) the XDA Developers forum. The port is based off of CyanogenMod 9, the ICS version of the most popular custom Android ROM.

If you’ve been following the mobile tech world for a while, you may have drooled over the HTC Universal way back when, just like I did. (Not that I could do much more than drool, being in high school at the time.) Naturally the Windows Mobile hardware isn’t ideal for running the modern version of Android – at 64 or 128 megabytes of RAM, compared to the 25gMB of the original G1 and a full gigabyte for the Galaxy Nexus. Like other Windows Mobile ports, this one has to be initiated from the MicroSD card.
After some tweaking by creator “notime2d8″, the image seems to work well enough, if slowly. Not surprising, since the entire system is running off of RAM and using a 528Mhz ARM processor. If you’re lucky enough to have an HTC Universal gathering dust, be sure to try out the port. Good on ya, Android mod developers – now how’s about that Atari version?

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Android 4.0 for $100: NOVO7 is the cheapest Ice Cream Sandwich tablet around

Android’s open source nature lends itself to a staggering variety of form factors and price points, but if Chinese manufacturer MIPS Technologies is to be believed, it’s breaking into the low-end in a huge way today. The company is promoting its brand new NOVO7 device as “the first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet”, and has priced it at a staggering $99 USD. The specs aren’t amazing and the hardware won’t turn heads, but if you’ve got to have ICS right now (and can’t bring yourself to try out a custom ROM) this would seem to be the cheapest way to do so.

The NOVO7 is your basic 7-inch cheapo tablet, not altogether unlike the Polaroid models that were on sale everywhere on Black Friday. A “power-efficient” 1GHz processor it twinned to a 444Mhz GPU. A 2-megapixel rear camera and a front-facing cam of indeterminate quality cover the absolute basics. The 7-inch screen is thankfully capacitive, not resistive, but the marketing materials omit a resolution – I’d guess either 1024 x 600 or 840 x 400.
The manufacturer is quick to tout the tablet’s low-power status, claiming a power draw of less than 400mA during web browsing and a 30-hour standby time. An actual mAh battery rating is absent, but you get expandable storage via the microSD card slot. The tablet comes with 4GB of on-board storage. Wireless is limited to WiFi, but MIPS highlights support for “external 3G”. Obviously the Android Market is nowhere to be seen, but the ad mentions Google CTS Certification, so you can probably get the Market, Gmail, etc. running if you’re up for a little aftermarket hacking. The NOVO7 will offer support for Gameloft titles, including the pre-installed Spider-man.

So, how do you get one? Just click on the “$99″ link on the image-only website to be directed straight to a PayPal order form. But be ready for a nasty shock in the form of $60 shipping and handling, bringing the total price up to $159. That’s Nook Color territory, and even considering that it ships straight from China (with no assurance of a date, by the way) it seems a little stiff. I’d steer clear of this one for your holiday shopping, and wait for ICS tablets or updated software from more established brands. But if you’re feeling adventurous, head on over there and check it out. This is only the first of many Chinese ICS tablets set to hit the market very soon.

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Sony Ericsson Nozomi pictured running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

The Sony Ericsson Nozomi (LT26i) has leaked for us in a very tiny cropped picture watermarked from sebbsit168.com. It’s looking quite sleek from what we can see, but there’s really no way to tell how small or large the display actually is. My guess is it’s right at around 4″. From playing around with the Nexus S running an AOSP Android 4.0 ROM, 4″ is a great size to run ICS on.

If you zoom into the photo you’ll notice a few things; first off under the Camera heading, you can see it will take 1920×1080 video capture. Next you’ll notice it has a dual core processor and even microSD support. I’ve always been a fan of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA line, and this phone looks the best by far. Unlike the Galaxy Nexus, it seems to have three softkeys included near the chin of the device, making navigation not completely dedicated to the display.
It looks extremely thin, but then again most recent XPERIA devices (such as the Ray) were. I hope it makes it here to the states soon, because it would be a shame for the Galaxy Nexus to not have some proper competition! But chances are, our main man Chris Davies over in London will get it first – as most Sony Ericsson devices hit international waters first.
[via Phandroid]

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MIUI custom ROM shows off an early Ice Cream Sandwich build

You didn’t think CyanogenMod was the only ROM starting on an Ice Cream Sandwich version, did you? The MIUI team, makers of arguably the second most popular custom ROM out there, has already begun porting their extensive set of Android customizations to run on Ice Cream Sandwich’s open source code. The developers issued a special preview on their website, with a walk-through of the updated interface.

The changes don’t look that different from the current build of MIUI, but then the aim is not to duplicate Ice Cream Sandwich‘s look. MIUI has an interface all its own, borrowing elements from Android, iOS, WebOS and the various flavors of manufacturer customizations to make something that attempts to blend the best of all available options. Just about every app, from the launcher to the music player to the phone dialer, is uniquely styled.
The developers haven’t said when they’ll release the ICS version of MIUI, but you can expect it some time in the next couple of months. Supported devices should see an immediate upgrade with updates following weekly. Like CyanogenMod, MIUI releases its source code upon publishing, so user customized versions for even more phones should begin appearing shortly after that.
MIUI has the distinction of being the only community-authored ROM that’s openly featured on a retail device, Xiaomi’s MI-One. Though the “MIUI Phone” isn’t mentioned in the latest post, it will almost certainly see a flashable update as soon as the fourth version is ready, and Chin Unicom may send an over-the-air update soon after that.
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Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 update rolling out to Google employees

Good news guys, it appears the process has just begun and Google is pushing the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the original Samsung Nexus S. Apparently a few employees from Mountain View have received the OTA update on their very own Nexus S smartphones and it’s safe to say the “dogfooding” testing has finally started. This is a great sign and I’m sure we’ll see this available for download shortly.

The term dogfooding is Google and a few others way of saying the update is in its beta stages and is being rolled out in a controlled manor to a few devices. For now this should only be hitting those lucky few peoples phones and its being reported all over Google+. According to Android Police most of the employee tweets or posts have since been removed or deleted but don’t worry as a few readers were quick enough to snap a screenshot — and for that we thank you.

We don’t have many details at the moment other than the update is rolling out and hopefully we’ll get a leak or two shortly. If all goes well Google could be set to start the official Nexus S Android 4.0 ICS rollout in the next few weeks or around Christmas time. That would be a nice gift don’t you guys think? So much for the Galaxy Nexus being the first US device with Android 4.0 because if Google has anything to do with it they might beat Verizon to the punch, but I doubt that. Stay tuned for more details and hopefully we’ll have a download for this OTA shortly.

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New Ice Cream Sandwich Hidden Feature: “Dreams” (Screensavers)

Those boys over at Google definitely know how to have a good time. First it was the NyanDroid Easter egg and now we have this. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call this an Easter egg. More like a hidden feature no one has heard about — until now. It’s called “Dreams” and it acts as a screen saver that strangely serves absolutely no other purpose than looking kinda flashy. The feature is actually buried deep in the Ice Cream Sandwich OS but with a little know-how and the use of Launcher Pro, Dreams is easily accessible. So, when you want to zone out and just watch all of your icons fly at your face — now you can. If you’re into that sorta thing. What’s more is the flying icons can actually be tapped and if you’re quick enough, maybe you’ll launch your intended app. We keep learning new things about Ice Cream Sandwich and it’s fun little tidbits like this that keep it interesting. Can’t say screen savers would ever be a feature I would want on my phone (battery killer) but how ’bout you?
[Via AndroidPolice]

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Motorola Triumph receives Ice Cream Sandwich build

Do not be misled by the moniker Motorola Triumph, it might sound pretty mighty and all, but in reality, it is not exactly a high end device that you would lust for. It falls under the mid-range scheme of things, but it has proved to be quite the attractive purchase for those who want something better than what the bottom of the food chain offers. It remains to be seen whether the Motorola Triumph will be on the receiving end of an official Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 update, but as mom used to say, if you want something done, you’ve gotta do it yourself. And that is exactly what a developer on the AndroidForums have done – seemingly ported the Ice Cream Sandwich ROM onto the device with success.

Needless to say, this port is not complete as there is still a long way to go since a bunch of features do not work just yet on the phone, but it does offer a glimpse of hope to Motorola Triumph owners that there is still a chance of a successful port. After all, to be able to enjoy all the benefits of Ice Cream Sandwich without having to purchase a new phone is always more than welcome, even more so in these times of economic hardship. Hopefully Motorola will not overlook the Triumph when it comes to Android 4.0 updates.

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Chip maker Rockchip claims worlds first Android 4.0 ICS Tablet

We’ve already seen tons of ROM’s and ports slowly making their way to Android phones and tablets running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich now that the source code is available. Today Chinese processor and tablet maker Rockchip claim to have the worlds first Android 4.0 ICS tablet and it will be ready to ship in the first weeks of December.

Rockchip may or may not sound familiar. They are in-part to blame for the masses of cheap Android tablets that hit Ebay with Android 2.2 and 2.3 back when Android tablets were just starting to hit the market, and many were branded as Rockchip tablets themselves or with 3rd party names. However, none of them had that great of performance sadly. The new RK2918 is a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex chip that should play a bit nicer and improve performance, not to mention we’ll have the butter smooth Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for our OS. Here is a video demonstration with the new Rockchip tablet below:


Chinese-made tablets powered by the Rockchip processor will most likely be among the cheapest tablets available. And if they do start shipping in December I’ll bet you money Ebay will be flooded with cheaply made and chunky clunky tablets with lucrative pricing very soon. Don’t get me wrong though, we could see a few nicely designed, sized, and priced tablets from these same chips that would make excellent presents or stocking stuffers. I’ll be letting the first few waves pass and most likely just snag the ASUS Transformer Prime instead.

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HTC G1 Gets A Taste Of Ice Cream Sandwich

Still rocking the HTC G1, the world's first Android phone? Didn't think so, but if you have one laying around somewhere, you may want to grab that thing and knock the dust off of it. Why, you ask? Because there's a "working" (I use that term loosely here) port of ICS ready to flash.

As you may imagine, it is incredibly slow and nearly unusable, but c'mon - you have to admit that it's pretty cool. Here's a video of it in action (again, I use that term loosely).

There are a few things that still aren't working in this build, like screen rotation, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Everything is else is go, so, at the very least, you can check out what ICS is all about. Very slowly.

While this is definitely not a practical port, one thing is certain: it's things like this that show how incredible the Android development community is. Fourth gen Android on a first gen phone? That's just stupid-sick. Hit the source to check it out for yourself.

[XDA Forums via Gizmodo]

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Ice Cream Sandwich gets dedicated search button mod

Google may be a search company first and foremost, but Ice Cream Sandwich shifts Android away from a dedicated search button and replaces it with the app switcher. Using virtual buttons has benefits for modders, however, and MoDaCo’s Paul O’Brien has wasted no time in adding a dedicated search option in the ICS button bar.

As you’d expect, tapping it brings up the search dialog, just as the dedicated search buttons on previous Android phones would do. Google hasn’t exactly excised search from Android 4.0 altogether – in fact the homescreen now has a persistent search box across the top, that’s carried over all five panes – but this dedicated key makes it a little easier.
Sometimes it’s the little tweaks that can make the most difference to daily use, and this could well be one of them. No word on when exactly Paul might release the mod at this stage, but he tells us it will be “very shortly.”

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Adobe: Flash Will Be Updated To Support ICS Before Year's End, But Not Future Versions Of Android

Earlier this month, Adobe announced that it would be halting development on the mobile version of Flash, which included support for Android devices. More recently, it was realized that the current version of Flash isn't compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich, leaving early adopters of the Galaxy Nexus without the ability to view flash content on the web.
Adobe has now confirmed that it will be bringing Flash to ICS devices before the end of 2011, but it will not support any version of Android past 4.0. Throughout the lifespan of ICS, Adobe will continue to push critical updates, bug fixes, and security updates to Flash for Android to ensure device security, but that will be the extent of development as far as mobile Flash is concerned.
Hopefully, but the time the "J" version of Android is released, HTML5 will have gained enough steam to be widely supported and take the place of Flash altogether, helping make the transition from Flash support to no Flash support as seamless as possible.
[via Pocket-Lint]

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CyanogenMod 9 Ice Cream Sandwich is coming to the Galaxy Tab 10.1

One of the earliest and most important parts of Ice Cream Sandwich that Google announced was that it would integrate the code and user interface for phone and tablet versions of Android. We know that ICS tablets are due pretty soon, with Asus committing to a quick update for the upcoming Transformer Prime and Samsung already promising upgrades for its myriad tablets. Galaxy Tab 10.1 owners may not have very long at all to wait: Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik has announced that his extremely popular ROM series CyanogenMod will be coming to the Galaxy Tab when it upgrades to ICS in version 9.

The CyanogenMod team has already begun work on CyanogenMod 9 (version 7 is Gingerbread, version 8 is Honeycomb, and probably won’t be made), with stable versions expected early next year. This is the first we’ve heard of CyanogenMod supporting tablet hardware at all, with the exception of Gingerbread-based oddities for the Nook Color and the like. CM9 will be the very first version of CyanogenMod to support a tablet user interface natively, though some useful tweaks are already part of the code.
The news comes from Kondik’s personal Google+ page, and it appears that either he or someone on the CM9 team already has an extremely early version of the modification running. That’s not just good news for CyanogenMod users, it’s good for Galaxy Tab owners in general. The Cyanogen team is famously slow to release (don’t even think about asking for an ETA) but if they can manage it, earlier and less feature complete versions from other ROM makers should show up very soon indeed.

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Galaxy Nexus owners reporting volume issues

Into every life a little rain must fall. For European Galaxy Nexus owners, who are currently the envy of most of the Android world, that rain is coming in the form of some frustrating volume issues. Apparently some HSPA+ phones are randomly switching between volume and sound states, much to the consternation of users. According to a quick poll, about half of users are experiencing the issue, though our own UK editor has not.

It seems that some very specific parameters must be met for the volume issue to crop up. First, you’ve got to be using the 900MHz range of spectrum for your particular carrier. Next you need to be in a relatively weak signal area, causing the Galaxy Nexus’ radio to automatically boost itself. Regions with lots of switching between 2G and 3G networks seem to be hit the hardest. Check the video below for an example:

Of course, the nice thing about owning a Nexus device is that it’s likely to be updated very soon. Google is surely taking the performance of the international model seriously, even though there’s still no official word on a timeframe for the U.S. version. Expect some official word from Google soon, with a fix in the next software update, which probably isn’t too far out.

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Get Ice Cream Sandwich’s keyboard now, no root needed

Yes, we know – the wait for Ice Cream Sandwich to show up for your device and/or in your region is getting frustrating. But you can slake your hunger for Ice Cream now with a taste of its new keyboard, for any Android device. Thanks to XDA member “for.digit“. (funny how no one on XDA is ever called Bob or Sam.) He’s wrapped up the new ICS version of Android’s native keyboard in a free Market app, available to just about anyone.
It’s not quite perfect, thanks to the noticeable lack of the microphone button. And since the active voice dictation was one of the things that really put the ICS keyboard over the top, the Android Market app becomes something of a theme for the standard Gingerbread or Froyo keyboard. Given the deep integration in ICS, a significantly improved version of Voice Dictation would be almost impossible to include, though hooking into the previous versions of voice to text should be easy enough. But hey, it’s got that neat-o ice blue color scheme all the developers are going crazy for these days, right?
If you’re lucky enough to own a Nexus S, Galaxy S II or Optimus 3D, you can actually try out Ice Cream Sandwich right now. If you’re the rooted/custom ROM type, all it takes is a quick flash – just make sure to create a backup. The earliest ICS ROMs are a long way from stable. And of course, you can always pay – or wait – for the Galaxy Nexus in your home country.

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Nexus S and Nexus S 4G get early Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs

Those lucky Nexus owners, they get everything sooner. In this case, it’s a relatively stable AOSP version of Ice Cream Sandwich for the previous generation of Google’s developer phone. The ROM is available for eager Android fans right now – the only thing that appears to be missing is a reliable video record function.

The work comes from XDA member “kwiboo”, and he’s been hard at work on the software for the last few days; the two separate ROMs are already on their second version. Functions are mostly complete, though the WiFi drivers need a quick patch. Since Android’s source code doesn’t include Gmail, YouTube, the Android Market and similar Google-branded apps, those packages are being directly loaded from the Galaxy Nexus.
Check out the ROM in action below:

On the example phone at least, Ice Cream Sandwich is running admirably fast. Take particular note of the ICS software buttons – or rather don’t, because they aren’t there. ICS is able to forgo its software buttons if the hardware it’s running on already has hardware-based navigation buttons. The Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs should be coming fast and furious for the next few weeks as more and more modders get a hang of the source code, and the uber-popular CyanogenMod should release its version of ICS early next year.
[via PD]

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Adobe says Flash for ICS will be last supported OS

We have already talked about the fact that there was supposed to be no Flash support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Adobe has now announced that it will be offering Flash for ICS after all. There is a catch though; Adobe has noted that ICS will be the last supported Android OS for Flash. That means all future version of Android will have to make it with no Flash.

Flash for Android 4.0 is expected by the end of the year. The company will continue to offer patches and security updates for existing versions of Flash after the Android 4.0 version is offered. This will get all the folks planning to get a Galaxy Nexus that lacks Flash support for content using flash.
Once those Android 5.0 handsets start to hit, Google will need to move to HTML 5 support or work something out on its own for Flash support. Android 5.0 is thought to be called Jelly Bean. That name is unconfirmed at this point.
[via Pocket-lint]

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Galaxy Nexus does not have Adobe Flash, nor can it be downloaded

That’s right, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus does not have Adobe Flash installed. Of course, when an application isn’t included we tend to query a quick search in the Android Market. And as you can see below, it was nowhere to be found!

But what could this mean? Just earlier we speculated Adobe’s plans for future mobile Flash development, and clearly all evidence suggests HTML5 will eventually be king. There may very well be something included in Android 4.0 that we may have missed, or something big planned on the way. One of the big selling points for Android over iOS and other competitors is its ability to play Flash content, so the fact that Google’s latest “developer” phone doesn’t have it must be a sign of innovation soon to come.

The theory that Flash could be converted on the fly to HTML5 could change the game completely. Devices running Android 4.0 like the Galaxy Nexus could potentially never need a Flash update again. How this would affect the overall browser speed is a different story.
Update: We got word that Flash hasn’t been released for ICS yet so as far as we know, Adobe will support Flash for ICS. We’re reaching out to Adobe for release date.
Update 2: Flash confirmed for Ice Cream Sandwich.

[via Reddit]

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Galaxy Nexus benchmarks: good, not great

In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve got a Galaxy Nexus in the house. We’ve been busting our collective humps to get you as much information as possible about the new hardware and Ice Cream Sandwich, and our latest effort is n that all-important and relative statistic, CPU and GPU benchmarks. If you want to get to the goods right away, you can hit the gallery at the bottom of this post.

So, how does the Galaxy Nexus fare? Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that it’ll beat many of the current phones on the market… the bad news is, it won’t beat them all. The Galaxy Nexus scored between 1800 and 2140 on the Quadrant benchmark, which is respectable, but nowhere near what some other phones are getting these days. For example, the T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II scored a scorching 3915 when we reviewed it, and the Skyrocket on AT&T got almost 2500, both of them using dual-core processors. The quad-core Tegra 3 is putting up mind-blowing numbers on the Asus Transformer Prime.

So why is the Galaxy Nexus looking pokey in Quadrant and other benchmarks? The obvious answer is that Ice Cream Sandwich is using a lot more hardware power than the Gingerbread phones that came before it. ICS has more in common with the tablet-centric Honeycomb than previous versions, and the visual goodies and enhanced features are likely squeezing top-end hardware for all they’re worth. What does this mean for users? Well, from everything we’ve seen, the ICS interface and most apps do just fine. But a deceptive as hardware benchmarks can be, it’s hard not to think that the Galaxy Nexus will be noticeably slower running high-performance games and Flash video, at least until the first round of updates.

We’ll be sure to put all the relevant software through its paces for our final review. In the meantime you can check out the other benchmark results in the gallery.

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