According to the Google Nexus Twitter account, starting today, Ice Cream Sandwich will be pushed out to GSM variants of the Nexus S over the next month. In the tweet, Google has also kindly added a user guide to make the transition from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich a little easier.

Unfortunately, some carriers like to test these updates for an extended period of time, so hopefully this update will reach Vodafone Nexus S owners shortly. In the meantime there is also a manual install floating round, but I have no way to test this as my Nexus S is currently sitting in Canberra, 1000Kms away. Any guinea pigs out there tried out the manual install on their Nexus S?
Install instructions :

  1. Download the Zip and rename the file to Update.zip
  2. copy the update.zip file to the root of the SDCard partition of your Nexus S
  3. Turn your phone off, then turn it back on again by holding Volume Up and Power to boot into the bootloader
  4. Go to Recovery
  5. When a warning triangle appears, hold the power button and hit volume up
  6. Select ‘apply update from /sdcard’ and choose update.zip
  7. When the update has finished applying, select ‘reboot now’
  8. Or better yet, has anyone received the OTA update yet?

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unbrick your android phone 100% free using this tutorial http://www.itcse.com/2012/08/unbrick-android-phone-touchscreen/

My update didn’t work, it keeps aborting, I did as stated. Do I have to have Android 2.3.6? I’ve only got 2.3.3. Also, my nexus was purchased from Ebay, brand new it still says it’s a i9023, can anyone help please?

Still haven’t got OTA. Just did the manual instead. How very pretty it is.

Can I use the manual update to go from 2.3.3 to 4.0 on the Nexus S?

ICS running beautifully on my 9023 nexus s. Occasional lag much better than gingerbread. I think I found a new feature that I can’t find any reference to in the release notes. Reverse bluetooth tether works (at least to a iPhone 3gs with iOS 5.0.1) without any modifications and no need to enter airplane mode (This is the same as the honeycomb tablets method posted on lots of forums). I simply paired my nexus s and iphone 3gs, enabled bluetooth tethering on iPhone and connected the bluetooth. The iPhone shows portable hotspot active on connection, and data works as it… Read more »

Got mine OTA just now, its downloading – it was bought from mobicity though (its a 9023 with the LCD instead of amo) dunno if there is any rom difference between the 9020/9023 but yeah its downloading as we speak – I cant wait!

I got the exact same one from mobicity as well. Can I force it to check for updates? It still isn’t showing anything

I wonder how long Telstra will take to send out the OTA

telstra never sold the nexus s, so they wont have any say in it

Got my OTA update for my Nexus S this morning around 9 am .. didnt thought it will that quick

Just manually update on vodafone n x m works great…….

Working beautifully for me – some “hidden fixes” over Gingerbread I’ve already spotted:

1. (native) VoIP works on 3G, and traverses firewalls better (probably STUN/ICE support added)
2. Voice commands work for the “Australian English” locale

you guys forgot to report on Android 4.0.2 rolling out to GSM Galaxy Nexus. I got mine first thing this morning

🙁 my GN still hasnt gotten the 4.0.2. im dissapointed we cant force the updates like we could on the NS

Works beautifull! Not a single problem.

manually installed, on Telstra prepaid and everything went perfectly!! ICS is sooo nice, very very happy camper 😀

One thing I wasn’t aware of, flashing the update keeps all your apps and SD data so I didn’t need to back everything up before hand!

Manually installed it on my old Nexus S. Works like a charm!! Android Beam works too! Noticed when I wanted to shut down that there are now more sound options (i think). Silent, Vibrate and Normal

I got a verification/signature error.  Any ideas how to get passed this?

What baseband version and build number is your phone showing?  Mine worked straight from stock 2.3.6, build number GRK39F.  XDA developers may be your best bet for answers : 
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1395828&page=1

my Nexus S has the same Version and build number.   I’ll go and have a look at your link.
Thanks

“Unfortunately, some carriers like to test these updates for an extended period of time,”….to be fair carrriers need to test the new software to ensure the device still complies with ACMA A-Tick regulations. Plus, as Google is “open” carriers are permitted to tweak the OS…Android means choice.

Woking really well for me although I just burnt through a fully charged battery in 4 hours???  Just got home so going to charge it up and have a look at what is going on there….Other than that, very fast and like other have said, no face unlock which is a bummer.

Last night power usage for me seemed normal, but today out and about I burned through my battery in ~7 hours.  Power accounting unhelpfully attributes it to “Android OS” which doesn’t give any breakdown on who the culprit is.

About 50% of the time off charge (~3.5 hours) was attributed as “keep awake” time.  That’s pretty worrying.

That its billing more power usage to the base OS over the screen (42% vs 25%) is even more worrying.

Anyone else got any experiences to share here?

Compare to my sgs2 the Android OS is using 27% to 11%. From fully charged batt to 87% in half an hour. I guess we have to charge our phone every 5-6 hours. I also notice the scrolling (website and storm games) is not very smooth/fast like in the sgs2.

I’ve not noticed any additional power drain issues yet on my I9023 with Android 4.0.3. It went down to 90% from full in about 7 hours which seemed ok to me. I’ll keep an eye on it over the next few days tho.

I think the FB app may be at fault.  I only used it a little yesterday and yet it featured high on the list for battery use as I again lost the last 50% over two hours when not even using the phone 🙁 I did the full drain, remove battery, full charge with power off game last night and have made a point of not opening the facebook app today (got so much extra work done but that is another story..) as I think it was the FB app chewing battery in the background. Now at 7Hrs 55min on… Read more »

People are reporting the Nexus S power consumption issue against the already existing Galaxy Nexus power consumption issue.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22878

🙁

manually Installed Successfully on a Vodafone nexus s, Android Beam works perfectly between the NS and my GN. not sure why it doesnt work for you van casipong.

My build number is IML74K… face unlock and NFC are not working. The site below also confirms Face unlock and NFC are not working
http://nexusshacks.com/nexus-s-roms/ics-ota-update-on-nexus-s/

Installed the update on the phone. Face unlock is missing (google is not including this), also NFC and Beam are not working, does anyone have the same experience?

I did notice that Face unlock is missing. Don’t have another NFC device to check if Beam is working.

Runs like a charm… 🙂

Been waiting for this for a while. Not going to mess around with it though will just wait for the OTA update

manually installed from CM 7.1.0.1, had to flash back to 2.33, OTA upgrade to 2.3.6, then used the traditional update.zip method. mine is a i9020t

It’s really smooth and beautiful, better than all the other beta ICS Roms I have tried

I’m finding that ICS runs much better/smoother than Gingerbread ever did! It’s quite awesome on my Nexus S

Going to attempt manual install now on my i9020 model.

how did it go?

it bricked my phone 🙁 i flashed this first http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1063664 2.3.6 for i9023, and followed @android_central:disqus ‘s steps and ended up with A BRICKED device. going to Vodafone today to ‘ask for warrenty’