Just a quick heads up that if you buy the Verizon Galaxy Nexus directly from Samsung, ol' Sammy's gonna throw in a free 2100 mAh extended battery and battery door. That's with a two-year contract, of course, and the phone itself costs $299. Use the link below if you're in the market.

More: Samsung Direct

Motorola's continuing its global roll-out of the Defy Mini (or DEFY MINI, if you prefer) with the news of the phone's arrival in Poland today. As you might expect, the Defy Mini is a miniature version of last year's Motorola Defy, and comes equipped with entry-level smartphone internals along with dust, water and scratch resistance. Inside this 3.2-inch device you've got a 600MHz CPU, 512MB of RAM and Android 2.3 Gingerbread running the show. So nothing to write home about in terms of specs, but if you're after a small, inexpensive, ruggedized smartphone, you could do worse than the Defy Mini.

The Motorola Defy Mini will launch in selected Polish stores this month, with a suggested retail price of 799 Polish zloty (~$250). We've got Moto's press release after the break.

If you're game for risking a brick, don't mind some questionable practices and are itching for Ice Cream Sandwich on your Droid RAZR, you'll want to pay attention here. A potential Ice Cream Sandwich OTA is sitting pretty on Motorola's staging server, waiting for testers to download, flash and test. Normally, folks like you and me can't get to those staging servers (Moto Matt has to get you hooked up) but there's a method floating around that gives you access, if you're into that sort of thing. Using that method, and a completely stock .173 CDMA RAZR you can download the official release candidate of Ice Cream Sandwich for your Droid RAZR. Note -- this is CDMA only, as in not GSM -- don't try it, it won't work. We're not going to lay out the method, but yalkowni over at XDA has it all worked out for ya. Hit the link and have a look.

I'm here to report this type of news, whether I approve of it or not. I've no problem with risky procedures that will brink your phone, in fact I've bricked a few of my own. But I wouldn't do this if I had a RAZR. Yes, yes, Blur sucks (though we haven't really seen the new ICS Blur yet) and Moto really should provide a method to unlock the bootloader on phone computer hardware users paid good money for, but I draw the line at network shenanigans. Motorola has always been a little loose with their soak tests, and aren't too concerned about keeping things a secret. Now that this method has been made public, and 20,000 or so people are hitting the staging server, that may very well change. 

If rumors hold true, we'll see ICS for the RAZR in a couple days, and we won't judge if you go on and give this a try. Our job is to tell you as much as we can.

Source: XDA-Developers

Shalom Veffer; taken with the Samsung Galaxy S II

The winner of this week's photo contest is Shalom Veffer, who gave us this great picture with his Samsung Galaxy S II. We chose it because it's clear, captures the subject perfectly (this week was flowers) and provides a great contrast between the yellow flower and the scrubby landscape behind it. Beautifully composed, Shalom. Be on the lookout for information about your prize!

This week was the hardest ever to decide a winner. There were so many entries worthy of winning, it was hard to even pull out the 10 best let alone decide on a winner. If anyone ever says Android phones don't take excellent pictures, send them my way show I can show them at least a few hundred reasons why they are wrong. And you guys are some very skilled photographers. It's both humbling and awesome to look through them all each week!

We've got a gallery of 10 other awesome shots after the break to look at and enjoy. Keep taking and sending those pictures each week -- you make me love my job.

Android 4.0.4 has leaked for the Sprint Nexus S 4G, and is ready to flash with Odin. It bumps the system up to IMM76D, like the rest of the devices running 4.0.4, and contains a new set of images as well as a new radio. We've seen Ice Cream Sandwich leak before for the Nexus S 4G, and this ROM looks to be pretty much the same type of case.

It's officially signed off by Google with release keys, but that doesn't mean anything for the radio and Sprint specific network code inside the ROM itself. You'll be flashing this one at your own risk -- but should be able to roll back to stock in case of any issues easily enough. The folks in the forums are giving it a go, and early reports are looking good. Be sure to chime in with your own experience if you give it a shot.  As for when we'll see anything official from Google and Sprint, nobody that knows is saying. 

Source: Brief Mobile; via Android Central forums

The other night on the Android Central podcast a great idea was born. Someone, and forgive me for not remembering who, wanted to know how our phones are set-up. I promised to kick off a series from the various AC staff members showing just what software we have running on our devices. I trade back and forth between the Samsung Galaxy Nexus or the T-Mobile Galaxy S II (dat cam!), but both are set up the exact same way. One is just more TouchWizzy than the other. Hit the jump and I'll break it down.

We don't want anyone to get too excited and set themselves up for a heartbreak just yet, but a leaked document from Best Buy pins the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX for April 4, and the HTC Rezound on April 6. Anyone with a HTC Thunderbolt can tell you more about dates provided through Best Buy, and Motorola still hasn't given any type of ballpark date for the update for the RAZR and RAZR MAXX, which are still listed as being in the "evaluation and planning" stage. We've seen ICS leaks for both devices (the RAZR and RAZR MAXX run the same software) but nothing official from anyone involved. Both phones were to have ICS "soon" after release, but so far we're still waiting.

We want it to be true. We hope it's true. We're just naturally skeptical, especially when a third party like Best Buy is involved. We're sure nobody is trying to troll the Internets, but anyone who has worked in a corporate environment knows how things get fouled up. Here's hoping, and we'll know next week!

Source: Android Police

Motorola Mobility is continuing their Global device rollouts with the Motorola MOTOKEY SOCIAL now making its way to Chile.

We are committed to launching competitively priced cellular telephones with the features demanded by consumers who still do not have a smartphone, but need access to e-mail, create Wi-Fi hotspots to give internet access and social networks,” said Fernando Sanchez, general manager for Mobile Devices, Motorola Mobility Chile.

Motorola MOTOKEY SOCIAL comes with a 3-megapixel camera and support for a microSD card of up to 32 GB, high-speed USB 2.0 file transfer and support for multiple audio and image formats. The device also comes equipped with Bluetooth and stereo radio, as well as a 3.5 mm earphone jack for high quality audio.

Source: Motorola