How To Install Android 4.0 (ICS) On Your Netbook

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is the latest version of the Android platform for phones, tablets, and more. Android-x86 gives everyone a way to install Android on Intel netbooks. Well I will also explain how to enable dual boot with Ubuntu.

1. Head towards Androidx86 project page and download the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. You might find couple of version, select the best one which suit your netbook. Well I prefer ‘android-x86-4.0-RC1-eeepc.iso’. Click on the file to download the iso file

2. Make your Live USB Drive bookable using UNetbootin. Well you can use other boot loaders as well. I prefer UNetbootin, as it supports all platform. Select the .iso file and make the Usb Drive bootable

3. Now Insert the Usb Drive into your Netbook and start using Android 4.0. To get the feel of Android 4.o, you can try out the Live Android-x86. To install, follow the simple steps as prompted. Its recommended to create virtual SD Card.

However you wont be able to make your system dual bootable. Well, you can achieve it. Install Androidx86 to any of your logical drive.

1. Now boot into Ubuntu and open the Terminal and type ‘gksu gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom’

2. Which will open a text window. At the bottom, add the following line.


menuentry "Android-x86"
{
   set root='(hd0,0)'
   linux /android-4.0-RC1/kernel quiet
   root=/dev/ram0
   androidboot.hardware=eeepc
   acpi_sleep=s3_bios,
   s3_mode SRC=/android-4.0-RC1 SDCARD=/data/sdcard.img
   initrd /android-4.0-RC1/initrd.img
}

Note: * If you didn’t create virtual sdcard, remove the “SDCARD=/data/sdcard.img” part from the 3rd line (make sure you don’t remove anything else!) * The above menu entry uses “eeepc” for androidboot.hardware, but you can replace it with your hardware, depending on the ISO you have downloaded.

3. Find which partion you installed Androidx86. use the following command to find the value ‘sudo fdisk -l’
so if you’ve installed Android x86 on let’s say “sda5”, you’d use “(hd0,5)”. Update the set root value.
4. Now make the file executable and update the GRUB

sudo chmod +x /etc/grub.d/40_custom
sudo update-grub

5. That’s it, there you go. Press shift key before the GRUB loads to select Androidx86
I’m sure its possible to make dual boot with Android and Windows. Do share with me, if you have the answer.

Special Thanks to makeuseof and webupd blogs

Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0, will be reaching the hands of customers today

Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone with the latest Android 4.0  (Ice Cream Sandwich), will be reaching the hands of customers today. Samsung has marked the occasion with a video advertisement for the device. As per the review, Samsung Galaxy Nexus going to be the best Android device yet. It comes with pretty high configuration of  1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.65-inch super AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of shooting 1080p video as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, above all its going to have Android 4.0 .

 

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: Features

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, announced on October 19, 2011, brought Honeycomb features to smartphones and added new features including facial recognition unlock, network data usage monitoring and control, unified social networking contacts, photography enhancements, offline email searching, and information sharing using NFC. The company says 4.0 is a complete rethink of Android’s image and is part of a push to make the OS “Enchant me, Simplify My Life, and Make Me Awesome.”

1. Face Unlock: One of the outstanding features of Android is Face Unlock.As the name suggests, unlocks your handset based on facial recognition technology.

2. Android beam: Android is using NFC (near-field communication) so you can share apps, URLs, videos, and songs just by tapping Android phones together.

3. Advanced camera: It allows to conveniently filter, crop, reduce red-eye and many more image editing stuff. Improved auto-focus and integration with other apps.

4. Screen Capture: Its now easy to capture the screenshot of your android device. Just Hold down the power and volume buttons to snap a screenshot.

5. Redesigned UI: The new UI is much sleeker, makes the phone more visual and easier to use. The new system bar provides more control across the entire device and frequently used apps. Roboto typeface made it more attractive and professional.

6. Data Control: An inbuilt feature of Android is the new data control, which allows to manage, monitor, control the data usage. To make it more impressive, it comes with charts and diagrams.

7. Improved Text Input: The new one is faster and more accurate. It got a better dictionaries for correcting misspelled words, also shows wrong spelling with red underline. Copy paste became very simple and easy, as you can move around entire block of text.

8. People App: A new spin on the contact list. The phone’s owner has their own profile, and people’s contact details are sourced from Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Users can define favorite contacts, and individual people can be placed on the homescreen or in folders for quick access.

9. Favorites Tray: Users can stow their favorite apps, links, and folders into a new Favorites tray for quick and easy access.

10. Flexible Widgets: Ice Cream Sandwich’s stock widgets are re-sizable and more robust than previous versions. Also allow us to create folder and categories all apps, contacts etc…