[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] littlewierdo:
I hate to pull a 'well actually', but Im going to do so.

Carriers are well known for sitting on updates even tho they are ready. There are a number of reasons for doing so, marketing being a big reason. By controlling WHEN a release is pushed, they can market other phone models or actually advertise big OS updates, often times making the carrier sound like THEY actually did all the hard work and their customers should appreciate the OS update as a good deed by the carrier.

Anyone remember the Samsung Captivate? Gingerbread? How long did it take to come to the Captivate 'officially'? The rumour, although no one for sure can say, is that AT&T sat on this update and decided never to release it. Samsung then decided to take it upon themselves and provide the update via Kies Mini (PC software with the SOLE purpose of updating firmware via your PC rather than the carrier delivering said update). It was shortly after this that AT&T began making the update available over the air, after Samsung forced their hand. Likely, all of this was to push Captivate users to buy a newer model phone with LTE (which means higher priced data plans).

AT&T typically pushes firmware updates and new phone releases, both on Sundays. Dont ask me why, I just know that is what they 'usually' do. However, to give the benefit of the doubt, maybe they are planning something different.

Anyone remember the Lumia 900 (flagship Windows Phone 7 made by Nokia)? This was announced as officially coming out on Easter Sunday (Easter in the states) but since AT&T wasnt actually open, they had to sell it on Monday. Someone at AT&T forgot to look at a calendar.

The S3 is supposed to be available at AT&T June 18th according to this article (end of the second to last paragraph in the first section). This article was written today.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/352985/20120616/samsung-galaxy-s3-release-date-verizon-canada.htm

Read the entire paragraph, for the context of the use of the word 'intended'.

Now, the 18th falls on a Monday which has me scratching my head because everything being reported is simply not the way AT&T usually does things. Even more funny is, no one seems to actually KNOW when the S3 will be available and if the ICS update is supposed to coincide with the release of the S3 (again, quite frankly, I dont know why AT&T would care, they are both not really related to each other), and no one knows when the S3 will be available for AT&T customers, how can anyone determine the release of this firmware?

So, my opinion? We are looking at either June 17th (tomorrow) or June 24th if Samsung and AT&T keep their promise of Q2. BUT, I have heard that ICS was delayed for all carriers because Samsung is fixing a kernel bug, code that exists in ALL variants of the Note that caused hard bricks when flashing roms on variants containing the quadcore processors found in the international Note. I know the way I said that was likely confusing so let me clarify. The kernel code exists in all variants of the Note. However, the code does NOT affect the dual core processor variants of the Note. But Samsung is fixing said code in all variants of the Note, their are a number of potential reasons why that I wont go into here. This bug was fixed back at the end of May but this ate into the carrier testing period so it was delayed. I could totally be wrong here but Im guessing July 1rst, which would be close enough to Q2 that I doubt anyone could really ***** about it not being in Q2.

One other comment...

An official ICS update means source code!. Many of us are waiting for an official update not specifically so we can flash it but so that we can begin to see some real rom development start happening beyond themes and generic tweaks. Not that I dont appreciate the work that has already been done but I am really curious as to what the Note is 'really' capable of.