Samsung's CES 2012 invitation
Samsung has sent out a rather boring looking press invite for CES 2012. Their new products will “push the boundaries on convergence and innovation”. The press conference will begin on January 9th at 2:00 PST. The event will be hosted by Samsung’s president BK Yoon.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich Statue at Google HQ
Google went ahead and released the source code for their latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich version, which is Android 4.0.3. The new version includes builds for the Motorola XOOM, Samsung Galaxy Nexus S, and two Galaxy Nexus versions (GSM and Verizon).
Some noteworthy items:
The download links can be found from Google’s Android Open-Source Project here.
Verizon Galaxy Nexus
Verizon was really quick to provide a maintenance update for their brand spanking new Galaxy Nexus. Just hours after the official release, the phone received an update to Android 4.0.2. The build is ICL53F. The update weighs in at 10.6MB. Fire up the update process!
AT&T Galaxy S II
AT&T is pushing out a maintenance update for their Galaxy S II owners. The update brings Android’s version up to 2.3.6. To check if your device is ready to receive the update, go to Settings > Software Update > Check for Updates.
Samsung's "The tablet Apple tried to stop"
Samsung is quite cleverly using the ongoing lawsuits between Apple and Samsung to promote their Galaxy Tab 10.1. They say that their Galaxy Tab 10.1 is “the tablet Apple tried to stop.” The image you see above is from Australian The Sun-Herald magazine. I love this kind of PR!
Samsung released the video above to show their progress on bringin Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the Galaxy S II. The work seems to come around pretty well, with TouchWiz 4.0 already working on it. I don’t know if TouchWiz is a good thing or a bad thing, since the stock UI found in Android 4.0 is pretty cool. The exact version of Android in the video is 4.0.1.
Samsung logo
Samsung today announced that they’ve shipped over 300 million handsets this year. This massive amount of mobiles in a year has earlier only been reached by Nokia. 300 million phones a year means roughly 820,000 every since day! Samsung’s earlier milestones include 1 million phones in 1996, 100 million in 2005 and 200 million in 2009.
bada 2.0 features
Samsung recently announced their first major update to bada with the introduction of bada OS 2.0. The update was told to reach every single bada device out there, but now plans have changed.
The company explained in an email to bada developers that they will not provide bada OS 2.0 for the Wave 525 and Wave 533. These two devices will continue with the bada 1.1 SDK. Developers who want to use features from the bada 2.0 API can not target the Wave 525 or Wave 533.
Samsung will however provide a Value Pack for those left without bada 2.0. The value pack will give bada 1.1 devices an experience similar to bada 2.0. Here is Samsung’s definition of a Value Pack:
Samsung is offering “Value Pack” upgrade for devices that do not support bada 2.0 upgrade due to hardware limitations such as main chipset performance and available network speed. “Value Pack” is designed to offer the same bada 2.0 user experience and service as much as possible despite the hardware limitations.
