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Google Talk is one of my favorite parts about Android. If you have other Googly friends, between Android, Gmail, and G+, they are almost always available. In Android 2.3.4, Google Talk got a big upgrade in the form of voice and video chat.
For many people, Gmail is Android's killer app. It's the best email app on any platform, and one of the biggest draws to Android. So anytime there is a change, it's pretty big news. With Ice Cream Sandwich, Gmail got a huge revamp. Every inch of the app has changed. Today we're going to find out just what is so different.
Can't get enough of the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich? P3droid has released a dump of the Galaxy Nexus' system apps. Most apps from the dump are only going to work on ICS devices, but you can probably load most of them up in the ICS Android emulator right now. On that note, hopefully developers can pick the apps apart and get some Ice Cream Sandwich crumbs working on current devices. If you'd like to take a shot yourself, hit up the source link and get to work. Just let us know about any secrets you uncover, ok?
Developers, start your engines. Fresh Ice Cream Sandwich versions of the SDK and ADT have been released. There is a ton of new stuff to learn and play with. For starters, take a look at the 4.0 platform page here, download the 4.0 SDK here, and instructions for ADT 14 are over here.
Those lucky enough to fly all the way to Hong Kong have been given first access to the Galaxy Nexus Press Release - on a piece of paper.
Are you ready for some hot app drawer action?
Somebody jumped the gun over at Samsung.com.
Firefox is finally getting flash support. Support for the plugin landed in the nightly builds a few days ago - meaning you can try it yourself, right now.
Google is working on building a photo editor into the Android Gallery. That much we're certain about - we've got the icons for it. It's not 100% confirmed that this will actually ship, or if these features or icons are final, but do you really think they'd do all this work and throw it out?
Well look what we have here. Somehow we've managed to come across pictures of a few Ice Cream Sandwich widgets. Specifically Gmail, Email, and Calendar. And to answer your next question, no, sadly, we can't hook you up with a download. We'd love to, but the widgets would actually need ICS to work.
Screencast is quickly becoming the ultimate app demo tool.
Nexus news is leaking like a sieve over at Verizon. This time it's from something called "Verizon MAP" (Apparently that's "minimum advertised price"). The latest tidbit of info is one of the last important bits, the price! It's $299.99.
What? Google Voice is getting a feature update? People still work on Google Voice?
Another hour, another sign ICS and the Nexus Prime are coming.
Google Music's Music Store is ready to rise from the ashes. The New York Times is claiming Google and the record companies are close to a deal to make the music store a reality. Finally, we will be afforded the privilege of paying the record companies for their music.
So I hear this new twitter thing is all the rage. The Android team has seen fit to set up shop in the twitterverse alongside @androiddev with @Android. Yes, somehow "@Android" wasn't taken.
Another snack just arrived at Building 44. The Ice Cream Sandwich Statue finally joined all his friends in front of Android HQ!
A fresh version of Google Translate hit the Market today. Conversation mode (direct speech to speech translation) now works in 14 languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish. Also new is a personal dictionary, the ability to correct voice input before having it translated, and pinch zoom support for getting a close up of the translated text (Chinese symbols can get surprisingly complicated).
This is a pretty wild piece of news. Google, George Mason University, and the NSA are working to make Android the most secure OS out there. They're developing a "hardened" kernel so Android can pass all the necessary red tape to be deployed for government use. By 2012 they expect Android to be good enough for classified communication, and eventually they'll hit a higher security clearance level than BlackBerrys. Poor BlackBerry, security was one of the last things they had left.