Samsung Italy says Galaxy S II, Note, and Tab will get Ice Cream Sandwich

Well that’s encouraging. According to Italian site HD Blog, Samsung’s Italian arm has confirmed that basically all of their high-end models will receive an Android 4.0 update. We are making inquiries to confirm the news. The post says that the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the refreshed Galaxy Tab 7.0 will all be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.

According to the source, updates will begin rolling out in Q2 2012, at least in Italy. There’s no mention made of other worldwide territories, but you can bet that Samsung is planning similar updates across its varied markets. Basically all of Samsung’s Android phones (with the notable exception of the Galaxy Nexus) use Samsung’s custom TouchWiz UI, which will need to be updated to support Ice Cream Sandwich. That could explain the considerable delay – for contrast, Motorola claims that Ice Cream Sandwich devices will begin rolling out just six weeks after the software becomes available.

U.S. Samsung users should take this with a grain of salt. While the news is certainly encouraging, the American wireless market is rife with “value-adding” carrier customizations, and in some cases, wireless providers just aren’t inclined to update devices. There’s also no mention made of older phones like the original Galaxy S or newer, low/mid-range phones like the Galaxy W.

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Samsung Gets to Work Quick, Seeks Ban on iPhone 4S in Italy and France

Had any doubts Samsung would stick to their word and be more aggressive against Apple in this patent war? Business Week is reporting that Samsung has taken to Milan, Italy and Paris, France courts to file patent infringement claims against Apple and to seek bans on the iPhone 4S for these infringements. They’re citing two patents that deal with wireless technology, likely those that have to do with 3G data.
We didn’t expect this to take too long following Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” event considering they specifically mentioned that Apple would need to essentially strip all their wireless components out of the iPhone in order to refrain from infringing on their patents.
As we learned before, Samsung can’t outright deny Apple a patent license since 3G technology has become a standard. Samsung has to come to fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms with Apple in these claims.
Still, it’s perfect timing for Samsung who is looking to have a big week next week. As CTIA Fall kicks off in San Diego on October 11th, Samsung and Google will lead the charge as they look to introduce what we all know to be as the Nexus Prime
Yesterday, a quick shot of the device (couldn’t see much but we’re almost certain it was the phone) leaked and Samsung later decided to one-up that with a teaser video of its own. It didn’t show much, but they told us to hang tight as something big is coming.
Many have considered the iPhone 4S disappointing as it’s only an incremental upgrade over the iPhone 4 (the fact that the 4S isn’t much better than the 4 isn’t surprising, it’s that Apple didn’t announce an iPhone 5 after more than a year). With that, people are waiting for Samsung and Google to show their cards and it all goes down next week.
As for those patent cases, it shouldn’t be long before these court sessions get going. Samsung says they will be pursuing the same in courts of many other regions.

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