4.0 - 6/7 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Nov

Breaking: Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich Source Is Being Pushed To AOSP Now

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Wow, this happened sooner than we expected - but Google just announced only minutes ago that the source code for Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich is on its way to Google's AOSP tree right now. We'll update as we learn more. Here's the original post:

Hi! We just released a bit of code we thought this group might be interested in.
Over at our Android Open-Source Project git servers, the source code
for Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is now available.
Here's how to get it:Follow the instructions at
http://source.android.com/source/downloading.htmlCheck out the
'ics-release' branch:repo init -u
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.0.1_r1
That's it!

Nov

HTC: Ice Cream Sandwich Coming To Sensation, Rezound, EVO 3D, EVO Design, Amaze, And More In Early 2012

Posted by David Ruddock in Amaze 4G (Ruby), EVO 3D (Shooter), EVO Design 4G, HTC, Rezound, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid), Sensation XE, Sensation XL

HTC's UK Facebook page was updated last night with information regarding just which HTC handsets would be in the "first wave" of phones to receive an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012. While the post was made on HTC's UK Facebook, the list contains a number of US-only devices. Those handsets are asterisked to indicate US-only availability (the Rezound, EVO Design, and Amaze). The others on the list include the Sensation (plus XL and XE versions), the Vivid, and the EVO 3D. Those phones are not asterisked, indicating the ICS update will be making its way to the European versions of those phones around the same time frame as well.

Nov

Motorola XOOM 2 Ad Confirms Honeycomb And Pre-Christmas Launch, Will Likely Retail For $400

Posted by David Ruddock in Motorola, News, Tablets, XYBOARD / XOOM 2

A page from a catalog of the popular UK mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse was recently leaked, and it clearly states the Motorola XOOM 2 will be available in the UK in time for Christmas.

The catalog was intended for the Irish market, and thus the price has been listed in Euros as €399. Generally, prices in Euros and GBP for consumer electronics aren't reflective of exchange rates when attempting to determine a comparable price in the US - we're fairly certain the XOOM 2 will retail for $400 here in the US of A. And as Motorola is an American company (and we've apparently seen the XOOM 2 in Verizon's internal product system), we can probably expect it will launch here a little earlier than in foreign markets.

Oct

Google+ App Updated To 2.1 With Ice Cream Sandwich Styling, Major Enhancements And Bug Fixes

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Update: It appears the widget for Google+ has disappeared in this update, and images now appear somewhat compressed and pixelated. ~~It's unclear if this is intentional~~ (It seems one of the app's developers has said the widget will return soon, over on Google+.)

The Google+ app team just dropped a surprisingly massive update onto the Market, and it brings changes galore. In fact, there's so many changes that they've called it a "completely new app." Take a look:

The UI has taken a turn towards the styling we've seen in Ice Cream Sandwich, and menus have been reworked to resemble the next version of Android as well.

Oct

3 Years Of Android: A Look At Android's Home Screens - From Cupcake To Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Jelly Bean 4.1

Oh, Android. How far you've come since the days of the G1. Actually, tomorrow, October 22nd, will mark 3 years to the day that Android has been available on consumer handsets in the United States, and the G1 on T-Mobile was concepción.

With Ice Cream Sandwich finally revealed, Android has gone through its seventh major iteration. How has Android changed? What better way to illustrate Android's evolution than its home screen, the hub of user interaction. Here's a look at the face of Android over the last 3 years.

Android 1.5: Cupcake

Android Version 1.5: Cupcake

Cupcake was step one for what was, at the time, Google's recently acquired mobile operating system Android.

Oct

[Updated] ASUS: Ice Cream Sandwich On Existing Tablets Before Year's End, Transformer Prime Info, Padfone in Q1 2012

Posted by David Ruddock in ASUS, Eee Pad Slider, Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Padfone

ASUS has been hard at work on the successor to the company's first foray into the Android tablet market, the ASUS Transformer.

Transformer Prime

The Transformer's ~~yet-to-be-officially-named sequel~~ (Update: The name turned out to be... Transformer Prime) was shown off today by ASUS chairman Johnny Shih - and boy, is this thing thin. ASUS's next Android tablet will be a mere 8.3mm in profile and stick with the 10.1-inch screen form factor. Of course, it will have the detachable plug-in keyboard that made the Transformer a unique product in the marketplace. It will also have a next-generation NVIDIA quad-core "Kal-El" Tegra 3 processor, as had been expected.

Oct

First Official Galaxy Nexus / Ice Cream Sandwich Promo Video With Feature Highlights Galore Goes Live

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Nexus, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Samsung, Videos

Anticipating the fact that some folks prefer information presented to them visually, Google just dropped the first official promo video for the new Galaxy Nexus, powered by Ice Cream Sandwich. Tron-style racing and a rundown of new ICS features are practically begging you to click that Play button below:

In the words of the top YouTube comment: "Shut up and take my money, Google!"

Oct

Official Galaxy Nexus Site Goes Live, Highlights Ice Cream Sandwich And Galaxy Nexus Features

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Nexus, Google, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Samsung

Wow, what a heated hour we've just experienced, eh? Typing away and posting to our live blog, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter, while taking snapshots almost made me cross-eyed, but it's not time to stop right now. The official Galaxy Nexus site, which updates every time Google releases a new Nexus device, now has the freshly announced Galaxy Nexus plastered front and center:

If you click the blue dots, you can check out some of the major new features included in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus. We'll have a post with the details soon - in the meantime, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Visit: Google Nexus site

Oct

[Exclusive] The Ice Cream Sandwich Gallery Is Likely Getting A Built-In Photo Editor; We've Got The Feature List

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Exclusives, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

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?

With the disclaimer out of the way, here's the icons and descriptions, ripped right from Ice Cream Sandwich's creamy center.

Update 10/18/11: Confirmed during the ICS unveiling.

Tools

Redo

Undo

Colors

Exposure

Fix

Artistic

Crop

Rotate

Flip

Straighten

Sharpen

Redeye

Note: All the tool icons were white on transparent, so I gave them a black background.

Oct

Exclusive: Google Plus Messenger And Conversations Will Become "Chords" According To Google Plus v2.0 App Found In ICS [Screenshots]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Exclusives, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

Get ready, folks - the next few days are going to get really interesting. We've already started seeing Ice Cream Sandwich leaks, so why don't we join the fun as well?

This tidbit comes from the Google Plus app found on the Verizon Ice Cream Sandwich device (thanks for dropping some goodies at our porch, Geek Vundotra!). The Google Plus app found on this device is no ordinary app - it's marked as v2.0 and contains numerous UI changes from the v1.0.x that is in the Market right now. But we'll dedicate a separate post to that - right now I wanted to point out something that immediately jumped at me as soon as I installed and opened Google Plus 2.0 on my EVO (yes, it's compatible).