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Refresh Roundup: week of April 9th, 2012

Zachary Lutz
Updated ·4 min read

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!



Official Android updates

  • Aakash 2: India's renowned $35 tablet is set to ship in just a few weeks with a refreshed set of components, and upon its arrival, it will include Android 4.0. [PC World]

  • HTC EVO Design 4G: Sprint issued a security update this week, which handset owners may download today. The carrier will begin pushing the update to all remaining handsets on Tuesday. [Android Central]

  • Samsung Nexus S 4G: Last week, Google released the Android 2.3.7 recovery ROM for the Nexus S 4G, and as a bit of good news for those who've ever messed anything up, it's now made the Android 4.0.4 recovery image available to all. [Android Life]

  • HTC Rhyme: Verizon Wireless released a small update that enables support for the Wireless Alerting System, brings new controls and options to Dock Mode and tweaks the signal strength indicator. [Phandroid]

  • Samsung Galaxy S: The Korean manufacturer has detailed the inclusions of its Value Pack update for Galaxy S owners. Included in the mix is Face Unlock, the ability to take pictures while recording video, the ability to create folders for apps and a new photo editor. [GSM Arena]

  • Samsung Galaxy S II: Vodafone made the Android 4.0 update available to its subscribers over Samsung Kies this past Friday, and come Tuesday, April 17th, it will begin pushing Ice Cream Sandwich to all Galaxy S II handsets with an over-the-air update. [Vodafone UK]

  • Motorola Droid 2: Verizon Wireless has announced an update to enable support for the Wireless Alerting System, fix an issue that'd caused the device to power on without user interaction and reduce the number of memory errors. It's also said to bring security enhancements from Google and stop the device from resetting when music is playing. [Android Police]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

Other platforms

  • HTC Trophy: Verizon Wireless released the 8107 update for its only Windows Phone handset this week. [Pocketnow]

  • Nokia 701, 700 and 603: This trio of handsets were treated to Nokia Belle Feature Pack 1 this week, which included new home screen widgets, tweaks to the notification bar and an updated web browser. It also includes a number of application refreshes and bumps the processor from 1GHz to 1.3GHz. For a glimpse of the new features, the folks at Unleash the Phones have put together an excellent screenshot tour and video. [All About Symbian]

  • Windows Phone (AT&T): A bit of a stir was caused a few weeks back when it was suggested that AT&T wouldn't deliver the 8107 update to its lineup of Windows Phones. Said to solve the mystery of the disappearing keyboard, it's now said that the carrier will release the fix as part of a larger refresh. [The Verge]

  • Nokia Lumia 800: T-Mobile UK is now pushing out the Windows Phone 12070 update, which is known to deliver significant battery life improvements. [wpcentral]

Refreshes we covered this week