Ice Cream Sandwich

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Google’s Eric Schmidt recently took the stage alongside Android Product Management Director, Hugo Barra, at Le Web conference in Paris to talk Ice Cream Sandwich and the future of Android. Most of the interview and demo consisted of showing off some of the new flagship features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich like face unlock, but the Google chairman also took some time to talk competition (via Cnet). While noting that Android is now ahead of iPhone by unit volume, price points, and number of vendors, Schmidt shared his thoughts on why he thinks developers will perfer Android to iOS in the near future:

Ultimately, application vendors are driven by volume, and volume is favored by the open approach Google is taking. There are so many manufacturers working to deliver Android phones globally. Whether you like Android or not, you will support that platform, and maybe you’ll even deliver it first.

When asked about iOS apps beating the Android versions of apps to market, he had high hopes that would change with Ice Cream Sandwich:

My prediction is that six months from now you’ll say the opposite.

As for the future of Android:

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There is no shortage of cheap Android tablets from Chinese manufacturers that can be found for under $200 online, most of which are running an older version of Android and don’t have Google’s blessing (meaning no Google services and Market). MIPS Technologies and Ingenic Semiconductor announced today availability of the world’s first Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0-powered tablet, and it just so happens to a $99 budget-friendly tab with decent specs.

The tablet will pack in a 1GHz MIPS-based ‘XBurst” CPU, 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, microSD, HDMI 1.3, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0, 2-megapixel main cam, front-facing cam, and bluetooth. Ainovo, the company offering up the tablet to the Chinese market, is promising 30 hours standby and 8 hours video playback for battery.

The Novo7 will become available to the US market (likely with different branding) through other companies including OMG Electronics Ltd. and Leader International Inc. at a later date. There will also be 8 and 9-inch variants released in the future, mostly likely depending on the success of the 7-inch model. You might have to pay a little more than the US $99 price tag to get it shipped from a Chinese supplier before it lands stateside, but it will probably be your first chance to get your hands on an ICS tablet if you do.

Google’s Andy Rubin had this to say about the launch of new MIPS-based ICS tablets like the Novo7:

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LG published on their official Facebook page a list of handsets that will get a firmware update with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software. Initially, high-end LG smartphones will be eligible for upgrade to Google’s latest Android release, including the Optimus 2X, the Optimus Black, the Optimus 3D and the Optimus LTE. The company did not say when Ice Cream Sandwich will arrive for the aforementioned handsets, noting it will update customers via Facebook in December. As for their other devices:

We are also continuing to evaluate the ICS OS to determine whether it is compatible with the functionality, features and performance of other LG smartphones to make the ICS OS available on as many LG smartphones as possible.

Google’s been serious about requiring phone vendors and carrier partners to support high-end handsets with Android software updates for up to 24 months since the purchase date. Phone vendors recently began announcing lists of devices eligible for Ice Cream Sandwich, including Sony Ericsson and HTC.

Google on its part confirmed that the Nexus S will get an Ice Cream Sandwich firmware update “within weeks”, but not owners of the older Nexus One smartphone. Samsung refrained thus far from public comments, but their flagship Galaxy SII is certain to get the new software and we have no doubt in our mind that the South Korean manufacturer will soon detail an ICS upgrade path concerning their Android devices.

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An issue with the volume control on the Galaxy Nexus handset spontaneously going to zero plaguing some UK users have been addressed and fixed, Google said in an official statement to The Verge:

We are aware of the volume issue and have developed a fix. We will update devices as soon as possible.

This is good news for owners who feared the volume bug was actually a hardware flaw with the device whereas it was actually a software thing. Google will likely squash this bug with a next point Ice Cream Sandwich update delivered over the air. A video clip, included below, outlines the bug which manifests itself as another phone is put near a Galaxy Nexus device, causing it to cycle through the menu in bootloader mode, activated by the volume rocker.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9tAwHCDq-94]

It looks like the first quad-core Tegra 3 tablet is getting one step closer to a final release with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime officially going up for pre-order on Amazon today. We knew it would be landing for $499 sometime in December, but today it’s listed at a slight discount for $492.20 for the entry-level 32GB model ($584.22 for 64GB).

Asus also today officially listed the device on their website with full specs, however we don’t learn much more than we already found out last month. Some new pieces of information– ‘SonicMaster’ audio tech brings the “most precise processing protocols and codecs, superior speaker construction and large resonance chambers”, and a power saving mode which according to SlashGear lets you switch off three of the CPU’s four cores. Asus notes their battery life estimates are measured using the powering saving mode.

We also learn there will be a bunch of preloaded apps including the SuperNote note taking app, MyCloud for cloud storage and remote access, MyNet for streaming over home networks, and My Library which stores all downloaded publications in one convenient location. There will also be the Asus launcher, Asus sync app, and TegraZone, and a full list of accessories can be found here.

The page confirms an Ice Cream Sandwich update will be coming, while Nvidia (via TheVerge) gives us our first look at Android 4.0 ICS running on the Transformer Prime in the video above.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CGvzF56CRwI]

Four days ago, Google released the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich, and it was inevitable hackers would get working on an ICS port for devices. One of the most popular Android handsets to date, the Galaxy S II, is one of the first outside of the Galaxy Nexus to receive Ice Cream Sandwich’s touch. The port is pretty stable, only missing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and audio from the mix, but we expect bug fixes to be rolling out soon.

LG’s Optimus 3D is also among the first devices to receive the Ice Cream Sandwich port. The status of this port is unknown right now, but from the looks of it everything seems to be pretty smooth. Check it out after the break. (via Android and Me)

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4HImSqR1k&start=850]

Following a lengthy interview in October where he gave us insight into the future of Android and Google’s view on iOS and Windows, Android’s head of user experience Matias Duarte sat down with The Verge to discuss his work on Android and more specifically, Ice Cream Sandwich. During the interview Duarte elaborated on his competitor’s design choices, where he says iOS looks cartoonish and explains if it were “put on a website or magazine, you’d laugh at it, it would look childish”. Host Joshua Topolsky also calls him out for saying Windows Phone looks like “bathroom signage in an airport”, to which he didn’t comment.

Matias gave a few demos using a Galaxy Nexus, including one of live video chat effects like blurs and warps that alter your face in real-time. He also explained his view on photography features calling traditional features of point and shoot cameras such as white balance “crap”, saying “if it’s not immediately obvious, it’s something the machine should be taking care of for you”.

Duarte also defended Google’s choice to create the new Roboto font for ICS, which he also recently explained in a blog post, as well as addressed the controversy of ICS’s Face Unlock feature (which was recently tricked using a photo).

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Engadget has leaked the specs of a new handset from HTC called the Zeta (rendered above). The HTC Zeta is rumored to pack a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 720p 4.5-inch display, 8-megapixel rear camera (1080p HD), and 1.3-megapixel front camera. With specifications optimized for power, the HTC Zeta makes itself favorable over its previously leaked brethren the HTC Edge.

The 2.5 GHz S4 processor will be manufactured by Qualcomm, a competitor to Nvidia’s Tegra 3 that is finding its way into devices by next year. This device is sure to be a speed demon.

Engadget doesn’t say which version of Android the Zeta will run, but with the Ice Cream Sandwich source code released yesterday, we’re hoping the device will see ICS on launch day if not shortly after. HTC’s custom Sense UI will also most likely earn a spot on the Zeta. There is no word on pricing or availability, but Q1 or early Q2 of 2012 sounds about right.

This morning we told you about HTC’s plans to bring a quad-core tablet to market thanks to Nvidia’s new Tegra 3 chip. That was after we introduced you to the new Transformer Prime from Asus, which will most likely be the first Tegra 3-powered tab you can get your hands on starting in December. Now, not to be left out of the Tegra 3 tablet party, Lenovo is gearing up to launch their own quad-core tab.

According to Engadget, the company is prepping a new 10.1-inch, Android 4.0 tablet powered by Nvidia’s new chip for December. As for specs, you can expect 2GB of DDR3 RAM, USB host socket, main backside camera, and a “Special Fusion-Skin Body”. The report also mentions a fingerprint scanner on the backside of the device that can also be used as a joystick for gaming. We’ll obviously have to wait for more info before we know if this will be a true competitor to the many quad-core tabs we’re bound to see in 2012. Until then, check out a few more images below.

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Curious about some of the details in why Google switched to their new Roboto type face in Ice Cream Sandwich? Matias Duarte, Android director, took to Google+ this evening to explain it in great detail. Switching from Droid type face to Roboto type face was mainly due in part to the higher pixel density screens, Matias explained. As screens get bigger, and more pixel dense, certain font schemes can lose their luster.

The other big part of the new type face was also due in part to the design strides Google is trying to make with Ice Cream Sandwich. You’ll notice in screenshots that fonts are much more crisp and tie in better with the rest of the UI.

The Android team is devoting themselves to continue working on the font, and the overall UI. We can’t wait to check it when we get our hands on the Nexus Prime in a few weeks.

The Galaxy Nexus could launch the week after Black Friday if a timeline leaked by Droid Life stands to be true. Our first look at Ice Cream Sandwich will reportedly launch with Samsung’s Holiday Portfolio after Black Friday, which is the busiest shopping day of the year. Samsung’s Holiday Portfolio most likely includes the Galaxy S II and various other devices.

Verizon’s holiday lineup is sure to be packed with Samsung’s offerings and Motorola’s new Droid RAZR and Motorola’s portfolio. Oh yeah, there’s the iPhone 4S too!

A flier from Carphone Warehouse confirms the Motorola Xoom 2 will be hitting the market before the holidays, Engadget found. Motorola’s next tablet, a successor to the original Xoom, will land for 400 euros with Wi-Fi and 16GB of storage packed in (presumably there’ll be a 32GB version too).

The flier touts the Xoom 2 having an 8.2-inch touchscreen, Android 3.2 (no ICS!), Wi-Fi, and tethering. There’s no word on U.S. availability, but more information will most likely come out about that soon.

A user on the XDAdevelopers forum has posted a somewhat stable ROM for Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Nexus S. This build shouldn’t be mistaken as complete though, seeing as it does have a number of bugs.Problems with this ROM include 3G connectivity (for some), data, NFC, panorama mode, and camera will force close with the first boot. If you’re just dying to checkout Ice Cream Sandwich this ROM is for you but shouldn’t be used day-today. Get the full details here.

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Motorola announced via their official Twitter account that they will be updating all of their Android devices to Ice Cream Sandwich, six weeks after Google releases it to OEMs. Like any new Android update users worry about how quickly it will be available on their devices. Luckily, Motorola is being pretty proactive about this one, most likely because there wont be much customization — since MotoBlur is no longer. It is unclear how other OEMs will respond with the update.

It was recently rumored that the Droid Bionic would be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in Q1 of January 2012. We’re certainly happy that Motorola gave us an official timeframe to ease the waiting. Now its Google’s turn to get the ball rolling.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FYLL1zWT0zk]

The Droid RAZR was announced yesterday afternoon with a killer set of hardware. We were worried, however, when it came to software seeing as the device packed Gingerbread, and Ice Cream Sandwich was going to be announced that evening. Well Ice Cream Sandwich is now here and looking wonderful, but don’t fear though, TechCrunch is reporting that the RAZR will be seeing its Ice Cream Sandwich update in Q1 of 2012.

You can check out the RAZR in our hands-on above (it doesn’t really do it justice) and check out the Ice Cream Sandwich screenshot tour for all of the details on that. ICS + Droid RAZR = perfect match.

Image courtesy of The Verge

Following a slew of announcements from Google yesterday culminating with the unveiling of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the accompanying software development kit, Android Beam, the new People app, the panoramic camera feature and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone (among other things), The Verge has published an exclusive, lengthy interview with Android’s head of user experience Matias Duarte. It’s a highly recommended read with revealing details and interesting insider perspective on Google’s arguably the most propulsive property.

Some of the more noteworthy highlights:

Android Honeycomb, which was Duarte’s first big Google project following his departure from Palm after the company was acquired by HP, was a lot like “emergency landing”, he said.  It’s a platform which has “a flexibility designed into it that you don’t have to worry about when you’re doing a completely integrated device”. And why Google refused to open-source Honeycomb?
“On Honeycomb we cheated, we cut the corner of all that smaller device support”, adding this:

Honeycomb was like: we need to get tablet support out there. We need to build not just the product, but even more than the product, the building blocks so that people stop doing silly things like taking a phone UI and stretching it out to a 10-inch tablet.

People are fed up with “two decades of windows, and cursors, and little folder icons”, he says. The search company actually visited “shadow” users at their homes and workplaces to figure out how they interacted with mobile devices. What they found out was surprising: Android lacked emotional connection with its users who deemed the operating system overly complex. So they set out to build a wonderland of sorts, improving on Android’s typography by creating in-house a clean typeface for Ice Cream Sandwich dubbed Roboto. He then took a jab at Apple, calling the iOS design “juvenile” and likening it to web pages with “cartoony things hanging off a page”.

More tidbits below the fold.

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Matt Cutts has been using ICS on his Nexus S for awhile and recently used the panoramic photo feature to take these pictures.

Now that Ice Cream Sandwich (the newest version of Android) has been revealed, I can tell you that I’ve been testing ICS on my Nexus S.

One feature I love is the panorama mode. I recently did a multi-day hike in Yosemite, and here are a couple panoramic pictures I took with my Nexus S. I can’t wait for the Galaxy Nexus to come out.

I guess it goes without saying that Android 4.0 will work on older Android phones – with buttons- though it isn’t exactly clear how that will work or which phones will make the cut.
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Before they announce it on-stage here in a few minutes, This is my next has just posted a full run-down of Ice Cream Sandwich, the next version of Android. The new version features numerous UI changes, including a new color scheme called Roboto. Since the Galaxy Nexus features no hardware buttons, Google has introduced new virtual buttons to the homepage. To also compliment the homepage GOogle has introduced five screens and resizable widgets. Google is also introducing a new feature to Ice Cream Sandwich called Android Beam. Using NFC, Beam allows users to share content with other Android users.

-Ice Cream Sandwich now also features face-recognition to unlock the device. The device will recognize your face and will unlock it when it sees it.

-Ice Cream Sandwich features a new Google+ app, that also features a new People app that pulls photos from your Google+ friends and puts them in your contacts. This new feature will certainly bring a new aspect to the social network.

-To compliment the 5-megapixel camera, Google has added a new camera app to Ice Cream Sandwich that will allow you to edit photos. The keyboard now features an inline spell checker and improved copy and paste.

-Android’s internet browser now features Chrome desktop sync and offline syncing.

-Gmail now features swiping and offline mail.

-Calendar now features pinch to zoom.

-Now features data usage so you know how much data you have used for the month. It also will project data usage for you.

-New camera features.

-Google announces new People App. More to come.

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

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Engadget has posted a video of someone demoing off the Nexus Prime before its announced in roughly two hours. The video shows off the device and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) entirely, both of which are to be announced tonight.We’ll be covering the event, so just hang tight.

While it’s not exactly a flagship feature, lack of native screenshot support on Android has been an annoyance for some (especially those who don’t use select Sammy and HTC devices that build the feature in).

The guys over Android Police are reporting two binaries, “Screenshot” and “Screencap”, provide hints that screenshot functionality will be baked into Android natively. The feature is enabled by pressing “VolDn+Power” and returns the “Sreenshot saved to Gallery” prompt seen below. They note that the feature could be easily stripped out before a public release, but if not it would allow all Android users running ICS or above to snap screenshots without third-party apps, root, or carrier specific implementations.

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We’re but a day away from Google’s and Samsung’s major Hong Kong event meant to serve as a launchpad for the Nexus Prime, the first handset to feature Android 4.0 nicknamed Ice Cream Sandwich. Guardian reports that the handset is “expected to be released in the UK within the next four weeks, in time for Christmas”, without naming a source for their claim. Meanwhile, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo wrote on Twitter that the Nexus Prime will land in Japan around November, boasting about it being “among the fastest” devices on the market.

An unlocked version of the phone is already showing up at third-party resellers, priced at about $750. The features allegedly include a powerful 1.2GHz dual-core processor, native 720p display, eight-megapixel camera on the back with 1080p video capture, support for NFC and more.

Google pushed back the Nexus Prime launch originally scheduled for Monday last week out of respect for Steve Jobs. Coincidentally, the new October 19 date collides with a celebration of Steve Jobs’ life due tomorrow in the outdoor amphitheater of Apple’s Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. Apple will even close its brick-and-mortar stores for an hour so employees can watch the ceremony.

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