Following much speculation, Samsung has released a ‘value pack’ upgrade for Galaxy S devices which allows users of range to enjoy some of the benefits of the latest Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) of the Android operating system.
Samsung has been actively rolling out ICS, aka Android 4.0, starting in Europe and Korea last week but this new update, for Korea only so far, is open to owners of devices from the Galaxy S range, which is not eligible for the latest flavor.
Rumor of plans for the value pack were dismissed by Samsung in January, before an industry insider tipped them to arrive at the beginning of the month. It’s a little later than that now but faithful Galaxy S owners in Samsung’s native Korea are likely to be happy nonetheless.
The biggest draw of the pack is the addition of FaceUnlock while Samsung has also provided the option to take photos while shooting video, as well as fixing bugs, making launching improvements and enhancing the running setting.
The release allows Galaxy S devices to upgrade from Eclair (Android 2.1) to Froyo (Android 2.2), and Froyo users can step up to Gingerbread (Android 2.3). Galaxy K and Galaxy U phones are also supported with the Android flavor upgrades.
The update is only for Korea only right now, and it is not clear whether it will be made available to customers worldwide. We’ve reached out to Samsung to see if it can clarify this.
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