If you’re looking for news on other Samsung devices, look no further. The company has announced that a fairly lengthy list of Galaxy devices will be receiving the ICS upgrade soon:

Samsung Electronics plan to provide the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for GALAXY devices. The platform update for GALAXY S II and GALAXY Note will start in the first quarter 2012, and other GALAXY devices will soon follow.

The ICS-upgradable devices are the GALAXY S II, GALAXY S II LTE, GALAXY Note, GALAXY R, GALAXY Tab 10.1, GALAXY Tab 8.9, GALAXY Tab 7.7, and GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus.

Samsung adds that they will make separate announcements for each device when specific timeframes becomes available.

So it’s not exactly a bunch of specific dates, but users now know that they only have to wait a few more months to get the new OS for their existing Samsung smartphones and tablets.

Ice Cream Sandwich sports a brand new UI as wells as NFC capabilities and Face Unlock functionality. Are you excited to install ICS on your device? Let us know in the comments.

When it comes to supporting various media files, the VLC Media Player is a man among boys, offering one of the most thorough levels of media support, thanks to multitude of codecs VLC includes in its media player. With that in mind, an effort to bring the VLC Media Player’s robust level of file to the Android environment is underway, as discussed in an article by Geek.com. According to Geek.com, developer Austen Dicken is fast at work on adopting VLC for the Android operating system, and if successful, it will make the device one of the more powerful media players in the mobile industry:

Austen describes his work on VLC for Android to be pre-alpha at this point in time, but he is still able to show some impressive results regarding basic functionality. In its current form, VLC for Android is actually two separate programs, one for the two different processor types currently supported by Android.

While the VLC Android app is not ready for prime time as of yet, the Geek.com article discusses their hands-on experience with the fledgling application, and the early impressions are very good:

For a pre-alpha, the app has been faster and more stable than any other video player I have used on Android. On top of this, it’s free and has played every file I have thrown at it so far.

That’s about as glowing of an alpha test response as you can get. Over at Austen’s blog, he shares some details about the development process:

I DID NOT WRITE THE SOURCE FOR VLC-Android.
It was written by the VideoLAN dev team. I simply compiled it based on their wiki and posted the binaries for convenience. I never made any claim that I had contributed any code to this project and stated in the original post that I pulled from their GIT repo and followed their wiki instructions. Please don’t falsely attribute work that others have spent so much time on.

Apparently, credit was given to Austen where it wasn’t due, and he made sure to correct that line of thinking by pointing to the VLC development team. Austen also indicates the app is “NOT ANYWHERE NEAR RELEASE,” although if the hands-on is correct, what Austen has, even though it’s not ready for mass consumption, is already better than the other media players offered by Android’s apps.

With that in mind, Android geeks everywhere should be supporting Austen as much as they can, especially those who fancy their mobile device as a one-stop shop for entertainment, including watching movies and videos.

Windows Vista, which is due to be released to the business sector in November this year, sports hundreds of new features, many of which are designed for use within the business environment.

Why should I care?

Windows Vista brings many benefits to small, medium and large organizations. New features such as “Desktop Search” and the “Windows Explorer” improvements make finding and using information easier and quicker than ever before. It is stated that over 30% of an employee’s day is spent trying to find information – these new tools will help to reduce that figure and increase productivity within your company.

As we move into an ever increasing “mobile age” it is becoming more important for employees to be mobile enabled. The “Sync Centre” feature of Windows Vista is at the heart of Microsoft’s desktop / mobile technologies. This application eases the pain of mobile device synchronization and ensures the whole process is completed securely enabling users to have a consistent view whether they are in or out of the office.

Windows Vista also has many new security features that will aid in defending against the vast number of security threats that are present today on the Internet. With improved “Windows Firewall” and “Windows Defender” technologies, defending against spyware and unauthorized access is transparent. “User Account Control”, which protects against admin users inadvertently changing settings, ensures that any malware or virus that get onto your system cannot change any settings without you first agreeing to it. There are many other security features including granular auditing/logging, improved security update tools and full disk drive encryption – all of which combine to create the most secure Windows ever.

What should I do to ensure a smooth transition?

1. Windows Vista requires almost 4 times the processing power as Windows XP so it is important to know that your hardware is up to the task. In order to ascertain this produce an asset report on all of your desktop machines. This should detail processor type and speed, the physical size of memory and hard disk(s), the type of graphics card installed and the amount of graphics memory it has.

2. Microsoft are going to release 6 different versions of the operating system so it is therefore important to decide which version meets your business needs.

3. Understand what machines will be compatible with Windows Vista and what machines will need to be upgraded or replaced.

4. Produce a report detailing all software applications that are used throughout the business. This report should detail the product name and version.

5. Understand any compatibility issues between your installed software and Windows Vista.

6. Ensure that your users know how to use the features in Windows Vista that will improve both productivity and ensure security/reliability.

The next steps

With the launch of Windows Vista only a few months away, it is important that you take action now. If you follow the steps outlined above, you will ensure that your transition to Vista is smooth and ensure that your business remains productive, reliable and secure.

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Gary Francis is a software developer at SSI
Computer Services Ltd. specializing in http://www.ssil.co.uk IT
Support, .NET and “Windows Vista ready” applications.