Acer 501 update

I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever for an upgrade to my Acer Iconia 501 tablet.

I forget how long I’ve had it – feels like a couple of years – but given that it first came out late 2011, it’s really only around 15 months. It’s just that I use it every day – on the bus, reading my emails and favourite blogs before work, so it feels like I’ve always had it.

It caused us some issues at work, testing an Android App we’d built using Adobe’s Phonegap. Android 3.2.1 definitely didn’t like decimal points in numeric keyboards – the forums were full of hacks and workarounds for this version.

Every month or so I’d check System Updates to see when the next version was available. It always said it was already up-to-date.

On Friday I was trying to test another site we’d built. But alas, Android wouldn’t let me install the Chrome browser. Yep, a Google operating system wouldn’t let me install a Google browser.

Finally did some more serious Googling this morning. There were various solutions proposed – most involving downloading an obfuscated version of an earlier version of the operating system. Not going there – life’s too short to learn Curl.

A couple of pages on (thanks Google), was a link on the Acer AU support FAQ – http://acer-au.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16694/~/no-notification-for-the-update-to-android-4.0 – explaining the steps required for upgrading.

Apparently the system update checker couldn’t be trusted. I had to download an Iconia Upgrade App from Google Play.

My tablet finally recognised that there were updates available, and the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) worked first time.

I now have Chrome on my tablet. A modern day miracle.