I beseech thee, bestow upon me thine knowledge of upgrading to android 4.0

Braintrust, I just got a deal on a pretty nice android phone from a relative who went the way of the bitten fruit. I now own an Alcatel 995. Before you say Alca-who? This phone is actually quite slick...gsm arena can give the full scoop, but its a laaarge screen, 1.4 ghz processor, and supposedly alcatel already has the update file available on their site.

Has anyone out there in GRM land ever done this before? Is it something an average nod can handle? Apparently, several good media, auto telemetry, and game apps require 4.0 to work. And its available...so why not? Any and all input is welcome.

Not the most popular handset. My guess is it was only offered in the US by CinciBell. If I understand your question right, the handset had Android 2.3 right now and you want to update to Android 4.0 which Alcatel has made available.
This should be as easy as :
Click the menu button (most left-side button on handset - not on screen.)
Click the "Settings" function
On this list at the very bottom will be "About Phone"
From here, click "System Update"

^this^

No rooting needed if the manufacturer has the update ready to go.

Back you important info (if any) up first. Sounds like you just got it, but if you have anything (photos, contacts, video) that you haven't copied somewhere else, do so before you follow the update steps above.

My Droid Bionic recently let me upgrade. Like they said up there ^^

It took a bit, but it sure did upgrade! It was worth doing, too. Like getting a cool new toy to play with.

Yes, it is a cinci bell phone. FWIW, its easily the nicest phone Ive ever owned.

And apparently, upgrading is WAAAAY easier than I had anticipated.

I haz a derp

thanks for the help!

4cylndrfury wrote: from a relative who went the way of the bitten fruit.

He was eaten? Or is this code for banged a student in his pre-school class?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

4cylndrfury wrote: from a relative who went the way of the bitten fruit.

He was eaten?

Steve Jobs ate my cousins soul, from beyond the grave

Its not a bad handset, just an unpopular handset.
Actually, the specs of the handset are very good with a 1.4ghz processor and a big 4.3" screen. Should do just fine.

If you plan to used the phone, as a phone, it may be locked to work on CBell only. You may be able to get it unlocked at a CBell store. Once unlocked, you could choose other carriers. CBell's iWireless prepaid deal of $50 is pretty weak.
They only include half a GB of fast data before they chock down the speed (known as throttling.) Also, iWireless does not give you any data capability once you leave metro Cinci/Dayton/Florance.

If unlocked, you would have the choices of AT&T services through Straight Talk or T-Mobile based service either directly from Tmo or Simple Mobile.

unlocking it should be pretty simple, but Cinbell wont do it (at least, they wouldnt do that for me or other customers I know in the past). Ive bought unlock codes off the internet before, and was able to unlock an AT&T Phone for use on Cinbells network. Its hard to get all the WAP info input correctly into another carriers handset to get 3G data speeds when you unlock a phone...at least that was my experience.

Id probably go to T-mobile - $49 for "unlimited" (read, as much data as you want, but your data is throttled after 2gb) is a pretty great rate. THere was all that talk a year or 2 back about them going under...but I think thats all in the past. They seem pretty strong.

Either way, Im currently not under contract with Cinbell right now - my old monthly plan is grandfathered in, which is nice, so I may just stay monthly.

If you are on full CBell service (not their prepaid) and you can continue w/o a contract requirement then that sounds like the place to stay if the coverage/price equation meets your needs.

errrmmm....apparently not so easy. Phone cant find any updates when I go thru settings>about phone>Check for firmware updates

Alcatel has an app in their phones called Alcatel FOTA (Firmware Over The Air), meaning I can use WiFi/mobile data to download the ICS update directly from them...

ALcatel FAQ said: For updating your Alcatel ONE TOUCH 995 from Android 2.3 to Android 4.0, you need to upgrade twice with FOTA. The first time is to upgrade your phone from Android 2.3 lower version to 2.3 highest version V61j; while the second time is to upgrade from 2.3 highest version to ICS 4.0. Please follow the steps below to make upgrade twice: 1. Please press “Menu” key at home screen--> “Settings”-->“About phone”-->“System updates” -->“Check for update” -->“Download”, then the phone will download a package to your SD card. “Install” the package, then the phone will auto reset.

Im already running 2.3.6, so 4.0 (ICS) is the next step. But the phone doesnt find it when I tell it to search for the update. Trying to find forum posts out on XDA or Droid Forums is ridiuculous...275 pages of BS, 90% is babbling incomprehensible nonsense from users in India or Belgrade, using google translator to hack together gibberish. Ask a question, and you get SEARCHNOOBFLAME rammed down your throat.

Anyway, I can download a program called "One Touch Upgrade" from Alcatel. That will install the update directly, since its part of the program, no searching.

Now, my question is, how do I backup my phones data so I dont "brick" it? Is there a good program out there? can I just drag a folder from the phone to my PC? Is there a good resource out there for people who want to know a little more about how android works, that doesnt out-pretentious a flock of BMW-driving yuppies?

halp?

For me, backup would mean making sure that my contacts are recently sync'ed with Gmail so that I can retrieve them and place them on another phone if needed.
In addition, copy any photos that may currently only be on the camera internal memory.

Yeah, phone forums are pretty splintered any more. There are forums for Droid, Apple, Manufacturers, etc but few forums that cover all. www.howardforums.com was my favorite for all around coverage but even that has nothing that is Alcatel or CBell specific which in the grand scheme of things are both pretty small making it an even more difficult combination.
Good luck.

4cylndrfury wrote: errrmmm....apparently not so easy. Phone cant find any updates when I go thru settings>about phone>Check for firmware updates Alcatel has an app in their phones called Alcatel FOTA (Firmware Over The Air), meaning I can use WiFi/mobile data to download the ICS update directly from them...

ALcatel FAQ said: For updating your Alcatel ONE TOUCH 995 from Android 2.3 to Android 4.0, you need to upgrade twice with FOTA. The first time is to upgrade your phone from Android 2.3 lower version to 2.3 highest version V61j; while the second time is to upgrade from 2.3 highest version to ICS 4.0. Please follow the steps below to make upgrade twice: 1. Please press “Menu” key at home screen--> “Settings”-->“About phone”-->“System updates” -->“Check for update” -->“Download”, then the phone will download a package to your SD card. “Install” the package, then the phone will auto reset.

Im already running 2.3.6, so 4.0 (ICS) is the next step. But the phone doesnt find it when I tell it to search for the update. Trying to find forum posts out on XDA or Droid Forums is ridiuculous...275 pages of BS, 90% is babbling incomprehensible nonsense from users in India or Belgrade, using google translator to hack together gibberish. Ask a question, and you get SEARCHNOOBFLAME rammed down your throat. Anyway, I can download a program called "One Touch Upgrade" from Alcatel. That will install the update directly, since its part of the program, no searching. Now, my question is, how do I backup my phones data so I dont "brick" it? Is there a good program out there? can I just drag a folder from the phone to my PC? Is there a good resource out there for people who want to know a little more about how android works, that doesnt out-pretentious a flock of BMW-driving yuppies? halp?

Here is a good start to learning some basics about Android:

http://androinica.com/category/androidguide/

Here's some general info on Rooting (unlock the necessary access to install your own firmware) it isn't device specific, but the basics are essentially the same for all Android devices.

http://theunlockr.com/category/howto/android_how_tos/android-general-how-tos/

Now, lets start with the official update process and see if that works:

If you don't have one already (probably already in the phone, you should check before buying another one), you'll want a MicroSD memory card to backup your data and to install any custom ROMS or Applications.

Apparently that device can accept a MicroSD card up to 32GB. Should be cheap at the local Office Depot/MAX, Staples, Radio Shack and worthwhile to have for storing stuff like apps and your data (music, pics, books, etc)

While you're there, get a MicroSD card with either an SD card to MicroSD adapter or an USB to MicroSD adapter, this way you can more easily transfer data between the PC and the phone. Once you plug the MicroSD card into the phone, it should detect and prepare it for use.

You can use a file management app to move files between the onboard memory and the SD card. Then you can stop or unmount the card and move it to your PC and copy the files locally as a backup to your backup. If you don't have a file manager app installed on the phone, then you will need to install one from the Google App store.

Looking at Alcatel's site you can download some software to allow you to backup the data via a PC and USB cable. That might be simpler in the short term and might allow you to push the official update across the USB cable.

http://www.alcatelonetouch.com/global-en/support/download/ot-995.html

http://www.alcatelonetouch.com/global-en/support/faq/usbdriver.html

Either way, to kick off the upgrade you'll want to have the downloaded update file on the device and then you'll need to open a file manager and click on the update file you downloaded from Alcatel and it should start the upgrade process.

If the factory upgrade process fails to work, then you'll need to get a bit more involved to force the update via the recovery process.

For booting your device into recovery and forcing the update (last resort):

http://code.google.com/p/ot995-cyanogenmod/wiki/FlashingRecovery

Hope this helps!

turboswede wrote: Apparently that device can accept a MicroSD card up to 32GB. Should be cheap at the local Office Depot/MAX, Staples, Radio Shack and worthwhile to have for storing stuff like apps and your data (music, pics, books, etc)

If you need a card, in these parts, Micro Center have micro SD cards (along with SD and USB drives) stupid cheap. I think they come with an SD adapter as well.