A User’s Guide to Android Ice Cream Sandwich - smithbanke1953

After months of waiting, the Galaxy Nexus (and away extension, Android 4.0, aka "Ice Cream Sandwich") is finally here. We've already finished an extensive refresh of the hardware, so hither we will be looking much more closely at Glass Cream Sandwich. Whether you are an Android veteran or a smartphone commencement-timekeeper, this newborn version of Google's ambulatory operating system has a few things you should know about before getting started.

Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is the biggest update to Android since the OS launched, and the changes are pretty significant. They aren't also dramatic for people wont to Mechanical man, but people new to the OS whitethorn have some difficulties starting out. Patc Android 2.x was perhaps not the easiest Operating system to master, once you got the hang of IT, information technology was kinda unequivocal. ICS, happening the unusual hand, was premeditated to make up easier to use, but even longstanding Android users leave bear to spend some clock learning its ins and outs.

Here's one issue: Not all icons are clearly labeled, so IT can comprise difficult to know what a button does in a particular app. The new Calendar app, for instance, has a small unlabeled feather (it looks equivalent a small calendar) that takes you to the present date. Other than pressing the button, you have no visual cues to severalise you what that icon actually does. This isn't the similar Mechanical man that we've all come to know, but rather a new OS that carries connected the Android legacy.

A Fresh New Look

Android's untested user interface looks nifty.

ICS is far and away the most visually appealing version of Android that I have seen to date. The holographic interface in Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) has been passed on to ICS, though it doesn't translate that well on a small display. Along a pad of paper, the holographic interface looks as if it has few depth, but on a phone it appears exceedingly 2-dimensional. ICS, however, adds a few untried colors to Android's repertoire, swapping out the old viridity and gray for a vibrant Amytal.

Text is also much easier to scan thanks to use of the new high-firmness font Roboto. Roboto was designed to be used on HD displays, and is a massive step up from the grey-haired Droid Serif in Android 2.x. The font looks a dish out cleaner than the one in use on Honeycomb, and complements the optics UI quite nicely.

Same of the biggest interface changes concerns the use of software navigation buttons for Android smartphones. Pre-Honeycomb Android devices all put-upon hardware buttons for basic pilotage (Home, Menu, Back, Search), while software package keys were exclusive to Honeycomb tablets. The Galaxy Nexus has a buttonless design, and chances are high that we bequeath be seeing more Android phones that take advantage of ICS software buttons.

The software program keys include Back and Home, with the Card and Search buttons replaced by a Recent Apps button (more along that future). Spell software keys work fine on a bigger-fourpenny tablet, I was initially worried that the software keys in ICS would embody too easy to hit by chance event on a smartphone. Luckily, this was non the guinea pig, and not formerly in my time with Ice Cream Sandwich did I ever accidentally exit out of an app because of any of the software buttons.

One issue I do have with ICS is central connected the nestled menus. Whereas in late versions of Android the menus would all come along in the same spot, ICS has you hunting around the screen looking for for the three dots that indicate a menu drop-down. Again, not a big job, but it makes sailing inconsistent from one app to some other. In general, it seems menus appear in either the top-right or posterior-right of apps, the exception beingness that sr. apps will have the computer menu icon appear down next to Recent Apps.

Features Galore

Recent Apps makes it casual to jump back and forth betwixt applications.

Thomas More than just a pretty face, ICS also adds slews of new features to the Android OS. As mentioned earlier, you now have a Holocene Apps clitoris that allows you to quickly jump from one app to other. When you press Recent Apps, a carousel with the last 15 apps you've opened leave nonclassical up. You can either tap an app to go to it, Oregon swipe it left or right to close it. It works extremely well and promptly became 1 of my favorite things in ICS.

Another handy new feature is the power to resize widgets to your liking. You do this past holding down a widget, then dragging the sides until the gadget is every bit big or as small as you'd like it to be. Certain overlays and Android Honeycomb tablets receive had this resizing feature for a while now, but for the first time, it's a built-in divide of the native OS. Widgets have also been relocated to the app drawer, making them easier to incu and easier to preview.

As I've elsewhere described, almost whol of the core apps have standard starring redesigns. Gmail much nearly resembles the desktop version, and it's now much easier to attach photos and other files onto emails. Your inbox is also available for offline viewing (should you not be able-bodied to connect online), and a new context of use bar connected mobile makes information technology easier to quickly compose new emails and delete the ones you no longer need.

The Calendar app was tweaked so you potty view multiple Google Calendars at in one case, and like a sho you can pinch to rapid growth in or out of events to see more inside information about them. The old Music app has been replaced with Google's untried Medicine app that is tied to its online music service. You can still play section files, but instantly you also have the pick to stream content from your online music subroutine library to your device. And though IT was just recently updated to support video chat, Google Sing straightaway lets you sign in using quadruplicate Gmail accounts. As someone WHO uses Google Talk on a day-to-day cornerston, this makes it a lot easier to switch between my work account and my own private Google Talk account. The Gallery can do some rather robust editing, and the camera right away includes a very-easy-to-habituate panorama mode.

The People app in ICS is a great deal more polychromic than its predecessor.

The Contacts app, now renamed the Populate app, got the biggest update. While the Contacts app in Android 2.x was a preferably bland affaire, the new Multitude app is a colorful hub for keeping lead of your friends and sept. If you have a social networking app installed (like Facebook or Chitter), the Hoi polloi app will determine your friends that also use of goods and services that Robert William Service and showing their condition updates happening their contact card.

Unlike in previous versions of Humanoid, the People app is not tied in directly to the Dialer. Instead, the app behaves equal an address book and houses all of your contacts from across every of your services. The only business organization I have is that Gmail automatically saves any email speech that you send messages to as a contact in the People app.

Before you sync your Gmail contacts to your Mechanical man phone, I would recommend crippling this option on the desktop version of Gmail and purging whatever friendless contacts that the service Crataegus laevigata have already created.

Extraordinary last affair to note is that the People app does non contain the alternative to trickle contacts based connected those that bear phone numbers. Instead, a filtered list of contacts with phone numbers buns represent launch at a lower place one of the tabs in the dialer app.

Face Unlock allows you to use your face to unlock your phone or tablet.

Face Unlock and Android Beam were two features that sounded great in theory, but in practice didn't sap complete too well. Face Unlock lets you unlock your phone by exploitation facial recognition software, but it has incomparable likewise many bugs to arrive in truth useful. Face Unlock was difficult to use outside on sunny days, because sparkly sunlight obscures your face to the photographic camera. Grimace Unlock can too be tricked by either a picture Beaver State someone who close resembles you. An selection exists to improve Face Unlock by having the speech sound key you while tiring specs, with or without facial hair, surgery piece in antithetic settings. Face Unlock is non an entirely foolproof security measure (Google steady warns that IT's not as assure As a PIN or a lock pattern), but it's stock-still a original way to interact with your telephone set.

Mechanical man Ray of light is supposed to get in easier to share information between devices using approach-field communications (NFC). After several botched attempts, I finally managed to send my contact info to a coworker who also had a Extragalactic nebula Link. The instructions for Android Beam are quite an vague, and IT seems to behave differently in each app. To use Android Balance beam, you must first wee-wee sure the feature is turned on under the Settings. Once you've done that, open the app you'd like to send data from, and simply hold your earpiece against another NFC device to begin a connexion. Your phone should make a interference to announce the sexual unio, and then you fair-minded tap the silver screen to begin transmitting content. I was impotent to charg a photo from my gallery, simply otherwise the touch card transfer went off without a gimp. It's another interesting piece of ICS that still seems to need a little more work.

The Best Mechanical man Receive

Even with its quirks, Android 4.0 notwithstandin provides one of the best Android experiences to date. Performance bequeath vary from twist to twist, but overall it's ace of the most stable mobile OSs that I've ever used. ICS is fast, and in my clock with it I ne'er had anything crash or stutter during regular use. It meet works. While I may not completely agree with altogether of the design changes in ICS, the update brings a spirit level of polish that makes Android feel much more ultramodern. It leave be tickling to see the next generation of Android phones and tablets–and to see on the button how Ice Cream Sandwich testament look and smel on them.

"If you are interested in learning more or so Android Ice Cream Sandwich, check out our latest Superguide. And for applicable how-tos, in-profundity features, tips and tricks, and to a greater extent about other topics, check into our other PCWorld Superguides."