OS updates

Ice Cream Sandwich on the Transformer Prime: Our definitive verdict

When the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime launched in late 2011, the hope was that it would be the first tablet to have and hold Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the latest version of the Android OS. While the tablet eventually launched with Honeycomb, no other tablet has yet to be released running ICS (although, the Xoom has received an update for it by now), so as of this month, it actually is the first.

A couple of weeks back, Asus began rolling out over-the-air updates of ICS to Transformer Prime owners in the U.S. We at CNET finally got our Prime unit updated and spent all day poring through the sweet deliciousness that is ICS.

The thing about ICS for tablets, though, is that while smartphones previously topped out at Android 2.3, Honeycomb (version 3) has been on tablets for nearly a year now and going from 3.0 to 4.0 just isn't as huge of a jump. Still, although the changes are minor, they are noticeable.

Check out the full Transformer Prime review, and skip to the Ice Cream Sandwich section if updates and changes are all you're interested in.… Read more

Android Ice Cream Sandwich on a Moto Droid Razr? Sort of

Ever since Google officially revealed the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system in mid-October, Android fans have been hungering to try it out on their Gingerbread smartphones.

I can't say I blame them. The OS is bold and beautiful, without too many hiccups and with a few more tips and tricks to try out.

With only the Sprint version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus announced at CES this month (a rather mundane unveiling at that), people are starting to get restless.

A series of blurry snapshots on DroidLife (and ultimately from DroidRzr), depicts the GSM version of the Motorola Droid … Read more

HTC may dish Ice Cream Sandwich to Flyer tablet

Mere weeks after announcing that Android 3.2 is being deployed to the 7-inch Flyer tablet, HTC could be readying a 4.0 update.

According to HTC-Hub, the hardware maker expects to roll out the Ice Cream Sandwich update during the first quarter of the year. If the rumor proves to be true, this may be one of the fastest back-to-back updates in Android history.

The rumors of a 4.0 update got started when a member of the blog spoke to an online HTC customer service representative about some lingering issues that the 3.2 update brought to the … Read more

Kindle Fire updates to bigger browser, better e-mail

Amazon's latest software update for the Kindle Fire tablet (version 6.2.2) is now officially available as a free, over-the-air update.

Along with some general performance tweaks, the update gives users improved support for manually setting up e-mail providers in the tablet's Email app, as well as a new full-screen mode for Amazon's Silk Web browser.

I recommend the update, and if your Kindle Fire doesn't automatically detect its availability, you have the option of downloading the update directly and manually transferring the file to your Kindle's update folder.

In the two months since … Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich update failing on some Transformer Primes

The update to Ice Cream Sandwich is apparently leaving some owners of the new Asus Transformer Prime out in the cold.

Released by Asus last Tuesday, ahead of schedule to users in the United States and Taiwan, the tablet was supposed to receive the Android 4.0 update over the air. But instead, several owners of the Prime are complaining that their tablets are displaying a serial number error, preventing the update from installing, according to posts on the XDA Developers forum.

Asus is aware of the issue and is close to a fix, according to a message posted Sunday … Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich update dripping out to Motorola Xoom

Ice Cream Sandwich is finally providing some flavor to Motorola Xoom tablets.

A Motorola representative confirmed to CNET today that the company has deployed the Ice Cream Sandwich update, aka Android 4.0, to a small number of Xoom users for testing. The company has promised to confirm additional details when the upgrade is more broadly available, added the rep.

Motorola initially seems to have teased the update, without specifically mentioning ICS, in the following e-mail sent to select Xoom owners yesterday, according to tech blogging site AndroidCentral:

Thanks for your patience as we've waited for this project to … Read more

Google evangelists release bible of good Android design

Google doesn't reject apps from the Android Market just because they're ugly.

But that doesn't mean the company doesn't care--especially now that Matias Duarte has seized the spotlight as director of Android user experience. So, absent the banhammer, Google is trying gentler persuasion to get others besides itself to care about designs that look and work well in the Ice Cream Sandwich era.

For that reason, Google has released an Android design guide for ICS, aka Android 4.0. As my colleague Kent German observes, Google's accommodating ways up to this point have led to … Read more

Gingerbread dominates current Android devices

Google updated its popular platform version chart this week, giving a current snapshot of the popularity of the various Android releases.

As expected, Gingerbread (Android 2.3x) leads the way with a combined 55.5 percent share of the market, followed by Froyo at 30.4 percent and 2-year-old Eclair at 8.5 percent. Trailing behind are Honeycomb (3.3 percent) and very marginal showings for Donut (version 1.6), Cupcake (version 1.5), and Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4).

The latest chart marks the first time we've seen Ice Cream Sandwich make an impact, even if it is … Read more

Google standardizes Holo theme for Android 4.0 devices

After investing a considerable amount of time and effort on the Android 4.0 user interface (UI), Google is taking steps to ensure that it remains a key component of devices.

Writing on the developer blog yesterday, Android Framework engineer Adam Powell outlined the new compatibility standard for the Holo theme first introduced in 3.0 Honeycomb.

Going forward, devices running Ice Cream Sandwich with official access to the Android Market will offer the Holo themes as they were initially created. So in other words, developers will have a standard set of UI elements to work with, ultimately resulting in … Read more

Asus announces Transformer Prime ICS date, addresses GPS and bootloader issues

When Asus unveiled its Honeycomb-powered Transformer Prime tablet last November, it stated that Ice Cream Sandwich would be on the tablet by year's end. As owners of the tablet can tell you, that didn't pan out. However, according to its Facebook page, the company will begin pushing the update to Prime owners worldwide, starting January 12.

That's the boring part though, since Asus made no secret of the fact that ICS was coming. More intriguing however, are the other parts of Asus's Facebook post.

Since the release of the Transformer Prime, two potential issues have come … Read more