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Refresh Roundup: week of November 21, 2011

Brad Molen
Updated ·4 min read

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. 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 from 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

  • Android 2.3 is rolling out for the LG Optimus 3D, after months of eager waiting. The update appears to be hitting phones all over the world, but keep in mind that this rollout will not include the LG Thrill 4G on AT&T -- at least, not for now. [Android Community]

  • Not only did the Gingerbread source come out for the Samsung Droid Charge, Verizon's finally confirmed that it begins pushing out to users on November 29th. The build is known as EP4. [Droid-Life]

  • The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on AT&T is getting an early update to Android 2.3.6. Our review unit received the refresh and we noticed better overall performance.

  • The OG Motorola Droid is getting a bug fix refresh. No specific details or change logs are yet known. [Android Community]

  • HTC and Verizon are rolling out a security patch for the Rhyme, known as version 1.26.605.11. There aren't any feature changes in this download, as it's meant to simply address security issues. [Droid-Life]

  • Another HTC device is getting a minor OTA update: the European HTC Desire S. From what we can tell, it appears to just be a bug fix download. [PocketNow]

  • Huawei confirmed via Facebook that Android 2.3 is now available for the Ideos X5 Pro, and the X5 should still be getting it before the end of the month. [Unwired View]

  • The Samsung Galaxy S II X on Telus has been confirmed to be on the ICS list, with the upgrade to Android 4.0 available sometime in 2012. [MobileSyrup]

  • Rogers has pushed 2.3.4 to the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc. [MobileSyrup]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

  • HTC has released the kernel source for a few more devices, such as the Rezound, Amaze 4G, Desire S and Explorer. [PocketNow]

  • Motorola also has made kernel source available for the Droid RAZR. [Phandroid]

  • An ICS port for the Samsung Galaxy S is in the works. [The Verge]

  • Also getting an alpha version of an unofficial ICS port? The HTC Hero. [MobileSyrup]

  • Koush has an alpha version of ICS available for the Samsung Nexus S. [AndroidCentral]

  • Another alpha build of CyanogenMod is ready for the HP TouchPad. No, it's not ICS yet. As always, install at your own risk. [RootzWiki]

  • Peter Alfonso has a new Android 2.3.7 ROM for the OG Motorola Droid. Head here to download it. [AndroidCentral]

Other platforms

  • A new update, v1.1, is available for the Nokia N9. Among the improvements: additional filters for the camera, music controls added to the lock screen, NFC tag reading, image sharing on the Twitter app and improved memory handling for smoother multitasking. [MobileTechReview]

  • The Nokia 603 just received a minor maintenance release to Symbian Belle known as v111.030.0607. No changelog has been provided yet. [MyNokiaBlog]

  • The BlackBerry Playbook was bumped up to version 1.0.8.4985. It updates Flash Player to 11.1, Adobe Air to 3.1, updated its Bluetooth and WiFi software for better connectivity and added a few extra security enhancements. [MobileSyrup]

  • BlackBerry OS 7.1 was leaked and shown running on a Bold 9900. The future update will enable Mobile Hotspot functionality, as well as BlackBerry Tags. [CrackBerry]

  • Mango is now showing up on the Samsung Omnia 7 on Telefonica. [WMPowerUser]

  • Rogers just pushed build 7740 onto its Samsung Focus, which is essentially a minor bug fix build (the initial Mango version was 7720). [MobileSyrup]

  • Build 7740 of Mango is also reaching the LG Optimus 7 in Europe. [PocketNow]

  • The Dark Forces Team has been able to get its bootloader running on the Samsung Focus, bringing it much closer to getting custom ROMs. [WPCentral]

Refreshes we covered this week