Samsung Galaxy Note rocking Android 4.0 with CM9

Probably one of the most impressive devices as of late is the Samsung Galaxy Note. While it’s still currently not available in the US or many other parts of the world it still has seen wide adoption with over 1 million sales, and the development community is flourishing. Below we have some Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the 5.3″ phone — tablet — cutting board.

Below is a video showing the progress of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and CyanogenMod 9 on the Galaxy Note. Obviously this is still very much in the early stages but as you can see in the video performance is quite stellar already.

Having Ice Cream Sandwich on that gorgeous 5.3″ AMOLED display sure sounds nice although I’m not sure I’d use that thing as a phone or not still. The Galaxy Nexus seems perfect for me (and I love it). According to the awesome developer at XDA, Maui this is still heavily under development and things such as the camera, bluetooth, some hardware accel and more are all not working just yet.

Galaxy Note CM9 ICS

WiFi, data and calling, the s-pen (stylus) and more are all working just great and enough to make this almost a daily driver unless you need a highly accurate battery reading or bluetooth. Accessing the internal storage with MTP is still having issues and you’ll need to push things with ADB. If you are wondering what that is then this project isn’t for you. Being in an early beta stage it’s recommended that you know what you are doing if you decide to flash and give this ROM a try on your own Galaxy Note. Give it a try at your own risk and make sure to ask any questions before getting started. All the information, links, and download are available at the link below.

Galaxy Note XDA Thread

Samsung’s new Galaxy Ace Plus announced, looks very familiar

Samsung has given its popular Galaxy Ace an update, releasing the Galaxy Ace Plus. Features include a larger screen, more powerful processor and a very familiar design.

Not content with enraging Apple with their alleged iPhone 4-alike designs, Samsung has now taken a shine to the previous model. We can see it, you can see it and it’s fairly likely the lawyers can see it too. We’re talking about the distinct design similarity between Samsung’s new Galaxy Ace Plus and the Apple iPhone 3G/3GS.

Yes, the camera lens may be in a different spot, but the front and side views along with that grey surround make it uncannily reminiscent of the previous iPhone. Well, we’re sure Samsung knows what it’s doing, so let’s move on and take a look at the spec of the new device.

The original Galaxy Ace has been a big seller, thanks to a very reasonable price and the Android operating system. The new Galaxy Ace Plus improves in some areas, but decides to play it safe in others.

Samsung has ever-so slightly increased the screen size, from 3.5-inches to 3.65-inches, but has left the resolution the same at 320 x 480. Next is a slight boost in power, with the Ace Plus using a 1Ghz processor instead of the old 800Mhz chip.

Like its predecessor, it uses a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but adds Bluetooth 3.0 and Samsung’s range of apps and services, such as the ChatON service.

Initially, the Ace Plus will launch in Russia later this month, but will then spread to the rest of the world including Europe, Asia and Latin America. The price has yet to be confirmed, and the lawsuit yet to be filed.