Sony Ericsson (now simply Sony) revealed its upgrade plans for its Xperia range of mobile devices at the end of last year. Sony mobile communications (SMC) has now announced the start of the software update rollout for its Xperia S. This software update includes the OS upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.4) as well as new media applications.

Included within the new media applications is Sony’s ‘Walkman’, ‘Album’ and ‘Movies’ applications. The Walkman app brings social networking integration to the Japanese firm’s signature audio technologies. According to Sony, this will enable smartphone users to share their favourite musical tracks while also discovering new music that their friends like.

By utilising the new Album app, Xperia S users will be able to sort and browse through all their high resolution photos. They can also view, like, or comment upon their friends’ photos and videos on Facebook and share their own images captured with the Xperia S’ 12 MP snapper via the social network and other cloud-based photo services.

Besides enabling Xperia users to view all their HD videos on the excellent 4.3" (720 x 1280, 342 ppi) touchscreen, the new Movies app will also perform intelligent database searches in order to obtain movie posters and info about the movies stored on your device.

Frozen OS delicacy to enhance the Xperia S user experience

Sony’s Xperia S will get a much needed software upgrade from Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which makes some new features available to users including:

• A new lock screen with improved functionality.
• Resizable widgets to enable enhanced homescreen personalisation.
• Improved control of users’ mobile data consumption.
• Recent Apps button for clear overview of a user’s applications.