Samsung Epic 4G Touch ICS ROM Pops Up In Forums

After the Samsung Galaxy S II had its official (but not final) Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs leaked one after the other, rumor had it that the Sprint variant, the Epic 4G Touch had some ICS goodness in the works. Now that ROM seems to have made its way into the forums.

The Stock ROM, FB09, deodexed and pre-rooted has been uploaded containing Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, just like its European cousin. If you want to try this out on your Epic 4G Touch (while you understand that there's a risk involved of you permanently damaging it), you can head over to the source link below where you will find instructions, feedback as well as the download link.

iOS 5.1 Pre-GM Shots Reveal Japanese Siri, Camera From

After watching beta releases of iOS 5.1 head out to developers over the past several months, it's finally looking like Apple's preparing for a public release, likely to coincide with the launch of the iPad 3. While nothing's definite just yet, some signs suggest that the release could happen early next month. Today some images from what's supposedly a pre-GM version of iOS 5.1 have been released, claiming to confirm some last-minute feature additions. 

There's already been talk that Siri was about to see its world expand a little, with the introduction of support for Japanese. This screenshot comes from a Portuguese iPhone, but whip out a translation app and you can quickly see that Japanese appears to be added to Siri's settings. 

The other change noted in this iOS build is a change to how you bring up the Camera app directly from the lockscreen. Simply swipe upwards on the camera icon, and you'll apparently jump straight to Camera, without needing the time to fully-unlock your phone and possibly miss the shot you were hoping to take. 

Supposedly, these images were obtained from a cellular carrier with early access to iOS builds. 

LG X3 Upcoming Tegra 3 ICS Phone Benchmark Results

It's not like we didn't already see the LG X3. It was the second quad-core phone revealed after the HTC Edge which became the HTC Endeavor. With a Tegra 3 chip at its core, the X3 will pack, according to what we've already seen, a 4.7-inch screen of 720x1280 pixels, 16GB of internal storage, eight-megapixel shooter coupled with a 1.3-megapixel webcam and Android Ice Cream Sandwich on top of the silicone. 

As you can see in the screenshot below, the X3 is capable of 4412 points in the new Quadrant version 2. This is a solid score but if you come to think of it, our Samsung Galaxy S II running the leaked Ice Cream Sandwich ROM scores easily above 4200 (on the same version of Quadrant). However, four cores (actually five) are better than two if you come to think of it. We'll be there at MWC to tell you all about it. 

Google Fixes Wallet Security Hole

Google officially announced that they "restored the ability to issue new prepaid cards to the Wallet". Additionally, the company "issued a fix that prevents an existing prepaid card from being re-provisioned to another user". 

These improvements in the update above come hot on the heels of exploits discovered recently related to Google Wallet. The easiest among them was to clear the app's data under settings; once done, the application was asking for a new PIN but Google prepaid card information was remembered. Now that you're safe once again, let us know whether you have any doubts in using the offering (knowing that the brute-force method is still present, though requiring root access). 

Amazon MP3 Updated With Optimized Layout on Tablets, More

If you purchase music online using the Amazon MP3 app, you might want to update your client regardless if you have a smartphone or a tablet. There's a new version out which brings a couple of improvements and new additions to the table. 

First of all, if you have an Android-powered tablet, the new Amazon MP3 features an improved layout on slates. There's a new color scheme which will match the one on the Kindle Fire and if you have a smartphone running Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich, you'll love the addition of lock screen player controls. Aside from some other minor UI improvements also on-board are personalized recommendations which have been now added to the store (but only if you're in the US).