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Let's talk today about the new Android OS launched, called Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich to its friends.Google has told us that this is one of the biggest overhauls of the operating systems since it unleashed the Android project three years ago - and there's certainly a lot to plough through.
Android users will have to spend some time getting used to the new OS - so let's dive in.
A Fresh New Look
The most remarkable change in Ice Cream Sandwich is the interface,it might follow the same principles as the Android of old, but the way it's used is radically different in a number of ways.
Firstly, Android 4.0 is designed to work without buttons. That's not to say your Galaxy S2's keys won't work when the update happens, but going forward, it's going to be pristine bezels all the way.
Text is also much easier to read thanks to use of the new high-resolution font Roboto. Roboto was designed to be used on HD displays, and is a massive step up from the old Droid Serif in Android 2.x. The font looks a lot cleaner than the one used on Honeycomb, and complements the holographic UI quite nicely.
One of the biggest interface changes concerns the use of software navigation buttons for Android smartphones. Pre-Honeycomb Android devices all used hardware buttons for basic navigation (Home, Menu, Back, Search), while software keys were exclusive to Honeycomb tablets. The Galaxy Nexus has a buttonless design, and chances are high that we will be seeing more Android phones that take advantage of ICS software buttons.
The software keys include Back and Home, with the Menu and Search buttons replaced by a Recent Apps button (more on that later). While software keys work fine on a larger-sized tablet, I was initially worried that the software keys in ICS would be too easy to hit by accident on a smartphone. Fortunately, this was not the case, and not once in my time with Ice Cream Sandwich did I ever accidentally exit out of an app because of any of the software buttons.
Features Galore
More than just a pretty face, ICS also adds loads of new features to the Android OS. As mentioned earlier, you now have a Recent Apps button that allows you to quickly jump from one app to another. When you press Recent Apps, a carousel with the last 15 apps you’ve opened will pop up. You can either tap an app to go to it, or swipe it left or right to close it. It works extremely well and quickly became one of my favorite things in ICS.
Another handy new feature is the ability to resize widgets to your liking. You do this by holding down a widget, then dragging the sides until the widget is as big or as small as you’d like it to be. Certain overlays and Android Honeycomb tablets have had this resizing feature for a while now, but for the first time, it's a built-in part of the native OS. Widgets have also been relocated to the app drawer, making them easier to find and easier to preview.
The Contacts app, now renamed the People app, got the biggest update. While the Contacts app in Android 2.x was a rather bland affair, the new People app is a colorful hub for keeping track of your friends and family. If you have a social networking app installed (like Facebook or Twitter), the People app will find your friends that also use that service and display their status updates on their contact card.
Face Unlock and Android Beam were two features that sounded great in theory, but in practice didn’t play out all too well. Face Unlock lets you unlock your phone by using facial recognition software, but it has one too many bugs to make it really useful. Face Unlock was difficult to use outside on sunny days, because bright sunlight obscures your face to the camera. Face Unlock can also be tricked by either a picture or someone who closely resembles you. An option exists to improve Face Unlock by having the phone identify you while wearing glasses, with or without facial hair, or while in different settings. Face Unlock is not an entirely foolproof security measure (Google even warns that it’s not as secure as a PIN or a lock pattern), but it’s still a novel way to interact with your phone.
The Best Android Experience
Even with its quirks, Android 4.0 still provides one of the best Android experiences to date. Performance will vary from device to device, but overall it’s one of the most stable mobile OSs that I’ve ever used. ICS is fast, and in my time with it I never had anything crash or stutter during regular use. It just works. While I may not completely agree with all of the design changes in ICS, the update brings a level of polish that makes Android feel much m
