O2 rolls out ICS Android update to Galaxy S II users

[snapman]

O2 has made an Android 'Ice Cream Sandwich' 4 upgrade available to customers who own Samsung Galaxy S II smartphones.

Samsung has already rolled the update out to people with unlocked Galaxy S II phones, but those tied to operators have had to wait longer, while those carriers modify the software with their own branding and services.

O2 told ZDNet UK on Tuesday morning that it is now pushing the upgrade through the Kies updating system, making it the second of the UK operators to do so. Three released their version last week.

The upgrading of the Galaxy S II is significant because it is Samsung's flagship Android phone and highly popular.

Despite having been released last year, ICS still accounts for a very low proportion of the versions of Android that are in use. According to Google's own statistics, less than two percent of Android users have this latest iteration.

The less widely-used ICS is, the less impetus there is for developers to optimise their Android apps for it. At the same time, some recent apps, such as Google's own Chrome browser for Android, will only work on ICS.

This fragmentation of the Android platform could be resolved if manufacturers and operators speed up their rollout of the latest versions of Android. By way of contrast, Apple users reportedly get their iPhones and iPads upgraded to the latest versions of iOS much more quickly, making that platform an easier prospect for developers.

Source

 

[Bally12345]

Are o2 phone same as sim free phones?

 

[diegoforlan]

i have a sim free samsung galaxy s2, but cant seem to get kies working on my win 7 pc so i can do the update, and spoke to samsung for 40 mins today, and to put it blunt, they are w....rs

 

[Bally12345]

Kies work fine on my Win7 x64 machine but apprantly sim free update aint released yet

 

[snapman]

Thought the sim free version was available. From and older article elswhere:

"Available to all those with unlocked handsets, customers with the phone on subscription however will have to wait for their respective operator to start pushing it out."

Samsung Galaxy S2 Android 4.0 update launched | T3


Unless I've read that sentence wrong (which is a probability! lol).

 

[snapman]

You're right, apologies. Sim free version isn't available at the moment. On O2, installed it and having a look around. Not too much of a difference so far, apart from menues/icons, etc. But read somewhere about better battery management, which is a plus (I hope! They said that about the iPhone 4s software update!).

 

[Zooropa]

Just tried my 02 sammy s2 through kies and it says i have the most recent update which is gingerbread :silly:

 

[snapman]

Just tried my 02 sammy s2 through kies and it says i have the most recent update which is gingerbread :silly:

Have you updated Kies? You need to do that 1st. If you have, I don't understand why you can't get ICS :err:


Here's the ICS version on Kies:

 

[Zooropa]

yeah all updated m8

 

[snapman]

And this is the version of your Kies mate?

 

[Zooropa]

Yeah same version m8

 

[Clinkers]

I'm the same as Zooropa: exct same firmware version message and I have the correct vresion of Kies, says its all up to date?

 

[Zooropa]

Found this on o2 forum

Few customers may not have the O2 variant Gingerbread software and when these customers try to download the Ice Cream Sandwich software via Kies, they won’t see any software update available. This is because of security built into the Samsung download tool via Kies, ensuring customers get the right software. These customers will still be able to upgrade their phone but will have to wait for Samsung to approve the open market variant of the software. Currently we have no timescales for when this will happen but we will let customers know via social media and we’ll let you know here once this happens.

 

[Zooropa]

Found out its because my phone is sim free even though i brought it on o2...looks like i will b the last to get the ics update

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[snapman]

You may want to hang on anyway mate. It's not the "All singing, all dancing" OS you were hoping for. It has some really good points, but has some bad too.

You'll not notice much difference when installed, but here's a few of my views so far on ICS:

Have to slide across the ‘Contacts’, ‘Logs’, ‘Groups’, ‘Favourites’ tabs(just a little bit). All should fit on the screen.

Smilies are worse

All your app locations are reset to a default setting.

Some apps/games no longer run. Biggest disappointment was my Kaspersky Antivirus doesn’t run on ICS

Created two folders on my phone, ‘Games’ and ‘Apps’ easily on Gingerbread. Can’t either find how to rename the new folder I’ve created, or you can change their name through the long winded “Go to the ‘My Folder’ app”, but I can’t see the folders I created there either.

A major plus point (for me) is that the battery management makes the battery life a lot longer.

The notification bar is a lot clearer.

I’ve heard that it’s also improved the camera functionality, but not tried it yet.

Maybe not getting it just yet is a plus until they iron out the little faults, and the app companies catch up and make their software work with ICS