Android 4.0, a.k.a as Ice Cream Sandwich, is here

Ice Cream Sandwich. The most significant thing about the Google Galaxy Nexus launch was the operating system. Android 4.0, a.k.a as Ice Cream Sandwich is here.

The most noticeable thing about Ice Cream Sandwich is that it eliminate the four standard hardware  in favor of adaptable software buttons.  You next Android is likely to have a power button, volume rocker and a screen. That is it. 

Changes were as made to the font, optimizing it for HD displays, there is improved the keyboard, notifications are now more interactive and widgets will now be resizable. Speech to text has been improved.

The user interface is not also hardware accelerated, but you are not too likely to feel this. Since all phones these days already have a GPU, Google decide it was time to no longer support phone without one I guess.

There is a new option for unlock the phone. You can use Face Unlock which uses state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to unlock your phone with nothing more than a smile. Also new is Android Beam, which uses near field communication (NFC) to instantly share webpages, YouTube videos, maps, directions and apps by simply tapping two phones together. There is also a Data management figure, which will give you information on data usage and even disable data at a preset cap. Really useful in this days of volume data caps.

There also improvements to the stock web browser which Google claims is significantly faster. What is clear is that it features a refined tab manager and has the  ability to sync your bookmarks with the Google Chrome browser on your desktop. The Gmail and Calendar  client were improve. You can can pinch and zoom in you Calendar.

Than there is the new People app, which combines high-resolution photos and updates from Google+ and other social services. The camera app now allows you to edit pictures and share them directly from your phone.

Like you we will wait for a full an comprehensive review, but this is what you probably want to know for now.

Is it coming to older phones? Yes, the Google Nexus S will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich. So other phone with similar or better specifications could be getting it too.

Are these features all really new. My phone already has those features. If you use a HTC phone with HTC sense, a lot of the features like the new People app and its social networking integration and the built in photo editor and direct sharing features on your phone are already part of HTC Sense. That is not the case for other phones.

I have a bad feeling since HTC UI is so deeply integrated into Android they may have have the hardest time porting their UI to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Lets wait for the major sites to review Ice Cream Sandwich and see how it fares. For now, this will have to do.

Google Galaxy Nexus

Google Galaxy Nexus

Nexus phone. When you look at a Google Nexus phone release, you have to look at in two ways. As a phone in itself, but also as a reference design for thing to come. In January 2010, the Google Nexus One set the standard for Android what would be considered a high-end Android phone. In December 2010, the Google Nexus S became a reference design for a mid-level Android phone. 

Google Nexus One

To many, the Google Nexus S was a disappointing, but today, it seems is purpose is clear. The Google Nexus S serve as a baseline for what kind of phone could maximize Android 2.3, a.k.a Gingerbread's, capabilities, and now after almost a year, it serves as a baseline for what types of phones will can upgraded to Android 4.0. More on that in our Ice Cream Sandwich article. In the same way, the Google Nexus One, was upgraded to the software for the Google Nexus S.

Google Nexus S

In short, a Google Nexus design shows you what type of phone will be supported by the latest upgrade for at least 18 months, the period that Google is committing its designs the latest and the best. 

Google Galaxy Nexus. It does not seem that the keeping the phone specifications secret was all that important to Google. Even before the even started earlier today they handed out press kits with the following specifications listed:

• - HSPA+ or 4G LTE, depending on region
• - 1.2GHz dualcore processor
• - 4.65 inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display
• - Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• - 5mp autofocus camera with LED flash, autofocus, no shutter lag and fast shot2shot
• - 1080p HD playback and recording at 30 FPS
• - Bluetooth 3.0
• - USB 2.0
• - WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• - NFC chip
• - Accelerometer, compass, gyro, light and proximity sensors, barometer
• - 1GB of RAM
• - 16GB or 32GB internal storage
• - 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm, 135 grams
• - 1,750 mAh li-ion battery

We first saw this on Phandroid, half an our before the phone was officially announced. And, no these were not leaks.

The specifications were are expected except that we get a 1.2 GHz dual core processor instead of the 1.5 GHz processor mentioned in some "leaks". The camera is also a 5MP unit, instead of the rumored 8MP unit. The camera is probably the biggest disappointment. While higher megapixels do not guaranty better performance, from a marketing standpoint megapixels mean a lot. I would have crammed an 8MP camera there if I was in charge designing this unit. It is just easier to explain to consumers, that "more megapixels means better image quality".

Full screen 720p playback. No black line on the top and bottom for HD content.

LG and a Samsung phone announced for the  Korean in September 2011 new phones with 720p screens For the rest of the world, these 720p screens on a phone is new.  Every owner of a large Droid owner will probably envy the 4.65 inch 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED display, and suffer from Galaxy Nexus envy for awhile (when they finally buy their own 720p phone). Because of the display alone, this phone will not be a disappointment.

The Galaxy Nexus also has a barometer, although right now I do not know why. The star of the show really was not the Galaxy Nexus, but Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich.