Rumors of a March launch for the Samsung Galaxy S II's Android 4.0 upgrade have been circulating for a while, but now it seems we may have the first official word on when the update will land. Samsung Mobile Israel has today made a statement on its official Facebook page, saying it expects ICS for the Galaxy S II to roll out on unlocked and carrier-branded handsets in Israel from Mar. 15.

Roughly translated, the post reads --

"We promised we were working on it. You waited patiently. And on 15 March it'll arrive: Android version 4, ICS, to tens of thousands of GALAXY S II devices purchased from cellular companies in the country or directly from us. We are very excited for the launch, hope you are too :)"

While this is great news for Galaxy S II owners in Israel (as well as those with the unlocked international version upon which it's based), other territories may have a little longer to wait.We'd expect this to be particularly true for the U.S., where hardware differs from carrier to carrier.

So far, the steady trickle of leaked ICS ROMs for the Galaxy S II have shown Samsung making progress towards stable builds over the past couple of months. We'll keep you posted with any further announcements, while we cross our fingers for a Mar. 15 launch.

Source: Samsung Mobile Israel

Another day, another fleeting rumor of the ever-elusive Galaxy S III. After skipping out on Mobile World Congress tro throw its own party Apple-style, Samsung still hasn’t mentioned when it intends to bring the Galaxy S III to market. The CHEIL Worldwide Marketing company thinks they know, according to ZD Net Korea: they say that Samsung is planning a huge promotion for April, when they expect the phone to launch in multiple markets worldwide. The 2012 Summer Olympics will reportedly play a large part in the initial promotion.

The reasoning for the Olympic tie-in is a deal between Samsung, credit card company Visa and the IOC, launching a new NFC-based payment system with the Galaxy S III as the flagship device. NFC certainly makes sense – Samsung has been including it with most of the high-end phones it’s announced in the last few months. The April release seems a little dubious, to be honest: there’s already a Samsung event scheduled for later this month in France, so they’d need to get the product finalized, announced and delivered in a span of just a few weeks.

There’s very little information about the Galaxy S III that can be verified. A large screen, fast processor and Samsung’s TouchWiz version of Ice Cream Sandwich seem like a given, but every analyst and insider between here and South Korea seems intent on getting a word in edgewise. At the moment about the only thing we can say for sure is that a successor to the incredibly popular Galaxy S III is on its way – some time, somewhere.

Uh! The hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S III quad-core superphone will not be announced or unveiled next month at Mobile World Congress 2012 according to latest rumors from The Verge. After initial reports lately including a few yesterday stating it would be announced in Spain for MWC 2012, we are now hearing that it has been delayed.

Members close to the subject are now claiming that the Galaxy S III will not be debuted at MWC 2012 and instead will be at a later date. However, sources are still saying we will see the device “before summer”, so that is good news. The last generation, the Galaxy S II was announced at MWC last year around the same time and we were expecting the same — but things appear to have changed.

While MWC was a logical choice, it could be because they’d like their own event for the big day, or Samsung needs a few more weeks to get everything ready to go. Either way we are now hearing they’ll be sure to announce some “interesting stuff” at MWC 2012 but that is all we know. I’m hopeful for a new 10.1″ tablet with a quad-core but we’ll have to wait and see.

Sad news, but it will be worth the wait in the end — that is for sure.

How to describe Samsung’s latest advertising campaign against Apple… obnoxious? Cheeky? Brutally honest, perhaps? Whatever you call it, the series of commercials is downright entertaining for Android fans of all creed and color, especially those who’ve experienced their iPhone-totting friends trying to hide pangs of regret as they lament their tiny, locked-down iDevice. Samsung’s latest ad, which it’s calling “Samsunged”, pokes fun at the iPhone’s lack of built-in turn by turn navigation.

To be fair, almost every Android phone and tablet has that feature, and has since the original Motorola DROID way back in 2009. Samsung is omitting certain truths withthe implication that turn by turn navigation is unique to the Galaxy S II, even if they don’t outright say it. But then, this series of adds has served more as a put down for rabid Apple fanatics (“Dude, you’re a barista.”) than an actual demonstration of Samsung’s products. It’s also a whole lot of fun for the Android faithful, no matter what your chosen manufacturer is. Though Samsung probably has a few particular reasons to be bitter at the moment.

Take a gander at the full ad below:

A Samsung representative said that the Next Big Thing campaign would continue until a major culmination during the Superbowl on February 13th 5th. We can’t wait to see what Samsung’s got cooked up for the big game, especially since Apple usually has at least one thirty-second dose of concentrated self-congratulation and hyperbole commercial every year.

[via SlashGear]

Just two years ago, everyone at CES was asking one question: Where are all the Android phones?

If anybody asked that same question this year, they’d be met with blank stares and guffaws. This show has been jammed with Android phone after Android phone since before it even officially started.

The latest one off the line is T-Mobile’s Galaxy S Blaze 4G (bit of a mouthful, eh?), which is the third device to play friendly with T-mobiles 42Mbps HSPA+ network — which, by the way, just saw a bunch of expansion.

Alas, while it’s nearly 3 pages long, T-Mobile’s announcement of the Blaze 4G is pretty light on details. So far, the only things we really know about it are that it’s 42Mbps HSPA+ compatible, that it has a dualcore 1.5Ghz Snapdragon CPU packed inside, and that it’s shipping “later this year”. No price, no specific launch date, and a bunch of specs left mysterious for now.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network saw a bit of expansion, with the 42Mbps network rolling out in 12 new markets and their slightly less speedy 21Mbps network finding its way to 9 new spots. Alas, the announcement also fails to mention.. which regions these are. We’ll update this post as soon as we find out.

T-Mobile also mentioned that they expect to receive AWS spectrum in 128 markets as a result of their deal with AT&T falling through.

Update! Just heard back from T-Mobile. While they couldn’t share any more details on the Blaze 4G specs, they outlined which regions saw expensions.

The New HSPA+ Markets:

21Mbps
Jackson, TN
Longview, TX
Lubbock, TX
Michigan City, IN
Midland, TX
Modesto, CA
Shreveport, LA
Stockton, CA
Tyler, TX

42Mbps
Beaumont, TX
Longview, TX
Michigan City, IN
Midland, TX
Modesto, CA
Mount Vernon, WA
Naples, FL
Punta Gorda, FL
Sandusky, OH
Shreveport, LA
Stockton, CA
Tyler, TX