With a rooted phone the easiest update process is to use ROM Manager (Download ROM -> Stock Images -> Nexus S 4.0.3).

If you don’t have root, follow these manual steps (if you are new to the update process, check out this slightly outdated, but detailed update guide).

• Download the update package.
• Rename downloaded file to update.zip.
• Copy the update.zip file to the phone’s internal storage.
• Turn the phone off, press and hold Volume Up and Power to boot into the bootloader.
• Using Volume Up/Down select “recovery” and press Power button.
• After the exclamation point in a triangle appears, hold the Power button and press Volume Up.
• Using Volume Up/Down select “apply update from /sdcard” and choose the update.zip.
• After the update process is finished, select “reboot system now” and press Power.

Enjoy!

Sources: XDA, koush.

Once upgraded, check out tips and tricks from Google listing main workflow differences with Android 2.3.

Galaxy Nexus is a successor to Nexus S and is the first phone to ship with fully redesigned Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). This is also the first Nexus phone available on Verizon’s network, which is considered to have the best coverage in the US. The specs are impressive: 4.65″ Super AMOLED HD display with 1280 x 720 resolution, 9.5 mm thin and weighing only 150g (5.3 oz), 5MP main camera, 1.3MP front camera, 1080p video recording, NFC, and 4G LTE network support. But the main selling point of Galaxy Nexus over other Android phones such as Galaxy S II is the pure Google experience ¹⁾, meaning stock Android, updates from Google and absence of carrier’s bloatware.

I’m a big fan of Nexus phones and I think they provide the best Android experience for reasons described in these brief reviews of Nexus S and Nexus One.  My only concern about Galaxy Nexus is the screen size, which maybe too big for some users. I used to think that 3.7″ of Nexus One was the optimal display size, however after using Nexus S I now prefer 4″ display. But jump to 4.65″ may be a bit too much, so if you plan to buy it online, I recommend taking some time to play with the phone in the store first.

For more information about the phone, see the full list of features and specs and check out Joshua Topolsky’s review and Jason Kincaid’s comparison of Galaxy Nexus with iPhone 4S.

¹⁾ Pure Google experience is slightly tainted by the absence of  Google Wallet, but at this point only Nexus S from Sprint supports it.

P.S. Due to various offline commitments this blog went on a 2-month break. What a great occasion to resume our regular programming.

Among the newly added devices notable additions are: HTC Desire S, HTC Incredible S, HTC Incredible 2, LG Optimus 2X,  T-Mobile G2x, Motorola Droid 2, Motorola Droid X, Samsung Captivate, Samsung Fascinate, Samsung Vibrant, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy S2 (multiple carriers), Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Arc, X8, Mini, Mini Pro, Neo, Ray (full list).

CM7.1 release is based on Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread). You can see the full list of changes here, but the few that stand out are:

• native screenshots in the power menu,
• camera touch-to-focus,
• revoking app permissions,
• upgraded kernel.

Another good news is that Sony Ericsson assisted CyanogenMod developers in adding support for Xperia phones by “providing over 20 devices, technical assistance, and compatible hardware drivers”. This is a great move by Sony Ericsson, which should be followed by other manufacturers.

The easiest way to get CyanogenMod 7.1 is via ROM Manager. Detailed device-specific installation guides can be found at CyanogenMod wiki.

Source: CyanogenMod blog, Android Police.

• 7″ Android-based Amazon Fire tablet was unveiled and will start shipping in US for $199 on Nov 15 . The main selling point besides its low price will be access to the vast library of books, movies and music from Amazon. No 3rd party reviews are available yet, but This Is My Next has some photos and videos from the brief demo. Reportedly, Fire is running highly customized version of Android 2.3, which was originally designed for phones. Android apps can be installed via Amazon Appstore. Notably absent are any Google services, such as Android Market, Maps, Gmail.
• Microsoft and Samsung signed a cross-licensing deal. The details are confidential, but reportedly Microsoft will receive royalties for Samsung’s Android-based smartphones and tablets. Another major Android manufacturer, HTC previously signed a similar deal with Microsoft.
• Most popular custom Android ROM Cyanogenmod will support all 2010 and 2011 Xperia phones, such as Xperia Arc and Xperia Play. Coupled with unlocked bootloaders, this makes Sony Ericson one of the most mod friendly Android manufacturers.
• Google Wallet was launched for Sprint Nexus 4G. It is a new tap-to-pay service that allows storing credit card information on the Android phone and making payments using the phone.
• Hipmunk for Android has launched. Hipmunk is the easy way to search for flights and hotels.

 

• Google Voice for Android update fixed the annoying self-pause and delayed notifications bugs.
• Google+ signups are now open to everyone. Google+ for Android added a lot of features including hangouts (video chat with up to 10 participants) support.
• Skype 2.5 added official support for video calling for 14 more Android devices. Click on More button under the app description for the full list of supported devices. Generally, video calling should work on any Android 2.2+ device, but on devices not officially supported it needs to be enabled in the settings.
• Voice Actions for Android now available in UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Voice Actions can be used to speak into your Android phone and dictate texts and emails, get directions and launch turn-by-turn navigation, listen to music, set alarm clock, call businesses and contacts, and browse the web.
• Nielsen published a list of Top 20 Android apps by active reach in the US. Top 5 apps: Google Maps, Gmail, Facebook, Google Search and Youtube.
• For new users, Spotify now requires a Facebook account to sign up.

This acquisition will have a significant impact on many aspects for the Android world: from its Nexus brand, carrier availability, and better OS integration with hardware to a better defense against recent patent attacks on Android.

More reaction to follow.

One feature that makes soft button experience slightly better is a haptic feedback: a brief vibration when a soft button is pressed. In addition to soft buttons, vibration also occurs when phone dialer buttons are pressed. Depending on the model of your Android phone, this feature may or may not be enabled by default.

On Gingerbread and Honeycomb devices (Android 2.3+) haptic feedback can be enabled or disabled in the Settings -> Sound -> Haptic feedback.

Haptic feedback setting on Gingerbread devices

The most significant advantage of Nexus S is that it provides a pure Google experience, which means stock version of Android and no carrier or manufacturer bloatware. Another significant benefit of stock Android is built-in support for USB tethering and portable Wi-Fi hotspot for no extra charge (at least, that’s the case on T-Mobile network). Google experience also means that Nexus S will be the first phone to receive future Android OS updates.

It looks like AT&T version of Nexus S does not  support 4G, which is a good thing. 4G drains battery faster than 3G or 2G and there is no way to turn 4G off and keep 3G on. The only way to save battery is to turn both 3G and 4G off which leaves only slow 2G (EDGE) connection. Since 3G provides quite decent download and upload speeds, I don’t think the benefit of extra speed with 4G justifies the extra battery drain.

I’ve been personally using Nexus S for few months now and in my opinion it provides the best Android experience. The screen is amazingly bright and clear and 4″ is the perfect display size for the phone. Nexus S is surprisingly light (129g/4.5oz) and thin (10.9mm/0.43″) and is quite fast.

The only aspect of Nexus S that could be lightly criticized is its battery life. Nexus S uses AMOLED screen that drains battery a bit faster than regular LCD screens. That extra battery drain is quite justified by the brightness and quality of AMOLED display and in my experience Nexus S always lasts a full day under moderate usage and 1.5-2 days under light usage. However, under heavy usage the battery could be fully drained before the end of the day.

Nexus S was originally released in December 2010 and if you need to buy or upgrade an Android phone today, Nexus S is the obvious choice. However, if you are not in a hurry, you may consider waiting till November or December of 2011 when a new Nexus branded phone will be released. The upcoming Nexus phone (possibly called Nexus Prime) will be shipping with a major update of Android OS called Ice Cream Sandwich which can roughly be described as an Android Honeycomb optimized for phones.

Nexus brand has come a long way since original Nexus One launch in January of 2010. With Nexus S phones available on 3 out of 4 major US carriers, a pure Google experience is now available to more Android users than ever. Verizon, it’s your turn now.

Catching up with the last week’s news:

• Roll out of the major upgrade to Android Market for phones has began. User interface has been redesigned from scratch to improve discoverability of apps and games.  If you are in the US, this version adds ability to rent movies and buy books from Android Market. Android 2.2+  phone is required for the update. You can also install the update manually by following this link.
• Google+ client for Android has been updated with few nice new features:

• Google Maps added live traffic coverage for 13 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland. This is a great news, since Google Maps is one of the best Android apps and its turn-by-turn navigation puts regular GPS devices and most other navigation apps to shame. The new traffic information is available in Google Maps for Android, iOS, and mobile browsers.

• During Google’s Q2 earnings call, Larry Page mentioned that 550,000 devices running Android are activated each day. That’s up from 500,00 daily activations just 3 weeks ago.
• VMWare View client for Honeycomb has been released for a free tech preview. The app allows to remotely access your computer using an Android tablet running Honeycomb.
• Google Shopper app for Android has been updated. As a part of the pilot program, residents of Portland, Oregon, San Francisco Bay Area or New York can take advantage of the Google Offers, with other cities to follow. This update is available for Android 2.1+ devices.

• Google Maps for Android was updated to version 5.7. New features include turn-by-turn transit navigation (beta), photo viewer for Place pages, and streamlined user interace for getting directions.
• Google Maps update also added a very useful add-on to the Labs: offline maps download. To enable the add-on, open Maps -> More -> Labs and select “Download map area”. To actually download map tiles (10 by 10 mile region), long press on any point on the map, click on the pop-up window with the address, and select “Download map area”. After download is completed, outline will show regions where offline map is available.
• Skype released version 2.0. New version includes redesigned user interface and video calling for selected Android phones. Unfortunately, as of now video calling is available only on the following phones: Google Nexus S, Nexus S 4G, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro. The good news that video and audio quality during calls over 3G is excellent. Source: Android Police.
• Google launched its social network called Google+ to private beta. First reviews are overwhelmingly positive with praise for such features as circles and hangout (group video chat with up to 10 participants). Service is currently in beta and requires invitation to sign up, but you can add your email to the wait list.

Notable articles:

• An extensive article by Fortune magazine on how Android conquered the smartphone world titled 100 million Android fans can’t be wrong.
• A comparison by Mika Mobile of experience with Battleheart game Google Market and Apple App store. The takeaway: ”Daily revenue from Battleheart on Android is fairly close, within 80%, of it’s iOS counterpart at the moment.”

This has changed today and both video and audio calling now works flawlessly over T-Mobile’s cellular network. Google Talk video and audio chat requires Android 2.3.4+.

Source: Android Police.

However, once a custom SMS app such as Handcent SMS is installed, you will start receiving duplicate notifications for each received text message: one for the stock messaging app and another one for the custom sms app. To fix this, go to Messaging app -> Settings and uncheck Notifications.

In this case, however, notifications did work. The solution was to go to market.android.com in the computer’s browser and install a 3rd party launcher to the phone (ADW.Launcher in this case; LauncherPro is another popular option). He was then able to pull down notifications on the phone and start ADW.Launcher and forget about the stock launcher.

Not only did this solve a problem of the stock launcher being stuck in the Force Close loop, but he is now enjoying multiple advantages of the ADW.Launcher and wondering why he didn’t try it earlier. For few examples of the ADW.Launcher niceties see this post.

The secret to Swype’s success is that it is a word based text entry. In a single motion you draw a path over the letters of the word and swype figures out which word you meant. As a result, Swype is very forgiving of inaccuracies: you don’t need to hit each letter precisely – getting near the letters of the word is usually good enough.

Once I started playing with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (thank you Google I/O 2011), my first reaction was: “Where is Swype”? Swype 2.x did not support Honeycomb and typing using stock keyboard on a 10″ device turned out to be much more exhausting then typing on regular Android phone with Swype. Well, Swype 3.0 has just been announced and it adds support for Honeycomb devices (Android 3.0 and 3.1). Here’s the list of new features:

• Swype v3 introduces two major new features: Tap Correction and Horizontal Word Choice List
• Our Tap Correction engine utilizes many of the concepts that make swyping so accurate. Seamlessly go from typing to swyping and back without missing a beat!
• The Horizontal Word Choice List replaces our popup word choice window, giving users an experience more in-line with evolving Android standards. It also makes dictionary control and word selection faster and easier.
• Swype v3 is available for devices with HVGA, WVGA, FWVGA, QVGA, WQVGA, WSVGA, qHD screen sizes
• Introducing a special Honeycomb-only WXGA version for Android tablets, with features like “moveable keyboard” that you won’t find anywhere else!

When I thought about using Swype on a tablet, one thing was very clear: there’s no need to utilize the full width of the 10″ tablet  in either landscape or portrait mode for the onscreen keyboard. And I’m very glad to report that Swype got it right and 3.0 supports 2 modes: full-size and condensed:

Swype supports 11 languages: Chinese, Dutch, English UK, English US, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Get it at beta.swype.com.

1. You can install apps to your phone from the computer’s web browser. Open market.android.com in your computer’s browser, login to your Google account, find an app, click Install. The download of the app will start automatically on your phone.

2. Press mic icon in the onscreen keyboard to talk into any text field.

3. To assign custom ringtones and alarms you have two options. First, you can create a folder on phone’s sdcard called “ringtones” and copy the music files that you want to use as ringtones there. Same trick works for “alarms” and “notifications” folders. To assign a custom ringtone, open a contact, select Menu -> Options -> Ringtone -> Android System.

Second option is to install Tone Picker app. Once it is installed, open a contact,  select Menu -> Options -> Ringtone -> Tone Picker -> Music and select a ringtone from a list of all tracks found in the phone’s media library.

4. You can install additional input languages by going to Settings > Language & Keyboard > Android keyboard >Input languages. To switch between languages in the stock Android keyboard, slide the space key sideways.

Using the phone’s buttons

5. Normally, the Back button button navigates from the current screen to the previous one. But when the onscreen keyboard pops up, first Back button press hides the keyboard.

6. The Menu button opens a context menu for the current screen. Usually, advanced menu items for the current screen are located in the context menu to save space.

7. When viewing the Home screen, the Search button searches your phone and the web. But you can also use it for searching contents within applications. Simply press Search while inside an app to see if it supports search functionality.

Full details on using buttons can be found at Google’s mobile help article.

Using the long presses (aka, press and hold)

8. Long press on the Home button shows the list of 8 recently launched apps.

9. Long press on the Search button launches Voice Actions, which allows you to send email, sms, control music player, launch navigation and much more with voice commands. Check out this introductory video of Voice Actions on youtube and full list of voice commands.

In general, if you are looking for advanced options and don’t see them on the screen, long press on UI elements. For example, long press on entires in the list will usually show selected item’s context menu with advanced options.

Using the Home screen

10. To add application shortcut from the Launcher to the Home screen, long press on the app icon in the launcher and then drop it to the Home screen.

11. Long press on the Home screen to add shortcuts, widgets, folders and customize wallpapers. For details on how to use shortcuts for direct dialing, navigation and bookmarks, see this earlier post.

12. To move an app shortcut from one Home screen to another, long press on the app icon and drag it to the edge of the current Home screen. The Home screen will slide allowing to drop icon in the new screen.

13. To remove an app shortcut from the Home screen, long press on the app icon and once the trash bin pops up, drag the icon to the bin.

Enjoy!

Alliance of hardware manufacturers and providers

This is possibly the most important news for Android users: the alliance of hardware manufactures and providers announced that new devices will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released. The alliance is ”working together to adopt guidelines for how quickly devices are updated after a new platform release, and also for how long they will continue to be updated”. The participating partners are: Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola and AT&T.

This is a big deal. With the exception of the Nexus phones (Nexus One, Nexus S, and Nexus S 4G) and Motorola Xoom, timely Android updates are an issue. Galaxy S owners in the US learned the hard way how long OS updates can take and any agreements that set strict guidelines are very welcomed. Until more details are available, it’s hard to say how successful this initiative will be.

Goolge Music beta

Cloud-based music service from Google opened for beta testing (US only). The service is similar to Amazon Cloud Player and allows uploading unlimited number of songs to Google’s servers and playing them back on any computer or Android device. The service is free during beta period and invitations can be requested here. The service is optimized for offline use: recently played music automatically stored to the device and users can make specific albums or playlists available offline. As opposed to Amazon offering which allows purchasing songs from its MP3 store, Google Music doesn’t have a music store.

Google Movies

Movie rental service Google Movies went live and is now a part of Android Market (US only). Movie rental starts at $1.99 and is available for Android 3.1 only. Support for Android 2.2 and above is expected to roll out soon. After renting a movie, users have 30 days to start watching and 24 hours to watch it once playback starts. Movies can be streamed or downloaded to the device for watching offline.

Android@Home

The goal of the home automation project Android@Home is to move Android OS beyond phones, tablets and TVs and control any electrical device in the home: light bulbs, light switches, washing machines, speakers, thermostats, etc. New Android Open Accessory protocol and development kit allow hardware accessories to work with Android devices. All components of the Android Open Accessory Development Kit are available for download:

The Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) provides an implementation of an Android USB accessory that is based on the Arduino open source electronics prototyping platform, the accessory’s hardware design files, code that implements the accessory’s firmware, and the Android application that interacts with the accessory. The hardware design files and firmware code are contained in the ADK package download.

As a demo, project Tungsten was previewed which creates distributed audio solution similar to Sonos ZonePlayer.

Honeycomb 3.1 update

Android 3.1 update includes numerous bug fixes and performance improvements, resizable widgets, full support for Adobe Flash player 10.2 and most importantly, USB Host support. USB devices such as keyboards, game controllers, mice, video cameras and others can now interface Android devices. During one of the demos XBox 360 game controller was used to play games on the Motorola Xoom tablet. The update already rolled out to Motorola Xoom.

Google TV will get updated with Honeycomb 3.1 and will then get an Android Market.

During fireside chat with the Android team, Dan Morrill acknowledged that there are no plans to open source either Android 3.0 or 3.1.

Future Android releases

Next major Android release is scheduled for Q4 and will be called Ice Cream Sandwich. It has an ambitious goal of merging Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) into one OS that works on all Android devices: phones, tablets and TVs.

All Google I/O sessions are online

All Google I/O 2011 sessions are available in HD on youtube. Keynote on the first day of the conference was dedicated solely to Android:

P.S. Few pictures from the conference by Tim Bray.

If you are one of many developers who wanted to attend, but won’t (registration sold out in under an hour), you can watch main events live. Both keynotes (about Android and Chrome) will be streamed via I/O live. Keynotes start at 9AM PST on Tuesday and 9:30 PST on Wednesday.

Video from the two biggest session rooms will also be livestreamed at I/O live. Room 3 will be streaming Chrome videos and room 11 – Android videos. All videos will be captioned and translated using Google Translate. Videos of all Google I/O sessions will later be available online in HD (last year Google I/O 2010 sessions were recorded in 480p).

You can also register and attend Google I/O Extended, which is a series of free viewing parties of Google I/O worldwide.

For those attending the conference in person, official Google I/O Android app is available to help plan your day. Google I/O hash tag is #io2011.

The native app makes it very easy to access documents, spreadsheets and presentations from different Google and Google Apps accounts. It has few features that are unavailable with the mobile browser version such as ability to share items with contacts and rename items. My favorite new feature is that you can now take a photo of a text and convert it to a Google document using OCR (optical character recognition).

Now the bad news: editors for both documents and spreadsheets are not rich native editors one might expect, but mobile editors packaged in a WebView. As a result, editing experience is exactly the same as in the mobile version, which means that many basic editing features such as formatting are not available. Let’s hope that this is just the first version and rich editing capabilities will added down the road.

Source: Google Mobile blog.

Download link: Android Market.

There are two lessons from this story. For Android developers, the lesson is to be careful with storing user’s private information. For bloggers, Android Police demonstrated how not to publicize vulnerability issues.

Android Police a one of the better Android blogs out there and it is disappointing how they handled this issue. Justin Case, the author of the story, says that Skype was notified, but they didn’t respond. It is unclear how long Android Police waited before publishing the story. Even if no response from Skype was received, maybe more efforts should have been put into trying to get Skype’s attention behind the scenes. And even if publishing the story was the only way to bring attention to the issue, it was irresponsible for Android Police to include full details on how to exploit the issue.

In the comments to his post, Justin Case stated that he believes in full disclosure and thinks it is the only way to get big companies to act. This is not the first time such full disclosures happened at Android Police either: previously, full details of breaking Android License Verification library were published. It is clear that Android Police doesn’t believe in a responsible fault disclosure, which was nicely outlined by Jeremy Ellsworth in the comments. Let’s hope that as Android Police popularity grows, their sense of responsibility grows as well.

The number of cell phones that run official version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3) is currently 4. Those are Nexus S, Nexus One, Sony Xperia Arc and Sony Xperia Play.

The number of cell phones and tablets supported by CyanogenMod 7.0 is 30. Here’s the list of the supported devices:

• Google Nexus One (Passion)
• Google Nexus S (Crespo)
• HTC myTouch 4G (Glacier)
• HTC Incredible
• HTC Desire (Bravo) GSM/CDMA
• HTC Desire HD (Ace) / HTC Inspire
• HTC Desire Z / G2 (Vision)
• HTC Evo (Supersonic)
• HTC Evo Shift (Speedy)
• HTC Hero (CDMA/GSM)
• HTC Aria (Liberty)
• HTC Click / HTC Tattoo
• HTC Legend
• HTC Slide (Espresso)
• HTC Wildfire (Buzz)
• Geeksphone Zero
• Geeksphone One
• ZTE Blade (San Francisco, Sapo A5)
• Commtiva Z71 (Boston, G1305, XT502, A60, Blaze)
• Barnes & Noble Nook Color (Encore)
• Viewsonic G-Tablet (Harmony)

Stable CM7 is not ready yet for such popular phones as Motorola Droid and Samsung Galaxy S, but nightly builds exist, so stable version may be coming soon.

So what does the 30:4 score tell us about the state of Android ecosystem? First, manufacturers of the phones are slow to release updates, which is not news. This should become less of a problem as Android OS matures and Google reduces number of major Android releases per year. However, manufacturers should do a better job of managing upgrade expectations, so when customers buy an Android phone they know how long they can expect to receive future upgrades.

Second, having an open source of the operating system is extremely useful. Not only CM7 is available on phones that may never get an official Android 2.3 release, but CM7 includes numerous features that are not part of official Android 2.3.

If you already use CyanogenMod ROM, consider donating to support this great open source project (donate button is at the bottom of this page).

If you want to start using CyanogenMod (or any other custom ROM), you need to root your phone first. Installing CyanogenMod is easiest using ROM Manager. Remember to do a full backup before modding the phone (e.g. using Titanium Backup). If you have questions or run into trouble, CyanogenMod forum or xda-developers is the place to get answers. Enjoy!