At Computex, Taiwanese manufacturer Honeywld has announced a new Android 4.0 based Google TV box that can stream movies directly from Android 4.0 smartphones and tablets. The feature works similarly to Apple’s AirPlay, which lets iPad or iPhone users directly stream content to their Apple TV.

The box can also sync other multimedia content between the devices, such as pictures. However, an app must be installed on your Android mobile device in order to get the streaming and synchronization capabilities. That app is still under development.

The Honeywld set-top box features a Marvell dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 4GB SSD, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, microSD card slot, Ethernet and HDMI ports, and optional WiFi. It runs a customized version of Google TV based on Android 4.0 and is expected to ship in July, priced between $95 and $120. However, distribution will be initially limited to Taiwan.

[via IDG]

Samsung has expanded its list of devices that are set to receive the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update. The list now includes several T-Mobile devices, including the Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 7.0, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, when the upgrade will arrive for those devices have yet to be revealed, and the list will continually be altered as updates are confirmed or released.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has so far only been available for Samsung’s Nexus S 4G on the Now Network and will soon be available for the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch on the same carrier. For AT&T, the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy Note, Captivate Glide, and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be receiving the upgrade.

Both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 7.7 on Verizon will also be getting the ICS update as will the WiFi versions of Samsung’s tablets, including the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

[via Samsung]

According to the four-page Verizon document that first leaked on Reddit, the Ice Cream Sandwich update will first start rolling out to the HTC Rezound on May 9. Testing for the device finishes up on May 7 with the over-the-air update estimated to be ready two days later. The ICS update will then be rolled out to the Motorola RAZR and RAZR MAXX on May 21, which both finish their testing on May 17.

Testing for Motorola Xoom 3G and 4G have already been completed on April 19, but the ICS update roll-out is still to be determined for both tablets. No other devices appear to be slated for the ICS update at this moment. The update will arrive around the same time when new devices, including the new Motorola DROID RAZR HD and the HTC DROID Incredible 4G are expected to launch with ICS on board.

[via Android Community]

The update will add several enhancements, such as improving system stability, email stability, AppBackup App, and MyLibrary stability. It will also bring support for WiFi Direct, the unzip function in File Manager, and the restore tab function in Browser.

ASUS unleashed ICS for Transformer users first in Taiwan back in February and soon after in the US and Europe. However, that firmware version 9.2.1.11 had a lot of issues with many users experiencing automatic reboots every couple of hours and even sometimes finding that their tablet would completely fail to reboot. Hopefully, ASUS has worked out all the kinks now.

This tablet looks and feels very much like an improved version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 where the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 seems to be a wholly revamped version of the original Galaxy Tab from many moons ago. What the 10.1-inch version of the Tab 2 offers you is a WXGA 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display, 16GB of storage built-in with a microSD card slot to expand your memory by 32GB, and a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP processor at 1GHz per core.

Then there’s more lovely apps right out of the box than you could possibly dream of – each of them added to allow you instant access to your Samsung devices galore. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz UX updated for that version of Android is included as well – have a peek at the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 to see what you’ll be getting for ICS on the 10.1:

The Galaxy Tab 2 line will also give you a fabulous 1 year of 50GB of storage with Dropbox – this being otherwise a $99 value here for free. This tablet will run you $399.99 when its released and will be launched on the 13th of May – right in time for my birthday!

The launch of the Nokia Lumia 900 will be AT&T’s biggest launch ever! Dell has completely quit their US smartphone sales altogether – there will no longer be any Dell smartphones in the USA. Samsung has begun opening store inside a store in places like 4u, sparing allegations that they’re aping Apple.

Google is demonstrating the excellence of their driverless cars with a blind man at the helm. The Facebook-backed password privacy bill you may have heard of this week has been killed in the House. The world’s most efficient flexible OLED display is being demonstrated this week by researchers for your enjoyment!

There’s going to be some radical flexible epaper devices released by LG this April – believe it or not! Tim Cook is visiting China this week and is taking a peek at Foxconn factories to make sure they’re awesome. Sharp patent overlaps are showing up as Apple Television rumors and we’re all waiting to see it happen! And of course Jeff Bezos is raising the Apollo 11 engines from the deep.

This new update to the Transformer Prime adds the ability for the tablet to connect to ethernet data (with an Ethernet to USB converter) and allows for Face Direct Unlock – this a feature missing from the original Android 4.0 build released just months ago. Many extra bits have been added as well, including an update to the ASUS Vibe app and myCloud MyLibrary. This tablet can now also show video over HDMI in either landscape or portrait mode, and this release comes with a promise that the TF101G model ASUS will be getting Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as well.

Hands-on with Transformer Prime pre-March update

So what’s the holdup for the rest of the tablets out there that don’t rely on a mobile network to get them data? Shouldn’t it only be Google and the device manufacturer who have to work on getting Android 4.0 out to that device? That certainly might seem like the case, but the truth hurts: when you’ve got a tablet out there that a person does not buy on a contract with a carrier, the promise for updates only lasts so far as promised in your initial purchase agreement. In effect, the manufacturers don’t really owe tablet owners anything — ASUS is, in this case, acting to show the customers that they want to remain dedicated to them: and of course want to see additional sales of the Transformer Prime before the next model is released!

You can currently download this game on Google Play’s App Store and appears to be compatible with the vast amount of devices out there – a feat given the utterly massive amount of different sized screens and form factors included in the Android universe. Without further ado, have a peek at this game as it exists on Google’s current hero device, the Galaxy Nexus, running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich:

You’ll be able control this game with swipes, taps, and tilts of your device, and in many ways you’ll be having the same experience here on Android that you did on iOS – if you’re the type of person who has both platforms on the regular. This game is currently version 1.0 and does appear to have one or two bugs still in it (force closes and the like) but is certainly a final release from its makers. Now we wait to see if the game has an expansion, and if it’ll be released to Android at the same time it’s released to iOS!

AT&T announced today that it is making the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update available for the HTC Vivid smartphone, making it the first carrier in the US to issue an ICS upgrade on a device that originally shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. HTC Vivid customers can also expect new Beats by Dr. Dre audio enhancement and an upgrade to HTC Sense 3.6.

This makes the HTC Vivid the first US smartphone to receive the ICS upgrade from Gingerbread. Other AT&T devices to follow include the LG Nitro, Motorola ATRIX 2, Motorola ATRIX 4G, Pantech Burst, Pantech Element, Samsung Captivate Glide, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. The update will be rolled out to these devices in the coming months.

To get the update today, you can either download it directly to your HTC Vivid or sideload it by downloading it to your PC. This second option is only necessary if you cannot connect your phone to WiFi. The download can be found on AT&T’s HTC Vivid page. Customers who do not download the update today will get a SMS reminder tomorrow.

For a preview of the update, Android Community has a hands-on complete with images and a video.

[via Android Community]

The Toshiba AT330 prototype tablet is nearly double the size of the 7.7-inch AT200 prototype the company revealed at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, which also featured an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a similar aesthetic. But the AT330′s roomier body accommodates 32GB of storage with a full-sized SD card slot and HDMI output.

Not too much more is known about the specs of the AT330 other than having a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It’s not certain what resolution display it has, but it looks to be a 1920 x 1200 LCD panel. The size would suggest a hefty device, but the marketing indicates it’s a lightweight tablet, although we don’t know yet exactly how much it weighs.

[via Android Community]

This tablet will have the ability to stay closed and entirely protected by its outer shell when you do not need to use it, twisting to reveal two separate pieces when you’re ready for some advanced Android action. As you’ll see in the preview video, this unit has a tablet top like Archos has released in the past with such tablets as the G9 and 80 (which we’ve also got a full review of from a few months ago), and a keyboard dock for its other half.

This unit looks to be coming in a sleek white and gray color scheme and appears very much to be as thin a tablet as any of Archos competitors in the Android realm. We can expect at least a dual-core processor under the hood here and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box, this along with, once again, a low cost for a full package. Archos is coming back with a hefty value proposition this Summer – of that you can be sure!

[via Android Community]

So we’re back at square Alpha for the Galaxy S II with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – or a bit further than that if you’re in the mood for some hacking. Users have been at work hacking their Galaxy S II units with Ice Cream Sandwich for months now, certainly having an advanced build for you if you look hard enough for it – but remember, that’s not the official way of the manufacturer, and you’ll get no help from them if you’re doing the switch on your own. As for the rest of the Samsung line of devices – we’ve only otherwise got confirmation that the Galaxy Note and perhaps some of the Galaxy Tab units will be upgraded in the first half of 2012.

Will you be satisfied if you get upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich inside the next few months? How about if you never get that upgrade on the device you’ve already purchased? Your humble narrator is of the opinion that noone owes their users any sort of upgrade in the software they develop, especially for non-security-related matters. Do you agree, or are you huffing mad about the wait?

This update will come in the form of an over-the-air update which will be slowest if you’re upgrading just using your mobile data, a bit faster if you’re on Wi-fi, and even faster still if you simply grab the update with Kies. For those of you that’ve never used Kies, it’s the Samsung-made desktop interface you can use to interact with your Samsung device with great ease. This upgrade will bring everything that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has to offer including advanced multitasking and a modded Samsung TouchWiz user interface.

It’s not just straight up Vanilla you’ll be getting this this update, mind you, it’ll be a mix of what you’ve seen on the Galaxy Nexus and what you’ve already got on your Galaxy S II at the moment (supposing you’re still on stock software.) Samsung has prepared several different versions of their own TouchWiz user interface for action with this new upgrade to Android, and they’ll all be prepared depending on the carrier you’re on and which Galaxy S II model you own. The most basic build will be on the Galaxy S II international edition and will be out, again, on March 10th.

[via Samsung]

Each of these groups has several devices in the mix with Verizon, and in the cases of Samsung and LG, they’ve either only got one or two devices in the current market with the carrier or they already have the hero device for the OS (Samsung Galaxy Nexus) and so will still have the crown in that respect. It is surprising to see nearly the entire Motorola line of smartphones and tablets getting the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich considering their slightly heavier than most user interface, but here we go – up we go!

HTC:
• HTC ThunderBolt
• DROID Incredible 2 by HTC
• HTC Rhyme
• HTC Rezound

Motorola:
• Motorola XOOM
• DROID BIONIC
• DROID RAZR
• DROID RAZR MAXX
• DROID 4
• DROID XYBOARD 8.2
• DROID XYBOARD 10.1

Samsung:
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

LG:
• Spectrum by LG

For more information on any of these devices, head to our smartphone review portal and look them up – they’re all there! For more information on Ice Cream Sandwich, the 4.0 release of Android, head to our giant Android 4.0 ICS review – it’s tasty!

This device has a 5 megapixel camera and no front-facing camera, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich along with Sense UI 4.0 on top. This is part of the most advanced line of devices to have been revealed by HTC, and is what HTC is banking on to make them taken back the flagship in the Android world. This device has hardware that makes it look sharp, 120.3 x 59.7 x 9.24 mm making this device an ultra-thin device with 512 MB of ram backing it up.

The HTC One line comes with 25GB of Dropbox storage for a full two years, the same amount of time you’ve got on your contract from your mobile carrier. We’ll be taking a much closer look at this device and its entire set of components very, very soon. Stay tuned to SlashGear for all the MWC 2012 and HTC news you can handle all week long. Barcelona is full of surprises, not least of all in the world of HTC!

The ViewSonic ViewPad G70 will feature a 7-inch 1024 x 600 high-resolution screen, which means 169ppi pixel density. The processor specs have not been revealed, but it’s believed to have 1GB of RAM and 4GB of onboard storage that can be expanded with a microSD card.

It will offer a variety of ports, including mini-HDMI, micro-USB, and mini-USB. Front and back cameras will also be included, although the rear-facing camera is said to have only a 2-megapixel resolution.

There’s no official product shot of the tablet just yet besides the rendering above, which makes it look a bit boxier than its predecessors. However, it’s expected to be ultra lightweight and will offer 3G connectivity.

It will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but will still have Viewsonic’s own ViewScene 3D interface layered on top. Being a Google-certified device, it should offer all the normal Google services, including access to Android Market. Pricing could be around $350, but nothing’s official at the moment. We’ll find out more live from next week’s MWC in Barcelona.

[via Pocket-lint]

HTC has today confirmed not just their suddenly massive set of Sensation device, but their Evos and their Amazes as well! The full list looks something like this: HTC Rezound, HTC Vivid, HTC Amaze 4G, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G, HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S and HTC Desire HD. Each of these devices HTC says they’ll be upgrading to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich later this year. How late this year these devices will be upgraded is anybody’s guess at the moment.

The announcement from HTC also includes a tip that more updates on Ice Cream Sandwich releases will be dropping in coming weeks – could this mean that such oddities as the HTC ThunderBolt and the HTC Titan might have a chance at ICS? How about the still awesome HTC Jetstream – will there be any love there for tablets? We’ll see soon!

The build you’re seeing here is what you’ll get when you update your ASUS Transformer Prime to ICS, and the first thing you’ll see is that it’s not Vanilla. The way ASUS has worked with Android 4.0 is in a way that makes it NEARLY Vanilla, that is completely unmodified by the manufacturer, but they’ve done some cool changes themselves. They’ve not only done a good job in not taking too much out or adding too much back in in this build, and you’ll see right away that the system is slick as ever.

The icons for the basic built-in applications have been changed to Ice Cream Sandwich loveliness, and interfaces have been changed to several basic Google-built apps. None of the apps are all that different from what you’ve seen in our original Ice Cream Sandwich review save their size except for the camera app which has been modified to work with the tablet’s bigger form factor. Like Honeycomb you’ll see that both the lock when you wake the tablet up and the controls on the camera app are sitting on the far right, complete with circular controls for things like zooming in and out.

You wont find the same shutter speed you saw on the first ICS device out there, the Galaxy Nexus, simply because that’s a feature built into the device, not the software. Similarly you will not find the facial recognition screen unlock – we’re guessing this is because there’ve been so many problems surrounding the lock thus far that ASUS decided to hold off on it for now for their device here. The settings menu is updated to the full ICS experience, complete with “developer” controls – head to the Force GPU Rendering option for a lovely GPU treat.

Have a peek at the images above and below as well as the hands-on video to get a full look at this build, then feel free to ask any additional questions you’ve got about the system in the comments below. Additionally if there are any tests you’d like done on this tablet with this version of Android on it, ask and you shall receive!

The above image was originally deemed a leaked press image of the Samsung Galaxy S III, but later turned out to be a fake concept image. Nonetheless, the actual device could look quite similar and it’s not difficult to guess what the logical progression in specs might be, although some have guessed more outrageously a 2GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM.

According to Murtazin, the Samsung Galaxy S III will instead feature a 1.5GHz to 1.6GHz quad-core processor. This would certainly still require a larger battery to keep the device juiced up and per Murtazin’s experience with the device so far, battery life seems to be decent.

Murtazin also reveals that the new handset features an HD resolution screen, a 12 megapixel camera, and will be running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with some software tweaks, which probably means an iteration of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.

[via Android Community]

For those that don’t know, Rockchip is the increasingly popular manufacturer over in China, but are also responsible for the slew of cheap Gingerbread tablets that flooded the market in early 2011. They claimed the first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet back in December but not being approved by Google or having the Android Market we can hardly call it official.

At the ShowStoppers booth Rockchip had a thin and lightweight 7″ device but it wasn’t fully operational and was quickly removed from our cameras eye. Instead they were showing off their 10″ slate that had a striking resemblance to those Galaxy Tabs. Does the back look familiar to anyone else?

The Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich prototype was running on a very early alpha build that was built from source — and according to that “about me” page it was only compiled a few days ago on January 8th. That is beta software if I don’t say so myself. The 10″ display was average at best and it was rocking a 5 megapixel camera around back. It was quick and stable and seemed to be a fully functional version of ICS although we didn’t have enough time to put it through the proper paces.

With Rockchip attending CES here in Vegas, and working hard to bring Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablets to more markets than China, we can expect to see another 3rd party unofficial tablet assault from Rockchip soon.

Where before this point each game and application would have either had to adopt the theme that was included on the smartphone it ran on with Android, now they’ll only have to work with one: Holo. The name Holo is one that identifies the look you see when you view, for example, the review we’ve got for Ice Cream Sandwich. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) has a cyan color scheme to it, simple sans-serif font stylings, and a modern aesthetic all around. Where manufacturers like Samsung and HTC before had what they called TouchWiz and Sense running on the devices they released, this will remain true – but for applications, no adoption is necessary.

An email application is the simplest place to explain this: where before any email application would have to design on top of Samsung or HTC’s custom user interface to get the look they wanted, this is no longer true. The text boxes, buttons, and keyboard, just to name a few, will by default be the Ice Cream Sandwich standard. Developers have only now to develop for one theme: Holo.

This is the start of a whole new age for Android, developers now essentially able to make apps as simply as they would for the iPhone. Hopefully the torrential downpour of apps and games can begin.

It’s set up much like a quad-core chip, but the ZMS-40 adds 96 “StemCell Media Processing” cores that help out the four included ARM Cortex A9 cores. It is not only supposed to reduce battery consumption by half, ZiiLabs claim it will also manage “twice the peak media performance”. When I play graphic intensive games or watch movies on my tablet, the battery drains faster than I can keep up. If the ZMS-40 can remedy that apparent problem – then I hope it makes its way into devices soon.

We may actually see a few tablets with the ZMS-40 chip incorporated at CES next week. If so, we’ll be the first to let you know how it stacks up to the rest. But until then, we’ll leave you with the official press release:

[via Engadget]

Although this is a clear step forward for user interface and thematic consistency across devices, those who aren’t in the mood to skin their Android devices shouldn’t quite brandish their smartphones in victory just yet. Google’s default ‘Holo’ theme is essentially a set of UI widgets and design elements that developers can utilize in developing apps. Though this may mean that Google has opened the option to 3rd-party developers to design widgets and apps with the native theme, it does not at all mean that Google is mandating the usage of the theme on anybody, especially not manufacturers.

The ‘Holo’ theme will come as the default theme for any app that doesn’t request specifically the device’s default skin, which basically means that the look and feel of 3rd-party Android skins, such as Samsung’s TouchWiz, HTC’s Sense UI, and others, won’t integrate as deep into 3rd-party apps unless developers design them to do so.

Both devices feature unique form factors with the Tablet S being a 10-inch device that resembles a folded back magazine while the Tablet P sports a smaller more pocketable clam shell design. Both devices come with a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

We’ve heard very little about the two devices since launch, but it’s good to see that Sony is still supporting both slates and that its custom interface hasn’t inhibited a platform upgrade like it has for Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab.

[via PhoneDog]

The explanation, however, seems inconsistent since the Android 4.0 update is already being rolled out to Samsung’s Nexus S, which features similar internal hardware. The Galaxy S packs the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor and enough memory for ICS.

Hence, what’s really preventing the ICS update is Samsung’s custom TouchWiz interface and a host of other “experience enhancing” software that already take up a lot of resources. Although the hardware is the same, the Nexus S, unlike the Galaxy S, does not need to deliver TouchWiz, carrier services, video calling software, and mobile TV.

[via The Verge]

The update will be issued over-the-air and proceed to roll out to devices in waves over the next month. This means that some users of the Nexus S GSM version could be getting the update as early as today, while others may have a month to wait. Nexus S 4G users on the WiMAX network will have to be more patient.

And if you’re waiting for the update, you might as well check out Google’s tips for Android 2.3 Nexus S users upgrading to Android 4.0. Some functions and features such as changing wallpaper, adding a widget to the Home screen, and scrolling through apps are slightly different on the new interface.

The very first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus, had just launched yesterday on Verizon. New owners of the device were immediately prompted for an update to version 4.0.2, which brought improved mobile hotspot functionality, optimized 3G/4G data connections and more.

Today’s update to version 4.0.3 brings more optimizations but also additional APIs that allow developers to tap into Contacts, Calendar, and camera capabilities such as video stabilization. Additionally, there are some improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, Bluetooth, and more.

[via Android Developer Blog]

On the other hand, heed his warning: what Crider’s done to achieve this result is to unlock and root his device first, then mess around in the guts. If you do this, you’ll likely break your brand new device less than a day after you first purchased it. Don’t do that unless you love pain. Let Crider do it and sit back and clap for his awesome ability to mess in guts.

Mostly what you’ll see here if the device is in this state is a Honeycomb unlock screen like you’ve seen in the past and some off-set screens that don’t end up working all that well. This is because though there are coded bits in this build of Ice Cream Sandwich that are capable of going tablet sized, but with this set of settings you’ll not have the experience Google intends. The first place we’ll see both interfaces working from one single build of Ice Cream Sandwich is likely the ASUS Padfone combination tablet / handset that’ll be coming sometime inside 2012.

You may well see a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 in there too, but shhh, that’s not important now. Have a look at the rest of Crider’s thoughts on this build hack and do NOT do this to your device unless you want to destroy that which you love so dearly. More on Android Community. Also stick around here on SlashGear for our full review of the Galaxy Nexus from Verizon, coming soon!

This Ice Cream Sandwich compatible version of Adobe Flash Player 11 is essentially the same as it was yesterday before it was available for download on Ice Cream Sandwich devices. It’ll work just fine for you and yours and as always, it’s a free download on the Android Market. Now as far as making this download available here and now for Ice Cream Sandwich instead of some weeks ago we’re not aware of any good reason for it other than Adobe was simply not ready for a solid release.

Those of you fretting over the absence of this application on your brand new Nexus device, never fear, Underdog is here, but remember that it won’t be updated forever. Head down to our timeline for Flash and you’ll see that the mobile version isn’t long for this digital world, the teams at Abobe handing over the reigns to the pages of history upon realizing that HTML5 had won. Whoa are we for that!

Meanwhile also feel free to check out our initial hands-on video and photos with this device from earlier today and stay tuned for the full review coming up soon!

What you’ll be able to do on this page is see the instructions Verizon is providing for you in small, smaller, larger, and largest text sizes, this making the whole system readily readable by those grandmothers and uncles just starting in on Android. You’ll be able to see how to use your camera, use your device as a 4G mobile hotspot, and of course, the newly build-in Google+. You’ll remember back from our first introduction to the Galaxy Nexus that it’s the first Android device to come with the Google+ social network app on it right out of the box – so very easy and convenient, yes?

Now we’ve got more than enough show that Verizon will let this phone be released this week, correct? How much more proof do you need than several sources at several stores and a brand new click-through guide on how to use the device? You’d like confirmation from Verizon themselves? Good luck folks! Use this interactive interface to sooth your weary soul and try to get some sleep tonight -right out in front of the Verizon store.

[via Verizon]

If you ask any one of our staff here at SlashGear, they certainly wouldn’t say that TouchWiz is the least pleasing of all the custom user interfaces that Android device manufacturers have implemented on their products, but you wont find a single person who wouldn’t rather simply have the original stock Ice Cream Sandwich as presented in the other Samsung hero device at the moment: the Galaxy Nexus. That’s why you’ll find more than a couple Android superfans out there today freaking out over the idea that they wont get their precious Vanilla-flavored Ice Cream Sandwich on the official update to their Galaxy S II units come early 2012.

This build is called Android 4.0.1 I9100XXKP1 and is a custom ROM at the moment for those of you looking to flash it to your device. Should you choose to run this ROM, know that it is by no means a final build, and not a lot of things work at the moment. For those of you looking to be a bit adventurous, you can access the download over at SamMobile (password: samfirmware.com) — and note, for those of you not into the whole hacking world, that this will void your warrantee more than likely. Good luck, everyone!

[via Blogsdna]

The $289 Galaxy Nexus bundle at Costco manages to include a leather pouch, car charger, and screen protector, and still beat out what’s believed to be the official on-contract Verizon pricing of $299 for the device. The unsubsidized device itself is expected to be $649.

Verizon has yet to confirm any details, but so far reports point to a 32GB capacity model to hit the carrier’s stores at the same time as when the Costco special kicks off. It’s possible that the Costco version has a smaller storage capacity of 16GB, which could explain the value pricing.

[via Android Community]

Though details aren’t especially numerous or expansive at the moment on this build, Qualcomm themselves have provided the images you’re seeing above and below. Qualcomm is sure to be releasing their S4 processor as well inside 2012, and based on what we’ve seen with the massively popularity and well-working nature of past processors from the group, you can bet this one will be a doozy as well. Qualcomm is currently getting Ice Cream Sandwich fully optimized for Snapdragon S4-toting tablets as well as the rest of their Snapdragon processors.

This means that it’s more likely than ever that, for example, the HTC line of smartphones from 2011 (and beyond) will be able to work with Ice Cream Sandwich in one way or another. All HTC handsets that you’ve likely handled have had Qualcomm processors in them, and until next year when the rumored NVIDIA-powered HTC Zeta is released, that one-processor-love situation will continue to stay strong. Ice Cream Sandwich ahoy for Qualcomm in 2012, that’s for certain!

P.S. Notice how awesome the text size is on the back of this tablet – and also check out how powerful the camera is if you dare. More massive than the most massive camera on any tablet before, much less a smartphone!

The Coby tablets will have a range in sizes, including a 7-inch (MID7042), 8-inch (MID8042), 9-inch (MID9042), 9.7-inch (MID9742), and 10-inch (MID1042) models. All the tablets will have capacitive touchscreens and be powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with 1GB of RAM. They will also support WiFi, HDMI 1080p output, and expandable storage up to 32GB.

The tablets are optimized for browsing the web, playing games, checking email, and watching videos. Although no prices have been announced yet, they will likely be in the lower-end range, since Coby is known for their budget-friendly devices. We’ll definitely keep an eye out for the Coby tablets at CES as well as other affordable alternatives.

[via PRNewsWire]

The Galaxy Nexus for Verizon made a trip to the FCC back in November, but this time around, it’s sporting AT&T’s GSM 850/1900 and WCDMA II/IV bands. It’s not clear if there will be any major changes, but the documents suggest that the AT&T version might not support LTE. AT&T has not made any announcements yet.

The device could still be heading to T-Mobile and Sprint as well, requiring a different version for each. The Verizon model is expected to hit first before any other Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices begin to roll out. For more details on the device, be sure to check our full review.

[via Android Community]

The gang at ZiiLABS has caught the tablet on video as it runs through some of the features of ICS. The video shows the slick UI transitions that are very fast and fluid. There appears to be almost no lag between the swipe and the next page showing up on the tablet screen. The demo also shows the photo transitions for zooming and slideshow.

Those transitions are smooth and the high quality images remain in original quality. The gaming demo is the coolest to me though because that is what I end up using my tablet for more than anything else. The games run very smoothly and look really good. There is also no apparent lag between input by the user and movement on the screen. Lag is the gamer’s enemy. We reviewed Android 4.0 a while back if you want to know more about the coming OS. Check out the video below.

[via Android Community]