This is amazing. Sony Ericsson is making available its own alpha ROM of the Xperia Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the public. This is the first time that we know that a manufacturer has openly given access to a pre-release ROM.
The alpha ROM will only work on three Xperia phones: arc S, neo V and ray. For those Xperia arc and Xperia neo users wondering whether they should try this, you are warned not to as the phones have different partition layouts compared to the arc S and neo V.
As you would expect from an alpha ROM, it is not intended for daily use. There are many bugs, one major one includes the inability to make calls. Other features turned off include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Google apps. However, new features include the new Roboto font, a new “Holo” theme, music player control from the lock screen, swipe to dismiss notifications and new user interface touches in the settings menu and browser.
You will obviously need to have your bootloader unlocked if you want to try this out. You will also need to be running the latest firmware update (4.0.2.A.0.42). Full download and installation instructions can be found here. See a demo of it in action below.
More information at xda-developers.