Yesterday, Samsung made available Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS) available to the UK networks for the Galaxy S2 (my phone of choice).
The idea is that the individual networks can now make any changes to it that they need to, test them and then release the final package.
My SG2, on O2, came with no such network branding. So, I contacted O2 yesterday to ask them when ICS would be made available.
Hi David, we’re just making sure it will provide the best possible customer experience. Watch this space!
What does that mean? Well, the delay suggests they are branding it. Is this “the best possible customer experience”? If this is the case it shows that O2 (and I’m sure the other networks are no different) are completely out of touch with people actually want. I could be wrong – I hope I’m wrong. But if they’re not, why the delay?
I’ll await the results with interest.
Meantime, Samsung have released some documents for UK SG2 owners covering the changes…
- Guide on how to upgrade and what the resulting differences will be1 .
- Samsung GS2 manual with ICS changes
Update: 3 have released ICS for GS2 today. Meanwhile, O2 have started giving more away to queries on Twitter…
it will be rolling out early April time
That’s right… April.
Update: For those who missed it, O2 made ICS available last week. However, I didn’t receive it. After some digging, it turns out the lack of existing branding on my phone is because it’s unlocked (which I confirmed by putting a Vodafone SIM into it and finding it worked!) At this point it become more complex. For reasons not understood, Samsung are not release ICS for un-locked phones until late April. Yes, that’s the version that was provided to the networks the other week and requires no further changes. Why it’s not yet available is a good question.
- This is a PDF converted from the original PowerPoint format. [↩]
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The problem with Samsung Kies
You see, Samsung users can’t update their phones OTA (over the air) but have to do it via PC program named Samsung Kies. Like many phones programs it allows you to connect your phone to your PC and share files, contacts, etc. Unfortunately, it has a few issues.
Unfortunately, it’s biggest problem is that it’s a hard task trying to get a phone to actual connect to it. Indeed, right now I’m unable to connect my phone at all. And because this is the only way Samsung will push updated out to the phone, I’m not sure how I’m ever going to receive ICS.
Let me put something straight – it does connect. The USB device is accepted and my phone appears in “My Computer” – I can view the drives, drag and drop files, etc. No, it’s Kies that won’t detect it. Kies does include a troubleshooting option but this seems to just re-install the driver. And that doesn’t work either. I’ve tried it on 2 laptops and a desktop and none of them will work.
But it’s not just me – Kies is pretty universally known for being quite rubbish and for not connecting. And its this kind of frustration that means that people re-consider their buying choices next time around. I’m already considering a Nokia Windows phone next year and this is making my decision easier!
Kies for Mac
Kies for Mac has a built in limitation whereas it won’t install on any version other than a specific range. This range doesn’t include Mountain Lion (released 2 months ago), even though it’s possible to “hack” the installation and force it to just work. Another nice piece of coding from Samsung.
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