Samsung Galaxy S Ice Cream Sandwich 'value pack' en route?
An update to the Samsung Galaxy S that brings some features from Ice Cream Sandwich is arriving in Korea, and hopefully heading here soon.
Samsung's promised 'Value Pack' update for the Samsung Galaxy S appears to be rolling out to Galaxy S devices in Korea, signalling that the much-desired software boost could be headed to the UK soon.
The rumoured 'Value Pack' looks to bring some of the features you'd find in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich like face unlock, an image editor, and the ability to take photos while shooting video, GSMArena reports. It's not the full package, but it's a few extra goodies.
The history of the Galaxy S update is a long and tragic one, that highlights one of the big problems with Android.
Samsung began by omitting the Galaxy S from its list of smart phones that would be getting updated to Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich. Galaxy S owners were understandably miffed about that, so Samsung changed its tune, saying it would investigate ways to deliver the newest version of Android to the Galaxy S2's predecessor.
Then word emerged of a 'Value Pack' upgrade, that would deliver some features from Ice Cream Sandwich, but not the full update. Samsung dashed those hopes too however at the beginning of the year, saying that there were no plans to do anything of the sort, and that the Galaxy S' hardware limitations meant that it -- and other older Samsung mobiles -- wouldn't be updated.
But now it looks like the Value Pack is happening after all. This post on a Samsung page suggests as much, though I'm reading through the mists of Google Translate. I've reached out to Samsung to try and find out what's happening, and I'll update this story accordingly -- fingers crossed some new features arrive on UK devices.
I believe that these update woes are doing serious harm to Android. Not only are customers left in the dark as to what they can expect in terms of new software, even once updates are released they're mired with delays -- just look at the frustration of S2 owners trying to get Ice Cream Sandwich.
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