What to Expect in Ice Cream Sandwich

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Described by Google as its “most ambitious release to date”  Ice Cream Sandwich is said to take all the best bits of Honeycomb, Android’s tablet OS released in December last year, and make them compatible with smartphones.

That includes the user interface which will appear holographic, contain the newest app launcher, provide tabbed browsing and offer a multi-tasking panel that will not just make switching between apps simple and smooth, but also include a smart system manager that will preserve memory usage. Smartphone users who like to leave their apps running won’t be told they need to start shutting them down.

Devices running Ice Cream Sandwich will also be able to function as a USB hub. Users will be able to connect devices, including mice, keyboards and even game controllers to their devices. Google’s I/O 2011 keynote address has even shown devices using 3D headtracking and facial recognition. Chat to someone using a videoconferencing tool and the device’s focus will follow you as you move your head and even as you move around the room. The ability to recognize which person in a group is speaking could prove to be a killer feature for family video chats as much as for virtual business meetings.

For developers, Google is also planning to release a series of APIs that let them scale their apps easily across different devices of different sizes. That might sound one of the least interesting features of the new OS but it may also turn out to be one of the most important. One of the biggest complaints leveled against Android is its famed fragmentation issue. The presence of so many different versions of the OS on different devices makes life difficult for developers who only discover that their app doesn’t work on a particular model after it goes live. Ice Cream Sandwich’s ability to scale smoothly is part of the solution.

More important though are new guidelines for updating. New devices will receive updates for eighteen months as long as the hardware can support them. The latest smartphones should get Ice Cream Sandwich as soon it comes out, and continue to receive updates as it improves.

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