Sony Ericsson releases ICS alpha ROM for unlocked Xperia handsets

Sony Ericsson had, in mid-November revealed their plans for upgrading their 2011 range of Xperia handsets to Google’s latest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. At a later date, Maurizio de Palma, the Marketing Manager of Sony Ericsson, Italy, said that this update would arrive by March 2012. Even though he gave a time frame as to when the update would take place, he conceded that it was an ambitious goal for them and that they are hoping to make it happen. It appears that they are making it happen and through Sony Ericsson Developer World, they have posted a demo video of Xperia Ice Cream Sandwich, along with an announcement of an alpha ROM being available for unlocked Xperia phones.

The post states that the alpha ROM of Ice Cream Sandwich is available only for the Xperia Arc S, Xperia Neo V and the Xperia Ray. It is only targeted at advanced developers and they categorically state that it will not work for ordinary, everyday usage and has only a limited set of features that work. The functions that do not work, include the ability to make phone calls, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM Radio, Google apps and ANT+.

However, if one still wants to try this build then the updated ROM will include features such as:

• New Roboto font
• New Holo theme is supported (One can test apps written to make use of the Holo theme)
• Music player control from lock screen itself
• Updated UI in the Settings menu
• Updated UI in the web browser
• Updated UI and interaction with the new messaging action bar
• Updated UI for improved multitasking
• Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks and browser tabs in the Notification menu

We recommend you not to try this unless you are an advanced developer and if one downloads the bootloader, they may not be able to download and install the final version of Ice Cream Sandwich.