Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 - 21/27 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Android Beam Proves That NFC Isn't Just For Credit Card Payments

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Everyone has been making a big deal about NFC lately - which phones have it, where it can be used, etc. Until last night's announcement, many (including myself) didn't see much on the horizon except a fun way to pay for things using your phone. That perception has changed, however, thanks to Android Beam.

Beam utilizes NFC technology to quickly, seamlessly transfer data from one device to another. As demonstrated last night, one has only to touch the two devices together to send just about anything from web pages, to photos, to apps.

Just touch the devices back-to-back, tap the confirmation, and that's it.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Android's New Camera Packs A Serious Punch, Offering Sophisticated Still And Video Options

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

One of the features I'm most excited about in Ice Cream Sandwich is the camera. The new camera app really raises the bar, bringing a heap of improvements, as well as plenty of features we haven't seen before.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of ICS' camera is that it has zero shutter lag. That's right - zero. Photos are taken as soon as you hit the shutter button. In last night's demo we got a glimpse of how powerful this is, as the presenter snapped off several images back to back with no wait time in between.

Before you hit the shutter, though, the new camera app is already helping you compose a better shot.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Data Usage Shows You Which Apps Are Munching All Your Bandwidth

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Let's face it -- no one likes tiered data plans. Still, it is something that most of us have to deal with, and I've never met anyone who wants to suffer the result of going over their allotted bandwidth. Fortunately, Google is offering a nice, proactive solution (not to be confused with the face cream that gets rid of acne, that's something else entirely) to help users avoid connection speed slowdowns or, even worse, surprise overage fees.

The band-aid for this menacing problem is a built-in data monitor, which is designed to provide crucial information about which apps are using your bandwidth and how much you have left, as well as warn you or disable all mobile data when you hit a user-definable limit.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - The New Calendar App Lets You Cram Your Day More Full Than Ever Before

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

We've already looked at a veritable buttload (yes, that's an official unit of measurement) of features from ICS, but we're not finished yet. Next on the list of things that Google made better in Android 4.0 is an app that nearly everyone is familiar with: the Calendar.

Don't get me wrong, the existing Calendar app works pretty well -- it covers all the basics. You can schedule and view appointments, check out an overview of your week or month... pretty much all the things that you expect your calendar to do for you. However, if you use the Calendar often (and you're busy enough to fill it up), then you may have noticed one of the downsides of Calendar: it's not very easy to read when you have a full day planned.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Gmail Gets A Facelift

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Gmail, probably the most used app on my Evo 4G, will be getting a major facelift with the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich, bringing it into line with - and, in some ways, surpassing - its Honeycomb counterpart.

First of all, Gmail for Ice Cream Sandwich features an "action bar" at the bottom of the screen, much like Honeycomb's action bar, which allows users to create messages, search, sync, and more with just one touch. When messages are selected, the action bar changes to reflect your most commonly used actions, allowing for breezy batch operations.

Adding even more shine to the new UI, the message view has been majorly streamlined, eliminating all the distracting drop shadows and rounded edges we saw in Gingerbread, in favor of simple headers (with lovely contact photos), and even 2-line previews in the inbox, to give you a peek at what's inside each email before you open it.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - New Browser (No, It Isn't Chrome) Includes Tabs, Desktop Mode, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Leading up to last night's Ice Cream Sandwich announcement, there were rumblings that perhaps Chrome would make its Android debut with the latest iteration of Google's mobile OS. Unfortunately, those rumors turned out to be false, but the new browser that Google has cooked up looks pretty awesome, and packs in a lot of notable features.

First off, the browser has been redesigned. Personally, I think it looks (and functions) much better than its Gingerbread counterpart. Instead of simply having a bookmark button and address bar up top, the new browser has the address bar, a tabs button, and a menu button.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Create Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks With Wi-Fi Direct

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Although it wasn't announced alongside the plethora of other features during the Ice Cream Sandwich event, Wi-Fi Direct may prove to be one of the more important and revolutionary features of the new OS. In the old days Bluetooth was the standard method of device to device data transfer, but now with Ice Cream Sandwich we are given Wi-Fi Direct and Android Beam. The latter uses NFC to transfer links, media, and other data, while the former is an interesting implementation of the wireless standard which creates ad-hoc networks between compatible devices.

Wi-Fi Direct works by letting users connect directly to nearby devices over Wi-Fi, without any tethering or data connectivity required.

Oct

Confirmed: Ice Cream Sandwich Looks Great On Tablets - Here's The Evidence

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Google, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Tablets

One of the first things that crossed our minds when Google wrapped up its Ice Cream Sandwich press conference was "what about tablets"? Well now, thanks to This is my Next, we can finally lay those fears to rest: Android 4.0 looks absolutely fantastic on a larger display.

As you can see, it doesn't look all that different from Honeycomb, which makes sense given ICS' promise of unifying Android on phones (currently Gingerbread) with Android on tablets (Hcomb). Still, it has been brushed up here and there - and we like it!

So, how'd they do it? The TIMN team decided to take the Android 4.0 SDK for a spin, and in the process of doing so they discovered an option that allows devs to change the emulator's screen size.

Oct

Get The New ICS Font Roboto On Your Android Device Right Now

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Tips & Tutorials

Today's Ice Cream Sandwich announcement yielded a number of exciting enhancements, but not quite as distinctive as the new font Roboto. Indeed during the keynote, the presenter spent an inordinate amount of time expounding the virtues of this font. Roboto is a sans-serif font with characters that have a pleasing roundness, and are spaced evenly, making e-mails, clocks, and menus easy on the eyes, and, in the words of one presenter, "a pleasure to read".

Unfortunately, as the font comes with the new OS, the majority of Android users will not be able to experience Roboto until their devices are upgraded to Android 4.0.

Oct

CyanogenMod Team: There Will Be No Official SDK Port Of Ice Cream Sandwich By The CM Team - CM9 Will Arrive When The ICS Source Does

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

At the end of today's Ice Cream Sandwich unveiling, we found out that the ICS SDK (API 14) was available immediately, but a much more important bit - the source code - was not mentioned at all. It didn't really come as a surprise - historically the source was released about a month after the SDK (with the exception of Honeycomb), but I'd like to clarify something right away for those confused between the SDK and the source code.

The SDK (software development kit), which includes the Android emulator, does not contain any source code whatsoever, which means any ROMs built from source, like CyanogenMod, will be waiting for said source to be released before we see any ICS releases.