Android 4.0: Tracking Ice Cream Sandwich's Availability on Smartphones

Last week HTC published a list of phones that will receive an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, along with approximate launch dates and a projected completion date of late August 2012. This is not a very encouraging prospect considering Google officially introduced ICS last October. Also because Android's next major revision codenamed “Jelly Bean” will be close to release by then (slated for Q3/12).
But this is not an issue with HTC phones exclusively. In fact, Ice Cream Sandwich is more the exception rather than the rule on Android devices across the board. There’s a total of four smartphones shipping with the OS preloaded, just over a dozen with upgrades available, and more than 30 on the “coming soon” list.

Phones shipping with ICS

Your choices here are limited to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which was released in December in partnership with Google and features an unskinned version of Android 4.0, and the HTC One lineup comprising the One S on T-Mobile, One X on AT&T, and Evo 4G LTE on Sprint. These are soon to be joined by the Samsung Galaxy S III, which is expected to launch globally soon, including all four major carriers in the US.

Phones with ICS upgrades rolling out now

These smartphones are already being upgraded to Android 4.0. If you own one of these and are still waiting for the update to come through, keep in mind that they’re being rolled out over a period of several weeks.

HTC	Samsung	Sony
83 Sensation	91 Galaxy S II (unlocked, Canada)	81 Xperia Ray
84 Sensation XE	79 Galaxy S II LTE (unlocked, Canada)	80 Xperia arc S
82 Sensation 4G (T-Mo, Bell, Virgin Ca.)	83 Galaxy Note (unlocked)	Xperia neo V
71 Vivid (AT&T)	71 Nexus S 4G (Sprint)	71 Xperia arc
82 Velocity (Australia)	84 Nexus S (unlocked)	77 Xperia neo
78 Amaze 4G (T-Mobile)
Raider 4G (Bell Canada)

Phones with ICS updates "coming soon"

Not all phone manufacturers are offering specific details as to when each of their devices are getting upgraded to Android 4.0. Motorola is only listing them by quarter, while HTC recently provided a two-month release window, and Sony is being a little more specific with the next round of updates starting this week and continuing throughout June into the third quarter. Samsung is not giving out any dates whatsoever.

HTC

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Sensation XL	May-June	May 19, 2011
EVO 4G+	May-June	June 2011
Rezound	June-July	November 14, 2011
EVO 3D	June-July	June 24, 2011
EVO Design 4G	June-July	October 23, 2011
Desire S	June-July	March 8, 2011
Incredible S	June-July	February 26, 2011
Rhyme	June-July	September 29, 2011
Thunderbolt	July-August	March 17, 2011
Desire HD	July-August	October 20, 2010
DROID Incredible 2	TBD	April 28, 2011

HTC notes that due to localization, testing, and partner approvals, updates do not roll out to all devices at the same time. For devices on a wide variety of carriers and in many countries, rollouts can take up to 45 days from the initial update to reach everyone. You can manually check for updates by going to Settings>About>Software Updates if you are not prompted to update automatically.
The upgrade to Android 4.0 will include Sense 3.6, not Sense 4, since some aspects of Sense 4 require dedicated hardware, which is not available on all devices.

Motorola

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Droid Razr (USA, Asia Pacific, Canada, China, EMEA, Japan, Korea & LATAM)	Q2 2012	November 11, 2011
Droid Razr Maxx (USA)	Q2 2012	January 26, 2011
Atrix 2 (Asia-Pacific, LATAM, USA, and selected other markets)	Q3 2012	October 16, 2011
Atrix 4G (USA)	Q3 2012	February 22, 2011
Droid 4 (USA)	Q3 2012	February 10, 2011
Droid Bionic (USA)	Q3 2012	September 8, 2011
Photon 4G (USA)	Q4 2012	July 31, 2011
Atrix / Atrix 4G (Asia Pacific, EMEA and LATAM)	TBD	--
Electrify (USA)	TBD	September 22, 2011
Photon 4G (Japan)	TBD	--

To date, the only Motorola device that has been upgraded to Android 4.0 is the WiFi-only XOOM (and only the versions in the US or Canada). The company outlined their 4-step updating process back in December and plans to start rolling out a few of those “soon”. Regarding the selection of phones that qualify for updates and the ones that don’t, Motorola has this to say: “Obviously we want the new release to improve our devices. If we determine that can’t be done—well then, we’re not able to upgrade that particular device.”

Samsung

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Galaxy S II (AT&T, T-Mobile)	TBD	April 28, 2011
Galaxy S II Skyrocket (AT&T)	TBD	November 6, 2011
Galaxy Note (AT&T)	TBD	October 28, 2011
Captivate Glide (AT&T)	TBD	November 21, 2011
Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (Sprint)	TBD	September 16, 2011
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G (T-Mobile)	TBD	March 21, 2012

Samsung has been at the forefront of the move from 2.3 to 4.0, rolling Ice Cream Sandwich out to a number of unlocked devices, including the hugely popular Galaxy S II. Unfortunately, updates to branded devices tend to get held up in carrier-specific testing so a lot of users with subsidized phones are still waiting their turn. Making matters worst neither Samsung nor carriers are sharing a timeframe for the update.

Sony

Smartphone model	Timeframe	Device release date
Xperia mini	Week of May 28	August 2011
Xperia mini pro	Week of May 28	August 9, 2011
Xperia pro	Week of May 28	October 18, 2011
Xperia active	Week of May 28	October 1, 2011
Sony Ericsson Live	Week of May 28	Q4 2011
Xperia S	End of June	March 1, 2012
Xperia P	End of June	Unreleased
Xperia U	Q3 2012	May 7, 2012
Xperia sola	TBD	May 7, 2012
Xperia ion	TBD	March 1, 2012

Sony has been pretty forthcoming about its Ice Cream Sandwich rollout and so far they’ve mostly kept true to their planned upgrade schedule. Just recently they started rolling out updates for two of their 2011 devices and more should follow throughout the week and over the next month. Notably, the Xperia Play will be the only Xperia phone from last year’s lineup not getting the update, as Sony cited stability and consistency issues.
Sony is rolling out Android 4.0.4 to its devices while remaining on kernel 2.6.32 — technically, ICS should feature Kernel 3.0.X+. It’s unclear if this will result in any issues or missing features. A developer for Sony Ericsson had previously said that it takes a lot of testing and validation to make a new kernel stable, so they decided to keep the tried and tested 2.6.32 kernel to release ICS as quickly as possible.

Why all the fuss about having the latest version?

If there’s one lesson to learn here is that you should buy a phone that makes you happy today, not one that promises new features with an update that may or may not appear. Granted, that’s a valid advice for any consumer electronic purchase, but Android serves as the perfect example for it.
That said, it’s not unreasonable to want your one-year-old phone to be able to get the latest software update, especially when you know it’s technically capable of running it. There are many new features to be gained in the transition from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich. Here are a few of the most noteworthy:

• UI Improvements: Android 4.0 is based on a new look and feel, the Holo theme, which offers a more consistent experience throughout the OS and makes it easier for users to find those common buttons and actions. There’s also a new “Roboto” font that’s easier on the eye and has a more modern feel.
• Multitasking, Widgets, and Folders: There’s a new Recent Apps button that lets users jump from one task to another, and a side-swiping gesture to get rid of apps you’re no longer using. Users can also resize widgets to their liking and drag and drop icons on top of each other to create folders.
• Contacts and sharing: ICS ditches the old Android 2.3 contact list for one that shows richer profile information, including large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses, and a button for connecting on integrated social networks. There’s also a new NFC peer-to-peer sharing feature that allows users with NFC-capable devices to share apps, contacts, music, videos by touching one phone to another.
• Improved speed and full hardware acceleration: Tests have shown significant performance improvements in Android 4.0 when it comes to handling graphics and using the web browser.
• Data usage manager: Android 4.0 allows users to monitor total data usage by network type and application, as well as set limits on those data-hungry apps so you don’t incur in expensive overage fees.
• Various other new features and enhancements: You can access the camera and notifications without unlocking your device first, there’s a new face-unlock feature, Wi-Fi direct support to share files between compatible devices, improvements to the camera and video apps, and more.

Lastly, it’s also worth noting that the lack of timely updates exacerbates Android’s fragmentation problem, which makes it that much harder for developers to QA apps. If you’ve ever wondered why you run into bugs and other unexplained behaviors on Android but not on iOS, well, fragmentation probably played a part on it.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO is the process of optimizing your webpage so that it receives free, unpaid or organic traffic from Search Engine. It is an incremental process and often consists of small modification  to your webpage.
10 SEO TIPS FOR YEAR 2013
1. Keyword in Domain name – If you are interested in some specific field like SEO make sure you include keyword in your domain for example seotips.com.
2. Keyword in Post Url- Always change your post permalink if there is no keyword in the Url, blogger and WordPress by default adds title as the permalink. If you don’t see title of the post in the Url, then you need to change your permalinks option.

3. Keywords in Title tag,headings, meta description  and in Body- Use at least one keyword in title tag, headings and meta description. Don’t use too many keywords in body, you can also use keywords in subheadings. If you are on WordPress self hosted blog you can use “WordPress SEO by Yoast” plugin to automate all above tasks.

4. Optimize Images- Add alt tags and title  in all of your images and make sure to optimize the size to cut the server load. For WordPress you can use Smust.it plugin to automate this task and for other platform you can use standalone software like Gimp or XnConvert. Reducing the image size without compromising its quality is called as lossless optimization and thus reduces the loading time of your website, Since Google has incorporated Site speed in ranking of Search Results.
5. Interlinking- Interlink all your related post, make sure your link contains keyword. Don’t link too deep and same keywords more than two times. If you are linking to other website (outbound links) always make sure that site you are linking to is a “Good Site”, don’t link your website to spam sites.
6. Optimize your Website/blog- It is  proven that decreasing the loading time of your website/blog is directly affects the number of visitors/pageview. Best practice is to not exceed 100k page size and reducing unnecessary scripts and meta tags from WebPage. You can use Google Page Speed tool to check your website speed and it also suggest what action should be taken to optimize website. To optimize  your Website you can use W3 Total Cache WordPress Plugin.
7. Submit your website/blog to Search Engine/Directories- Create Google Webmaster and Analytics account submit your website including sitemap, track your rankings and other details. Submit your website/blog to Bing and other Search Engine like Baidu, Yandex  etc. Listing your website in DMoz can take more than a year but if you succeed, then it will boast your overall ranking. If you can’t wait then go for Yahoo paid listing which charges around 299$. There are many web directories where you can list your website free of cost.
Click here to Submit your website to free and paid directory
8. Easy Navigation – Make sure user can navigate your website without any problem,include two sitemaps one for visitors and other for Search Engines. Use breadcrumbs for internal sitemaps and Xml sitemaps for Search Engines.

9. Quality Contents – Provide quality contents to your visitors, engage visitors and decrease bounce rate of your website. Don’t copy other’s work, write fresh contents,easy to read and primarily for your readers not for Search Engine.
Content is King But SEO is Queen
10. Social Network- Create Social Profile on various Social Network such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn etc and daily share your post/article’s on these Social Network. Make sure you put your domain name in Social Network Profiles.
There are many SEO TIPS For 2013 But top ten are listed above, if you have any other tips you can share with us in the comments below. In mean while feel free to explore rest of our Blog.

In SEO, The Best Technique Is No Technique!

As someone of Asian-American decent, I like so many of my peers grew up idolizing Bruce Lee. I remember spending my youth watching his movies, and I actually even trained in Shaolin Kempo and Tae Kwon Do for 8 years. So what does this have to do with SEO? Well the other day as I was watching one of Bruce Lee’s old movies in my spare time, I came across a clip that for whatever reason at the time reminded me of what is being touted by Google as the best “technique for SEO”. Here is the video clip of what I was talking about, can you catch the parallels between what Bruce is saying and today’s modern day SEO landscape?
Did you get it? At about the 0:23 mark Bruce’s teacher asks “What is the highest technique you hope to achieve?” to which he responds “To have no technique”, and interestingly enough this is one way that is actually a fairly effective strategy in your quest to gain search engine traffic. Let me explain.

Remember Google doesn’t want us to actively engage in manipulating search engine results. They tell us if we want search engine traffic, then all we have to do is focus on creating great content that people will want to share, and then the Google overlords will bless us with server melting traffic to our websites! So according to Google, the best SEO technique is to have no SEO technique! Welllllllllll yes and um no.

Of course at the heart of any good website is the creation of good content. You need to have content that engages your readers, and ideally you want to have lots of it. However for the most part I live in the real world where people don’t read stuff and say “OMG that was a great article, I’m now going to jump on my high PR blog and write an article about it and link to it”. This just doesn’t happen people, or if it does it is pretty rare. So what we have to do is create this content and then go out there and promote it, but promote it in the right way.

So I think probably the easiest example would be to use this blog. When I first started this blog, I absolutely did no linkbuilding. All I did was write, write, and write some more. Remember Google tells me all I have to do is “create great content” and then search traffic will be mine! However after writing about 45 articles or so for the site, I still had zero search traffic! I outlined the results in my article here, but basically at that point I threw in the towel and began linkbuilding.

So briefly after I “threw in the towel” on relying on content alone, I started to do a little bit of linkbuilding. Nothing too heavy, just a few high PR blog posts and some forum signatures on popular internet marketing forums I regularly post on (Warrior Forum + Black Hat World). However a little while after I started linkbuilding I got really busy with client obligations and I went back to focusing on only writing for this blog (no linkbuilding). I also did begin to utilize social media, and I would tweet on Twitter and post on Facebook occasionally some of the stuff that was being produced here.

After focusing on creating content and the occasional social media promotion, I did notice that traffic from search engines started to rise. Basically I would try to post once a day about things I thought my readers would find helpful, and then maybe tweet the link or post a link on Facebook. However it seems that with each passing day the search engines started giving me more love. Coincidence? Was it true that maybe the best technique was to have no technique? Well the jury is still out on that.

Some of you may be thinking “well you did start to use social media, so maybe Google is giving you love because of that”, well this could be true, but I have found in all of my tests that social media in itself does not rank a site. If you built a website and tried to purely rank it with social media, assuming that people that you reach via social media don’t begin linking to you from their own web properties, links from Twitter and Facebook in itself as of now is not enough to rank a site (someone please prove me wrong!).

So what should you take away from all this? Well I would say if you haven’t done so already, try to create an authority site in some evergreen niche and really just focus on writing for the site. Then set-up all the social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and a YouTube channel. Write articles, tweet tweets, post to Facebook, create a YouTube video that links back to the site. Focus on banging out great content and using these social media platforms every now and then to promote it. Then in a little bit watch the search engine traffic rise. So maybe it’s true that the best technique is no technique (no active linkbuilding, only promotion), but the only way you’ll find out is if you actually give it a try!