ICS update now rolling out for the Sony Xperia arc and Xperia Neo

Two more members of the Xperia family are joining the Ice Cream Sandwich club - congratulations to the Sony Ericsson (well, technically Sony now) Xperia arc and Xperia neo.

What they're getting is Android 4.0.4 - the latest available from Google - but they're sticking with an older kernel - 2.6.32. The update is being rolled out in stages, so it might not be available for your unit just yet.

Owners of an Xperia arc can check this page to see if the ICS update is available for their unit (you need to check the phone's SI number printed under the battery) and Xperia neo owners can have a look here.

The remaining Xperia phones from the 2011 lineup - Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro, Xperia active and Live with Walkman - are also to get the 4.0.4 update starting some time this week, though we haven?t seen reports of updated phones yet (post in the comments if you do get the update). The Xperia PLAY will not be updated as previously reported.

Xperia phones that already got the ICS update (arc S, neo V and ray) will also be getting the Android 4.0.4 treatment soon (what they received was 4.0.3).

The NXT series will take a bite of the Ice Cream Sandwich starting with the Sony Xperia S (update expected in late June), with the Xperia P and Xperia U following in Q3.

Source 1 . Source 2

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European Motorola RAZR gets a new firmware update

Motorola RAZR users in European countries can look forward to an over-the-air firmware update for their devices soon. The new firmware will update the software from version 651.73.15/16/17/18 to version 651.73.30.

The list of changes in the new firmware include:

- Pre-installed Evernote application
- Camera performance improvements
- New Smart Rule trigger: Motion detection
- Added security features
- Improved call and Bluetooth connectivity performance
- Localization improvements
- Improved Wi-Fi connectivity

The update will be made available in the following countries for now: Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, SFR, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, T-Mobile Germany and the UK.
Source

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Samsung Galaxy S to get a Value pack update instead of ICS

Despite Samsung's recent announcement that it is to reconsider its decision about the Galaxy S ICS update, it appears that the former flagship won't get an official taste of the latest Android ROM.
According to the latest rumor the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S will get a Value pack update, instead of the real Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The value pack update is said to improve the user experience by bringing some of the ICS features to the Gingerbread ROM. Better web browsing, multi-tasking and new widgets were explicitly mentioned, but there's no saying if other apps will be updated as well.
Samsung did a similar thing with their low-end Bada phones, Wave525 and Wave533, which were deemed unable to run Bada 2.0 and were promised a Value pack update instead.
Obviously, Samsung decided that the I9000 Galaxy S hardware would be unable to provide satisfactory user experience with Android 4.0 ICS and TouchWiz on top. Now that might as well be true, but the Galaxy S is fully capable of running the stock ICS, as proved by the guys over at XDA.
So maybe it would have been best if Samsung released an optional ICS update without the TouchWiz launcher and let people decide which one they prefer, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Of course, you can still have that, but you will have to go the dark ways of manual flashing and voiding your warranty in the process.
Source

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