Upgrading your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE to ICE Cream Sandwich

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Upgrading your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE to ICE Cream
Sandwich

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Date added: 26-07-2012

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This article will show you how to simply use Samsung Kies to upgrade your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE to Android 4.0. The same procedure will work for many other Samasung Galaxy S2 devices as well

While Android 4.0 or as better known ICE Cream Sandwich have been introduced a while back with the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, many of us were waiting the update to be rolled out to our existing mobiles including the great Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE which even had in opinion a better hardware than the one that came with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and many other devices that were delivered with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. The good news that wait is over for most of the Samsung Galaxy S2 device family and now you can receive your update either over the air or using Samsung Kies. In this article, I will share with you how to upgrade your Samsung Galaxy SII LTE to Android 4.0 to enjoy features that were strict on newer devices that came installed with it. Below are just a recap of the few features that you can gain by upgrading to Android 4.0:

Android Ice Cream Sandwich features:

    •    Improved camera app with zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, panorama mode, and the ability to zoom while recording
    •    Built-in photo editor
    •    New gallery layout, organized by location and person
    •   Improved copy and paste functionality
    •   Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style

    •   Virtual buttons in the UI, in place of capacitive or physical buttons
    •    Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar
    •    Integrated screenshot capture (accomplished by holding down the Power and Volume-Down buttons)

    •   Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to apps
    •    A customizable launcher
    •    Improved visual voicemail with the ability to speed up or slow down voicemail messages
    •    Improved error correction on the keyboard
    •    Ability to access apps directly from lock screen
    •    Better voice integration and continuous, real-time speech to text dictation
    •    Face Unlock, a feature that allows users to unlock handsets using facial recognition software
    •    New tabbed web browser, allowing up to 16 tabs
    •    Automatic syncing of browser with users' Chrome bookmarks
    •    A new typeface family for the UI, Roboto
    •    Data Usage section in settings that lets users set warnings when they approach a certain usage limit, and disable data use when the limit is exceeded
    •    Ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background
    •    Refreshed "People" app with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images
    •    Android Beam, a near-field communication feature allowing the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos and other data
    •    Support for the WebP image format
    •    Hardware acceleration of the UI
    •    Wi-Fi Direct

From the way I have order the list above, you probably can tell the Camera app improvement was a major plus point in my opinion. I know I know you came here to find out how you can get the Android 4 not to read about its new features, so lets get into business. You can get the Android Ice Cream Sandwitch for your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE and other flavors of the Samsung Galaxy S2 mainly by two methods.

1- Over the air(OTA): You will wake up one morning and find a message in your Android device notification area informing you that you have a software update available & ask you if you want to proceed with the update. Just answer with yes and follow the procedures on the screen & wohoo you get boosted to Android 4.0 and get all of its features mentioned above! In order for this to happen your service provider has to be started to roll the updates in your area and your turn to upgrade is finally there. If you did not get that notification, don't give up maybe you can speed thing up by trying the second method.

2- Using Samsung Kies: I was actually one of the people who did not get the upgrade notification message as my service provider (Rogers in this case) did not seems the fastest to roll them out & my turn for over the air upgrade was not yet there. As I could not wait, I thought I will try Samsung Kies and see if I can pull the update rather than wait for it to be pushed to me over the air & Vooyooola! That worked out and I got Android 4.0. For those of you who need instruction on how to do that, just read the instructions below.

Using Samsung Kies to upgrade your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE to Android 4.0

1- Download Samsung Kies 2.0 from Samsung website at: http://www.samsung.com/ca/support/usefulsoftware/KIES/JSP
2- Double click the installer and follow the installation instruction which can be a bit different whether you are using Mac or Windows.
3- Start your Samsung Kies 2.0 by clicking on it in your program files(Windows users) or Application folder(Mac users)
4- After the Samsung Kies application complete its loading, connect your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE or your particular model of the Samsung Galaxy S2
5- Wait till Samsung Kies detect your Galaxy S2 device
6- After my Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE device was detected by Samsung Kies, I got the message "Some of the components of Samsung Kies need to be updated for firmware management.

7- Just press the Update Kies button
8- As soon I hit the update Kies button, I had gotten another popup promoting me to accept upgrading the firmware of my device.

9- After accepting to start the firmware upgrade, it took about 15 minutes to complete my Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE to be upgraded to Android 4.0
10- Enjoy your Android Ice Cream Sandwich on your Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE!

I hope this help some one upgrading his device to the great Android 4.0! Enjoy!