Transforming ASUS' Eee Pad by shoving an Ice Cream Sandwich into it
Subject: Mobile | March 19, 2012 - 12:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: asus, Transformer, ice cream sandwich, android 4.0, eee pad, eee pad transformer
The new ASUS Transformer Prime may have had Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, as its OS for a while now, but only recently has the same been true for the original Eee Pad Transformer. The Tech Report upgraded their Transformer with the approved version of ICS and took it for a spin. Many of the advantages they found were tied directly into the ASUS version which allowed the tablets base functionality to be integrated with the OS as opposed to being an app running on the OS. That is not all however as they described the OS upgrade as feeling more like a hardware update thanks to the increased fluidity of the tablets responsiveness.
"Asus has been quick to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich updates for its Eee Pad Transformers. We take a closer look at the new OS to see how it fares on the Android tablets."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- Sony VAIO VPCSE13FX Review @ TechReviewSource
- HP Envy 14 Spectre Review @ TechReviewSource
- Acer Aspire TimelineU M3: Life on the Kepler Verge @ AnandTech
- Dell XPS 13: A Different Kind of Ultrabook @ AnandTech
- Acer Aspire TimelineU M3: Life on the Kepler Verge @ AnandTech
- Mobile GPU Comparison @ TechARP
- Powerbag Instant Messenger Bag @ TechwareLabs
- Concrete Cases Hook Case – Laptop Bag Review @ Tech-Reviews
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- Life with Samsung's Galaxy Note @ The Tech Report
- My smartphone, the spy: protecting privacy in a mobile age @ Ars Technica
- The Razer Blade @ AnandTech
- Samsung Galaxy Note Review @ Tech-Reviews
- Tablets of 2012: The New iPad, Current and Upcoming Alternatives @ TechSpot
- New Apple iPad 3 Review @ Tech-Reviews
- New Apple iPad Review @ TechReviewSource
- The new iPad (iPad 3) Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Apple iPad 3 @ Kitguru
- RIM BlackBerry PlayBook (2012) Review @ TechReviewSource
Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) Update For Original Asus Eee Pad Transformer
Subject: Mobile | February 25, 2012 - 12:31 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: Transformer, tablet, ics, ice cream sandwich, eee pad transformer, asus, Android
While the new Tegra 3 powered Transformer Prime and it's Transformer Prime with upgraded display sibling have stolen the spotlight from the original dock-able Transformer tablet, Asus has not forgotten about it. They recently began pushing out an Over The Air update to bring a tasty Ice Cream Sandwich to the Asus Transformer (original)!
In case you missed it, our own Matt Smith did a review of the new Android operating system on the Transformer Prime here. While the original Transformer is running older hardware, users are reporting that aside from minor app glitches performs fairly well on the Tegra 2. And if you've been living under a rock for the past two years, he also wrote up a nice review of the original Eee Pad Transfomer.
According to Maximum PC, users are reporting that the update was mostly a success and the performance was decent, though there seems to be a few instances of app glitchy-ness. It will just take some time to work out the kinks in updating the older hardware, and in general I think the update is a great thing for Asus to provide, especially this late in the game. Perhaps we will start seeing some discounted Transformers, though we may also see them become more valuable and go for a few more dollars now that they are updated to the new ICS OS.
It is nice to see Asus continuing to support their products with new updates. Have you received the ICS update on your Transformer yet? Let us know what you think of the performance and new features in the comments below!
Introduction, Interface
The Prime seems to have no trouble achieving notable firsts. It was the first tablet with a Tegra 3 processor to go to retail, and now it’s the first tablet to have official Ice Cream Sandwich support. The update, scheduled originally for January 12th, actually went live after a surprise announcement on January 9th during Nvidia’s CES conference.
Since we still have our Prime review unit, this update provides us with a unique opportunity to compare Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich side-by-side on the same device. This update is important for the Prime - and all upcoming Android tablets - because the operating system is something that’s currently holding back a number of products with great hardware.
Honeycomb was never an OS that impressed me. It’s often jerky, lacks elegance, and has poor app support. So long as Honeycomb was the version of Android shipping on tablets there was simply no chance for an Android tablet to defeat the iPad 2. The software simply wasn’t up to the high standard set by iOS.
Ice Cream Sandwich is a chance at redemption. The rumors have spread like wildfire. Various sources have reported improvements including better multi-core support, a faster web browser, improved notifications and much more. Official announcements have generally limited themselves to commenting on feature improvements, however - going into the ICS update I didn’t have any expectations for performance improvements because none were ever provided by Google. Nvidia also never set any expectations about the improvements, if any, we’d see from Tegra 3 processors running ICS.
Now that the Prime is updated we can test ICS out for ourselves. Let’s jump in, starting with the interface updates.
Continue reading our review of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the ASUS Transformer Prime!!
Yummy: Transformer Prime running Ice Cream Sandwich
Subject: Mobile | November 22, 2011 - 05:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: transformer prime, tegra 3, nvidia, ice cream sandwich, google, eee pad, asus
The world’s first quad-core mobile processor was recently made official with our announcement of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, which will debut in the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Android tablet. Following on Google’s release of Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS) source code last week, we thought you’d like an early demo of ICS running on the Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
Google has done a great job on ICS and has made the platform open to the ecosystem and easy to develop on. Thanks to Google’s developer support, NVIDIA’s experienced software team was able to work with ASUS to quickly bring up Android 4.0 ICS on the Transformer Prime.
Recorded on November 16, only two short days after the source code for ICS was made publicly available, the video below shows the next-gen Android OS user interface looking clean and snappy on the Transformer Prime. This is just a sneak peak of things to come for the first Tegra 3-powered Android tablet.
This is just an early demo, but we think you’ll agree it’s extremely impressive that so much is already working well. Check out the flawless1080p video playback and quick demo of the quad-core optimized Riptide GP game in the video below.
Hope you weren't holding your breath for Ice Cream Sandwich
Subject: General Tech | October 7, 2011 - 12:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Android, ice cream sandwich, Samsung, nexus prime
It looks like the release of the full specs of Samsung's Nexus Prime yesterday was nothing more than a tease as today we find out that the release of the phone and Google's new Ice Cream Sandwich will be delayed. Not only do we not know the new schedule for release, we also do not know the reason for the delay. The Inquirer mentions the possibility that the release of the phone would be overshadowed by the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, though it could also be simply because of the leaks about the phone that have occurred recently. Whatever the true reason, you won't able to snack on a sandwich anytime soon.
"KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung has confirmed it has pushed back its product announcement that was due to take place next week.
It was extremely likely that the company was going to announce, along with Google, the Nexus Prime smartphone at the Cellular Telephone Industries Association conference in San Diego next Tuesday. The phone will be the first to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), but the announcement now has no date or venue."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- TSMC, UMC post revenue drops in September 2011 @ DigiTimes
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- Real World Labs And OCZ Technology Joint Contest



