Yesterday, Verizon approved Jelly Bean for the DROID 4 as build 98.72.18, but as is typical, Motorola sent the first wave of updates out to members of their feedback network (soak testers) this morning. And since that happened, the file has been pulled and made available to everyone with the device.

We have instructions for you below, so if you do not feel like waiting for the update to be pushed to your device, feel free to jump below.

The official changelog can be found here. 

Moments ago, Verizon approved the Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) update for the Motorola DROID 4. The update introduces Blur build 98.72.18 and will carry almost all of the Jelly Bean goodies that one can handle. It won’t have lock screen widgets or some of the other features added to Android 4.2, but you will finally have access to Google Now, a better keyboard, advanced notifications, and amazing Voice Search.

Motorola and Verizon also updated graphics and smoothed out transitions, made personalizing the home screen easier, and improved voice, data and hotspot connectivity.

We knew the update was on the way as Motorola invited owners of the phone into a soak test of the software last week – we just weren’t sure when the update would happen. While we haven’t heard of the soak test rolling out, this is likely a sign that it’ll start at any moment. Once that goes down successfully, the rest of the DROID 4 owners could see the update within a week or so.

Update:  Verizon has announced that the update will start rolling out in phases on March 19.

The update is 356MB in size. 

The DROID 4 may be the next in line to receive Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) from Motorola, if invites to a soak test for members of the Moto Feedback Network are any indication. A number of readers of ours received invites last night to test out a “early preview of a new software release,” though the words “Jelly Bean” were not necessarily mentioned in the emails. 

When Motorola first unveiled the new RAZR family at the beginning of September, they told us that they wouldn’t be able to update all of their previously released devices to Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). Since they had too large of a portfolio and would need to leave some out of the fun, they mentioned that owners of these devices would be able to buy a new Motorola phone and then trade in their old phone for $100. They posted the list of devices, this afternoon, which we have below. 

See that little “qe 1/1″ listed on the screenshot above of my DROID RAZR booted into recovery? According to @P3Droid and a variety of testers, this is a root checker of sorts that Motorola has built into the boot and recovery .img files of their current crop of devices, including the RAZR, RAZR MAXX and DROID 4. If you see “qe 0/0″ you are running a device that has never been rooted. If you see “qe 0/1″ you are running a device that was at one time rooted, but currently is not. If you see “qe 1/1″ like in the picture above, you are running a device that is currently rooted. 

Motorola continues to impress their fans going into the weekend with this latest news. The DROID 4 had its build of Ice Cream Sandwich approved earlier this week and we have been waiting to see when it would officially roll out for all owners. The build is the same as the previous leak, .217, and brings the device up to Android 4.0.4.

If you have been waiting for the update head over to System > About Phone > System Updates to see if the update has rolled out to your area yet.

Cheers T!

Yesterday, Verizon officially approved the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the DROID 4. Hours after posting the support docs for the update, the soak test for the device went live, a sign that normally means a public push is a few days away. Well, Motorola wasn’t interested in waiting any longer and decided to start pushing the update to non-soak testers yesterday evening.

It doesn’t sound like the update is available to be pulled by all at this time, however, there are tricks you can do to see if you can trick it. In the past, users have had success by clearing Google Services Framework in their Apps manager.

Via:  Twitter

Cheers jbartcaps!

Verizon has approved the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the DROID 4 this morning. A soak test for the update was announced last week, but we have yet to hear if it actually rolled out to any participants. What we do know, is that when Big Red approves something like this, it usually starts to appear on devices within a week.

Aside from the benefits that come with Android 4.0, you will notice better quality pictures, improved gallery performance, global roaming capabilities, less force closes and restarts, and Verizon’s Remote Diagnostics tool.

Update:  The soak test for the device is arriving today. Assuming that goes well, it should be only a matter of days before the public gets it.

The build number is 6.16.217. The Android version is 4.0.4. The update is 364MB in size. A full change list is below.