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The bad news? Ice Cream Sandwich for the Samsung Galaxy Note has been pushed back to a Q2 release. The good? It’s not going to come with just boring ‘ol Android 4.0, but a few surprises thrown in as well.
Samsung saw fit to include a few bonuses with the update, calling it their “Premium Suite” upgrade which adds even more applications like Shape Match, Formula Match, My Story for enhanced S Pen functionality. It is, after all, the reason you bought the Galaxy Note, isn’t it?
And since the Samsung Galaxy Note is one of the official launch partners for Angry Birds Space, G-Note users will also have access to exclusive levels only available for the Galaxy Note. As much as I hate to admit it — I envy you, Galaxy Note users.
Do you guys think enhanced S Pen functionality and bonus Angry Birds levels are a good make-up present for the ICS delay? Full press release below.
(SEOUL–Korea Newswire) March 22, 2012 — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, today announced it will be offering a Premium Suite upgrade for GALAXY Note users worldwide from Q2. It includes extra multimedia features and a range of new S Pen optimized applications in addition to an OS upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.The Premium Suite offers new features and applications exclusive to GALAXY Note and its innovative S Pen, which was introduced with GALAXY Note 10.1 in Mobile World Congress 2012 last month. This includes S Note, a unique tool that lets you combine your notes or sketches with other digital content, giving you a new way to create your own stories. S Note comes in various ready-to-use templates for a range of tasks including meeting minutes, diary and others.S Note also includes the innovative Shape Match and Formula Match applications that help correct and digitize geometric shapes and even solve numeric formulas hand-drawn with S Pen, increasing your on-the-go efficiency and productivity. You can draw tables and grids which are instantly digitized, saving time and effort. Moreover, by using the S Note’s integrated knowledge search engines, users can quickly search, and obtain information.For a touch of self-expression, the Premium Suite also includes My Story, another S Pen optimized application that allows you to create personalized digital cards for friends or family using any type of content including notes, video content, photos, text or voice.
In celebration of the Premium Suite upgrade announcement, Samsung will provide special offers to all GALAXY users as an official launch partner of Angry Birds Space, a new blockbuster mobile game. For all Samsung GALAXY users, an exclusive GALAXY Note level will be provided for extra fun. Moreover, a special package of 30 challenging levels – ‘Danger Zone’ – will be available for free if unpacked within the three-month period. Visithttp://samsung.angrybirds.com/galaxynote for more information.
“GALAXY Note continues to delight customers all over the world with its incredible versatility and unique user experience. With the Premium Suite upgrade, we wanted to add features that enrich users’ Note experience even more, including the great advantages of Android 4.0 and innovative applications for S Pen,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “We are committed to providing extraordinary experiences for consumers, and we will continue to provide new features and upgrades to enrich our offering.”
The Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade brings an entirely new look and feel to Android on GALAXY Note, with a more intuitive user interface that includes a redesigned App menu for easier multi-tasking. The upgrade also introduces innovations such as Face Unlock, Snapshot, and others.
The availability and scheduling of the software upgrade will vary by market and wireless carriers’ requirements.
News Source: Samsung Electronics
lawd no.
Pushed back? did they ever say it will come in Q1?
I think it’s an excuse for not being on time with their update, they probably already had the S-pen suite planned and just used it as something new for waiting.
Excuse of what? They never prommised ANYTING for the Note. So they don’t need an excuse!
in a word, no.
we can download apps whenever we want. we can’t just up and have a fully driver’d build of ics on our phones. ;)
Loving my Gnex but the other only phone I lost over is this. I love big screens, going for a 6 inch one for my upgrade Dec 2013
Get a tablet; at 5+”, it’s not a phone anymore
lol, why is 4.65″ a phone but 5.3 isn’t :/
With that logic, why is a 5.3″ phone a phone, but a 5.8″ phone isn’t?
4.6″ is really pushing it, 5″ is just over the top. Phones require one hand to work, tablets require 2
For the most part I can work my note 1 handed. I had problems with my Epic 4g touch one handed at first, but I adjusted. Just as I adjusted with 4.5 to 5.3. I say a phone is anything that is capable of making a call. Never heard of a phone having to be operated with one hand. 5.8 could be a phone and so could 10.1 as long as it can make a call I say.
Not everything that can make a phone call is a phone – my computer can make phone calls, but it’s a laptop, not a phone. Above 5″, it’s a tablet that can make phone calls, not a phone.
At 5″, it’s a phablet or a taphone, (pick your jolly), not a phone. Instead of having phone/tablet, we now have phone/phablet/tablet. Phones can fit in your pocket, phablets can only fit in Shaq’s or Oprah’s pockets, tablets fit in bags.
Tech is changing, you need to be able to change your vocabulary with it, or else people would be lumping tablets in with netbooks, net books in with laptops, and laptops in with desktops. They’re all distinct categories, not to be confused with each other
– If you can handle it with large hands, it’s a phone.
– If you can just barely handle it with average hands, it’s just barely a phone. :)
– If you can’t handle it with small hands, it’s a ‘phablet’.
Since everybody’s different, you can’t put the Note into one category.
I knew it…..Don’t expect timely updates from both Korean companies (Samsung & LG). They both suck!!!
My LG Thrill barely got Gingerbread today.
LOL Samsung is not like LG, I have had plenty of updates on my SGS1/2/Note…
How is April not a timely update? Try being a Moto user and staring at tentative Q3 updates.
Samsung will release 4.0 in the 2nd qtr but at&t will sit on it for a few months until they sell other devices with ICS.
I hope you’re wrong lol
No. He is right on point. I have experienced it for myself.
They were terrible with GS 1 but hopefully the GS 2 they step it up. I think they’re doing much better on the android front this generation than with the previous one. This is me being optimistic lol
You are right. At&t and Samsung are full of SHIT! They have totally messed up the Samsung Infuse 4G Gingerbread update. I am returning back to HTC.
Compare:
The Galaxy Note ICS Update has been pushed back to Q2 but will come with S-Pen software
and
The Galaxy Note ICS Update has been pushed back to Q2 but will come with a T-Mobile HSPA+21 Radio Driver
idont understand why Verizon didn’t get this phone…it’s surely better than the Nexus…
Some people beg to differ, like myself. I don’t want to have to use two hands to use a phone. A 4.3″ screen with hardware buttons or a 4.65″ screen with software buttons is just small enough I can reach the top left corner of the screen with my right hand thumb when holding the phone with one hand. Any bigger and I can’t, and in my opinion that’s too big.
sigh…..sheeesh,….
I just returned my note today due to the screen/graphics problems.
None here on mine, I love it. You just got a bad one, did you exchange it?
Obviously not. Probably just a troll.
Probably.
View my post above for examples of the issues I was experiencing.
I’m the furthest thing from a troll. I’m a hardcore android fan and no I don’t play fanboy to just one android manufacturer. Anyways I found some links for you of the issue. It affects international and ATT notes alike. These issues are far easier to see in a dark room. There are banding effects and black crushes or blobs in dark graphics. Here is what the calculator app should look like.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6435350597_ab6ac63bd6_o.jpg This is what mine looked like. (note: this is not my photo as I had the att version. Given the fact I already returned mine I found this photo of the issue online.)
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6435578977_3809a317e8_b.jpg (notice the bad banding at the top). This guy opened a photo on his computer browser and then on his note. Look at the difference.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6439623181_0e253478be_b.jpg There is also several forums on XDA about it. this one is 125 pages long.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1336187 Here is some other examples from the facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-Screen-Issues/154264438017212
Sincerely,
The “troll”
No, I just got a refund. Seeing that the 4 display models at the best buy had the same issue, I decided to wait for a different phone. Hopefully motorola will come out with a quad core atrix 3 with the battery life of the razr maxx. Glad to hear that your’s didn’t have any issues.
Don’t buy Moto, you’ll be waiting forever for updates. Take it from a dissatisfied Bionic owner looking at what is likely having to wait until fall for ICS. With Moto, you don’t even get the option to update yourself easily thanks to the locked bootloader. Get another Samsung, or HTC, or Sony, or just something that if software support drops off you can support yourself but don’t get Moto. I don’t care how tempting their devices may look, plan on getting locked into buggy software for a long time if you buy a Moto device. Unless Google does some serious housecleaning, I’m done with Moto.
I thought it was just verizon moto’s that got locked down? In my opinion after having a samsung captivate, samsung is the worst at pushing out software updates. At least moto pushes out bug fixes. I love Sony but their hardware is always a year behind and it takes forever to get a upgrade if at all. The atrix and atrix 2 have great reviews. As long as their is a good dev team on xda, I should be fine right? But I do agree that the wait for ics on the bionic is gonna be way too long. I think moto puts out too many phones on verizon. Oh and as far as htc goes, I don’t like the fact that the one x has a small non-removable battery and no sd card slot, otherwise I would probably go with it. Also as with the note the one x has a different processor from the international version meaning less rom support. I currently own a htc inspire and have lots of rom support due to the desire hd in europe.
And your point is? You really think anyone cares?
To make more people aware of the issue, so that Samsung will be more likely to fix it. (if it is a software issue that is)
ROFL – look at all the fanboys attack one dissenter. God forbid someone doesn’t agree with you that your phone is “t3h b3stest ev4!!111!111!!!”, that person needs to be mercilessly flamed and called a troll
no kidding!! lol
I came very close to returning my AT&T Note for the same black clipping / crushing issue — and I did exchange it twice in an attempt to find one that is slightly better — but, I’ve now kept it beyond the 30-day return window with only a hope and a prayer that there’s a software fix for this problem somewhere down the road… /fingers crossed
The sad part is that we haven’t been able to get Samsung or any of the major Android or Gadget blogs to even acknowledge this fairly serious screen problem.
PS: the people who are calling you a troll are morons… ignore them.
XDA: [Bug] AT&T NOTE Experiencing Screen Problem with Dark Images and Video
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1515299
XDA: Black Clipping test image and Poll for AT&T Note Owners:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1559800
XDA: thread to address black clipping on the International Note:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1430847
Well I hope you get an update that will fix the issue. It was very annoying to me so I decided to just return it and wait for something else to come along. I looked at tons of reviews before buying and never once saw anyone mention this issue. We definitely need to get some tech blogs to mention this and get the word out so that hopefully Samsung will fix it. Thanks for the links.
For the delay, Samsung should include an option to enable/disable tablet mode. ;)
Sucks having to wait, but I’ll survive. I’ll probably have to wait longer than most since I have the AT&T version. From the youtube video though it looks very nice. Maybe they’ll let some of us do beta testing or something.
I think this is a great device. Right now Im using an iphone that the contract is due in summer and this phone/tablet is tempting me really bad…
wow, I guess I got lucky. I bought mine off CL and mine doesn’t have those problems (just checked the calculator). Love this phone, best one yet. My brother is a die hard ifan and he is getting one.