No one likes waiting for software updates, but preparing such an update for release turns out to be a tougher ordeal than most people suspect. Sony Ericsson detailed their procedure of updating, which explains why we will have to wait a while before they release the promised Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update, even though the ICS source code has been out for weeks.

The first stage is to merge the changes brought about by ICS into Sony Ericsson own source code and to resolve any issues that might arise from the merge.

ICS has been optimized for Texas Instruments, so Sony Ericsson has to throw those parts out and replace them with equivalent parts for the Qualcomm 8255 chipset, which they used across the 2011 Xperia lineup.

The first of several tweets by Sony employee Siddharth Sai G said that Ice Cream Sandwich should be expected to be available the first week in January for all 2011 Xperia handsets. The current range of Xperia smartphones released this year is Xperia active, arc, arc S, mini, mini pro, neo, neo V, Play, pro, Xperia ray and Live with Walkman. According to the same Sony employee, Sony Ericsson is also planning a skinless version of ICS for 2011/2012 line of devices. That is probably not going to happen as the software and services bundled with their Xperia phones is one of Sony Ericsson strengths.

Last week Sony Ericsson Italy posted a contrary post on Facebook saying the ICS was expected to be available around March 2012. We will not hold our breath while waiting, and the official channel for such Sony Ericsson announcement are as usual over at the Sony Ericsson product blog. They have not said anything about a future update since November 15th when the company promised free update for all Xperia 2011 models.

Sony Ericsson is really having a hard time keeping their Xperia Arc HD smartphone under wraps. Their upcoming flagship droid broke loose again and appeared on a couple of live shots, confirming some of its specs in the process.

The smartphone codenamed Nozomi, will sport a dual-core CPU, clocked at 1.5 GHz, a 12 megapixel camera and a 4.3-inch 720p screen. It will offer 1GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, but there will be no microSD card slot, so you will not be able to expand that. A nicely sounding 1750 mAh battery will power the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc HD.

A high-res press photo of the recently leaked Sony Ericsson Nozomi has leaked.

From this press image we can clearly spot the front-facing camera on the top right corner of the device as well as the fact it is branded as a Sony Ericsson device, despite the recently announced acquisition of Ericsson share by Sony. And although the device is expected to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, the company has decided to leave the three physical home, back and menu Android buttons.

From the confines of Chinese forums we found this little excerpt from what is claimed to be an official picture of theSony Ericsson Nozomi. The side render coincides with what we have seen leaked in flesh and blood in the wild before, and confirms the phone is coming in white.

Granted, the image is very small, and the technical specifications are cut out, but you can still see the word "Dual" which would confirm once again that we might be having the first mutlicore Android handset from the company in the face of the Sony Ericsson Nozomi. Another proof is the 1920x1xxx line under the camera section, which would imply 1080p HD video capture that we usually associate with dual-core handsets.