Today in Hong Kong Google and Samsung announced a new version 4.0 of Android OS as Ice Cream Sandwich. The new OS first debut in Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone. The new Android 4.0 is the main reason to make this phone really beyond smart. Here a overview of new features and improvements in new Ice Cream Sandwich.The new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is a major update for Google Android mobile platform and really promising. This has a redesigned user interface specially made for faster navigation with a great multitasking capabilities. It features Face Unlock with Facial recognition to unlock your phone, Android Beam uses NFC to easily share content with other Android users. The Android 4.0 has designed with beauty and simplicity in mind and ability to work both on mobile phones and on tablet.
“Ice Cream Sandwich demonstrates the Android platform’s continued innovation with one release that works on phones and tablets and everything in between. We created a new font that’s optimized for HD displays and eliminated all hardware buttons in favor of adaptable software buttons. We also dramatically improved the keyboard, made notifications more interactive and created resizable widgets,” said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President, Mobile Google.
New Font, Lock Screen and Home Screen improvements:
Android 4.0 comes with a new type face. Google created a new font named Roboto which was designed from the ground up for high definitions displays. The font is used throughout the operating system and gives Android a much cleaner look.
Ice Cream Sandwich features a nwe lock screen. To unlock the device, drag the circle to the right or to the left to launch directly into the camera application. Face Unlock allow users to use Android 4.0 with facial recognition functionality to unlock the device by simply holding the front-facing camera up to their face. It includes the standard hardware buttons within the UI at the bottom of the screen. The home screen changes include the ability to create folders or shortcut groupings by dragging icons on top of each other.Widgets also got more power in Android 4.0 and added scrolling, flipping and widget resizing. Widgets are now stores within the application drawer under the widgets tab. Just drag and drop a widget to the home screen and change its size to fit your needs. ICS also support virtual software buttons in the System Bar. You will be able to navigate instantly to Back, Home, and Recent App using these buttons. Ice Cream Sandwich also brings richer and interactive notifications, which will let you see incoming messages, play music tracks, and see real-time updates from apps, and much more.
Lock screen also added two line message previews for Gmail without opening them. A new action bar at the bottom of the screen highlights your labels, search and contextual functions based on where you are within the app. To switch between emails, simply swipe left or right rather than using the back button to return to your inbox. Gmail now also supports offline email search for last thirty days auto sync.
Task Manager and Multitasking:
Multitasking got a major improve with ICS. You will now find recent apps button in ICS that will let you jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. You will also be able to close app from this list by simply swiping them. ICS has uses swiping gestures to move between screen, contacts, picture, and different pages within applications. The swiping gesture is also present in the new multitasking function on ICS. Tapping the multi-tasking button on the home screen reveals all the running application on the device. Other multitasking features allow to jump to the camera or see notifications without unlocking. For incoming calls, you can respond instantly by text.
ICS adds the ability to Disabling App. If you don’t like an preinstalled app you can disable it. Its resources never run and its launcher icon is gone until you re-enable it.
Keyboard, Screen Shot, Browser and Data Usage Monitor:
The software keyboard has been improved and now its more responsive and accurate with better error correction and inline spellcheck. The Copy & Paste now features Drag & Drop. Talk to Type now is able to instantly transcribe your voice as you talk rather than waiting for you to pause or finish your sentence.
The Android 4.0 also feature native screenshot support. To take screenshot of your screen you need to press the Power and volume down keys at the same time and it'll save a high resolution .png file to your image gallery.
The Internet Browser has a revamped tab layout with faster browsing performance and a improved Download Manager. New Android browser allow you to open up to 16 tabs at a time and can easily close them by swiping them off the screen. You also can save full page for offline viewing. Support to bookmark sync with desktop Google Chrome browser and Chromes infamous incognito mode.
New Data Usage monitor make if possible to tracks all applications on device which use your data. Data Usage allow to manipulate the graph and see data uses within a specific time period. The colorful charts show the total data usage on each network type mobile or Wi-Fi, as well as amount of data used by each running application. You also can set alert for a preset value to avoid over data uses.
Camera, Photo Editor, People App, Android Beam:
The new Camera app includes many new features including built-in face detection, single-motion panorama mode, continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, decreased shot-to-shot speed and on-screen slide zoom bar. To take a panoramic picture, user starts an exposure and then slowly turns the Camera to encompass as wide a perspective as needed. The Camera assembles the full range of continuous imagery into a single panoramic photo. Video recording capabilities include 1080p capture, continuous focus, time lapse, and video snapshots You can now share directly from the camera app in one click.The Gallery app now also features built in Photo Editor. You will be able to crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and do a lot of other stuff with the app. The edited image will be saved as a copy. With geo tagging and facial recognition it also generates albums based on people and different locations.
ICS introduced a a new contacts apps called People app. The People app contacts social groups, profiles, and contacts are all linked together and integrated for easy accessibility across an Android device. People app offers richer profile information, including a largehigh resolution pictures of your contacts, Contact cards, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, events, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks. You can import contact details from multiple sources like Facebook, Twitter etc. which update automatically through the cloud.
The new Android Beam functionality brings a new level of sharing. Android Beam using the NFC hardware in devices and allow you to instantly exchange favorite apps, contacts, music, videos — almost anything with a single tap between two phones by simply holding them together. ICS also features Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth HDP.
Availability of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for my Phone:
At Android 4.0 event Google’s Gabe Cohen said that the Nexus S would definitely get Android 4.0 and he thinks most devices currently on Android 2.3 Gingerbread or higher could eventually see an update in near future. We don’t know when Google will release the actual source code for Android 4.0, but it should be shortly after the Galaxy Nexus hits store shelves in November. This means that more than likely, we won’t see any official updates to Android 4.0 until 2012.
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