Google announces Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich – update

Google has announced that it has started rolling out version 4.0.4 of its open source Android mobile operating system via an over-the-air (OTA) update to select devices. This incremental update to Android 4.0, also known as "Ice Cream Sandwich", includes a number of minor changes that improve phone number recognition and camera performance. Screen rotation is now said to be "smoother" and a number of bugs have been fixed that should improve the overall stability of the OS.

According to a post on the Android Google+ page, UMTS/GSM variants of the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus smartphones, as well as the Wi-Fi version of the Motorola Xoom tablet, should start receiving the update over the coming weeks – Google usually updates devices in waves to avoid overloading its servers. However, the company has yet to confirm when the CDMA versions of the Nexus S (known as the Nexus S 4G on Sprint in the US) and the LTE Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) will be updated.

In a post on the Android Building Google Group, Software Engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru confirmed that the source code for Android 4.0.4 has already been pushed to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) web site, meaning that developers should now be able to sync and download it. However, at the time of writing, Google has yet to post details about the Android 4.0.4 update to the Android Developers portal.

Update 30-03-12: The developers have now published factory images of Android 4.0.4 on Google Code for the GSM/HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus and, for the first time, for the GSM version of the Nexus S – according to Jean-Baptiste Queru, it took 17 months to get authorisation to distribute the factory images for the Nexus S.

See also:

• Android 4.0.3 to be "base version" for partners, a report from The H.
• Google unwraps Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", a report from The H.

(crve)