Earlier this week, Samsung started rolling out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the European variant of the Galaxy Note. However, the official firmware has some serious bugs, performance issues and does not offer any of the visual goodness introduced by Google in Ice Cream Sandwich.

The good news is that starting from today, the Galaxy Note (N7000) is all set to receive official CM9 nightly builds. Even though this is the first official nightly build, it is completely functional without any major bugs. The only bug is that the Speakerphone does not work while on a call. According to the developers this bug will only be fixed once the Ice Cream Sandwich sources are released by Samsung, which should hopefully happen within a couple of weeks from now.

The first nightly build for the handset is already out, and can be downloaded from here. Make sure you are rooted, and are not running the leaked chinese Ice Cream Sandwich firmware on your Galaxy Note before proceeding with the installation.

Earlier today, the CyanogenMod team silently released the Release Candiate 2 of CM7.2 based on Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread. The RC1 of CM7.2 was released well back in March, but ever since Ice Cream Sandwich code went AOSP, the CM team is busy working on CM9 instead of CM7 and thus the development of CM7.2 has slowed down.

Compared to the last RC release, the CM team has added a bunch of new devices that are now supported by CM7.2 including the Galaxy Ace, Mini, Epic 4G, LG Optimus Black, Optimus 3D, Motorola Atrix 4G, Sony Xperia Live, Pro, Active and the Huawei U8150. Other changes include a predictive phone dialer, tons of bug fixes, some device specific changes and more. Below is the full change-log of CM7.2 RC2 -:

• New devices: Samsung Galaxy Ace, Mini and Epic 4G. LGE Optimus Black, 3D, Hub, Pro, Sol and One. Motorola Atrix 4G. Sony Ericsson Xperia Live, Pro and Active. Huawei U8150.
• Common: Updated translations – (everyone)
• Common: T9 predictive Phone dialer – Danesh M, Pawit Pornkitprasan
• Common: Media player and recorder fixes for a number of corner cases – CAF, Danny Baumann
• Common: Profile resets – Ladios Jonquil
• Common: Assorted Wifi fixes
• Common: Control haptic in quiet hours – Danesh M
• Common: Lockscreen updates and new styles – Andrew Sutherland, Danny Baumann, Danesh M, Sven Dawitz, Taichi Nishimura
• Common: Bluetooth MAP support – Jonathan Bensen
• Common: ICS telephony fix backports – Spencer Oliver
• Common: Support for Bluetooth GPS dongles – Cuong Bui
• Common: Better support for mouse and usb keyboards – Emilio Lopez, Tanguy Pruvot
• Common: Fix timezone detection in Hawaii – Warren Togami
• Common: ICS Transition effects backport – Russ Underhill
• Common: ICS Rotation effects backport – Tanguy Pruvot
• Common: Allow photo storage selection when possible – Greg Kochaniak
• Common: Improved Calendar reminder options – Danny Baumann
• Common: Fix color banding in Gallery while displaying 32bpp images – Sang Tae Park
• Common: ADB over network
• Common: Improved AVRCP 1.3 compatibility
• Common: Improved external keyboard and mouse behaviour on some corner cases – Tanguy Pruvot
• Common: Status bar battery icon configuration – Simon Davie
• Samsung Galaxy S GSM devices: Fix emergency dialing
• OMAP Common: Support for recent OMAP3/OMAP4 devices – omapzoom
• p990: Add FM Radio support
• p990/p999: fix background calls, fix HDMI output in 1080p
• Zeppelin, Morrison, Motus: Fixed camera zooming issues
• Samsung Galaxy S devices: Add tv-out
• Several devices: Fix device identification on Android Market
• Crespo, Jordan, Blade, v9, Samsung Galaxy S devices: Device specific settings section

When Samsung announced the Galaxy S3 earlier this month, quite a few die-hard techies were disappointed with the SoC of the handset. The Exynos 4 Quad SoC inside the SGS3 is a beast in every sense, but it packs in 4 “older” generation Cortex-A9 cores instead of the latest Cortex-A15 architecture. The Qualcomm S4 (Krait) SoC is a custom Cortex-A15 competitor from Qualcomm, and even though it has two less physical cores, it manages to beat the quad-core Exynos and Tegra 3 in quite a few benchmarks pretty easily. The Exynos 5250 is Samsung’s Cortex-A15 dual-core based SoC, which is scheduled to arrive later this year.

According to some of the latest commits from Google’s Android git, it looks like Google and Samsung are preparing a new device that will be using an Exynos 5250 SoC. The other specs of this mysterious device also look impressive with a Wolfson WM8994 audio chip, a 720p display, ‘vithar’ GPU clocked at 533MHz, and a ‘S5K4E5/S5K6A3′ camera.

The Exynos 5250 just went into testing, and the early yields of the SoC are only able to scale up to 1GHz. Thus, the chances of the rumored Google Nexus tablet sporting the Exynos 5250 SoC do look bleak since its less than 2 months away from its unveiling. Samsung states that the Exynos 5250 SoC will be clocked at around 1.8-2GHz, so the yield of the SoC needs to improve before it goes into production. The SoC is scheduled to go into production sometime in Q3 of this year. It might be possible that the Galaxy Note 2 or even the next Nexus handset from Google will be sporting the above specs.

Via – Codeworkx

Until now, Samsung, Motorola, HTC and Sony have all updated at least a few of their handsets to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. LG is the only company that still has not updated any of its Android running handsets to Ice Cream Sandwich. The company had initially promised to roll-out the Android 4.0 ICS update for the Optimus 2X sometime in Q2.

However, the company has now postponed the Ice Cream Sandwich update for its Optimus 2X handset to Q3. Quite a few other Optimus branded handsets from LG were also scheduled to receive their ICS update in Q3, and the Optimus 2X joins them. If the company manages to stick to its word this time, it will take LG a whopping 9 months to update even a single Optimus branded handset to ICS.

This is downright disastrous for the company’s image, and is going to make a negative impact on its handset’s sale. With the Korean company’s handset sales already dwindling, and losses increasing this is perhaps the last thing LG could have hoped for. The company should spend some money on hiring better Android engineers if it wants its mobile division to stay in business.

Via – LG’s Official Facebook Page

It was generally thought that the Galaxy S III will come with a Super AMOLED HD Plus display, instead of the Super AMOLED HD display found on the Galaxy Nexus. The Super AMOLED HD Plus display was already being used by Samsung on the Galaxy Tab 7.7 so there was no issue of the technology not being ready in time. However, many people were disappointed to see that the Galaxy S III used the same Super AMOLED HD display with PenTile matrix as the one on the Galaxy Nexus.

A lot of questions were raised as to why Samsung did not use a Super AMOLED HD Plus display on the Galaxy S III. The Korean company finally answered this question at the on-going CTIA to a reporter of MobileBurn that Super AMOLED HD Plus displays don’t last as long as the Super AMOLED HD, and so the company went with the Super AMOLED HD display on the S3.

Super AMOLED HD displays have a PenTile (RGBG, 2 green pixels for every blue pixel) sub-pixel arrangement, while Super AMOLED HD Plus has a RGB sub-pixel arrangement. The blue sub-pixels on the Super AMOLED screen degrade the fastest, so since the HD Plus has more blue sub-pixels, the display will not last as long as the former.

Over the last couple of years, I have owned a lot of Android smartphones right from the popular Galaxy S to the keyboard-touting Desire Z, the almighty Galaxy S2, and more recently a Galaxy Nexus. If you think I change my phone at my will, you are wrong. The reason every time I had to replace my existing phone was because I somehow managed to break it. In fact, except for the Galaxy S and the Desire Z, I have managed to break each and every mobile phone I have owned, including some Sony and Nokia handsets.

My method of killing my phone, totally unintentionally, has varied from a fall in a bucket of water to simply dropping them on a concrete floor from nearly 6 feet high. Every time I used to break my phone, I used to promise myself that whichever phone I buy next, I will use a case or cover so as to protect it from those 6 feet+ drops. I have used a lot of different cases and covers for all my handsets, but I have never used them for more than a week at a stretch. Reason? Some cases are thick, some just have a very poor in-hand feel, some are just made poorly and some don’t offer adequate protection. I have used cases and covers from a variety of companies including the official cases from Samsung, HTC and some from popular third party case makers like Case Mate.

The Case Mate Barely There case for the Galaxy S2 was really impressive, but did not offer adequate protection. So when I broke my Galaxy S2′s screen, and got a Galaxy Nexus, I was more or less sure I would be ordering a Case Mate cover for my Galaxy Nexus as well. That is until I found out about SPIGEN’s SGP Cases. I had never heard about them before, but quite a few users over at Galaxy Nexus sub-forum on XDA were raving about the SGP cases, which was more than enough for me to give them a try.

SGP cases for the Galaxy Nexus are available in two different series – Ultra Hybrid and Neo Hybrid. I got the review units of both the cases, and here is what I think about them.

Ultra Hybrid

The Ultra Hybrid line-up of cases for the Galaxy Nexus, and for other handsets, is made up of a combination of Polycarbonate resin back supported by a Poly-Urethane frame. In simple words, the frame has a hard rubber feel to it, while the back has a hard, quality plastic feel to it. Unlike quite a few cases out there, there is literally no raised ‘lip’ on the Ultra Hybrid cases for the Galaxy Nexus. The side lips are more or less in level with the phone, which is something users will start appreciating over time.

Unlike the Neo Hybrid, the Ultra Hybrid has a much better build quality and can be simply snapped on the back of a Galaxy Nexus. The Ultra Hybrid series come in some pretty bold colors, with the frame part being black in a majority of them. They don’t look as good as the Neo Hybrid though, but offer much better protection.

Pros

• Superb build quality
• No raised lip

Cons

• Does not look as sleek or flashy as the Neo Hybrid

Neo Hybrid

The Neo Hybrid series of cases for the Galaxy Nexus is made up of two different materials. The body part of the case is made of high polymer coated silicone case, while the frame is made of UV coated polycarbonate frame. Unlike quite a few other popular cases, the SGP Neo Hybrid series provides proper protection for your handsets, while adding very little thickness. In fact, the Neo Hybrid case is probably one of the slimmest cases available out there, and yet it manages to provide proper protection to the device unlike Case Mate’s Barely There series.

The in-hand feel of the cover is pretty good and its build quality is also okay, though not as good as the Ultra Hybrid series. Getting the Galaxy Nexus to fit inside the cover is not as simple as snapping it on the back of a Nexus though. Installing it requires quite an effort, and I had to separate the frame part from the silicone case and install them separately.

Ever since I started using the cover on my Galaxy Nexus, each and every friend of mine who took the phone in his hand has appreciated the build quality of the case, its in-hand feel and even asked whether the company offers similar cases for their handsets. Like the Ultra Hybrid, the Neo Hybrid cases are also available in a range of colors including some bold ones like Yellow and Red, which offer a nice contrast to the black silicone part of the case.

There is one problem with the Neo Hybrid cases for the Galaxy Nexus though. The microUSB port opening on the Neo Hybrid is not wide enough to accomodate the whole microUSB charger supplied with the Galaxy Nexus, when inserted, so the charger does not fit properly. It is a loose fit, and a little bit of jerk is enough to disconnect the charger cable from the phone.

Pros

• Looks sleek and flashy
• Will definitely make your phone stand out from the crowd

Cons

• Slightly raised lip
• Installation is a bit tough
• The microUSB cable does not connect to the phone properly

I would definitely recommend the SGP Neo Hybrid over the Ultra Hybrid just because the former looks flashy, and yet manages to provide adequate protection. However, if you want a no frill, simple looking case for your Galaxy Nexus that provides proper protection to your handset, the Ultra Hybrid case is the one you should buy. The SGP Ultra Hybrid case costs $21.99 and is available in five different colors, while the Neo Hybrid costs $24.99 and is also available in five different colors.

For our readers in India, we will soon be doing a give-away of the SGP Ultra and Neo Hybrid cases for the Galaxy Nexus, so stay tuned!

Back at CES 2012, Samsung and AT&T announced a new handset for the carrier’s 4G LTE network – the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD. Apart from its unusually long name, the Skyrocket HD, the handset was going to pack in a 4.5-inch 720p Super-AMOLED screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Except for the 720p Super AMOLED HD screen, the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD is similar to the Skyrocket.

Now, that more than 4 months have passed by since Samsung and AT&T first announced the handset, both the companies have decided to cancel the launch of the product. While AT&T and Samsung have not yet confirmed that the Galaxy S III will be coming to AT&T’s network, the carrier definitely fits Samsung’s statement of the largest and fastest LTE network in the United States. Thus, the decision to cancel the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD from AT&T and Samsung  is definitely a good decision.

Hopefully, the AT&T version of the Galaxy S III will not come with an absurdly long name like the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III Quad HD LTE.

Via – The Verge

After rolling out a couple of quick software updates for the HTC One X, the Taiwanese maker has finally blessed its smaller sibling – the One S – with some software update love as well. The new software update -v1.78- is around 60MB in size, and brings some under the hood changes and a few bug fixes.

Post the update, One S owners should stop seeing the virtual menu button on the One S in some of the Google apps like YouTube. Another important bug fixed by the software update is the Wi-Fi disconnection bug that has plagued quite a few One S owners right from Day 1.

The update is only meant for the European or unbranded variants of the One S, so owners of T-Mobile’s One S need to wait a little longer for a similar update. If you own a One S and have not already got the software update notification, head over to Settings -> About Phone -> Software Updates to manually check if the OTA update is available in your region or not.

Via – Android Central

After a delay of a couple of months, Samsung has finally started rolling out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Galaxy Note (N7000). Like the ICS update for the Galaxy S2, the Android 4.0 update for the Galaxy Note does not bring much visual changes, but does bring a lot of usability improvements, new features and some premium suite of apps so as to compensate for the delay in rolling out the update.

Other features brought about by this update include Face Unlock, GPU Rendering, a slightly tweaked UI, improved performance and memory management, new Google Apps and a bunch of new S-Pen optimized apps from Samsung. Below is a video of the Premium suite of apps in action on the Galaxy Note -:

The update is being rolled out via OTA in certain region, and weighs in a whopping 300MB+ in size so make sure that you have a stable net connection before proceeding with the update. The update is also available via KIES for the Galaxy Note owners in Germany.

Sony has just unveiled two new Android powered handsets for its home market (Japan) – the Xperia GX and Xperia SX. The Xperia GX is the bigger and better of the two, and sports a 4.6-inch HD display with 720p HD resolution and Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine. It will also sport a whopping 13MP camera at its back aided by an LED flash. The handset has a pretty slim profile, and looks similar to the Xperia Arc/Arc S.

The Xperia SX will sport a much smaller 3.7-inch Braiva Reality Display with qHD (960×640) resolution. Sony also claims that the NX is the lightest LTE handset around in the market. Internally, both the handsets are powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 processor, an Adreno 225 GPU, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory. At the back of the handset is an 8MP Exmor R sensor aided by an LED flash.

The handsets run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sony’s custom UI on top of it, and also use on-screen navigation buttons like the Galaxy Nexus. Some Japan specific features like Mobile Wallet, Infrared and Mobile TV will also be present, along with support for LTE networks. The handsets should hit the retail market of Japan sometime this summer.

The Xperia NX and GX are way better than the Xperia NXT line-up of handsets that are available from Sony all over the world. Sadly, these handsets will not be available outside Japan for some strange reason known only to Sony. It looks like Sony is intentionally killing itself by not releasing outstanding phones outside of Japan.

Via – Se-Nse