When Google released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich late last year, manufacturers all scampered to get their schedules rearranged to fit the development of the ICS update for the handsets in their respective lineups. Among the first manufacturers to come out with its ICS plans is Samsung who announced that the Ice Cream Sandwich update will first be made available to the Samsung Galaxy S II and to the Samsung Galaxy Note. During the announcement, Samsung confirmed that the two devices will get the Android 4.0 refresh during the first quarter of the current year.
Buy the Samsung Galaxy Note starting at $199.
In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung was able to keep its word because the handset got upgraded to what back then was the latest version of the Google mobile operating system in February. The Samsung Galaxy Note however had to wait a little longer before it got a treat of ICS because the update for the massive phablet got pushed back to Q2. Of course, this resulted to disgruntled users of the device so Samsung announced that it is including a Premium Suite of applications with the ICS update of the Samsung Galaxy Note to placate the hurt feelings of its users. This Premium Suite of applications include apps designed to enable a user to take advantage of the S-Pen Stylus of the Samsung Galaxy Note and this addition to the ICS update more than made the wait for it to land all the more worth it.
Although the ICS update has already landed on the Samsung Galaxy Note, the phablet was only given a taste of Android 4.0.3. This is all about to change though because Samsung has finally started the rollout of Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich to the phablet. The rollout is being done not only via the usual OTA manner but also via the Samsung Kies software. Once this has been applied to the Samsung Galaxy Note, it will crank up the build number of the device to IMM76D.
In addition to that, the Android 4.0.4 refresh will bring a lot of goodies to the phablet. The most notable among these is the Pop-up Play feature found in the Samsung Galaxy S III and this essentially brings a sort of picture in picture functionality to the phablet. Signature unlock also lands on the Samsung Galaxy Note with this update where signing your name on the massive display of the phablet unlocks the device. In addition to that, the update brings several performance improvements to the Samsung Galaxy Note along with a couple of changes to its user interface and icons.
As of the moment, the update is now being rolled out in areas like the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Germany, France, Belgium and Austria but other regions are expected to follow in the next couple of days. So if you happen to rock the original version of the Samsung Galaxy Note, you may want to be on the lookout for the notification that will let you know about the update’s availability on your device or keep mashing that Check for update option. Hopefully, the update will make itself available on your device ahead of everybody else. Buy the Samsung Galaxy Note starting at $199.
