Motorola rolling out ICS update for Xoom Wi-Fi now

Motorola is officially rolling out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Wi-Fi version of the Xoom tablet. The roll-out will be in waves, starting with the U.S, so we may have to wait a tiny bit longer. The Xoom was the first Honeycomb tablet to rival the iPad, and today, it gets a little closer to achieving that goal. While this is great news for Xoom users, the actual advantage will only kick in, once the apps get updated to take advantage of the new features of ICS.

A fresh start...

Some of the new features that will be gracing the Android tablet include:

• 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. It also now includes an in-line spell checker to make corrections easier.

• 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—more than 20 languages supported. Text appears in real time, so there’s no waiting for server processing.

• 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. When you shoot videos, you can now choose from a number of silly faces and other fun effects which recognize individual facial features so you can give your friends big eyes, squeeze heads, make noses bigger, or change the scenery with background replacement.

• 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.