So I just finished catching the live stream for the samsung/google press event on youtube and everything is looking impressive so far. If any of you have been following the more recent rumors, most of them came out true. Why the hell do we need a barometer in our phones? Anyways, this announcement is finally big news. The Nexus S wasn't too impressive since it was too similar to the Galaxy S phones at the time. This one boasts the hardware and the software (ICS). No mention of microsd storage and I think LED notifications is a bust too. Also no mention of exactly which processor it's using. Alot of the earlier rumors stated omap 4460.. guess we'll see. The camera on the galaxy nexus boasted zero shutter lag.. cool i suppose, but I never found it useful especially when you have to have focus on your photo first. Launch will start in November and will rollout throughout the month worldwide. As for ICS... All google apps got updated. The launcher for android finally got a real overhaul. ICS actually made it respectable with scrollable and resizeable widgets now.. although nothing new if you've been using adw launcher ex or launcher pro. The app drawer also has a widgets tab in it now that lets you see a preview of all your widgets so you can easily select the one you want to set. The stock browser now syncs bookmarks with your chrome browser. It also has an easier interface to access tabs. stock camera app now has ability to shoot panoramic photos. The updated gallery app allows photo editing now. New stock contacts app has a metro ui interface now. I'm not kidding about that either. You can finally take screenshots natively in android now by hitting power + vol down. Google is finally adopting swipe gestures across the interface and its apps. For example, swipe to the right on your notification to remove it. Google even one step further to put in data management since a lot of carriers are throttling and have data caps. You can even go as far as manage amount of data allowed per app. There is even a facial recognition to unlock feature for ICS. Obviously most of us wont be using this as we all know how flaky these things are. It didn't even work correctly when Matias Duarte was trying to show it off. Some questions like, if ICS finally has gpu acceleration for the UI didn't get answered. We'll probably find out in the next few days. http://www.google.com/nexus
It also looks like the soft keys are simplified to home, back, and a multitasking button. I'm unsure if these can be changed. The multitasking button pulls up a list of snapshots of apps vertically. Very similar style to honeycomb. And you can kill each app by swiping them to the side, similar to webos. No more menu or search buttons. Also..
Damn. I was expecting more details on the Nexus Prime such as carriers and GSM/Worldphone capabilities.... The rumors are it will only hit Verizon because they didn't get a Galaxy S2. But, it is rumored to cost $300 which could allow it compete with the GS2 on Sprint. 4.65" seems obnoxious though.
yea, I was surprised they were mum on carrier availibility. samsungs leaked product page showed Verizon anyhow so it's all but confirmed. remember that the nexus phones come carrier unlocked so getting one won't be an issue.. problem is 4g again. also, its possible a sprint version with wimax may come later like the nexus s did. Google has so many service like Google voice integration and Google wallet that they'd be crazy not to. found out about gpu acceleration in ics. this is also a good read about all the new features.
they start a self destruct sequence. Obsolescence prevention tchniques in motion right ther. Nah I doubt many old devices WILL be upgradable anyway...
google officially said devices on gingerbread will be upgradeable to ice cream sandwich. they already confirmed that they will be updating the nexus s, but they're still questionable about the nexus one. IF OEMs will make that ics update for their older devices, remains to be seen. cmdr, here is a pretty bad video of it in the nexus s. near the end, he held home key to mimic the multitask button, and he hits the menu key too. I'm sort of wondering about it the other way around. if a dev doesn't update their app to the new softkey interface, how would a person on such a device pull up the menu for the app? also, I missed it during the presentation since the dude was boring, but the galaxy nexus has a hidden led notification. also confirmed its only internal storage, no microSD slot. http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/10/samsunggalaxynexusliveblog1681.jpg
Saweet. I've discovered that the buttons on an Android device can be remapped with a little file editing.
Explanation on the use of the barometer. TLDR - It's used to assist in GPS lock. https://plus.google.com/112413860260589530492/posts/jVJhPyouWDP
Does 4.0 support hardward keyboards? I heard it was going to be software keyboard only, which renders my Epic obsolete.
It will. It's moving towards soft-keys which means there won't be need of capacitive keys anymore. That's why you don't see them on the Galaxy Prime. They're drawn in by the os. It basically means more room for display.
ICS will finally have music controls in the the notification bar pull down (ala touchwiz/CM7). webos initially had this in its notification view area so you can have music playback controls wherever you are in the os instead of switching back to the music app to control it. I'm not sure why it took so long for another mobile os to do this. Google highlighted this on its notes Which basically means this Exciting stuff!
This is one place where Samsung dropped the ball, it took them almost a year to get from 2.1 to 2.2. I don't expect to see 2.3 let alone 4.0 on my Epic4g. I would be willing to bet HTC will upgrade the Evo4g to ICS.
Why don't you root your phone and install Cyanogenmod? My Galaxy S Captivate is practically the same phone, and it's currently on 2.3.7, and I fully expect it to get 4.0/ICS since it gets regular updates from the Cyanogenmod team.
Haha, I just did that today. It runs alot faster without all that extra garbage. @khaid.. are you running a custom ROM? If so, do you still get Sprint Telenav?
ya, the sprint navigation app moved to android market a couple of months ago when it got updated. have fun! https://market.android.com/details?id=com.telenav.app.android.sprint