It's undoubtedly been a tough wait for Nexus S customers watching the Galaxy Nexus deploy on three continents over the last few weeks with Android 4.0 on board — but all things considered, the wait won't be a long one, particularly considering that the new model just launched for the first time in the US yesterday. Google has just announced that the Nexus S — Gingerbread's premiere device back in November of last year — will be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich over-the-air starting today and proceeding over the course of the coming month. As always, it's going to be a rolling release (though we imagine it won't take very long for the Android community to suss out the upgrade file and provide a direct link). GSM models come first, while users of Sprint's Nexus S 4G will need to wait a little more, but all indications are that it shouldn't be long.
Nexus S getting Android 4.0 starting today, GSM models first



There are 43 Comments. Add yours.
so.. do hard keys just function as normal and are omitted from the screen?
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:02 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
I do think that is the exact case
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:05 PM EST reply Recommend (5) Flag actions
Confirmed by ICS on rootes Nexus S 4G.
Can’t wait to have the official version!
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:17 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
ICS on Nexus S will see hardware buttons and therefore disable software buttons
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:31 PM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
where have you been?
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:49 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Working mostly, you?
Also, hopeful that the GNex would hurry up and roll out on other carriers.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 5:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Just got my ICS OTA for nexus s. The software keys are disables….AND my phone is so slow after the update!
Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 6:27 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:08 PM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
couldn’t have said it better :-)
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:16 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Google doesn’t care about NS4G!
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:10 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Haha. Was that the last time we saw mike Meyers in public? Yeezy must have scared the shit out of him.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:14 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I love the ‘’oh shit oh shit’’ look on Meyers face
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:15 PM EST reply Recommend (6) Flag actions
Curious to see if ICS performance on “old” hardware
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:15 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s actually really good. Even faster than Gingerbread!
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:18 PM EST reply Recommend (4) Flag actions
Confirmed via several alpha ROMs. This thing is GREAT!
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:36 PM EST reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
It still blows me away how AOSP (alpha, hacked together by hobbyists) is so much faster than Gingerbread.
The code improvements are phenomenal!
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:46 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Any chance it will come to the Atrix 4g?
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 10:05 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Ask Motorola. It’ll probably be a few months.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 11:31 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s the fastest ROM I’ve ever used on my Galaxy S.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:20 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Galaxy Nexus has in fact the same GPU as the Nexus S. Just overclocked a bit. ;-)
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Faster AND smoother than Gingerbread.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 9:57 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I can tell it is a bit slower, but if you enable gpu acceleration it becomes fast!
Posted on Dec 18, 2011 | 5:29 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
WOO! . . . Loving ICS on my LTE Nexus though..
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:15 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
What should one do to prepare for a major update so as ICS 4.0 if they have a rooted device? In un-rooting necessary?
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:17 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I assume you’ve also unlocked the bootloader? I’d recommend waiting for a rooted stock ICS rom and flash that.
No sense in loosing root or going through the extra hassle of rooting/unrooting when there’s no guarantee that the OTA would get to you any faster.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:22 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I guess its not necessary. This is not an incremental update.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:22 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This is also good news for Samsung Galaxy S users. The two phones are identical except for NFC chip
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:21 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It is not a good news. Considering that Samsung has bailed on releasing a browser fix for Gingerbread for Nexus S, while they released it on Galaxy S, I’d say that they are not cooperating with Google at all.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:59 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I concur.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 8:39 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Well, when I said it’s good news for Galaxy S users, I had the amazing XDA devs in mind. Not Samsung.
Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 8:12 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It’s still bad, but Google are getting better at this “OS update” thing.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 4:35 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
@koush:Hello Nexus S ICS update: http://t.co/GnS6AQVl"
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 5:04 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
https://android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/google_crespo/VQ8PQk_V.zip
have fun :)
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 5:09 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Sorry to be dumb, but what do we do with it?
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 5:18 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yo developers, y’all gonna start optimising apps for ICS now? I mean damn, homie.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 5:11 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
ABOUT GODDAMN TIME
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 5:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I could live with this + ICS instead of the Galaxy Nexus, but the pentile screen is much worse on the S than the GN.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 6:52 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Did you notice any difference before you read Pentile? I didn’t really.
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 8:40 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Before I knew what they were called or what the controversy was I always thought the Galaxy S screens were horrible.
Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 2:37 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I just hope that Sprint’s OTA’s to remove Carrier IQ doesn’t postpone ICS from getting to the NS4G.
Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 7:42 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m hoping we get the ota for the 4g version this week
Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 11:31 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
“As always, it’s going to be a rolling release (though we imagine it won’t take very long for the Android community to suss out the upgrade file and provide a direct link).”
Chris,
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/16/2641496/manually-install-android-4-0-3-gsm-nexus-s
Posted on Dec 17, 2011 | 5:03 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I got the OTA notification for my Nexus S i9023 last night. The update downloaded, verified and then I got the countdown to reboot… but no reboot. I manually rebooted the phone, but it just came back up in 2.3.6 and About→System updates says that it’s up to date. This seems to have hit a lot of people in the last few hours. Some folks are suggesting that Google has pulled the update, but I’ve not seen any confirmation.
Posted on Dec 20, 2011 | 4:11 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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