New to droid.. ice cream sandwich

[beaky73]

Hello to all. This is my first droid so i am learning. I use have an iphone. From what i understand is i have ginger bread. What is ice cream sandwich? Will it be an update for the bionic? Or does it come on the razer and other new phones?

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[jspencer67]

ICS is the newest OS build for Android......and it will be a game changer. Played with it some today and was incredibly impressed by it.....simple....responsive.....eye pleasing

yes it will be updated to the Bionic sometime in the first quarter of next year......but I am SURE that there will be full ICS mods available within the next month. Cynogen got the source code on Nov 15th and tweeted his would be done in two months

welcome back from the Dark Side......it wont take long and you will be real happy with your decision

[aaf709]

Take a look at Android 4.0 Platform Highlights | Android Developers for some things about ICS.

[Tonik]

This is my first droid so i am learning.

You got your answer from others so I will only add congrats. And you found a great site to learn from. A ton of very helpful and very knowledgeable people here. And minimal message board drama.

[beaky73]

Thanks to all. I have learned alot thanks to this forum.

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[Concistency]

I'm hearing that Ice Cream Sandwich will not be released until probably the summer of 2012. Like said above, it's the latest Android 4.0. If your a root user, there is a TH3ORY rom in Alpha 8 stage now if you want to test it.

[aaf709]

Also there is no official date on the release. You may see several threads where someone has talked to somebody at Moto or Verizon and have been given a date, but each one gets a different answer.

[beaky73]

What is a root user?

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[Dweib]

Yeah and what do you guys mean by "doing a rom"? I've been building desktop PC's for the past 20 years and we say "do a BIOS update". To me doing a rom is going in and physically changing the ROM chip. So explain.
Apparently PC modders and smartphone modders are still doing basically the same thing only using different lingo. Right?
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[aaf709]

What is a root user?

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A root user is someone who has rooted their phone. From THIS IS WHAT ROOT MEANS (stop asking) (ignore the title; it's an old post)

First question we'll tackle is "what is root?":
To have root access on a linux based system such as android means you have the equivalent access of Administrator on a Windows based computer. You will have unrestricted full access to nearly all aspects of the android system stack.

Second question "why would i want to obtain root access on my phone":
For those of us who would like an extreme level of control over our phone's files, root access is a necessity. Having a rooted phone gives the end user unprecedented control over the phone, enabling them to have limitless possibilities. Essentially unlocking your phone's full potential. With root/superuser access on your phone you would be able to flash modified roms (roms from other devices) , have access to certain functions on "root only" applications (example: wireless tether for root users - ability to tether your phone). The possibilities are endless.

Yeah and what do you guys mean by "doing a rom"? I've been building desktop PC's for the past 20 years and we say "do a BIOS update". To me doing a rom is going in and physically changing the ROM chip. So explain.
Apparently PC modders and smartphone modders are still doing basically the same thing only using different lingo. Right?
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As mentioned, the ROM is a change from what your phone looks like and does. From What is ROM? - Android Forums

Literally it stands for Read Only Memory, in this case referring to the phone's internal memory where your firmware/apps are stored. When people say they're flashing a new ROM, it means they are flashing a new version of the firmware onto their phone - the two terms are interchangeable.

A custom ROM might have performance tweaks, new features such as overclocking and so on.

See also Custom ROMs For Android Explained - Here Is Why You Want Them