Galaxy Ace – Gingerbread update

Great news for Galaxy Ace users in India. The official Gingerbread update became available yesterday (31st August 2011) through Samsung Kies.

What is Gingerbread

Android is an operating system and Gingerbread is the latest version of it, for mobile phones. The Gingerbread series is 2.3.x with the latest being 2.3.4.

How do I update

You would have to update your firmware through Samsung Kies. Its a software that you can download from here: www.samsungapps.com/about/onPc.as. (After downloading, you might have to update the sotware itself, as the link might not provide the latest version directly.) No linux version of the software exists. So you might have to login into Windows.

Once you have an updated Kies, you should be able to see something like this.

Connect your device now. Wait for Kies to detect your phone. Kies should automatically say that you have new firmware updates to be installed on your phone. Follow the instructions and you’d have Gingerbread installed on your phone.

Restart your phone to ensure that all updates have been installed.

What’s new in Galaxy Ace Gingerbread

You’d be able to see a few changes in looks in your phone now. Before looking at them, go to Settings->About Phone and check the Android version. You should be able to see 2.3.4 and Build Number showing GINGERBREAD.DDKQ5.

What’s New

The immediate observation after upgrading is the change to the system notification bar. Icons are much more compact and they look a bit more sleeker.

You can also see that the GPS and Sound icons have changed. Earlier silent mode was highlighted. Now its the opposite. If you disable silent mode on your phone, the icon is highlighted. You can also view whether vibration is enabled or not.

When you are typing text, you can see that the circular hold icon is replaced by a rectangular one.

Other noticeable features are:

• Most importantly, Indic languages are now supported.
• The phone appear to be a bit faster
• Increased battery life
• Improved copy-paste functionality upon select-all
• A new system app called Downloads available now
• The line traced while typing text using swype also appears more transparent now
• WiFi bug seems to have been fixed
• No noticeable bugs yet

Do let me know if you are encountering any problems or have found other new features too.