It has been a long time coming – Android 4 for the Samsung Nexus S phone.  Over the last few days Google has once again been rolling out the 4.0.4 update for the Nexus S as well as the Galaxy Nexus.  As impatient as I am, I still don’t have the desire to root my device and mess around with some custom ROMs, so I bit my lip, trembled and tried to stay patient.

Over the Easter weekend, I noticed that the official OTA update was posted online so I decided to download it and give it a go.  This update can be applied without erasing your phone (although a backup is highly recommended).  I did back up my text messages and decided to take the plunge.

It’s pretty awesome.

Overall, the experience is everything I hoped it would be and menus and home screen scrolling is seemless, smooth and very fluid.  This version of Android adds some features such as native screen capture and a few more things that make it work trying out.  There are a lot of different guides and sets of instructions around the web, but I figured I could save you a lot of hunting, searching and reading of different instructions if I simply posted up everything you need to move your AT&T/Telus/Fido/Rogers/Bell version of the Nexus S (i9020A) from Gingerbread’s 2.3.6 (GRK39F) to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 (IMM76D).

This requires no rooting, no bootloader tweaks or anything all that special.  If you can copy a single file to your phone’s MicroSD card, you can do it.

I’ve included a file with a full “How to Update” readme that includes very basic instructions on how to get your phone updated.  Please keep in mind that this is ONLY for the i9020A phone running 2.3.6.  If you have anything else, please drop me a line and I can hook you up with a link.

Please download the package here and enjoy!

I’ve had requests to add a donate button to this post.  Feel free to use it if you like.  If not, no worries at all!

I’d like to offer up special thanks to Fujitsu for his mad organizational skills on the tournaments and for GuyOnABuffalo for all of his help setting up the match schedules.

Also, BoneRak and RoNiN once again brought servers and rocked our event with lag-free CoD4, MW3 and UT3 machines.  It was awesome.  Probably the most fun I had was with the some “Greed” mod on the CoD4 where we had 10v9 for some total mayhem.  Shipment was just a little chaotic.

Samsung dropped a couple of 59″ TVs our way for the console tournaments and I’d like to thank Tigger for keeping things going (even though it got late) with the NFS:MW tournament.  I’d also like to thank everyone for being flexible and understanding as we had to swap out NFS:Carbon for NFS:Most Wanted.

One of the highlights of the whole LAN for me was announcing the impromptu Jedi vs. Padawan (BoneRak & Nicao vs. Echo & Epithanatios).  The wit and sarcasm of Fujitsu and MadScientist was pretty epic.

One of my most disturbing moments had to be when Ess chainsaw melee’d both Nicao and I in the Gears of War 3 tournament.  I still feel a little whipped that I got sawed by a girl… heh  Nicely done.

Thanks again to everyone – sponsors, staff, players, organizers for making this such a fun event to do every year. We already have some ideas for next year as we will be adding a RTS to the mix.

I’ve posted the pictures up over here and we’d love it if you’d leave some comments in the forum.

• CES roadLAN 2012 
• CES Kickoff
• Samsung 2012 Press Conference
• NVIDIA Press Conference
• Microsoft’s Last CES Keynote
• E-Fun Tablets at CES 2012
• Archos @ CES 2012
• ROCCAT at CES 2012
• Arctic @ CES 2012
• Magellan at CES 2012
• Lian Li @ CES 2012
• AfterShokz Headphones @ CES 2012
• Crucial @ CES 2012
• Ford at CES 2012
• iBUYPOWER @ CES 2012
• Patriot Memory @ CES 2012
• Verbatim @ CES 2012
• Thermaltake @ CES 2012
• NZXT @ CES 2012
• Rosewill @ CES 2012
• Trendnet at CES 2012
• Zotac at CES 2012
• Edifier @ CES 2012
• Ooma @ CES 2012
• Genius @ CES 2012
• SteelSeries @ CES 2012
• Cooler Master at CES 2012
• Sennheiser at CES 2012

If you prefer to look at pictures, you can check out our daily image galleries here.

• Pre-Press Day Fun at CES
• CES 2012 Press Day
• CES 2012 Day 1
• CES 2012 Day 2
• CES 2012 Day 3
• CES 2012 Day 4

I hope you find something interesting!  We sure had a good time and a lot of fun bringing you some great CES 2012 coverage!

This year marked Microsoft’s last keynote and I believe, the start of some new things in technology.  We saw innovation this year as well as a lot of major improvements to the technology that we’re using.  For me, it was exciting to see and to be a part of.  Please check out our Eye-Fi enabled Flickr Gallery here.

For all of the CES 2012 coverage done by the BCCHardware team, please go here.  If all you want is pictures, you may go here and enjoy six days of pictures from around Las Vegas – and the trip getting there.

This year has actually been a banner year for me as we’ve seen some pretty massive growth over at BCCHardware.com

Also, our podcast – WeeklyTechUpdate has grown like a weed and we are currently sitting at 136 episodes and will be broadcasting from CES 2012 in Las Vegas running from January 10 – 13.  Our coverage will start as early as January 7th with our LAN Party Road Trip (stay tuned.  It will be epic).  Make sure you listen and watch for live coverage coming to you all through the week.

The amazing thing about our Podcast is how much bandwidth we suck from our host.  We’ve upgraded dedicated servers twice this past year and there’s still no slowing down or looking back.  Recently I bought WTUFiles.com in order to keep our podcasts rolling without crashing our site.  Here’s hoping that works out.

There is a lot more to come, so make sure you keep BenHeide.com on your radar!

Another band that headlined this year was Leeland. They have a mellow sound and have hearts set of fire for God. Not only did I manage to enjoy their worship sets, I got a chance to sit down and talk to them about youth, vision, ministry and how they stay focused when so busy and doing the same songs over and over.  Catch the audio interview by clicking here.

Make sure you check out all of our YC Alberta 2010 pictures here.

We’ve included the interview at the end of Episode #41 of Weekly Tech Update and in order to make things easier for you, we’ve also included it as a separate download over here.

For more on the Doritos Viralocity campaign, check the press release here or you can watch as many of the video submissions that you want over here.

“We’re living in an exciting time for video creators, and the Internet has opened doors for people like myself – huge doors.” says Billy Reid “What’s great is that Doritos is giving anyone in Canada with a video camera and access to the web a shot at creating a winning ad. The best part is that they’re putting the final decision into the hands of the Internet. The Internet decides who wins. This is powerful. Basically, expect the unexpected, it could be your next door neighbour who comes out on top.” – Billy Reid

Catch our interview with Billy Reid over here.

Unfortunately the audio isn’t working on the videos and is totally borked. That being said, you can still see that they are having a whole bunch of fun.

It was a great day and my oldest bay said “That is the most fun we’d had outside ever!”  It makes me proud that I can pass on the love of the outdoors and skating to my family.

That being said, I’m pretty happy with how this shot turned out last year.  I believe I was using a D60 at the time.  It worked out quite well and I really like the depth of field in this image.

If you want to take a look at a few other winter pictures and such, I’ve got a couple more worth looking at over in my “Ben Heide” flickr stream.  I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.

In about a month, I’ll be heading down to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV and will be taking along my camera of course and hope to get some nice night shows of the Las Vegas Strip.  Time will tell how it all works out, but I’m hoping for some nice long exposure shots as well as a some HDR action.