14 DAY TRIAL // Google has just started to deliver the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system upgrade to Nexus S devices on its network, offering a brand new experience for all those who purchased the first Google phone from Samsung. The update will be pushed out to all Nexus S users over the air during the coming month, but, for those who do not want to wait for Google to make it available for their handsets, a manual installation is always a great option.
The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for Nexus S is now available for download on the web, straight from Google’s servers, and those who would like to give it a try can now do so.
The installation process is quite simple, and does not require rooting the device. After all, this is an official update for a Google phone.
Those who are interested in manually updating their Nexus S devices will find the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for Nexus S available for download via this link (it is a .zip file).
As soon as they get the file, they should rename it to Update.zip (make sure that it won’t be Update.zip.zip – it’s not hard to make this error in Windows). And copy it to the root of the SDCard partition on their handsets.
Make sure that the battery inside the device is charged, or plug it in the charger to make sure that it has enough juice to go through the installation process (though it should not take more than a couple of minutes).
Torn off the Nexus S and power it back up by holding the Volume Up and Power buttons at the same time, then go to Recovery, and hit the Power and Volume Up buttons again when a warning triangle appears on the screen.
Then simply go to ‘apply update from /sdcard’ and select update.zip. Reboot the smartphone as soon as the update process has been completed.
Don’t forget to apply any necessary updates to applications on your Nexus S by Samsung so as to ensure that they work on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.