Thread: All Things Android

Originally Posted by Butterfly

shouldn't they be on the AndroidTard devices ?

Your trolling is almost as pathetic as MtD in the rugby thread.



Symbian, the best mobile OS ever...

Watch what happens...

So I took the Android plunge. Mostly OK except the Samsung Kies program for syncing to a PC. It hogs a lot of memory and slows down my notebook.

I have "massaged" my contacts and agreed I won't be using it much but is there another?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Yep, the retard hasn't grasped that it's an Android device. And it may well have a Wifi on/off switch, which he still won't be able to find.
What a wanker.
__________________

CyanogenMod-7.1 Released!



CyanogenMod-7.1 Released! | CyanogenMod

It’s been far too long since our last official release, but I’m happy to present CyanogenMod-7.1! I apologize for the long delay, and I hope to speed up our release process in the future. We originally planned to release this last weekend at the Big Android BBQ but some issues with our automated build system held it back.
You’ll find many new features (read the CHANGELOG) and support for building on 68 devices! Upgrading from any previous CM-7 release or nightly build should be smooth and no wipe should be required.
New devices since 7.0 included in today’s release are:

• HTC Desire S
• HTC Incredible S
• HTC Incredible 2
• LG Optimus 2X and T-Mobile G2x
• Motorola Backflip (Motus)
• Motorola Cliq / Cliq XT
• Motorola Defy
• Motorola Droid 2
• Motorola Droid X
• Samsung Captivate
• Samsung Fascinate
• Samsung Mesmerize
• Samsung Showcase
• Samsung Vibrant
• Samsung Galaxy S
• Samsung Galaxy S2 (multiple carriers)
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X8
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
• ZTE V9

Tue, Oct 11 2011 | Published in News Android Ice Cream Sandwich expected this month

By: Stuff Staff

We’re gearing up for the – probable – launch on 28th October of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (until yesterday named the Nexus Prime) but could we have a Samsung Unpacked bonus to look forward to in the form of a new Android OS?
It’s looking likely, as the official Android Developers channel on YouTube just put up a countdown to the launch of Android 4.0. TechCrunch noticed the blunder, which is even headlined Android ICS launch, before it was taken down.
Ice Cream Sandwich should be available on older ‘droid handsets and if rumours are to be believed, it will combine the tablet and mobile UIs of Honeycomb and Gingerbread into one all-powerful Android OS. Other tweaks are set to include a new app launcher and panoramic camera mode.

Opera Mobile 11.5 update for Android

Edwin Kee 10/11/2011 22:43 PDT
Digg0 0 0


If you’re rocking to an Android-powered smartphone and also love the Opera Mobile browser to bits, then you would be pleased to hear that there is a new update for the app – where Opera Mobile for Android has just been bumped to version 11.5, and it sports a spanking new mobile data monitor. This built-in support allows you to keep track of the amount of mobile data that you have consumed as the browser keeps a running count of traffic. This is perfect for those who are on a limited data plan, but I suspect most of us bite into unlimited data plans already on our devices.
Another function of this feature would be to work as an advert for its server-side compression tool, Opera Turbo. Opera has also “implemented adding bookmarks to Home Screen” that would most probably allow the user the option to send Web links to the Home screen as icons. If you’re interested in the entire bunch of changes, then hit the source link that will lead to Opera Mobile’s blog.

AsiaD 2011: New venue for Galaxy Nexus, Ice Cream Sandwich launch?

By: Alan Ng | October 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment




If you are patiently waiting for the latest updates on Google’s new handset, listen up as we have just heard some important details regarding a possible new location for the highly anticipated Google and Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone launch.
Whispers are now stating that Hong Kong is the new venue for the launch and that it will take place during the AsiaD event, held by All Things Digital. That event starts on October 19th and will take place inside the Grand Hyatt hotel in the Wanchai district of Hong Kong island.
Information received by Engadget’s tipster states that Google and Samsung will now be there at the event to discuss the launch of the Galaxy Nexus or Nexus Prime, and that we will finally be given a solid release date for the device as well as launch details for Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.
If the information is correct, then it means that it may be Google’s Andy Rubin and Samsung Mobile’s Dr. Won-Pyo Hong who do the honors of announcing the new smartphone, as they are already two confirmed speakers at the event, according to the AsiaD lineup. On a side note, Apple’s Phil Schiller will also be speaking at the event, as will Sony’s main man Kaz Hirai also – a stellar lineup to say the least.
Considering the scale of the event, we think it is definitely a logical move for Google and Samsung to choose AsiaD for the Nexus Prime reveal. That is just one week away of course, so if the news is legit, we presume that Google and Samsung will start sending invitations out by the end of the week.

Where's a good website or something with information to help a newbie to Android?

It needs to be very simple because I am too....

^ quick answer: no

buy an iPad if you want simplicity, that's what they are for

buy a galaxy mini ( s5570 ) and use it as a PDA and GPS for a while

Originally Posted by jizzybloke

Where's a good website or something with information to help a newbie to Android?

It needs to be very simple because I am too....

Have you already bought an Android device?

It's a good question and I'll post a set of links later.

Ignore ButtPlug, he's a retard.

Android Sites and Links thread now here (Useful Android Sites/Links)

What a total fucking disaster, that's all have to say.

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

What a total fucking disaster, that's all have to say.

Couldn't agree more, but then again I never actually bother searching it anyway.

And if you think that's bad, try the WP7 one.

Samsung to unveil new Android model October 19 after delay







SEOUL | Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:16pm EDT

(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics said on Friday that it planned to unveil a new smartphone based on Google's latest version of the Android operating system at an event in Hong Kong on October 19.
The announcement came after the world's second-biggest handset maker put off the launch of the new device based on the Ice Cream Sandwich system while the world paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last week.
"We are unpacking our new Android phone in concurrence with Google," Samsung said in a statement on Friday, without disclosing the name of the new gadget.
Apple and Samsung are engaged in a bruising legal battle that includes more than 20 cases in 10 countries as the two jostle for the top spot in the smartphone and tablet markets. Apple is also the biggest customer of Samsung, buying mainly chips and displays.
Apple's new iPhone 4S finally went on sale in stores around the globe on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Jobs' lifetime.
A U.S. judge said on Thursday Samsung's Galaxy tablets infringe Apple iPad patents, but also that Apple has a problem establishing the validity of its patents.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

Google Translate for Android now converses in 14 languages

George Wong 10/13/2011 16:12 PDT

In addition to support for more languages, Google Translate lets users add unrecognized words to their own personal dictionary, and users can now zoom on translations to view the text in full screen mode. The Google Translate App can text translations of 63 languages. The updated version of the app is available from the Android Market now (free). Check it out and let us know what you think.




Actually I had the rep from Google Apps in a while back, and he demonstrated to me how you can invite a translator bot to Google Chat and then type in English to someone in Dubai who's typing in Arabic. Worked really well.

But now speech-to-speech translation? Miles ahead of Siri.

Secure Android for the enterprise to arrive next year

14 October 2011
Whilst a growing number of Android smartphone and tablet users are waiting for the arrival of Android 4 – aka Ice Cream Sandwich – next month, it looks like a secure version of Android could be available real soon now, as 3LM has quietly unveiled a platform test edition of Android 3LM.

3LM stands for `The Three Laws of Mobility' and is a subsidiary of Motorola Mobility which Google acquired earlier this year. The gameplan for Android 3LM – which some commentators have dubbed Android ES (Enterprise Secure) – is for the platform to be offered to Android device vendors later this month, with enterprise customer trials spanning multiple vertical markets (government, healthcare, retail and education) starting early next year.
The platform was unveiled at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications 2011 conference - which is being held this week in San Diego - and features device plus SD card encryption; encryption of business apps; the ability to blacklist/whitelist apps; remote wipe facilities; VPN support; device location and a curiously-named `breadcrumb tracking' technology.
Infosecurity understands that Android 3LM – which is a fork (variant) of Android 3.2 – will be available to any smartphone or tablet manufacturer, but it is likely to attract a licensing charge. The big question, of course, is whether consumer and small business smartphone/tablet users will also get access to the operating system, but coders are reportedly already making plans to develop custom Android ROMs for mainstream devices.
Announcing the enterprise secure flavor of Android, Tom Moss, 3LM's CEO, said that the company is introducing a new generation of corporate mobile security and management capabilities to the Android landscape.
This will, he said, deliver a unique architecture that enables even the most security-conscious IT administrators to empower users to bring their Android devices into the workplace and have these devices access and manipulate corporate data.
“We believe this is a bold opportunity for the enterprise market – as the Android operating system continues to outpace the growth of other operating systems – providing a win-win for IT and corporate end-users, protecting the integrity of corporate data while also preserving user’s freedom to use their Android OS-based devices to their fullest potential”, he explained.
The VPN feature of the new operating system seems well thought-out, as it is billed as supporting secure remote access (via VPN), remote device health and status checking, and the ability to identify each device using a unique IP address, allowing it to be tracked as a network endpoint.
This latter feature could prove a headache for most cellcos, Infosecurity notes, as - like most ISPs – Ipv4 numbers are running out quickly, but this will almost certainly trigger a migration to IpV6 for business users by cellcos.

Firefox preps native Android interface

Web beast promises snappy response
By Gavin Clarke • Get more from this author
The Firefox interface on Android is going native – for snappier performance and to gobble less memory.
Mozilla has decided the Firefox UI for Android will be built using native code instead of the XML-based language Mozilla had used, called XUL. It seems Firefox will continue to use the Gecko layout engine.

Director of Firefox engineering Johnathan Nightingale wrote: "Firefox on Android is a critical part of supporting the open web, and this decision puts us in a position to build the best Firefox possible."

The change is not expected to take effect in Firefox 8 or 9 – to be released in November and December respectively – but will kick in afterwards.
A native Firefox UI will mean start-up times of fractions of a second compared to several seconds for a XUL user interface on certain Android-powered phones.
Using native code will also mean greater responsiveness and should lead to "significantly" less consumption of a phone's memory, Nightingale said.
The changes seem to fit into what is emerging as an across-the-board refresh of Firefox. This includes making the browser work better for different categories of users through code changes to making updates, which have become more frequent and less of a chore to install.
The move to a native UI comes as Firefox begins to feel pressure from Google's Chrome: FFox's market-share growth has plateaued while that of the Google browser continues. Google's Android, meanwhile, represents a growth opportunity thanks to the mobile operating system's growth in devices.
Google opened Android to native development in June 2009 with the Android 1.5 Native Development Kit (NDK). The NDK lets you build apps using native languages such as C and C++, which is compiled to run with a particular processor and instructions for greater speed and improved performance.
XUL is Mozilla's XML-based language that was conceived to let you build feature-rich apps capable of running on different platforms or in disconnected mode.
A native browser for Android could prove a headache for Firefox plug-in developers, who'll have to straddle different coding platforms. Aware of this, Nightingale said: "It's still early days, so we have a lot of questions to answer. We're talking with the Add-on SDK team about the best way to support extensions.
The Firefox team is meeting in Toronto, Canada, next week to break down and prioritise the work. "By the end of next week, we will have a clearer outline of the work ahead, and we'll update this list with those detail," Nightingale said. ®

Hybrid browser to lead Opera's Android charge (exclusive)

by Stephen Shankland October 17, 2011 4:15 AM PDT

Opera CEO Lars Boilesen
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)


OSLO, Norway--The rise of Android and its built-in browser could be seen as very bad news for Opera Software, a company that's built a business with a mobile browser popular on the very low-end devices that Android smartphones often replace.



But Opera sees things differently: Android is a major part of its plan for future growth. And a product due in 2012 that marries the Norwegian company's two mobile browsers, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile, will lead the company's defense of its mobile-browsing stronghold, CNET can report exclusively.
Opera Mobile is a traditional browser, with an engine to process the Web page code and run JavaScript programs. Opera Mini leaves all that heavy lifting to an Opera server that sends a boiled-down version of the page to the phone. Though the Mini approach hobbles some Web sites' interactive features, it cuts network usage significantly, eases battery life, and lets Opera Mini run on devices too feeble for Opera Mobile. Opera has more than 140 million browser users per month the vast majority using Opera Mini.



With the hybrid approach that Opera plans for Android devices, the Mobile browser will detect when the network is strained and switch into a Mini mode to cut the data-transfer burden, Chief Executive Lars Boilesen said in an interview here. No longer will Opera users have to decide on their own whether Opera Mobile or Opera Mini would be better at a particular moment.



"We'd like to take Mini and put it into Mobile," Boilesen told CNET. "We call it Opera with Turbo for Android...That is something we are looking forward to launch at the beginning of next year."



Benefiting from the Android threat
With the hybrid browser, Opera is trying to turn a business threat--Android--into an opportunity. Net Applications' analytics show Android's stock browser growing as a percentage of global Web usage while Opera Mini is dwindling. But Boilesen believes the large number of Opera Mini users can be converted to Opera Mobile once they upgrade to Android.



Opera Software is trying to get its employees to help promote Opera Mobile and Mini for Android with this fake money featuring CFO Erik Harrell.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)


"In countries where we have more than a million [Opera mobile browser] users, we have a very strong brand. It's natural for them to ask to use Opera on whatever phone they get," Boilesen said.



And since January 2010, when Boilesen took over as CEO from Opera co-founder Jon S. von Tetzchner, the number of countries with a million or more Opera mobile browser users has increased from three or four to more than 20.
For that reason, Opera has launched a major Android push. It's no coincidence that when Opera launched the first versions of Opera Mini 6.5 and Opera Mobile 11.5 last week, it began with Android versions.



"We're more focused on Opera for Android. It takes time to make a really good browser. Now we have it, so we're really aggressive," Boilesen said.
How aggressive? "We should get to a 10 percent market share as soon as possible. That's our target" for Android now, Boilesen said. "I think we're on our way to do that. We now have 5 or 6 million users, and we have good reviews."
The marketing department is shifting into a higher gear, too. The Opera offices in Oslo are littered with fake money sporting the face of Chief Financial Officer Erik Harrell; each bill exhorts employees to spread the word about Opera for Android. "Tweet like you've never tweeted before," the bills say.
Monthly Opera Mini users more than in Russia in the last half year, rising from just over 300,000 in April to 700,000 in September. Opera believes it'll be able to convert Opera Mini users on lower-end phones to Opera Mobile and Mini users on Android, particularly in countries such as Russia where the company has a strong brand.
(Credit: Opera)
It's true that Opera is at a disadvantage because its mobile browsers aren't generally preinstalled on Android devices--though some Samsung products are an exception. But that's par for the course for Opera, which has dealt with Internet Explorer being built into Windows for the company's entire history, and Boilesen thinks the company's upcoming data-thrifty hybrid browser will appeal to the carriers that can be powerful allies.



"In the U.S. you have a lot of capacity issues. There are so many smartphones connected to base stations," a big problem for the carriers, he said. "We help them to take away traffic through our server compression engine. If you're on a very busy network, or if you have a slow connection, [Opera's hybrid browser] is something operators will be interested in."



Growth besides the U.S. is very important to Opera, though--the "BRIC" countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China being high on the priority list given their growing use of mobile Web. The first three are doing well, but Opera launched a joint venture with China Telling called Oupeng to try to make better headway in China.



"In all BRIC countries we are the market leaders, but in China we were very small. Something was wrong...Our user experience was not ideal. It's all based on typing URLs," Boilesen said. But in China, the company needed to "use a light portal with keywords. You put relevant content in front of users. We realized either we had to create lot of content, or we had to invest a lot and find a partner."



Opera's Turbo boost
Turbo is the name of the feature in Opera Mobile and in the personal-computer version of Opera that cuts data usage by using Opera's servers by compressing images, for example. The hybrid version means Web page code such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS also won't have to sent over the mobile network.



Here's a comparison I ran using the new data-tallying feature of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini. The BBC's home page is 1.7MB, a size you can check using Opera running its default state with Turbo turned off. Turning Turbo on shrinks the page size to 519KB. With Opera Mini, the page size shrinks even more, to just 304KB.
Opera's mobile browsers now tell people how much data the proxy-server approach is cutting out of their data plans.
(Credit: Opera Software)


Though Boilesen said the new hybrid approach would arrive early in 2012, Chief Development Officer Christen Krogh--who's in charge of actually delivering it--said Opera hasn't yet pinned down a specific schedule.



But Krogh was enthusiastic about the approach, seeing it as the natural combination of its mobile browsers and mobile-phone computing trends.
"With Opera Mini, we're going from the bottom up. We see these feature phones becoming more and more capable. And for Opera Mobile, it comes in from the top. It's fantastic for tablets, and good for smartphones," Krogh said. "We have these two forces, one from the top and one from the bottom. You don't need a doctorate in statistics to see at some point the twain will meet."
Revenue derived from partnerships with operators has become Opera's biggest source of money.
(Credit: Opera Software)

Better business
Two years ago, Opera was struggling financially, but it's back in the black now. One of the hard decisions the executives had to make was abandoning one of the company's two earlier businesses, consultancy work building custom browsers for carriers. That meant Opera's business had just one leg to stand on for a long time--the ad revenue shared from search-engine partners to whom Opera drives search queries.



"It's been tough, but we feel we are better off now. It was healthy for us to get away from this consultancy business," Boilesen said. "That freed up new resources. We put them on an Android browser. We have now Opera Mobile for Android. It's really going well."



Indeed, Opera finances continue to improve: revenue for the second quarter of 2011 increased 29 percent to $40 million, up from $31 million the year earlier, and profit rose even more, 47 percent, from $3.6 million to $5.3 million.
"The last four quarters have been record quarters," Boilesen said. "Now the focus is how to build on that."



One major effort is to penetrate the TV market. Opera has deals to embed its browser in products from Sony, Toshiba, Philips, Loewe, and Sharp, and at least one other big-name partner is in the works. With the deals, Opera's technology can be used as a traditional browser, but Krogh demonstrated at the company's Up North Web press event how it's also a basic engine to reach big icons that can be operated with just a remote control.



That means Opera becomes a platform to reach an ecosystem of TV-friendly apps that happent to be built with browser technologies--video on demand, games, or reading news with CSS-based page-reading technology proposed by Chief Technology Officer Haakon Wium Lie that can be operated with a remote control's four-way rocker switch.
Christen Krogh, Opera's chief development officer, shows the Opera-powered app interface in Sony Bravia TVs.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)


Opera also is pushing into app store work with its Handster acquisition. That technology is used to power app stores for LG Electronics, Ericsson, and others, but it can be used for TVs, too. Opera also has payment processing abilities that Boilesen expects will mean new commerce-derived revenue. "People will be buying real stuff and not just software on the Net," he said.
Another Opera growth effort is in advertising. The company's January 2010 acquisition of AdMarvel means it now has ad-exchange technology that publishers can use to deliver ads targeted to particular demographics or areas. The service dovetails with the Opera servers used for Opera Mini.
And the company, which now has 750 employees, is hiring.
"We're back on the growth path," Boilesen said.

Ice Cream Sandwich: The Most Delicious Android Yet

Unlock your phone with a smile, tab through the browser windows, shoot panoramic images, and automate polite text replies to unwanted calls -- Android 4.0 does it all.

By Armando Rodriguez, PCWorld Oct 19, 2011 9:10 am
From its navigation methods to fonts, Android is redesigned and refreshed in its Ice Cream Sandwich edition to meet the tastes of its users. Google introduced the update to Honeycomb and Gingerbread Tuesday night alongside Samsung's debut of the Galaxy Nexus. Here are the highlights.
The Lock and Homescreens

Android 4.0's custom tray The Android 4.0 lockscreen closely resembles the one found on Android Honeycomb tablets: a lock icon, surrounded by a circle, which you flick outward to unlock the phone. Home screens behave the same way as they currently do on Android (swipe left or right to navigate, open an app drawer, retrieve widgets, and so on) except you now get a customizable “favorites tray” that resembles the dock in iOS. Because the Galaxy Nexus lacks physical navigation buttons, the Back, Home, and Recent Apps icons are located at the bottom of the screen and lit up when touched. Google gave no word on how ICS will work on older phones with physical nav buttons, but future phones running Android 4.0 may lack them as well.
The app drawer is updated to look more like the one in Honeycomb and you now scroll through apps by swiping left or right. Widgets have their own tab in the app drawer to make them easier to find. They look and work like the ones we have seen on Honeycomb, and are resizeable so you can fit them wherever you feel like.
Taking another leaf out of Apple’s book, Android 4.0 lets you create folders by dragging one app onto another. Apps can be rearranged in folders by dragging them around and folders can be renamed to your liking.
Recent Apps and Gestures

If you tap the Recent Apps icon at the bottom right of the screen, a scrollable list of running apps pops up -- each with a thumbnail image of that application. You can close a particular app by flicking it away. The flicking gesture command is accepted throughout Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and is also used to dismiss specific notifications in the Notification Tray.
Besides accepting gestures, the Notification Tray displays photos and supports music controls, so you don’t have to go into a specific app in order to skip a song or pause your music. The Notification Tray is now accessible without having to unlock your phone. Just drag down the tray from the lockscreen and you can quickly jump to new text messages or e-mail messages by tapping on a notification. I like the fact that you can quickly get into apps without having to unlock the phone first, but I hope Google puts a security measure in place so that not just anyone can access your private communications.
Speaking of security, in Android 4.0 your face can be used to unlock your phone. Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus support facial recognition, so the phone can be set to unlock only if it recognizes your face. When demoed on stage, the phone failed to recognize its owner and defaulted back to the traditional pattern unlock screen. Let's hope the Android team gets the kinks worked out before launch, and that other phone manufacturers support this feature in future handsets.
Core Apps Updated

All the core Android apps are getting a facelift and new features, though only the Browser, Calender, and Gmail were explicitly detailed at the introduction event.
Browser tabs The Browser now supports incognito mode and your bookmarks from the Chrome browser on desktop are now synced to the Browser in ICS. Google adds support for tabbed browsing, and you can quickly view which tabs are open, each with a live preview of that page. As with the notifications and Recent Apps list, you can quickly close tabs by flicking them away.
The biggest update to the Browser has to be the capability to save pages for offline reading. You can save web pages exactly as they are, and access them even when you don’t have a data connection. This is great for people who find an interesting article they want to read, but are going to be in an area with little to no data coverage.
Easy e-mail Gmail also received a substantial update and is now much faster to use, thanks to the new Action Bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar is context-sensitive and changes depending on where you are in Gmail. For example, when viewing your inbox you the Action Bar has options for composing a new message, searching for a specific message, and so on. However, once you select one or more e-mail messages, the Action Bar buttons change and offer options to Delete, Archive, or Move those selected messages.
A new preview pane allows you to preview messages without having to open them, and you can now search through the last 30 days of your e-mail offline. It's unclear whether these updates are exclusive to the ICS Gmail app, or if the Gmail app on older Android devices will be updated to support these features as well.
The Calendar was mentioned only briefly, but you can now pinch to zoom in on your calendar events to see more details about specific events or you can zoom out to see all your events for that day. It's pretty cool, and beats tapping each event individually to find out more about it.
Maps, Music, and other core apps were updated as well but weren’t demonstrated.
Talk To Me

Yes, the Android keyboard is updated for better text predictions, but the show-stealer was definitely the improvements that were made to the speech-to-text software.
Previously, in order to dictate a text message or other text field, you had to manually press the voice command key on the keyboard to activate it. Now, you simply start talking to your phone and the software activates automatically. While it's not exactly on the level of Siri, this is huge for people who use their phones while driving, since it no longer requires them to fuss with their phones to activate the dictation software.
Cut and Paste is improved upon even further as well. Now you can drag selected text to the position you want, and the controls for cutting and pasting text are more consistent throughout the operating system.
Camera and Gallery

The camera on the Galaxy Nexus has zero shutter lag -- and demonstrators proved it by rapidly taking a series of photos just seconds apart. We still aren’t sure if that is a feature of Android 4.0 or if it’s exclusive to the Galaxy Nexus, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Image editing tools Once you snap a photo, you can quickly share it by tapping on it. A list of applications you could use to share the photo will pop up, and you can quickly select where you’d like to send the photo. If the photo could use a touch-up, ICS provides an impressive array of photo editing tools. These include various filters (which were lovingly described as “hipster”), the capability to adjust the image angle, red eye removal, cropping capabilities, and a few others that were not discussed. Any edits you make to a photo will create a copy, in case you ever want to go back to the original.
ICS also comes with a simple-to-use panorama mode. You just set the mode to panoramic, then take the first picture. A slider at the bottom of the screen guides you so you know when to move the phone, and you can preview the image as the device stitches the pictures together. I would expect to see way more panoramic pictures on Facebook and Twitter once Android 4.0 launches.
Video recording gains continuous focus as well as support for time-lapse and video snapshots.
Like with the Notification Tray, you can quickly access the phone camera from the phone lockscreen by flicking the lock icon to the left. A small camera icon pops up and you can launch straight into the Camera app.
People App and the Dialer

Android 4 contacts The Contacts app is revamped as the new People app. The People app functions in the same way as the Contacts app found in Android 2.x, but it changes contact cards to show much more information at a glance. Nice big photos replace the tiny thumbnails, and you can quickly see a contact's recent photos or status updates. If that person is your friend on a social network, that data is automatically pulled so you can easily see their latest Tweet without having to open the Twitter app. Though described as an evolution of the current Contacts app, this felt more like a fine-tuning than a sensational leap forward.
The Dialer also has a few tweaks here and there. You can now retrieve voice mails from inside the call log, and can speed up or slow down their playback. Those nice big photos in the People app take up the entire screen whenever someone calls you, and you can send a Quick Response to anyone whose call you decline. Quick Responses are customizable canned text message responses that you can send to a caller to explain why you declined their call. It's pretty neat, and I can see myself using them on people I want to avoid.
Android Beam

Google is really pushing Near Field Communications with its Google Wallet app, and Android Beam in Ice Cream Sandwich is just another reason to own an NFC-equipped phone.
With Android Beam, you can share any contacts or content between two Android devices just by tapping them together. You can share webpages, maps, and even apps. It's handy if you want to give your friends directions or want to share an article you found while browsing the web.
Odds and Ends

Google mentioned tighter Google+ integration in Ice Cream Sandwich, but didn’t really demo anything. Representatives did, however, bring up the subject of data caps, and described a way for to better manage data usage.
Data usage map By going to Settings>Data Usage, you can see a chart of how much data you have used that month as well as an estimate of your expected usage. You can also set limits and alerts so that you know exactly when you exceed your data limit, so you don’t get hit with overages. You can also select specific sections of the chart to see which apps used the most data that day. The phone will show you a breakdown of how much data that app uses, and allow you to restrict the app so that it uses data only when you want it to.
This is a huge step in giving users more control over their phones, and should help save people the headache of accidentally exceeding data limits.
Android 4.0 adds a handful of new live wallpapers as well as a new font aptly titled "Roboto." The live wallpapers were kind of neat, but Roboto was interesting because it is designed to be used on high-density displays. Since Ice Cream Sandwich natively supports 1280-by-720-pixel displays, let’s hope it gets used a whole lot more often. Barometer support is also added, although its use is unclear.
The first Ice Cream Sandwich equipped phone will be the Nexus Galaxy, which launches in November, but the SDK is available for developers now on the Android.com website. Now we wait to find out which phones are getting a tasty Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Android 4.0: a mouthful in more ways than one

By Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 19 October 2011 15:51


Google has announced the next version of Android, 4.0 and as the version numbers get bigger, so do the names. This one goes by the moniker "Ice Cream Sandwich". Unlike its namesake, it promises to be "refined".



For users 4.0 promises to make common actions more visible and to enable users to navigate with simple, intuitive gestures. "Refined animations and feedback throughout the system make interactions engaging and interesting," and "an entirely new typeface optimised for high-resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished, modern feel to the user interface."


New home screen folders offer a new way for users to group their apps and shortcuts by dragging one onto another. From the All Apps launcher, users can now simply drag an app to get information about it or immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.


On smaller-screen devices, the home screen now includes a customisable favourites tray visible from all home screens. Users can drag apps, shortcuts, folders and other priority items in or out of the favourites tray for instant access from any home screen.


A full list of new features is available here.
Xavier Ducrohet, Android SDK tech Lead, writing on the Android Developers' blog listed the main new features for developers as being
- A single set of user interface components, styles and capabilities for phones, tablets and other devices;
- New social and calendar APIs, Android Beam for NFC-based instant sharing, Wi-Fi Direct support, Bluetooth Health Device Profile support;
- Improved notifications, lock screen with camera and music controls, and improved app management in the launcher.
- Image and video effects, precise camera metering and face detection, new media codecs and containers;
- Hardware-accelerated 2D drawing, new grid-based layout, improved soft keyboard, spell-checker API, stylus input support, and better mouse support;
- New accessibility APIs and text-to-speech APIs for writing new engines;
- Keychain and VPN APIs for managing credentials and connections, a new administrator policy for disabling the camera.

Android 4.0 for Users


Simple, beautiful, beyond smart

Android 4.0 builds on the things people love most about Android — easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity — and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.
Refined, evolved UI
Focused on bringing the power of Android to the surface, Android 4.0 makes common actions more visible and lets users navigate with simple, intuitive gestures. Refined animations and feedback throughout the system make interactions engaging and interesting. An entirely new typeface optimized for high-resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished, modern feel to the user interface.
Virtual buttons in the System Bar let users navigate instantly to Back, Home, and Recent Apps. The System Bar and virtual buttons are present across all apps, but can be dimmed by applications for full-screen viewing. Users can access each application's contextual options in the Action Bar, displayed at the top (and sometimes also at the bottom) of the screen.
Multitasking is a key strength of Android and it's made even easier and more visual on Android 4.0. The Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list pops up to show thumbnail images of apps used recently — tapping a thumbnail switches to the app.
The Recent Apps list makes multitasking simple.
Jump to the camera or see notifications without unlocking.
For incoming calls, you can respond instantly by text.


Rich and interactive notifications let users keep in constant touch with incoming messages, play music tracks, see real-time updates from apps, and much more. On smaller-screen devices, notifications appear at the top of the screen, while on larger-screen devices they appear in the System Bar.
The All Apps launcher (left) and resizable widgets (right) give you apps and rich content from the home screen.


Home screen folders and favorites tray
New home screen folders offer a new way for users to group their apps and shortcuts logically, just by dragging one onto another. From the All Apps launcher, users can now simply drag an app to get information about it or immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.
On smaller-screen devices, the home screen now includes a customizable favorites tray visible from all home screens. Users can drag apps, shortcuts, folders, and other priority items in or out of the favorites tray for instant access from any home screen.
Resizable widgets
Home screens in Android 4.0 are designed to be content-rich and customizable. Users can do much more than add shortcuts — they can embed live application content directly through interactive widgets. Widgets let users check email, flip through a calendar, play music, check social streams, and more — right from the home screen, without having to launch apps. Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink them to save space.
New lock screen actions
The lock screens now let users do more without unlocking. From the slide lock screen, users can jump directly to the camera for a picture or pull down the notifications window to check for messages. When listening to music, users can even manage music tracks and see album art.
Quick responses for incoming calls
When an incoming call arrives, users can now quickly respond by text message, without needing to pick up the call or unlock the device. On the incoming call screen, users simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. Users can add their own responses and manage the list from the Settings app.
Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs
Android 4.0 makes managing notifications, recent apps, and browoser tabs even easier. Users can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs lists with a simple swipe of a finger.
A spell-checker lets you find errors and fix them faster.
A powerful voice input engine lets you dictate continously.


Improved text input and spell-checking
The soft keyboard in Android 4.0 makes text input even faster and more accurate. Error correction and word suggestion are improved through a new set of default dictionaries and more accurate heuristics for handling cases such as double-typed characters, skipped letters, and omitted spaces. Word suggestion is also improved and the suggestion strip is simplified to show only three words at a time.
To fix misspelled words more easily, Android 4.0 adds a spell-checker that locates and underlines errors and suggests replacement words. With one tap, users can choose from multiple spelling suggestions, delete a word, or add it to the dictionary. Users can even tap to see replacement suggestions for words that are spelled correctly. For specialized features or additional languages, users can now download and install third-party dictionaries, spell-checkers, and other text services.
Powerful voice input engine
Android 4.0 introduces a powerful new voice input engine that offers a continuous "open microphone" experience and streaming voice recognition. The new voice input engine lets users dictate the text they want, for as long as they want, using the language they want. Users can speak continously for a prolonged time, even pausing for intervals if needed, and dictate punctuation to create correct sentences. As the voice input engine enters text, it underlines possible dictation errors in gray. After dictating, users can tap the underlined words to quickly replace them from a list of suggestions.
Data usage controls let you monitor total usage by network type and application and then set limits if needed.


Control over network data
Mobile devices can make extensive use of network data for streaming content, synchronizing data, downloading apps, and more. To meet the needs of users with tiered or metered data plans, Android 4.0 adds new controls for managing network data usage.
In the Settings app, 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. Based on their data plans, users can optionally set warning levels or hard limits on data usage or disable mobile data altogether. Users can also manage the background data used by individual applications as needed.
Designed for accessibility
A variety of new features greatly enhance the accessibility of Android 4.0 for blind or visually impaired users. Most important is a new explore-by-touch mode that lets users navigate without having to see the screen. Touching the screen once triggers audible feedback that identifies the UI component below; a second touch in the same component activates it with a full touch event. The new mode is especially important to support users on new devices that use virtual buttons in the System Bar, rather than dedicated hardware buttons or trackballs. Also, standard apps are updated to offer an improved accessibility experience. The Browser supports a script-based screen reader for reading favorite web content and navigating sites. For improved readability, users can also increase the default font size used across the system.
The accessibility experience begins at first setup — a simple touch gesture during setup (clockwise square from upper left) activates all accessibility features and loads a setup tutorial. Once accessibility features are active, everything visible on the screen can be spoken aloud by the standard screen reader.
Communication and sharing

Contacts and profiles are integrated across apps and social networks, for a consistent, personal experience everywhere — from incoming calls to emails.


Designed for the way people live, Android 4.0 integrates rich social communication and sharing touchpoints across the system, making it easy to talk, email, text, and share.
People and profiles
Throughout the system, a user’s social groups, profiles, and contacts are linked together and integrated for easy accessibility. At the center is a new People app that offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.
The user's own contact information is stored in a new "Me" profile, allowing easier sharing with apps and people. All of the user's integrated contacts are displayed in an easy to manage list, including controls over which contacts are shown from any integrated account or social network. Wherever the user navigates across the system, tapping a profile photo displays Quick Contacts, with shortcuts to phone numbers, text messaging, and more.
Unified calendar, visual voicemail
To help organize appointments and events, an updated Calendar app brings together personal, work, school, and social agendas. With user permission, other applications can contribute events to the calendar and manage reminders, for an integrated view across multiple calendar providers. The app is redesigned to let users manage events more easily. Calendars are color-coded and users can swipe left or right to change dates and pinch to zoom in or out agendas.
In the phone app, a new visual voicemail features integrates incoming messages, voice transcriptions, and audio files from one or more providers. Third-party applications can integrate with the Phone app to add their own voice messages, transcriptions, and more to the visual voicemail inbox.
Capture the picture you want, edit, and share instantly.


Rich and versatile camera capabilities
The Camera app includes many new features let users capture special moments with great photos and videos. After capturing images, they can edit and share them easily with friemds.
When taking pictures, continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, and decreased shot-to-shot speed help capture clear, precise images. Stabilized image zoom lets users compose photos and video in the way they want, including while video is recording. For new flexibility and convenience while shooting video, users can now take snapshots at full video resolution just by tapping the screen as video continues to record.
To make it easier to take great pictures of people, built-in face detection locates faces in the frame and automatically sets focus. For more control, users can tap to focus anywhere in the preview image.
For capturing larger scenes, the Camera introduces a single-motion panorama mode. In this mode, the 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.
After taking a picture or video, users can quickly share it by email, text message, bluetooth, social networks, and more, just by tapping the thumbnail in the camera controls.
A Photo Gallery widget on the home screen.

Redesigned Gallery app with photo editor
The Gallery app now makes it easier to manage, show, and share photos and videos. For managing collections, a redesigned album layout shows many more albums and offers larger thumbnails. There are many ways to sort albums, including by time, location, people, and tags. To help pictures look their best, the Gallery now includes a powerful photo editor. Users can crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and much more. After retouching, users can select one or multiple pictures or videos to share instantly over email, text messaging, bluetooth, social networks, or other apps.
An improved Picture Gallery widget lets users look at pictures directly on their home screen. The widget can display pictures from a selected album, shuffle pictures from all albums, or show a single image. After adding the widget to the home screen, users can flick through the photo stacks to locate the image they want, then tap to load it in Gallery.
Live Effects let you change backgrounds and use Silly Faces during video.


Live Effects for transforming video
Live Effects is a collection of graphical transformations that add interest and fun to videos captured in the Camera app. For example, users can change the background behind them to any stock or custom image, for just the right setting when shooting video or using Google Talk video chat. Also available is Silly Faces, a set of morphing effects that use state-of-the-art face recognition and GPU filters to add great effects facial features during video capture. For example, you can use effects such as small eyes, big mouth, big nose, face squeeze, and more. Outside of the Camera app, Live Effects is available during video chat in the Google Talk app.
Snapping a screenshot.



Sharing with screenshots
Users can now share what's on their screens more easily by taking screenshots. Hardware buttons let them snap a screenshot and store it locally. Afterward, they can view, edit, and share the screen shot in Gallery or a similar app.
Cloud-connected experience

The Browser tabs menu (left) lets you quickly switch browser tabs. The options menu (right) gives you new ways to manage your browsing experience.
Benchmark comparisons of Android Browser.


Android has always been cloud-connected, letting users browse the web and sync photos, apps, games, email, and contacts — wherever they are and across all of their devices. Android 4.0 adds new browsing and email capabilities to let users take even more with them and keep communication organized.
Powerful web browsing
The Android Browser offers an experience that’s as rich and convenient as a desktop browser. It lets users instantly and manage sync Google Chrome bookmarks from all of their accounts, jump to their favorite content faster, and even save it for reading later in case there's no network available.
To get the most out of web content, users can now request full desktop versions of web sites, rather than their mobile versions. Users can set their preference for web sites separately for each browser tab. For longer content, users can save a copy for offline reading. To find and open saved pages, users can browse a visual list that’s included with browser bookmarks and history. For better readability and accessibility, users can increase the browser’s zoom levels and override the system default text sizes.
Across all types of content, the Android Browser offers dramatically improved page rendering performance through updated versions of the WebKit core and the V8 Crankshaft compilation engine for JavaScript. In benchmarks run on a Nexus S device, the Android 4.0 browser showed an improvement of nearly 220% over the Android 2.3 browser in the V8 Benchmark Suite and more than 35% in the SunSpider 9.1 JavaScript Benchmark. When run on a Galaxy Nexus device, the Android 4.0 browser showed improvement of nearly 550% in the V8 benchmark and nearly 70% in the SunSpider benchmark.
Improved email
In Android 4.0, email is easier to send, read, and manage. For composing email, improved auto-completion of recipients helps with finding and adding frequent contacts more quickly. For easier input of frequent text, users can now create quick responses and store them in the app, then enter them from a convenient menu when composing. When replying to a message, users can now toggle the message to Reply All and Forward without changing screens.
For easier browsing across accounts and labels, the app adds an integrated menu of accounts and recent labels. To help users locate and organize IMAP and Exchange email, the Email app now supports nested mail subfolders, each with synchronization rules. Users can also search across folders on the server, for faster results.
For enterprises, the Email app supports EAS v14. It supports EAS certificate authentication, provides ABQ strings for device type and mode, and allows automatic sync to be disabled while roaming. Administrators can also limit attachment size or disable attachments.
For keeping track of incoming email more easily, a resizable Email widget lets users flick through recent email right from the home screen, then jump into the Email app to compose or reply.
Android Beam lets users share what they are using with a single tap.


Innovation

Android is continously driving innovation forward, pushing the boundaries of communication and sharing with new capabilities and interactions.
Android Beam for NFC-based sharing
Android Beam is an innovative, convenient feature for sharing across two NFC-enabled devices, It lets people instantly exchange favorite apps, contacts, music, videos — almost anything. It’s incredibly simple and convenient to use — there’s no menu to open, application to launch, or pairing needed. Just touch one Android-powered phone to another, then tap to send.
For sharing apps, Android Beam pushes a link to the app's details page in Android Market. On the other device, the Market app launches and loads the details page, for easy downloading of the app. Individual apps can build on Android Beam to add other types of interactions, such as passing game scores, initiating a multiplayer game or chat, and more.
Face recognition lets you unlock your phone with your face.


Face Unlock
Android 4.0 introduces a completely new approach to securing a device, making it even more personal — Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets users unlock their devices with their faces. It takes advantage of state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face and to recognize it later when unlocking the device. Users just hold their devices in front of their faces to unlock, or use a backup PIN or pattern.
Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth HDP
Support for Wi-Fi Direct lets users connect directly to nearby peer devices over Wi-Fi, for more reliable, higher-speed communication. No internet connection or tethering is needed. Through third-party apps, users can connect to compatible devices to take advantage of new features such as instant sharing of files, photos, or other media; streaming video or audio from another device; or connecting to compatible printers or other devices.
Android 4.0 also introduces built-in support for connecting to Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) devices. With support from third-party apps, users can connect to wireless medical devices and sensors in hospitals, fitness centers, homes, and elsewhere. In addition, for connecting to higher quality Bluetooth audio devices, Android 4.0 adds support for Bluetooth Hands Free Profile (HFP) 1.6.

Well Android just leapt past iOS5 and Mango.

Now it remains to be seen what are the hardware requirements, and how many existing devices will be upgraded.

i.e. the Tab and the SGSII!

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is enchanting, easy, and makes you feel special

By Matthew Miller | October 18, 2011, 10:17pm PDT
Summary: Google revealed Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with three guiding principles. There is a lot to like in the new Android, but will it make you switch from an iPhone or Windows Phone?
As I wrote late last night right after the announcement, the Galaxy Nexus was revealed in all its glory. It was great to see the Nexus line now have a device with the latest and greatest specifications, including wireless data technologies, but as we all know the specifications are only part of the story. The rest is in the user experience and the operating system and the Galaxy Nexus will be the first device to launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).
I watched the event live and Google states that there were three guiding design principles for ICS:

1. Android is enchanting (must be their response to Apple’s magical term)
2. Android is easy
3. Android should make you feel powerful and smart

Google is rolling out a new font on the platform labeled Roboto, but it was extremely difficult to really see it during the live event stream as the video quality was lacking. Check out some links below to hands-on videos from those press in attendance in Hong Kong.
Some of the main improvements and new features in ICS include:

• Face Unlock: Use facial recognition technology to scan your face and let you unlock your device by holding the front facing camera up to yourself. In typical presentation fashion, the demo did not work for Google.
• Android Beam: This NFC-enabled utility lets you touch and share contacts, websites, apps, maps, directions, and YouTube videos to others with NFC-enabled Android 4.0 devices.
• Voice typing: A lot has been posted about Siri and Google showed off their voice to text updated functionality that seemed improved over what they offer now.
• Google+ integration: I have been looking for Google to step up and include more of their services in their devices and it looks like this is happening. You can use Hangouts on ICS devices to video chat with up to 9 people at once.
• Camera software: The camera is a 5 megapixel shooter on the Galaxy Nexus and Google’s big focus was the zero shutter lag. As I mentioned previously, the HTC Amaze 4G, Nokia N9, and iPhone 4S all have super fast performance too and it will be interesting to see a comparison.
• Drag app icons to create folders: Apple rolled this out first in iOS 4 last year and it looks like Google copied it exactly, which is a good thing because folders were horrible on Android before.
• Mobile data details: Google has a cool utility where you can setup data limit warnings and even dive into details to see what is pushing you up in data consumption.
• Calendar zoom: You can now pinch and zoom within your calendar to zoom into or out of the view that is shown.
• Task manager swipe: Just like you can swipe apps in webOS or QNX (BlackBerry PlayBook) you can swipe thumbnails of running apps right or left to close them in the task manager.
• Image editor: Android will now come with a basic image editor, again something Apple has had for a while and a nice to see feature.
• Loss of menu button: The Android menu button has always been something of a mystery and when you pressed it you never knew what was going to appear. It looks like this is now gone in ICS and context sensitive options are present.

There were a few more things shown, such as improved Gmail, and I am sure there are a ton more that were not shown. I hope to get an evaluation unit at some point to test out ICS on some new hardware and in the meantime check out these articles from folks over at the press event:

• This is my next..
• GigaOm Mobile
• Engadget
• Gizmodo
• Tim Bray (Google employee)
• SlashGear
• CNET
• TechCrunch

There is also an interesting interview from Joshua Topolsky with Matias Duarte over on This is my next… that you can check out here.
Ice Cream Sandwich is definitely a nice upgrade for Android fans and I am seeing the top three platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows Phone) rise above and start to blur together as they each start copying features from each other. I look forward to trying out an ICS device, don’t you?

Google Launches Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

• By David Gilbert
• 19 October 2011

As well as unveiling new hardware at the event in Hong Kong this morning, of even more significance was the official launch of Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).
The redesign of the Google OS is huge and offers a completely new interface and a host of new features. It has first made public during the summer at Google I/O and is the version of Android which has been designed to run on both smartphone and tablet form factors, dynamically adapting to each.
We take a look at some of the key features of the new software:


Redefined UI
Android 4.0 is a pretty radical redesign from Google and has been designed with HD in mind with an entirely new typeface optimised for HD screens. Gone are the hardware buttons seen on almost all Android smartphones, replaced with “virtual buttons” like those seen on the tablet version of the OS previously.

These buttons and System Bar will be visable across all apps but can be dimmed for full-screen app goodness. A contextual Action Bar will also be available in all apps displayed at the top of the screen in most cases.
Multitasking has also been redefined in ICS with the recent apps button bringing up a list of thumbnails showing recently used apps, again akin to the multitasking seen in Honeycomb.

Notifications and Folders
Notifications have also been tweaked in the latest version of Android with notifications themselves appearing on the top of the screen on smaller devices or in the system bar on larger screen devices.
Android has taken a leaf out of the iOS book for its new folders feature which now easily allows you to drag and drop shortcuts on your home screen into a variety of folders.
On smaller devices a new customisable favourites tray, viewable on all home screens, will let users add their most oft used apps, folders or widgets for easy access.

People App
The new People app is Google;s way of bringing together all the information on your family, friends and contacts in one place. It offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.

A new 'Me' profile will make it easier to share all your details with apps and friends. All of the user's integrated contacts are displayed in an easy to manage list, including controls over which contacts are shown from any integrated account or social network. Wherever the user navigates across the system, tapping a profile photo displays Quick Contacts, with shortcuts to phone numbers, text messaging, and more.



Lock Screen
The lock screen in Android 4.0 will now give you direct access to the camera or let you pull down the notifications menu to check your messages. Also user will now be able to respond to an incoming call with a quick text message.
On the incoming call screen, users simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. Users can add their own responses and manage the list from the Settings app.

Sick of having to remember a pin or a pattern to unlock your phone? Well your prayers have been answered. ICS will allow you to unlock your phone, simply using your face. The front-facing camera will use facial recognition software to register your face and then use it every time you want to unlock the phone. A back up pin or pattern can also be register if you should somehow forget your face...


Voice Input Engine
One of the headline grabbing features of the iPhone 4S launch a couple of weeks ago was the introduction of Siri. While ICS doesn’t have a similar virtual friend, Android 4.0 introduces a “powerful new voice input engine” that offers a continuous "open microphone" experience and streaming voice recognition.

Users will be able to dictate for as long as they want in whatever language they want and even dictate punctuation to create correct sentences. Indeed the new engine will highlight possible spelling and grammatical errors for you to review before using the text.


Data Management
One new feature which heavy data users will be really excited about is a visual representation of the data you are using - and where you are using it. In the Settings app, 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.

Based on their data plans, users can optionally set warning levels or hard limits on data usage or disable mobile data altogether. Users can also manage the background data used by individual applications as needed.


Android Beam
Android Beam is a way for Android users to share content using NFC-enabled phones. Similar to the Touchstone technology we’ve seen on the now defunct HP Pre 3 and TouchPad devices.

There’s no pairing or set-up, all you need to do is touch one Android-powered phone to another, then tap to send. For sharing apps, Android Beam pushes a link to the app's details page in Android Market.


Camera

The camera app in ICS includes many new features including zero shutter lag, continuous focus, stabilized image zoom and decreased shot-to-shot speed. There are also new shooting modes like panorama and live effects which let you dynamically transform your background.

The Silly Faces mode will let users access effects such as small eyes, big mouth, big nose, face squeeze – all similar to those available on Apple’s Photo Booth app.


Email and Web Browsing
Core apps such as email and web-browsing have also been improved, and have been deeply integrated with the Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Included in the new features are a re-sizable email widget, offline browser reading, syncing of Chrome bookmarks and improved page rendering performance.

There are many more new features in ICS and you can get more information in the Source link below and we’ll be bringing you a more in-depth look at the new version of the OS once we get our hands on it.
The SDK is already available to developers and Android 4.0 will get its first public outing on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, also launched this morning. While the Nexus S is a cert for the upgrade, along with other high-end Samsung handsets, other manufacturers and customers will be wondering when (or indeed if) the update to 4.0 will be coming.
Is Android 4.0 enough of an improvement for you, or are the old Android problems still present in Ice Cream Sandwich? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Android Developers