The Verge - Ice Cream Sandwich ported to older devices

Android 4.0 ported to Raspberry Pi, supports HD video but not audio

2012-08-01T12:02:02Z

A working version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has been ported to the credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computer, allowing the $25 device to perform many of the functions of a modern smartphone or tablet, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. According to a post on the project's official blog, the build supports hardware-accelerated video and graphics, but is not yet able to play sound due to problems with porting Android's AudioFlinger system.

As Eurogamer points out, it's not the first attempt to get Android up and running on the device — the Raspberry Pi community has been working on ports of CyanogenMod 7.2 (based on Android 2.3) and CyanogenMod 9 (based on Android 4.0) for some time. Still, it's the first time the mobile operating...

HTC One V's Android 4.0 firmware ported to the Desire S and Desire HD

2012-04-09T18:43:03Z

HTC Desire S and HD owners won't need to buy a new phone to experience the Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4 goodness of HTC's latest offerings. Xda-developers forum member proxuser has ported the One V's ROM to the two phones, giving users the (almost) complete One V software experience. The initial port was posted several weeks ago, and proxuser has been steadily updating it since. Despite having gone through several rounds of bug fixes, there are still a few things that don't work: you won't be able to use the camera on either the S or HD, and the S doesn't support USB tethering or use as a wi-fi hotspot.

The custom ROM does, however, include Android 4.0.3 with the latest version of the Sense UI, along with up-to-date apps and even 25GB...

Nokia N9 gains Android 4.0.3 dual-boot thanks to 'Project Mayhem'

2012-03-22T17:24:04Z

We were teased with a video of Android 4.0 running on a Nokia N9 last month, and now an unofficial public alpha release of the OS for the N9 is available over at NITDroid. The 3.9-inch handset is a good match for ICS considering its lack of capacitive front buttons and its enduring style, which inspired the slick design of the Lumia 800 and 900. Except for some of the sensors, Wi-Fi, and the accelerometer, it appears that many of the phone's core functions are available and functioning properly, including the mobile network and 3D acceleration. If you're still carrying an N9, you can grab the release right now from NITDroid, along with the typical hassle of an unofficial installation process.

Nokia N9 shown running Ice Cream Sandwich

2012-02-09T11:33:09Z

Our love affair with the Nokia N9's Harmattan UI may soon be coming to an end, thanks to a pretty massive upgrade being cooked up for the 3.9-inch smartphone by the developer community: Android 4.0! Alexey Roslyakov, part of the NITDroid team that has concerned itself with porting Android to the N900 previously and the N9 presently, has tweeted the image above, accompanied by the enigmatic title of "progress."

The project to bring Ice Cream Sandwich to the N9 is clearly advancing, therefore, and we couldn't be any more excited to see the fruit that it bears. It doesn't yet look terribly close to completion, though there's no doubt that the effort will be worth it. Among all the phones that could do with an OS upgrade out there, the N9 is...

Dell Streak 7 gets temperamental Android 4.0 port

2012-01-18T06:02:04Z

We haven't spent much time dwelling on the canceled Dell Streak 7 as of late, but if you bought one of the the seven-inch Android 2.2 tablets, you might be happy to hear that the community is working to bring you an Ice Cream Sandwich for sticking with the slate. DJ_Steve and Giveen over at TabletRoms have a beta build of Android 4.0.3 running on the device, although the word "beta" is capitalized and underlined for good reason — as always, a host of important features (like cellular connectivity) aren't ready for primetime, and forumgoers are reporting other interesting little bugs as well. Still, if the Streak 7 isn't your daily driver, what do you have to lose? You're not going to be getting any Honeycomb from T-Mobile, after all....

HP TouchPad CyanogenMod 9 port shown on video, fully-functioning Android almost ready

2012-01-13T15:07:47Z

There's been an ongoing grassroots effort to shoehorn Android into HP's TouchPad and a new video posted online shows considerable progress from the version shown off in October. A member of the CyanogenMod team, greentheonly, shows off a mostly-functional port of CyanogenMod 9 running on the ill-fated tablet, bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with it in. Aside from the camera and video playback, "mostly everything else works," including the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a bootloader spotted at the beginning indicates that webOS will still be an option. Performance seems fine on the TouchPad itself, with a koi pond live wallpaper running smoothly throughout the demo and Angry Birds playback fluid and stutter-free. Unfortunately we still...

Kindle Fire hacked to run 'pre-alpha' version of Android 4.0

2011-12-26T21:02:46Z

And here we go. The enterprising hackers at xda-developers have put together an "pre-alpha" version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Kindle Fire, marking the first time we've seen Amazon's budget tablet running the latest and greatest version of Android. (And the first time we've seen it run a proper tablet OS and not a variant of Gingerbread for phones, actually.) Things seem to be working fairly well for an early build, which is based on CyanogenMod 9, but audio doesn't work consistently and there are some video glitches as well. Still, there's bound to be a lot of interest in making the $199 tablet run the most recent version of Android, so we expect to see a lot of rapid progress -- we'll keep you updated.

Original Motorola Droid gets Ice Cream Sandwich pre-alpha build

2011-12-22T14:16:01Z

The first Android 2.0 device, the original Motorola Droid, is the latest to get an Ice Cream Sandwich facelift. A member of the xda-developers forums has released a preliminary build that lets the Droid run Android 4.0.3 with CyanogenMod 9. It's still in the experimental stage, so don't expect perfect performance — according to the thread, the latest version is unable to connect to the external speakers or camera, and screen rotation is a bit off, among other things. Several other bugs have been fixed in the week since the port was first released.

The video below, by another forum member, shows an updated Droid successfully performing a few basic tasks like browsing the web on Wi-Fi. We wouldn't recommend making this your primary OS...