ICS 4.0.5 coming to a Motorola Xoom near you

Before you go ‘deja vu’ about this story, we shall remind you that the Ice Cream Sandwich was rolled out to the Motorola Xoom way back in the month of January. Now, as per sources, the Wi-Fi version of the tablet might be getting 4.0.5 soon enough. We’ve already seen ICS in the Galaxy Nexus and the Zync Z990 tablet, but 4.0.5 will definitely be a welcome addition for Xoom owners. What’s worth noting is that this update might be pushed out by Motorola, themselves and not Google, so there are chances that the update could include a few minor bug fixes that they have rolled out out for their private testers. The update isn’t going to be available for all devices and hence, if you are part of the Motorola Feedback network, there are chances your Xoom devices could be one of the first ones to receive it.

4.0.5!

In case your Xoom hasn’t got ICS itself, we shall remind you that it does bring a lot of improvements to the table, a few of them have been listed below. 

• Updated Browser with faster rendering, zoom and pan -  Users can also now save pages for offline reading and request desktop versions of websites.
• Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs  - You can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs with a simple swipe of a finger.
• Redesigned app launcher - In All Apps launcher, you can now simply drag an app to get information about it, immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.
• New System Font for Improved Readability - An entirely new typeface (called Roboto) optimized for high resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished feel to the user interface.
• Updated “People” Application - Replaces contacts and integrates seamlessly with Google+ and other social networks.
• Improved text input and spell checking - The keyboard now features improved accuracy to make text input faster.
• Type with your voice - Now you can simply touch the microphone on the keyboard and start talking to write emails, SMS, or any other text.
• Richer and versatile imaging capabilities - for capturing larger scenes, the camera introduces a single motion panorama mode. Also, you can now take still shots while shooting video just by tapping the screen as video continues to record. You can also launch camera directly from the Lockscreen. 
• Redesigned Gallery app with photo editor - to help pictures look their best, the Gallery now offers a powerful photo editor, so you can crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and much more.
• Richer, resizable widgets - You can expand widgets to show more content, or shrink them to save space.

It’s good to see Motorola still working hard to get the latest operating system updates to their earlier generation of tablets and that in itself is a lesson for a lot of other manufacturers who have left their earlier tablets out there in the wild, with no controlled feedback mechanism.