HTC has just issued a statement on its plans to bring Android 4.0 to some of its phones, confirming that the HTC Sensation XE and Sensation XL will be first in line to receive the update. They’ll be getting it from “the end of March.”

And even more exciting is news that HTC has added a second wave of phones to the list of Android 4.0 upgrade candidates, with the HTC Desire HD, Desire S and HTC Incredible S all now down to receive the “Ice Cream Sandwich” 4.0 enhancement. Here’s the full announcement from HTC:

HTC has been working hard to get its Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades ready, and we’re excited to announce that our first round of ICS upgrades will roll out by the end of March for the HTC Sensation and HTC Sensation XE, followed soon thereafter by the HTC Sensation XL.

In addition, we can confirm Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades will be coming later this year to the HTC EVO 3D, HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S and HTC Desire HD. Stay tuned for more updates on Ice Cream Sandwich releases in the coming weeks

Great news. Unless you own an HTC Desire Z, in which case you may carry on being angry on the internet.

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The Evening Standard has launched (or at least just got around to telling everyone about) a new entertainment focused app it’s calling ES:GO London, which is based around cinema listings and food guides and the usual sorts of things sociable people who live in towns apparently get up to instead of staying at home performing internet speed tests.

The app also integrates the services of Toptable, meaning you’re able to book seats as some restaurants through your phone.

It’s location aware, obviously, plus there’s editorial content like reviews from the paper’s columnists – and user-generated rankings, too. ES:GO London is free (ad-supported) and on the Android Market here. And this is the thing:

The London Evening Standard launches free smartphone app for Londoners and visitors to the capital

Film, theatre, restaurant and pub listings & reviews, plus journey planning and booking direct from Android & iPhone handsets

The London Evening Standard has launched a free smartphone app for Londoners and visitors to the capital as part of its growth-driven digital strategy and enhanced offering for advertisers.

ES: GO (Evening Standard Going Out) London, brings the title’s premium signature recommendations for restaurant, bar, club, theatre, arts and entertainment to the mobile platform in combination with geo-targeted search and real-time booking capability.

Offering an optimized user experience, ES: GO London’s search function is powered by Google maps and plots selected venues near to the user’s current location or destination. Entertainment content includes Evening Standard reviews, comprehensive event and venue listings and user-generated ratings.

ES: GO London provides users with recommendations from the London Evening Standard’s most influential reviewers including restaurant critic Fay Maschler, theatre columnist Henry Hitchings and girl-about-town Barchick. The easy-to-use app also features reader-generated ratings to enableusers to make a fully-informed choice before making a real-time booking through ES: GO London’s partners Toptable and Tixstac.

Key features include a ‘lock’ function for users to overlay their searches for different types of venues in selected areas of the capital. In addition to being able to save listings for later review, users can also share listings and itineraries and content through Facebook, Twitter and email.

The dual-platform smartphone app is available on the latest version of Android and is fully compatible with Apple iOS 5 for iPhone or iPad.

Zach Leonard,Managing Director, Digital, The Independent, i and the London Evening Standard said: ‘The ES: GO London app extends our digital strategy to provide Londoners and visitors with the best our city has to offer — in a portable, relevant and accessible format, and brings advertisers a new channel to present our advertisers an engaged high quality audience.’

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The glitch-hit and stil rather hard-to-find Asus Eee Transformer Prime should be getting an OS update in the UK today, with Asus claiming the minor tweak has one main function – fixing the “random reboot issue” that some users have been experiencing with their tablets.

Here’s the little snippet from Asus UK regarding the new TF201 upgrade:

All of you lucky Prime owners should be receiving a FOTA update soon. This is to fix the random reboot issue that some users have been experiencing. Let us know how you get on with it.

We’re holding out for the Yarvik TAB465EUK.

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To help Rovio and its trillions of fans celebrate the second birthday of the launch of the original Angry Birds, the mobile developer has updated the primary version of the game with a selection of new content. In short, you get 15 new levels themed around birthday cakes, because it is their birthday of sorts.

You also get “spiffy new menus and graphics” along with some new achievements, plus Rovio says it has unlocked all episodes “as a birthday gift to our fans.”

So happy birthday, even if, in all likelihood, it’s not actually your birthday. Angry Birds is on the Android Market here. It’s still free and ad-supported. They never did get around to releasing a paid version on Android outside of the US, did they?

Link via Droid Gamers.

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This MoneySupermarket car insurance comparison thing has been floating around on Apple’s iTunes servers for months, now it’s on the Android Market for us to have a fiddle with. It’s BIG BOAST is that you can just stick in a number plate and see insurance quotes using data pulled straight from the DVLA’s files, so it’s easy to ponder quotes while walking around car parks and imagining yourself owning certain cars.

That sounds like a fun hobby, eh? The app claims to include all the quotes and suppliers from the desktop site, telling users it’s possible to “switch your insurance in just 3 taps.”

MoneySupermarket Car Insurance is so on the Android Market here. And if you want a guaranteed way to save money on your car insurance, just get old and move to the countryside and drive a V-reg diesel Peugeot 306 estate.

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The new quad-core Eee Transformer Prime, which (allegedly) launched in the UK nearly a month ago, is still very hard to get hold of. But according to an update from Asus today, the “majority” of its resellers have received stock to meet their existing back orders for the tablet, news which implies some buyers are still waiting for their units.

Here’s the little update:

Just to keep you all up to date on stock of the Eee Pad Transformer Prime – It is still landing weekly and in increasing numbers. The majority of our resellers have now fulfilled their back orders so more free stock should be available soon. Please check with your preferred reseller as to how they are allocating their units and how best to get your hands on one!

It’s the sort of slightly botched Android hardware launch we’ve come to expect, basically. You’d think the makers would’ve worked out there’s quite a demand for new Android things these days.

But then it must be a hard thing to make. Imagine working in a factory and being told you’ve got to assemble 20 of those before home time.

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Orange is now accepting online orders for the white version of the middlingly-popular Orange San Francisco II, which start at the £10.50 per month level for a contract plus a “free” phone. That bargain basement Orange SIM includes a rather useless 30 minutes of talktime and 100MB of mobile data, mind, so it’ll cost a bit more than that if you want it on a proper grown-up’s tariff.

The phone’s a rather small update of the groundbreaking original San Fran, offering a 3.5″ screen running at 480×800 resolution, with the fun stuff brought into life by an 800MHz processor. And now with white bits on show.

The white model is not being sold direct on PAYG basis yet, so that’s your only choice. And the black PAYG one’s currently out of stock.

Link via SoMobile.

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What is going on with this mass explosion of whiteness? The latest Android phone to receive an all-white upgrade is the HTC Sensation XE, which will see a new white variant arriving in the UK on February 20th.

The first of the SIM-free retailers to hurriedly forward us this news was Clove, which has a pre-order page up for the whiter XE along with a price tag of £408 attached to it for an unlocked model. Here it is:

All we need now is a limited edition HTC Sensation XL that comes in black, and we’ll be well on the way to a complete mental breakdown.

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Good old PC goliath Microsoft has once again released another app for Android, this time bringing its OneNote Mobile app to the Android Market for Google-powered phones running Android 2.3 or higher.

What you’re getting here is a fairly familiar note-taking, sharing and syncing tool, which lets you create media-rich notes built from text and images, plus there are “to do” lists with little tick boxes and full syncing through Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud servers for easy access on desktop.

It’s free, but here’s the disclaimer about that part:

With the free version of OneNote Mobile for Android you can access, create and edit up to 500 notes. Once you reach this limit you can still view, delete, and sync your notes. To continue taking and editing notes, you can upgrade OneNote Mobile for Android to unlimited use through an in-app purchase

And that in-app purchase will cost you £2.99 to unlock access to the full thing for life.

What exciting lives Microsoft employees lead. If you also lead an exciting international playboy lifestyle and are therefore always having to remember about places, events and things, OneNote Mobile is on the Android Market here to make it all easier.

More facts can be had over on the OneNote Blog.

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That rather interesting and very cheap forthcoming 9.7″ Yarvik GoTab Exxa Android 4.0 tablet is the star of a new walkthrough video uploaded by the maker, giving us our first proper look at the possibly game-changing Android “Ice Cream Sandwich” device in action.

It’s packing the connections very well, featuring the right-shaped holes for Micro USB, Micro SD, a second host USB connector and a mini HDMI output. Here it is, aspirational “aluminium unibody” casing and all:

The chap doing the guide specifically says the Android Market won’t come with the device, which looks like being the only downer in this €249 tablet. No mention is made of launch date, but it was previously pegged for late Feb or early March, so hopefully that’s still the plan.

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