Google Voice Returns To App Store After Week-Long Hiatus

Last Saturday, Apple users were just settling-in to their first weekend with their new iPhone 4Shandsets, when they may have noticed an odd absence from the App Store: Google Voice was nowhere to be found. We're huge fans of the service, so it's easy for us to imagine plenty of users setting-up their iPhone 4S models for the first time, getting them configured with all the apps they'll need, and scratching their heads as to whyGoogle Voice was nowhere to be found. While they've been without the app all week, it makes its triumphant return to the App Store today.

So where was Google Voice? A nasty bug in the app was causing it to crash on systems running iOS 5.0, and it was deemed so severe that Google swiftly pulled it from the App Store, rather than leave a buggy app available as it crafted a fix.

Today that fix is ready, in the form of Google Voice 1.3.1.1891, replacing the 1.3.0.1771 edition where the problem was first noticed. Go snag it now from the App Store if you've been waiting all week. 

Verizon Officially Confirms Plans To Carry Galaxy Nexus

When discussing the possibilities of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus coming to Sprint, we also mentioned some of the lingering uncertainties surrounding its launch on Verizon LTE. While that seemed like a lock at first, even with claims that it would be a carrier exclusive, we didn't get confirmation at the phone's launch event, and communications from Samsung this week haven't helped to clear things up any. We're still left with questions, but today Verizon at last officially announced its intent to offer the Galaxy Nexus on its 4G LTE network.

Unfortunately, Verizon doesn't mention anything about an exclusive, nor any specific release date, so those questions are left up-in-the-air. What this does amount to is confirmation that the carrier will at least be among launch-day carriers. It seemed pretty certain that this would be the case, especially with the discovery earlier this week of an image of the Galaxy Nexus featuring Verizon's 4G LTE logo (it was the phone used for the time-lapse beach demos for the launch event), but the fact that Verizon had yet to make its own statement was starting to get some folks worried. Now, they can breathe a sigh of relief. 

What to Buy: Nexus S with Ice Cream Sandwich or Galaxy Nexus

With the recent announcement of Ice CreamSandwich, pocketnow readers are asking themselves whether they should shell out the money for the new Galaxy Nexus, or if they should wait until the Nexus S gets it's Android 4.0 update (which we're sure it will).

Once the new Galaxy Nexus comes, it's older sibling, the Nexus S, should see a price-drop. Theoretically you could pick yourself up a Nexus Safter the new phone goes on sale and save a bunch of change... then simply wait for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to come to the Nexus S and get most of the benefits of the new OS.

(In Sweden, where pocketnow reader Juraj lives, the Nexus S is currently selling for half the price that we expect the Galaxy Nexus to go for when its released.)

It's a good theory, and one we suspect could save you a bunch of money, but what would you be missing if you opted for that route?

First of all, the Nexus S is still a fairly powerful phone, so speed probably won't be an issue. It's a single-core processor, so it won't be as fast as the new Galaxy Nexus with its 1.2GHz cores humming away inside, but it should still run ICS at a reasonable clip.

Next, screen size and resolution isn't going to be the same between the two, but we don't think you'll mind.

You won't have the new, fancy barometer inside the Nexus S, so GPS fixes won't be sped up, and you won't have the possibility of future apps that could use it for weather forecasting and alerts. Since you don't have that now, it's likely something you won't miss.

The Nexus S still has NFC built-in, so all the new tap-to-beam sharing should work -- in addition to the current NFC tricks, like Google Wallet.

Of course, you won't have the cool new "curved" phone that the Galaxy Nexus promises, but the Nexus Sdoes have a curved front, so at least you'll get some of the "curvy" experience.

So, yes, waiting for the Galaxy Nexus to be released, then picking up a Nexus S for a killer deal will likely give you most of the new ICS experience while saving your pocket-book some hard-earned green.

You'll just have to be patient for the price to drop, and for the ICS upgrade to come to the Nexus S. 

Will Ice Cream Sandwich Come to Tablets?

We've long been under the impression that IceCream Sandwich will unify the smartphone and tablet branches of the Android operating system. Unfortunately we didn't hear a single word about that at the recent Google | Samsung announcement of the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0.

Apparently Motorola isn't keeping quiet any longer. In a post from a moderator on their support forums, "... Xoom will get ICS. I just don't have any timing to share."

As a reminder, Xoom was Motorola and Google's "launch device" for tablets and Android 3.x Honeycomb.

So, there you have it. The Xoom will be getting Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich... it's only a matter of time. Although it's not from Google, we can assume that their tablet OS launch-partner wouldn't be going against their designs with their tablet launch-device. 

Make Your Phone Sound Like Android Ice Cream Sandwich

While it's true that Android 4.0 Ice CreamSandwich has been announced, other than the SDK it hasn't been released yet. That means you can't buy a phone running ICS and you can't flash a stock or custom ICS ROM onto your current phone.

Earlier today I told you how you could make your phone look like it was running Android 4.0 with a custom theme (but only if it was running a ROM that supports themes), now you can make yourphone SOUND like it's running ICS -- no custom ROM needed!

All you need to do is download the audio files from the source below, then extract them to the root of your sdcard! It's super-easy, and can freshen-up those stale Gingerbread or Froyo sounds that you've been using so far in minutes.

Just to be clear, you'll want to have an audio folder on the root of your sdcard with subfolders for alarms,notifications, ringtones, and ui.

Once the files are on your phone, reboot it and head to Settings then Sounds. From there simply pick the event you want to change the sound for set it to your preferred sound!

Bonus Tip: If you want to add your own sounds, simply create the folder structure mentioned above on your sdcard, then add your own audio files in the appropriate place. .OGG files work best, but .MP3 files will work, too.