Android 4.0

Adapted from my blog post at http://my.opera.com/wikipedian/blog/2011/11/26/android-ice-cream-sandwich. Please subscribe to my blog! Post your comments regarding the Android Operating System below.

Today I tried out the the Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Google love to name their Android operating system after candy items. The first Android release version 1.5 was named Cupcake; version 1.6: Donut; version 2.1: eclair; version 2.2: Froyo (Frozen Yogurt); version 2.3: Gingerbread; Version 3.x.x: Honeycomb, and version 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich. Naming aside, how good is the Android Operating system.

Keep in mind that I'm only testing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and other devices running Ice Cream sandwich may differ from my experience (due to the individual producer's customization of the software). Overall, I think my experience is pretty good. The operating system is pretty fast and nifty.

I especially like the sweep panorama feature. With the sweep panorama, the user only have to sweep the camera to capture the panorama. This feature was first seen in high end Sony cybershot camera. The quality of the panorama is not so great (as you can see below). Click here to in full size.



Also with the Android, you have the ability to send pictures, musics, and files over Bluetooth! This feature is sorely missed on other smartphones like the Windows Phone 7 and iPhone. Come on, what were Apple and Microsoft thinking! Add back this feature to your mobile operating systems!

Another feature I quite like is the ability to end running tasks (and clear recently used task). Just open the task switcher and slide away the task you want to end. Switching between tasks is super easy. The Ice Cream Sandwich have gained the task switcher present in the tablet version of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Flash is also present on the Ice Cream sandwich, but with Adobe announcing the end of Adobe Flash for mobile in favor of natively run apps and HTML5, there wouldn't be any more future version of Flash for Androids (unless Google ports Flash over from the desktop version using their own API). Android Operating System also supports HTML5, which is also good. Also, Android users can download and run Opera Mobile, which is like running the Opera desktop browser on your smart phone!

Some of the features of the Android 4.0, which I think are great but hadn't have the chance to test out is the face unlock. It certainly looks cool and it means no more fumbling about with the keypad. Also, users have the ability to jump straight to the camera from the unlock screen.

In other news:
Siri answers the question, "Is the Cake a Lie" as "I don't understand what you mean. Would you like to seach the web?"