The size of this ICS update for Galaxy Note is nearly 318.89 MB. So a WiFi connection is recommended in any case to update your device.

Samsung Premium Suite

Just to touch upon Samsung’s Premium Suite,  it’s basically a software package built to use the digital stylus & large screen space efficiently. Watch the official video put out by Samsung which demonstrates the use of the Premium suite apps on the Galaxy Note.

Galaxy Note users can either update their devices directly upon receiving the notification or use the Samsung Kies application to update via PC. Some developers say that the ICS version is 4.0.3 & has a build date of 4th may.

ICS Update notification screenshot by @blue13x & Source : AndroidPolice.

This article (Samsung Galaxy Note gets the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Update) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Flipboard has been named as the iPad app of the year & even TIME magazine had featured the app in the Top 50 Innovations list.

The Android version of Flipboard is due for release. But Samsung Galaxy S III (or SGS3) comes with the official app which a developer from xda-developers managed to extract and released the .apk file (Download link has been added below).

For the moment, just play around with the app. I will review it when Flipboard releases the Android version officially.

Download Flipboard [Unofficial]

Thanks to Ajit & Raza for the info about the app.

This article (Flipboard for Android – Leaked SGS3 apk File) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

The highlight of Holo Launcher Beta 2 is the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich like UI. The icon sets are replaced and ICS icons are put in place. Transition effects like the Card stack can be activated from the Launcher settings which makes the screen sliding smoother.

Although the app promises to revamp the whole screen, it actually does not do so (or maybe it cannot). Yesterday evening I decided to give a try to this app although I’m not a big fan of custom launchers.

The installation went normally & the UI did change. But some of the icons, the notification bar, etc didn’t change at all. The default styling was retained and only the home screen & app list screen was changed.

Highlights of Holo Launcher

• Infinite Scrolling.
• Custom dock settings.
• Screen Previews (pinch to view).
• Hide icon labels.
• Show/Hide the status & notifications bar.
• Home Screen action.

The Lowlights

So if you are expecting too much out of this app then let me warn you, just don’t. Holo launcher Beta 2, like many other launchers in the Play Store will not completely change the native UI & turn it into the ICS style.

As you can see from the images, some of the icons are ICS styled whereas the rest of them aren’t. Also, the widgets’ styling isn’t changed as well.

Anyway, we should be appreciative of the developer as a lot of hard-work must have gone through in making this app. So give it a try, if you like it keep it else deleting is always an open option.

You can download Holo Launcher Beta 2 app from the download link placed right below this paragraph. It is available as an .apk file for the moment & not on the Play Store.

Download Holo Launcher Beta 2

So did you like Holo Launcher Beta 2 or still looking for a better alternative for Ice Cream Sandwich like UI ?

This article (Holo Launcher Beta 2 – The ICS-Like Launcher for Android) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Instagram on Monday, agreed to the acquisition terms and conditions mutually put forward by both the parties. The San Francisco based company currently has around 13 employees. Now with this acquisition Instagram has made it clear that the basic functionality, features of the app won’t be affected either on the Android or iOS platform.

In fact, both the companies have made it clear that social sharing won’t be tweaked in order to favor Facebook. Instagram will be working closely with Facebook to improve it’s photo sharing experience.

Instagram “Independently” acquired by Facebook

Facebook’s Newsroom blog says,

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently.

Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO & Co-Founder writes in the official blog post,

It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.

I think you’ve got enough information about the Instagram acquisition. Now lets see what the Twitterverse had to say about this.

• Eldon ReTweets – rim shot. “@technosailor: Kinda like Techcrunch RT @eldon: so instagram to stay “independent”.
• Ajit Tweets - Two services I never use,Facebook and Instagram are together now. Piercentage of fuck given = 0.
• zerohedge ReTweets - NYT needs more color filters RT @dkberman: Remember this day. 551-day-old Instagram is worth $1BN. 116-year-old New York Times Co.: $967MM.
• iTannu ReTweets - And buy Air India ??? RT @madhuchhanda11: Vijay Mallaya needs to get in touch with Mark Zukerberg … !!!.
• Nicky Tweets - Looks like Facebook waited till Instagram was rolled out to android users too and then bought it.

So what is your personal view on this big acquisition ? Do you think this will change the way Instagram functions ?? Will you continue to use Instagram for Android or uninstall it from your device just because Facebook has acquired it ???

This article (Instagram Acquired by Facebook for $1 Billion) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Now Sony Ericsson has released the ICS Beta ROM for one of it’s most popular Xperia models i.e. the Xperia PLAY. We have seen that the gaming smartphone has had an edge over other Xperia models when it comes to app releases and minor os updates.

Before the tutorial starts, I would like to emphasis again that this version of Ice Cream Sandwich for Xperia PLAY is Beta and not a stable final version. Sony Ericsson has released it now so that developers can test it out properly and give a reasonable feedback. The bug fixes will be seen in the final stable version.

So if you don’t know much about unlocking, rooting and changing ROMs then please don’t try it. This ICS Beta ROM will void your operator warranty (as it involves unlocking of your phone).

Install Ice Cream Sandwich Beta ROM on Xperia PLAY

1. First of all go to Settings > About Phone > Software update and check whether you are on the latest stable Android version for Xperia PLAY. The build number should be 4.0.2.A.0.42.
2. Now go to this official unlocker page and follow all the instructions correctly in order to unlock your phone. Don’t look at the number of steps in that page and close the tab (yes, 16 looks a lot).
3. Once you are done with the steps mentioned in the first page click continue and request for the unlock code (in page 2). Only then you’ll be able to install the ICS Beta ROM.
4. Head over to this page; read the instructions, accept it and download the Xperia PLAY Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Beta ROM (Size: 127 MB, .zip file).
5. The real installation process starts now. Extract the zip file to your Android Fastboot directory (Example: android-sdk\fastboot\play-ics).
6. Navigate to the android-sdk\fastboot directory using the command prompt. Use only the drive letter (like E:) to change the drive and cd key to change the directory. So if you are in C:\ then in command prompt you should enter ‘E:’ and then ‘cd android-sdk\fastboot\play-ics’.
7. Once you are in the play-ics fastboot directory use these three commands to flash the ROM.
   

   fastboot flash boot ..\fastboot\play-ics\boot.img
   fastboot flash userdata ..\fastboot\play-ics\userdata.img
   fastboot flash system ..\fastboot\play-ics\system.img

8. Just reboot your phone to complete the installation process. Have some patience when it starts again, normally takes a good couple of minutes after an update.

That’s that. Again let me reiterate that unless you know or have done the installation of ROMs previously don’t take a risk.

What’s not there in this ICS Beta ROM

When you are about to test such Beta ROMs you must expect some important features to be absent. Likewise, Xperia PLAY’s ICS ROM also leaves out some of the key features like:

• Google Mobile Services (GMS) viz – GMail, Google Maps, Face lock and other Google related apps.
• Modem.
• Wi-Fi.
• Bluetooth.

I hope this tutorial helped you in upgrading to Android 4.0 ICS on your Xperia PLAY device. Drop a comment if you face any problem during the installation process. Even though I don’t have an Xperia PLAY I will try to find the solution to your problem(s).

Source: Sony Ericsson Developers blog.

Do you think the release date of Ice Cream Sandwich for Xperia 2011 phones is nearing ? 

This article ([Tutorial] Install ICS Beta ROM on Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Probably this Android game app is the next big thing after Angry Birds Space and others. It was pushed into the Play Store on 6th February and has managed to get over 10,000,000+ installations till today. The user ratings & reviews are pretty good as well.

I’ve been playing this game for a week now and must admit I was slightly addicted to it for the first few days. If you download it then I promise (not quite literally) you’ll will be addicted as well, unless you hate drawing & funny stuff.

Draw Something doesn’t come with much customizations/options and focuses on the main gameplay i.e. ‘A’ draws something (from among 3 words/things suggested by the app) and ‘B’ guesses the drawing from a set of jumbled letters given on the screen.

If your friend can’t guess the drawing or clue given by you, then the pass button can be pressed. But remember this will end your streak and the match will restart.

The novelty of this app is that it sticks to the basics and allows you to explain the word (you pick from the 3) in whichever way you want. You can either simply draw the word/thing without clues or you can give hints to your friend in the form of words (synonyms or related stuff obviously), drawing plus words, etc.

You can either play with random users on Draw Something or with your friends (only if you have their IDs).

Draw Something – Features

Now I’m not going to offer a detailed review about the app. So will stick with some key features.

• 900+ Words (though some words were repeated a couple of times), 2500 in the paid version.
• 5 free bombs (i.e. you can change the list of words & jumbled letters 5 times freely).
• Obviously the Turn-By-Turn gameplay is the highlight of Draw Something.
• Video replays of your friends’ guess.
• Ability to change colors, brush size & trash the canvas.
• Impressive UI.

Known Bugs & Tricks

Along with some wondrous features this app does have some bugs.

• Loading the app is a problem at times.
• Buttons placed at the bottom of the screen are so close-by that you end you up sending the drawing to your friend instead of trashing it. So spacing needs to be re-looked at.
• Once you click on ‘Play’ you’ll be suggested three words to pick from, but you can easily avoid those three words (without wasting a bomb) by just pressing the hardware menu button.
• Restart Draw Something and you’ll be presented with a new list of words. You can call this a trick but for a developer it is a big bug (Unfortunately I got to know this, after all my bombs had blasted).

Try out Draw Something from the download link given below.

Download Draw Something Free

Finally, a thank you to Nicky for introducing me to Draw Something & yes the screenshot which contains the cat is hers. Looks good no ?

This article (Draw Something Free – Play the ‘Guess’ game with your Friends) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

It seems like the Android version of the popular photo-uploading app will hit the stores sooner than we expected. A few hours ago Instagram’s official Twitter handle sent out a tweet offering Android users an early access to the app.

So if you want to try Instagram out, then go to this link and add your email id to the possibly long list. I’ve already subscribed to their list, just hoping that I get a relatively early access to try the app fully.

If I get the Instagram for Android app then I’ll update this section or write a new post regarding it’s features & of course the changes from the iPhone version.

This article (Get Early Access to Instagram for Android) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Making a Nokia device run an Android OS is commendable. Yes, the Android community has developers who make custom ROMs and release it every now and then but these people at NITDroid have done a commendable job.

There is certainly a list of apps or functions which won’t on this Nokia N9 ran by custom ICS 4.0.3,but that is understandable. The developers have named it ‘Project Mayhem’.

Watch the video released by NITDroid which demonstrates what I’ve written above.

Video of Nokia N9 running NITDroid’s ICS 4.0.3

Installation

Well since I don’t own a Nokia N9 I’m not in a position to try NITDroid’s custom ICS 4.0.3 on it. So just go through their official installation guide and check it out. Remember this custom ICS OS is released as Alpha, so test it at your own risk.

With this, the developers at Nokia might change their mind which is currently set only on Windows Phone OS. Nokia’s hardware is more than decent so a good operating software would augment their sales.

What do you think about this custom ICS version running on Nokia N9 ?

This article ([Video] Nokia N9 tastes Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.