[Video] Preview shows what ICS will look like on Xperia devices, beta ROM download Available

Another day in the Android world and another taste of Ice Cream Sandwich finds its way to the web. Today we have a new video to show you guys of what ICS will look like when combined with Sony’s Timescape UI. While the demo looks pretty good, you will see how they have totally taken away nearly all the look of ICS. That is kinda sad really. This is the second developer preview to land for the Xperia line of unlocked devices. Following up with this beta after the original alpha preview a while back. While the alpha was a bit more of a look, this one has been cleared with some new certifications such as modem type approval, FM radio and turning GSM on. There are still a lot of final certifications to get passed before ICS lands freely on all 2011 Xperia devices, but they are moving in the right direction. Take a quick look at the video of it action below.

Looks pretty slick even with the Timescape UI overlay. It appears to be extremely fast and responsive with a great deal of animations. The list of improvements made since the original alpha looks to be a pretty solid base for final completion.

• Updated UI – We hope you will be happy to see that we have added a number of UI elements from ICS, as well as some new UI features already introduced in the Xperiaâ„¢ S we announced in January.
• Lockscreen and Face Unlock – We have added a shortcut to the camera directly from the lockscreen. Also, when you’re listening to music you can control the music player without unlocking the phone by using the music control icons on the lockscreen. In the coming final ICS upgrade, we will also include the face unlock app from Google for all phones that has a front-facing camera. The Face Unlock feature uses the front-facing camera in combination with advanced object recognition algorithms to provide a new way to unlock the phone. However, since Face Unlock is a Google Mobile Services (GMS) app, it is not included in this ICS beta ROM.
• Connectivity turned on – Since we published the ICS alpha ROM, the GSM modem and FM radio have passed thecertification and type approval, and they are therefore turned on in this ICS beta release.
• Updated email client – The UI has been updated, and simplified email management has been added.
• Quick dial – We have added a quick and easy way for you to make phone calls. See how it works in the ISC beta ROM demo video.

While the video and the updated enhancements look good, it is still not recommended as a daily driver. You can get on the web, make calls and do all your normal functions, but Google apps have yet to be incorporated to the build. They recommend this for ‘Advanced developers” only and the devices that can support this build for experimenting is limited to the following:

You must be using Xperiaâ„¢ arc S, Xperiaâ„¢ neo V or Xperiaâ„¢ ray, running the latest Xperiaâ„¢ software release (which is 4.0.2.A.0.42). Please note that you can’t use the original Xperiaâ„¢ arc or Xperiaâ„¢ neo, as they have different partition layouts

If you are the kinda person that could care less and just wants to start checking out the beta, point your browser to the Sony Mobile Developer site for full instructions and all the relevant information and download links. Enjoy!

Source: Sony Mobile via Androinica