Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus: What We Learnt Today

sahara_mafia · Oct 19, 2011, 12:01 PM

I’ll start off by thanking everyone that joined our live blog covering the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich event.

Now while some lucky media get to toy around the with the Galaxy Nexus in person I’ll be going through the blog and summarising all the main points we learnt for you.

Source: androidmobile

Takaharu · Oct 19, 2011, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Design changes for Android 4.0 include:

Replacing physical buttons on devices with equivalent on-screen icons.
So the phones will look even more like an iPhone. Great move there.
New lock screen features - the ability to access camera and notifications.
A handy new feature for iOS 5 Android.
Ability to group apps and shortcuts by dragging icons onto each other.
One of the handy features of iOS 4 Android.
Redesigned multi-tasking screen. Applications are represented by scrollable tiles.
Nice feature addition of iOS 4 Android.

Other software changes include:

Face recognition unlocking. Rather than entering a pattern code as in previous versions, users can opt to look into their camera.
Great, every time you look at your phone, it unlocks. Just what you always wanted.
Android Beam - users can swap web content or links to apps by touching their phones together.
Previously known as Bump.
Enhanced voice input featuring a continuously open microphone - meaning phones listen out for instructions.
Cool. Looks like we're on the way to iOS Android 5.

We could do with a [strikethrough] tag.

***Veridian3*** · Oct 19, 2011, 02:57 PM

Its probably more fair to say that ICS is bringing in many of the features present on popular apps and skins to the main OS than supporting iOS features.

Lock screen stuff as an example has been available on custom ROMS for a while and officially via HTC Sense on their handsets. Google voice has been working well for a while now and there are a bunch of decent voice contol apps out there.

EDIT: The buttons thing is more of a fix for the varied nature of the devices. There are a bunch of tablets on 2.x for example that have no hard buttons. On other devices e.g. 3.0 tablets the hard buttons are there. So this is providing flexibility in one OS for both types of device... rather than being an aesthetic move to an Apple style.

Oct 19, 2011, 12:01 PM	#1
sahara_mafia member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: botswana Posts: 3,368 Rep Power: 155 System Specs	Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus: What We Learnt Today I’ll start off by thanking everyone that joined our live blog covering the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich event. Now while some lucky media get to toy around the with the Galaxy Nexus in person I’ll be going through the blog and summarising all the main points we learnt for you. Source: androidmobile __________________

Oct 19, 2011, 02:57 PM	#3
*Veridian3* Administrator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Cloaked Posts: 5,028 Rep Power: 182	Re: Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus: What We Learnt Today Its probably more fair to say that ICS is bringing in many of the features present on popular apps and skins to the main OS than supporting iOS features. Lock screen stuff as an example has been available on custom ROMS for a while and officially via HTC Sense on their handsets. Google voice has been working well for a while now and there are a bunch of decent voice contol apps out there. EDIT: The buttons thing is more of a fix for the varied nature of the devices. There are a bunch of tablets on 2.x for example that have no hard buttons. On other devices e.g. 3.0 tablets the hard buttons are there. So this is providing flexibility in one OS for both types of device... rather than being an aesthetic move to an Apple style.