Sony Xperia S Ice Cream Sandwich update now available

There was some disappointment when Sony's 2012 flagship handset, the Xperia S, shipped with Gingerbread on board instead of Ice Cream Sandwich. The company did promise an update, and true to its word, Ice Cream Sandwich is now rolling out to the Xperia S, bringing with it a bevy of new features. Sony has tweaked some of the entertainment apps such as Walkman, Movies, and Album, and you'll get all the functionality that Ice Cream Sandwich brings to the table too.

The Movies app stores any content you may have added yourself or purchased on the phone, but now pulls down album art from the internet as well as any relevant information, such as actors or plot. Album allows you to share photos out to Facebook, Picasa, and other online photo sharing services right from within the app. Walkman offers similar Facebook integration and downloads information directly from Gracenote.

Naturally, you'll get all the regular benefits of Ice Cream Sandwich too, such as Face Unlock, a Settings icon in the app drawer, more customization options, and data consumption controls. The update is rolling out to Xperia S handsets right now over-the-air, so you don't need to hook the phone up to a computer. All in all it comes in around 200MB, so you'll probably want to make sure you're connected to WiFi first.