Samsung serves up Ice Cream Sandwich

Owners of Samsung's Galaxy line of tablets and smartphones won't wait long for Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", according to an announcement the company made today. Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will receive ICS in the first quarter of next year, followed by other Galaxy devices throughout 2012.

The new version of Android's operating system is a significant upgrade over previous releases, including enhancements such as "face unlock", improved multitasking and notifications support, and a updated user interface.

Other Galaxy devices eligible for the upgrade include the Galaxy R Phone, as well as all current iterations of the Galaxy Tab, including the 7.0 Plus, 7.7, 8.9, and 10.1. In each market, Samsung says it will make a separate announcement alerting customers to when it expects to make the update available.

However, Samsung will not update the original Galaxy Tab tablet or Galaxy S smartphone.

Samsung was the first manufacturer to announce an Ice Cream Sandwich device when it debuted the Galaxy Nexus back in October. The device did not ship in the United States until this past week, however. It is available through Verizon Wireless for $299.99 with a two year contract.