Samsung Galaxy S 4G gets Gingerbread (finally)

If you own T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S 4G and you're still waiting for the official update to Gingerbread, we've got some good news for you. The update for the phone is finally available for your phone. T-Mobile has announced that the update for the Galaxy S 4G will finally get the long awaited Android 2.3 update. The update won't be pushed out over the air, and users will need to update their phones via Kies (Samsung's desktop client for its Android phones).

In addition to Gingerbread, the update includes a Google security patch, camera enhancements, and WiFi enhancements. As usual, back up your phone before attempting any upgrades, and even better - wait a few days to see if anybody experiences any issues with the upgrade (seems to be the trend these days).

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V Hits US

Sony Ericsson has just announced the availability of their new Android smartphone ‘Xperia Neo V' in the US via Sony's US online store. The handset can be yours for $349.99 unlocked and will start shipping from November 17th. To remind you, the Xperia Neo V offers a 3.7-inch 854 x 480 touchscreen display, a 1GHz single-core processor, a 512MB RAM, a 320MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, a VGA front-facing camera, a 5MP rear-facing camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1500mAh battery and runs on Android 2.3 OS. [Product Page]

Google Music Updated to Version 4.0.9 in the Android Market

Coinciding with today's event, Google Music for Android has been updated to version 4.0.9. The new build brings the features and UI found in the version of the app leaked last month, a refined look in step with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The updated app also brings access to music purchases from Android Market.

Android Market Link: Google Music

Windows Phone 7.5 update heading towards Samsung Focus 1.4

For AT&T customers who are rocking to a Samsung Focus 1.4 smartphone, here is a little bit of good news to end your week on a decent note – it seems that Windows Phone 7.5 updates will be rolling out for said smartphone, while the same update is also in the works for those who are using the Samsung Omnia 7 all the way across the pond – in Spain, specifically, for Telefonica subscribers. The scheduling process will need to be sped up though, since it has been fully tested.

Apart from that, Microsoft will also be rolling out a different wave of firmware updates from their manufacturers to select Windows Phone models. These updates, while not mandatory, will do the job of making sure the overall function of your Windows PHone will be improved. Microsoft strongly urges you to make an installation if you happen to stumble upon in. For those who have already installed the updates, how do you find it?

Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ first impressions

Wow... The Galaxy Nexus. It's finally here, in our eager little hands, and it's delicious - just like Ice Cream Sandwich, in fact. Our review unit is the same unlocked HSPA+ version we briefly played with in Hong Kong and is running Android 4.0.1. We've only spent about a day with Google's newest superphone and we're already hard at work on a full review, but we wanted to share some raw, immediate, first impressions - after the break.

The first thing we noticed upon opening the generic white packaging is that this latest Nexus is a large phone, with a footprint similar to the HTC Titan. It's also pleasantly light and thin, and the bezel is small thanks to the lack of hardware buttons. Build quality is typical Samsung - durable if not somewhat plasticky. The Nexus inherits design cues from its various Galaxy S II cousins, including the textured battery cover (which is a little difficult to snap back on), but sheds the usual black for a gunmetal shade of gray.

We're happy to confirm that the Galaxy Nexus is indeed the first Android device with a pentaband HSPA+ radio - we've successfully tested both T-Mobile USA and AT&T SIMs with our handset. Hurray! Initial setup was quick and painless. We logged in with our Google ID and password, and to our surprise, the Nexus started downloading and installing all of our purchased apps (in addition to syncing our email, calendar and contacts). It also asked if we wanted to use Google+ on that account.

As expected, Samsung isn't taking any prisoners with its HD Super AMOLED display - the 4.65-inch 1280x720 pixel screen is simply gorgeous despite using a PenTile matrix. Fonts are crisp, colors are vibrant, blacks are deep, and viewing angles are exceptional. However, we noticed an issue with the auto-brightness setting, which functions properly in daylight but is too dim in low-light environments.

It's still too early to comment on battery life, but so far we're not seeing any issues. While the Nexus feels quite snappy it isn't as mind bendingly fast as some Gingerbread devices (the Galaxy Note comes to mind). It will be interesting to see how the phone performs in our standard suite of benchmarks, assuming these run properly in Ice Cream Sandwich.

Speaking of which, the new OS version obviously brings some significant changes to the Android user experience. Gone are the hardware buttons, replaced instead with Honeycomb-like softkeys (back, home and app list). While the new UI design is now generally more attractive and coherent, it takes some getting used to. The physical menu key, for example, is superseded by a soft button featuring 3 vertically stacked dots. Unfortunately, this control's placement is not consistent amongst Android 4.0 apps (legacy apps gain a virtual menu button next to the other softkeys).

Then again, we're quite fond of the app list which now doubles as a task manager, and the ability to access the camera directly from the lock screen is a lovely touch (and a hat tip to HTC's Sense UI). Other tidbits include the search bar which is persistent across each of the five home screens, the clever app tray animations (pure eye candy), and the Easter egg in the "About" menu. There's one more thing we noticed immediately: multiple text sizes in the Gmail client - at last.

We took a few pictures over the course of our first day with the Galaxy Nexus and the verdict is still out regarding the choice of a five megapixel camera vs. the excellent eight megapixel shooter that's standard fare on most of Samsung's flagship handsets. Our existing shots look decent, but the results sometimes required some tweaks to the exposure value, especially in low light. Using the camera exposed a major flaw in Ice Cream Sandwich, namely the lack of USB mass storage support (only media / picture transfer protocols are available). We can only hope this standard functionality will be restored in the very near future.

Like its predecessors, the Galaxy Nexus is shaping up to be an impressive flagship phone and Android 4.0 is a significant step forward for Google.

Ice Cream Sandwich: Hands-On With Google's New Android OS

When Google officially unveiled its newest Android operating system almost exactly one month ago, Matias Duarte, senior director of Android User Experience, told a rapt Hong Kong audience, “While people like Android, while people need Android, they didn't love Android.”

Everyone knew exactly what he was getting at. Android might be the world's most dominant smartphone OS with a 52 percent market share among global users, but compared to iOS, and even the upstart Windows Phone, it's just not very fun.

Indeed, Android is feature-packed and powerful, but it's always been the mobile OS for nerds. It's a workhorse, not the prancing pony you just want to hug.

And so the latest version of Android — Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS — was developed from the ground up to be, as Duarte described it, “enchanting.” I've spent the last 24 hours playing with ICS via Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, and I can report it's filled with buckets of surprise and delight.

This is not an incremental revision. In the quest for Android love, Duarte's team clearly committed itself to a successful courtship. ICS is a significant overhaul from Gingerbread (Android 2.3), and once users really begin poking around its nooks and crannies, they'll find a raft of features that not only work well, but should also provoke smiles.

When you sync with Google+, thumbnails of the favorites in your People database become high-res.

All physical navigation buttons have been excised. In their place: Virtual buttons that throb and glow when pressed. Live wallpapers now grace a new home screen with serene, slow-moving animations. And even cooler animations surface when you swipe through your apps tray or photo gallery and come to the end of the list — the icons shift en masse on a central axis, as if to say, “You're pulling me, but I can't go any farther, so it's time to stop.”

And how's this for fun and convenience: When reading email messages, you can flick your screen right or left to read any message that comes before or after the one you're currently reading. This basic flick gesture appears throughout the new OS. You can use it to quickly remove individual alerts in your Notifications list, individual browser thumbnails in your browser Tabs view, and any recently used app in the new Recents menu (which is a transplant from Honeycomb, the Android tablet OS).

The list of ICS enhancements goes on. Home-screen widgets are now resizable. A new calendar app has cells that expand and collapse with a simple pinch, allowing you to view either smaller or larger blocks of time. The browser is now not only ostensibly faster (though this could be credited to Samsung's hardware), but also includes a Save for Offline Reading feature that allows you to suck down any page for reading off the grid. In the same menu where that feature is located, you can hit Request Desktop Site to directly navigate away from the browser's default mobile-optimized view.

Orange San Francisco II confirmed, arrives in “late November” for �99.99 on PAYG

After a few weeks of speculation, Orange UK decided to finally confirm that a sequel to the San Francisco does in fact exist and it's coming soon. The San Francisco II is a handset we first heard about last month, and over the past few days we've seen it in official shots, and a rumor even gave us the pricing and release date.

Orange has posted a video to its YouTube channel. In the video (which you can see below), the San Francisco II is quickly presented. Unfortunately no exact release date is given, so we still don't know if the rumored November 21 launch will pan out or not. However, we do now know the official price.

The San Francisco II will be sold for £99.99 with an obligatory £10 initial top-up. That's exactly the price of its predecessor, and it certainly makes sense considering that the new phone is only slightly upgraded. You'll also be able to get the San Francisco II with a contract, for free on plans that cost £10.50 per month or more.

HTC updates HD7 and Mozart with internet sharing features

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 update brought the internet sharing feature to some of the newer Windows Phone devices. This was an exclusive feature limited to phones launched with Windows Phone 7.5 already installed, but a recent update by HTC that's being pushed out to the HTC HD7 and HTC Mozart has brought this internet sharing feature to both the older Windows Phone models.

It seems that HTC HD7 and HTC Mozart owners from around the world, such as India, Switzerland and Poland are reporting that internet sharing works. It will be interesting to see if T-Mobile will be approving this update, since internet tethering in the US generally requires a fee, so there might be some complications on that end. The update also brought about performance enhancements, so if you're still holding onto your HTC HD7 or HTC Mozart, plug it into your computer, fire up Zune and start the internet sharing!