There have been few tablets updated to Android 4.0 so far, including the Motorola Xoom, the ASUS Transformer Prime and an Acer Iconia Tab model. Now some Archos units join the gang: the 101 G9 and 80 G9 slates. They now run Android 4.0.3, although they were launched with Android 3.2 Honeycomb last year.
Archos is a French company that really deserves congrats to moving the update so fast. It’s always those brands that you don’t expect that surprise you… like Huawei did when they updated the Honor phone with Android 4.0 before any other phone maker. Aside from the new Ice Cream Sandwich features you also find some unique Archos feature, like improvements to the video player, music player, file manager, video conferencing and file transfers via USB. The external keyboard use has also been given a tweak.
There’s a new USB network tether widget available and Xbox gamepads supported as accessories. The update is a OTA material, so you can download and install it straight on the tablet, without a PC. There’s also the option of going to Settings, About Device, Firmware update and sideloading the update file from here via PC. Archos provides instructions here.
