Sony Ericsson Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade dates offically unveiled

Sony Ericsson has confirmed its Android 4.0 update schedule - and it's pleasingly early on in 2012.

Over on its product blog, the soon-to-be-just-Sony brand has stated that the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray will all be first up to get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, starting in late March or early April.

Hot on their heels will be the original Arc, the Xperia Play original Neo and the Xperia Mini and Mini Pro duo - plus the Xperia Active and Live with Walkman too. This bunch will be upgraded to the next level of Android by early May 2012.

Rolling out the future

According to Sony Ericsson this will be a "phased roll out over several weeks and all kits for a specific phone model will not get the upgrade at the same time" but has published a summary of what's needed to get a phone rocking a new operating system:

- It starts with public push when we as a manufacturer get access to the new Android release from Google.

- Our developers take the existing Xperia software and combine it with the new Android release.

- Once the coding is done we want to make sure the quality of the new software meets our, our partners and your expectations.

- Now we feel the new software is ready but we also need to make sure it's approved by our external partners.

- All good. We're all set to roll-out the new software. The story continues in your Xperia smartphone

It's a very clever move from Sony Ericsson to be so transparent about the Android update, as it's been heavily burned in the past by users desperate to get the next generation software on their phones.

However, this is coming from a company working hard to be among the first to unveil the next version of Android on its phones - other manufacturers are likely to be less diligent, so we shouldn't expect the same level of communication.

The update will be offered over the air or through a PC connection - but we'd say it's probably best to wait a few months before feverishly smacking the 'Check for updates' option on your phone.

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Sony Ericsson Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade dates offically unveiled

Sony Ericsson has confirmed its Android 4.0 update schedule - and it's pleasingly early on in 2012.

Over on its product blog, the soon-to-be-just-Sony brand has stated that the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and Xperia Ray will all be first up to get a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, starting in late March or early April.

Hot on their heels will be the original Arc, the Xperia Play original Neo and the Xperia Mini and Mini Pro duo - plus the Xperia Active and Live with Walkman too. This bunch will be upgraded to the next level of Android by early May 2012.

Rolling out the future

According to Sony Ericsson this will be a "phased roll out over several weeks and all kits for a specific phone model will not get the upgrade at the same time" but has published a summary of what's needed to get a phone rocking a new operating system:

- It starts with public push when we as a manufacturer get access to the new Android release from Google.

- Our developers take the existing Xperia software and combine it with the new Android release.

- Once the coding is done we want to make sure the quality of the new software meets our, our partners and your expectations.

- Now we feel the new software is ready but we also need to make sure it's approved by our external partners.

- All good. We're all set to roll-out the new software. The story continues in your Xperia smartphone

It's a very clever move from Sony Ericsson to be so transparent about the Android update, as it's been heavily burned in the past by users desperate to get the next generation software on their phones.

However, this is coming from a company working hard to be among the first to unveil the next version of Android on its phones - other manufacturers are likely to be less diligent, so we shouldn't expect the same level of communication.

The update will be offered over the air or through a PC connection - but we'd say it's probably best to wait a few months before feverishly smacking the 'Check for updates' option on your phone.

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Motorola Razr images offically unveiled

Motorola has released promo pictures of the new Razr handset

Ahead of the official announcement on October 18 and a release event in Berlin the following day, Motorola has released the first official images of its new ‘Razr’ smartphone.

It’s just what we’ve seen before, but it is certainly nice to see it in a non-blurry promo shot instead of all the fuzzy leaks.

The new images show the device branded with the logos of US carrier Verizon and it has labels showing its 4G LTE capability.

We can also see four capacitive buttons under the glass, a 1080p HD tag next to the rear-facing camera lens and a number of controls round the edge of the handset.

The case appears to be metal, likely something lightweight like aluminium and it features that distinctively textured ‘carbon fibre’ style back panel, which is apparently kevlar. Razr is an appropriate name as this thing is ridiculously thin and no doubt it will weigh very little, too.

It’s a stylish looking piece of kit and with what appears to be a red ‘eye’ logo on the interface, it has a bit of a mean streak to its design.

There’s also a promo video on Motorola’s teaser site, but it doesn’t show any shots of the actual phone. Instead, it’s simply flashy images and words reminiscent of Daft Punk, suggesting the Razr will be ‘faster, thinner, smarter and stronger’.

We'll be sure to bring you more details after the official announcement.

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