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Refresh Roundup: week of December 3rd, 2012

Zachary Lutz
Updated ·3 min read
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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

  • Samsung Galaxy S III: Unlike AT&T, which chose to distribute its update to Android 4.1.1 for the Galaxy S III via Kies, the major Canadian carriers -- which include Bell, Telus and Rogers -- are now delivering this upgrade to Jelly Bean over-the-air. [Android Community]

  • Sony Xperia P, Xperia U, Xperia Go and Xperia Sola: Sony has announced the rollout of a maintenance update for these four smartphones. Specifically, users will benefit from better camera and messaging software, along with improvements for NFC, WiFi, tethering and hotspot features. System stability is also said to be polished in this build. In all cases, the updates will be available over-the-air, unless you happen to be running Gingerbread -- in which case, users will need to lean on PC Companion or Bridge for Mac. [Sony Mobile]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

  • Samsung Galaxy Note II: An early build of CyanogenMod 10 is now available for this smartphone from AT&T, but you might want to hold off for a bit, because it's a bit rough around the edges. As is, the mobile radio, audio, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS are all said to be in working order, but -- and this is the biggie -- the S Pen is currently non-functional. [xda-developers]

  • Samsung Galaxy S III: Verizon Wireless has yet to update this smartphone to Jelly Bean, but if you're wanting to live on the edge, there's now a build of CyanogenMod 10.1 floating around that's based on Android 4.2.1. Sadly, a working camera isn't in the cards and there's also said to be a mess of issues that relate to USB functionality. [RootzWiki]

Refreshes we covered this week