Sony Ericsson has confirmed that its current-gen Xperia line-up, including the Xperia Arc and Xperia Ray, will be updated to Android4.0.
Speaking to SoMobile, a representative from the London-based phone-maker assured that its 2011 Xperia smartphones all come with support for Android Ice Cream Sandwich – the next iteration of Google’s mobile OS. Of course, there’s currently no word as to when they’ll be receiving the update, although it’s expected to get official in ‘October or November’.
Although we don’t know much about the incoming update, Google’s promising it’ll be “the most ambitious one yet”, and will bring “all the good stuff” that Honeycomb offers to Android-powered smartphones – including its its holographic user interface, multitasking launcher, and support for advanced applications.
Google has also confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich will come with a feature dubbed ‘Virtual Camera Operator’, Android’s answer to Microsoft Kinect. According to the search-engine giant this tech will use face detection technology to work out who is talking, offering-up clearer and more advanced video calling features.
Other incoming features include; peer-to-peer NFC functionality, the ability for Android phones to work as USB hubs for hooking up external devices, and what ever else Google is keeping under wraps.
Before the bump to Android 4.0, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia line-up will first be upgraded to Android 2.3.4.
Sony Ericsson is really doing well this year. All of its latest Xperia phones - arc, neo, PLAY, mini and mini proturned out to be really great devices, with even more coming soon up - ray, active and arc S.
All the latest Xperia are based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and as we found out have quite good performance. Recently, Sony Ericsson announced it will update all of them with Android 2.3.4, which brings tons of new features - USB on-the-go, Sony 3D sweep panorama for the camera, even better Facebook integration, Swype-like text input (T9 Trace), integrated screen capture, video chats via Google Talk and more.
And today the company confirmed that all those Xperia phones will be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, when that becomes available. The Android best-of-both-worlds edition should come out this October or November, so early next year is when the Xperia updates can realistically be expected.
The Ice Cream Sandwich is the Honeycomb version for smartphones and will include the 3.0 major features plus lots of new ones - various NFC options, Xbox Kinect-like feature called Virtual Camera Operator, USB hub support, etc.
Sony Ericsson isn't exactly known for its timely updates, but the company is obviously set to change its ways and fix its reputation in the process.
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