Android 4.1 OTA update available for manual download for a few Galaxy Nexus devices

Google saw fit to distribute the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, and the Nexus Q to all of the developer’s at today’s Google I/O event, but the Galaxy Nexus wasn’t running Android 4.1 out of the box. Instead, it was made available as an over-the-air update (ours just hit) — and with every OTA update comes a directdownload. The ROM, which clocks in at 156MB, will technically only work with a certain variant of the Galaxy Nexus, the “Takju” US GSM version — and more specifically it may only work on the devices given out at I/O.

The fine folks at XDA-Developers are already trying it out on that and other variants, of course, so there may yet be hope for those of you who can’t wait for an official relaase. So if you’re a Galaxy Nexus owner who is savvy with ROM flashing and the subtle distinctions between Nexus hardware versions, you just might want to give it a shot.

Source : TheVerge

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Get Google Now on your Android 4.0 phone

If you’re running an Ice Cream Sandwich ROM, here’s how to load Google’s Siri competitor onto your smartphone.

Google Now is the Mountain View, Calif.-based monolith’s apparent answer to Apple’s Siri — a voice assistant that responds to requests for information and other commands, while also trying to anticipate what bits of data you might want by digging into your search history and otherinteractions with the Googleverse. It’s a buzz-worthy feature available only on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is only on Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet and some lucky updatedGalaxy Nexus phones.

At least, that was the only way to get it a week ago.

It didn’t take long for the community on the XDA developers forum to come up with a port to bring Google Now to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices, with one caveat — you need to have a rooted device running an Android 4.0 AOSP ROM like CyanagenMod. In other words, if you’re running Ice Cream Sandwich on an unrooted phone from the one of the carriers, it’s not going to work for you.

But if you have or are willing to take the risk of rooting your phone and loading such a ROM (Read Only Memory) onto it, you could run one of the most intriguing new Android features in a while that seems to put Google one step closer to becoming Skynet.

You can download the APK file to load onto your rooted phone, and the always helpful folks at Lifehacker have also drafted some step-by-step instructions for the port.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve managed to get Google Now onto your phone and what you think so far. I’d be especially curious to know from all you obsessive schedulers out there if the application provides you with a surgeon general’s warning when an alert pops up to remind you of the smoke break you programmed into your Google Calendar: “Jerry, it’s time for your smoke break, but you should know that Menthols cause lung cancer, too…”

Source : CNet

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