Notion Ink CEO 'confirms' Ice Cream Sandwich in Oct., OMAP as reference platform; says Adam will update in Nov.

By Jerry Hildenbrand
last updated

The CEO of Notion Ink, Rohan Shravan, has "outed" some more news about the Ice Cream Sandwich release.  Yes, this is the same fellow who told us about Gingerbread a few days in advance last time around (which is why we looked twice).  In a post at the Notion Ink blog about plans to improve the graphics performance of the Adam, Shravan says a couple really interesting things -- Google will be releasing Ice Cream Sandwich in late October, OMAP devices will be the preferred platform (and receive the update before Tegra devices), and the Notion Ink will have the Adam updated by November.

Additionally, the folks at Phone Arena have confirmed with Shravan that Google has already supplied OEMs with Ice Cream Sandwich, and that Notion Ink is not one of the manufacturers to be seeded with an early release of the source code. 

We're still going to be on the lookout for something a bit more official, and none of this news is really surprising -- it has been regurgitated across the Internet for the past few months.  We'll see Ice Cream Sandwich when it's ready, and if that means next month none of us will be complaining.

Source: Notion Ink; via Phone Arena

Jerry Hildenbrand
Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

75 Comments
  • So where are all the kiddos jumping on one leg because Google had purchased Motorola Mobility and the Photon would be the God of all Gods now? BUUHAHAHAHA I guess all you Motorola Photon fangirls will have to wait a while for ICS.
  • Um, what?
  • The photon and atrix run tegra 2s. Assuming NI is right and that they're referring to OMAP 4s and none of the 3 series, there's only 3 devices getting ICS first then:
    Bionic
    Droid 3
    Thrill (optimus 3d) The PlayBook is the only tablet running an OMAP 4 btw. Wonder if that'll be the first tablet to get ICS, on the emulator. Be super ironic if everyone rush out to buy one cause of that though lol.
  • there are other tablets coming from Archos that use OMAP 4460: Archos 80 G9 16 & 250 GB and Archos 101 G9 16 and 250 GB. Running at 1.5 GHz too!
  • Go take your pills then re-post.
  • Google is buying Motorola, they have not purchased it as of this date. Will take till the end of 11 of first of 12 to obtain all regulatory approvals. And even after the approvals and the sale are final, it will take a while for Google to incorporate their ideas into Moto Mobility.
  • So which are these OMAP devices?
  • The ones i know of areD3, Droid Bionic and Optimus 3D
  • & the BB PlayBook . That's it for the Dual-Core series (OMAP 44 30 series) & for the single-core series , basically every Motorola phone except the ATRIX, DROID X2 & the Photon
  • well technically the playbook isnt android, but yeah i forgot. and also the triumph is a snapdragon not omap :P
  • So does this pretty much make the whole 4chan thing fake? I knew it was the whole time but some people really thought it was legit.
  • It actually looks pretty inline with the 4chan thing. However, I agree, that was probably fake. They do have similar dates though (as does every other rumor) and they both agree ICS is being outed to high profile partners.
  • so my Bionic wasnt a bad purchase :)
  • I wonder if that means OMAP devices like the Droid 3 and Bionic could potentially get ICS at the end of the year. That would be spectacular. Now if they would only make it stock...
  • What else would be OMAP?
  • Bionic, D3, LG Thrill 4G, Lg Optimus 3D, and a handful of "meh" tablets.
  • Dinc2?
  • It's got a 2nd gen qualcomm snapdragon (scorpion)
  • yes october ICS and my birthday turning 17 the 15th :D
  • ha the 15th is my bday too lol.
  • Yes please! My Wildfire S needs an upgrade!
  • That's a qualcomm msm7227, so if this rumor is true, then no...
  • Some of us are still waiting for gingerbread & others are getting ice cream sandwich? Thats just great.lol
  • Hate to say it, but welcome to android. Rooting and romming should get you up to date. If you don't want to do that, the best advice I can give is buy a nexus, or a high end, high popularity device from a good manufacturer like HTC. By good manufacturer, I mean one good with updates, not necessarily hardware.
  • Like my thunderbolt on Froyo still? Lol.
  • There are plenty of leaks you can install. Been running gb on my unrooted tb for awhile now.
  • You should have bought a Nexus. That's what I tell everyone that bitches about lack of updates to their phone. If updates are important to you than buy a Nexus. My Nexus S will see ICS soon after the Nexus Prime is released. I wouldn't be surprised if Google pushes ICS to the Nexus One as well.
  • EVO 3D???
  • Thats a snapdragon. but its HTC so it still might happen quickly
  • dont worry with my nexus s , i know ICS is a reality soon enough before all those devices! this is why i always tell everyone about how great the nexus phones are, this is why so many ppl are fanboys(and girls) of nexus devices. They are always up to date, no need to supply the carrier with anything, once google is done with it, its updated.
  • The nexus s is a hummingbird processor though, not OMAP. I wonder how long it'll be before we get the update.
  • We will still get it first, the nexus prime or whatever its called should be released with it first, then we will get it.
    but we will be one of the first phones with it, thats a fact.
  • Idk about that look how long it took the n1 to get gb after the nexus s was released. Just saying you may be waiting a month if not more before the nexus s gets ics.
  • Regardless of how long the actual wait will be, the Nexus S will still be the 2nd device to get ICS. The Nexus One will probably be the 3rd device if Google decides the hardware can handle it. All other devices will be waiting a good 6-12 months before they see ICS, just like was the case with Gingerbread.
  • fully agree.
    it seems like allot of people dont understand what the nexus line of phones is about. its about them being a pure google phone and always getting the software FIRST, if you read Jerry's posts, GB and ICS is developed on the nexus S. so no matter what it always gets it first. the next nexus device and droid prime will get ICS first.
    then the nexus s will and then possibly the OG nexus. but this is all before ANY other phone will get ICS.
    us nexus s users are already on 2.3.6 and nexus 4g are on 2.3.5!
    no other phone out right now is that up to date, even the newest big dog dual cores.
  • If OMAP is the REFERENCE device for ICS, then I GUARANTEE you that ICS was not developed on the Nexus S. Why develop on an outdated piece of equipment (and a 2 year old SoC for that matter)? You develop on and for a target reference design that you project to be the standard for whatever your timeline is, which is the OMAP 4x, not the Hummingbird. Your 2.3.5 and 2.3.6 Gingerbread updates are bug updates, try reading the patch release notes :) Off-topic slightly, but I don't know if the Nexus One is capable of running ICS. It's just not a very good phone anymore, there are rumors that ICS might be an OpenGL-rendered UI; and the Adreno200 GPU in the Nexus One is TERRIBLE.
  • Really? Do you have the projected ICS-rollout spreadsheet? I bet my Droid 3 gets a leaked ICS ROM before the Nexus S :) Seriously though, don't let the slow rollout of Gingerbread be the measure of how ICS will come out. I think the updates are going to happen much faster since Google is getting a lot tougher on handset manufacturers with custom UIs. The Eclair to Froyo updates happened pretty quickly and there was a larger difference between those two versions vs Froyo and Gingerbread.
  • How are they getting tougher on manufacturer's use of skins? And there will most likely be a leak of ics for the nexus s before a leak of the d3. The nexus s officially will get it and the d3 may have a leak but every phone has leaks that doesn't mean they will get it anytime soon. Cough thunderbolt cough charge cough. Just saying.
  • Nexus Phone it`s SlOW like hell, my wife has nexus S 4G, I beat it with my Photon, on download and the up load.
  • You can't blame the processor for download and upload speeds, the radio and software yes, but main processor no. I'm sure in day to day operations the nexus is almost as fast as your phone which is quite an accomplishment since your comparing a phone thats essentially a year old with half the ram and on a single core.
  • duplicate post
  • Oh man triple post!!
  • Obviously there is something wrong with that phone., besides you cant compare a brand new phone to a older phone. When the nexus prime comes out or whatever its called, it will blow the photon out the water like teh galaxy s 2 already does. Besides the nexus FLIES as is, no bloatware or crap.
    i can overlock mine to 1.4mhz easy and its running right with that photon.
    run both on wifi and do the same tests, you will be quiet surprised.
  • And then overclock the Photon to 1.5ghz and see what happens. Bloatware can be removed. Nexus Prime will be an OMAP 4x, it's not really that much faster than Tegra2, just more power-efficient. Synthetic benchmarks don't ever tell the whole tale :)
  • the nexus 1 is almost 2 years old if thats what you are talking about and not to mention it wasnt 4g. I would hope a phone that is 2 years old would get beat by one that has been out for a few months. Also if you mean the nexus s that is almost a year old and not to mention it is single core and the photon is dual core.
  • i was talking nexus s 4g,
    sorry i should of specified.
  • Bad news for my Photon and Xoom :-(
  • Xoom....SOLD, piece O' crap
  • Why are you saying that! I have the Photon and I love it, It`s fast
    and it has good features.
  • He is just saying it may take longer for an update to ics.
  • Too bad google used the omap processor instead of the exynos. From the release of the epic touch 4g clearly shows that the exynos is a much faster processor.
  • Exynos does not support lte which is why google didn't use it. Not going to put something in their nexus that can't work with one of the main things they will advertise it as(having lte)
  • Wait, so the Galaxy S II LTE doesn't have the Exynos chip?
  • No.
  • Maybe this is already known... Since ICS is being developed and initially released on the Nexus Prime, doesn't this mean the Nexus Prime will have an OMAP CPU? Has Samsung ever used an OMAP CPU on any of their phones before?
  • Anything with the words Nexus Prime is still just a rumor at this point. And just because the CEO of Notion ink says something doesn't mean it's true :) As far as reference platform and OS:
    ICS was probably developed mostly on the Nexus S, and fine tuned and optimized for the next reference device after the initial code was built. Android is already optimized for the single core OMAP (2.0/2.1), single core Snapdragon (2.2), Hummingbird (2.3), and Tegra 2 (3.0). If the next reference design calls for a dual-core OMAP, like Mr. Shravan suggests, that means ICS will be tweaked with optimizations specific for that chip. The previous tweaks will still be in place, and chips like the Tegra or the Hummingbird can still take advantage of them.
  • I have an question for Jerry Hildenbrand! Or anyone knows the answer? Please... What`s the differents between the GB the one out on the Photon 4G and the SGS2, the one just came out! Just I want to know the differents.
  • Pretty much everything :) Neither device is running Android Gingerbread as it was built. Motorola has made big changes (we call them Blur), as has Samsung (TouchWiz). The manufacturers change the core framework of Android itself, then build their version of the OS around those changes.
  • First thanks for your reply Mr. Jerry, so the UI and the OS? Because the carriers control the phones! I do have the SGS2 and my wife she has the nexus 4G,the SGS2 runs smoother than her nexus thou. That`s why I asked what`s the different. I know the SGS2 has newer processor than the nexus.
  • This is the reason why Jerry mentions Nexus and so do i. The Gingerbread and ICS software is basically "made" on the Nexus, so its optimized for that device.
    There is NO carrier/phone maker handling of the software on the phone itself, such as with your photon containing Sprint apps, and motorola UI (Blur),
    the nexus is googles main phone, so it contains nothing but a "pure" android experience, the way android is out the box before phone makers alter it for there UIs and apps. This is what makes the Nexus line so great.
    its always up to date.
    its pure android.
    its bloatware free/carrier IQ free.
  • So are you basically saying the Droid Bionic will not be as pure "google integrated" as the Nexus/Droid Prime will be? How long will it be where devices such as Droid3 and Bionic will get the ICS update? Does Motorola being owned by Google now speed up that process?
  • No. It all depends on how long it takes moto to integrate their blur into the ics build. Probably a few months after ics is released.
  • And, there is a good chance Moto will screw it up, just like they did GB for the X. :-)
  • The Bionic is not pure Android. It has been customized by Motorola (Motoblur) and apps have been added by Verizon (bloatware). It will take good while before Motorola test and release (and then Verizon tests and releases) ICS for the Bionic or any other non-Nexus phone. That's why people need to stop buying non-Nexus phones if they care about having the latest versions of Android running.
  • More fragmentation. Great.
  • ehh,no? its a time line for the update. not difrent exclusif software/hardware treatment or w/e. omaps get it bevore tegra. its based on what code is easyer or faster for the update i geus.
    so im geasing coding for the tegra takes longer
  • Bionic or DROID HD aka prime? The only way to go. The omap at 1.2 smokes the 1.2 in the G2s.
  • No it doesn't. Go check out reviews or benchmarks the omap is behind the exynos. Not to mention moto locking down their phones.
  • Shouldn't my Nexus-S be the first phone to get ICS after the Nexus-Prime ? The whole reason I bought the "nexus" brand was the be first with updates. The N-S better get it fast, and before any other phone.
  • What about the evo 3d
  • Some people said if I don't want to wait for upgrades then get a nexus, 1st, How am I supposed to get a nexus when I have Verizon? 2nd nexus I think is only sprint, & sprint has some of the worst service area around especially sound me.. so then what would be the answer for a verizon phone that will always get upgrades? I have the thunderbolt now & love it besides the rebooting & texts going to the wrong person.. I can't root my phone Cuz I have no clue how to do any if that stuff without destroying my phone..
  • The new nexus is said to be coming to verizon so those of us on verizon can finally get our turn lol.
  • There is no way that Verizon is going to put out a phone that is not full of all the Verizon crap they add to it. I would think that this makes it no longer a "pure" Google device and probably screws up the whole "nexus gets it first" idea, because Verizon wont upgrade any OS until it's added it's junk back in.
  • Verizon didn't put any bloatware on the OG Droid, Xoom Tablet, or iPhone. So they are capable of doing this if they want to. So chill, they may surprise you.
  • If you want to stick with Verizon, but want a smartphone with frequent updates without the hassle of learning how to root and flash custom ROMs, then you should get an iPhone or wait to see if Verizon gets the next Nexus device. It's that simple. Alternatively, switch to any of the other 3 carriers: all of them carry the Nexus S.