We've finally got our hands on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, so we've taken an in-depth look at Google's latest OS: 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.
From enhanced contact
menus to improved keyboards and NFC capabilities, even the most ardent
Android users will have to spend some time getting used to the new OS -
so let's dive in.
Interface
The most
noticeable change with 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.
Now
to navigate around, you're offered three softkeys: Back, Home and
Multi-tasking (or Recent Apps). The latter is particularly new for
phones, and comes from the Honeycomb UI - basically a set of thumbnails
that show recently opened apps.
Here's the new part: swipe
sideways to shut down an application, which will greatly help reduce the
battery consumption of your phone if there's something silently
updating in the background.
The Home and Back buttons are the same
as they've always been, but no longer have a 'long press' function
attached... so you can't automatically call up the keyboard, for
instance.
If you move into something media-ish, such as watching a
movie or browsing the web like a pro, these three buttons shrink down
to tiny dots, so you've got more of the screen to look at. However,
remember what each dot does, as pressing it will take you home/open the
recent apps etc and you might not want to.
For
Android fans, this presents something of an issue: with the menu button
gone, you'll have to hunt around the screen for three vertical dots
which have taken its place. However, these can be anywhere, so sometimes
you'll get distracted trying to work out how on earth to alter
settings.
The multi-tasking pane also seems an odd choice for one
of three buttons - it used to be you could access this functionality by
long-pressing the home key, and it makes more sense to keep this and
then have the multi-tasking slot taken up by a menu key.
However,
despite the odd placement, the multi-tasking pane is cool - simply
swipe horizontally on any open app to shut it down, in a similar way to
the Cards system on webOS - it certainly helps keep open applications
under control.
The home screens are once again limited to five,
but this time there's no option to get rid of those you don't want. It's
not a huge issue to some people, but with the expandable widgets and
loads of apps you'll be looking to download, we'd have expected more.
However,
we wouldn't worry too much about that - the Nexus S only had a limited
number of homescreens, but as soon as the rest of the industry got its
hands on the OS there were millions of the things flying around.
There's
a plethora of tiny tweaks and changes to the Android OS that we were
impressed with, ranging from the Tron-like blue theme that pervades
throughout the OS to the ability to unlock the phone simply by using
your face.
The
latter security option is more novelty than anything else, with Google
outlining at the start that it's not meant to be 100% secure.
We
also found a few issues with getting it to recognise our face in varying
light levels, or even working out which bit of the picture was a face -
not the most effective for unlocking your handset, but when it works
it's a great party trick.
The notifications bar has been given a
functionality overhaul to now include larger information slots - if it's
a contact that's sending you a message or a missed call, their contact
photo will now appear too, which is a nice touch.
And
sometimes you want to get rid of some notifications, but not others -
this has been taken care of by allowing you to swipe away the updates
about apps and messages you don't care about, making it easy to maintain
your info bar.
Settings has also been given a spot in the
notifications pane, meaning no matter where you are in the OS you can
always duck out and tinker with the phone - this is excellent news for
some applications that need GPS or Wi-Fi enabled swiftly.
However,
we would have though Google would have copied the likes of Samsung or
HTC here and offered one-tap switching to these elements - it works
really well on most phones, so we're surprised by its omission.
The
other new addition is the dock at the bottom of the screen - this stays
on every home screen, and like iOS can be altered to contain the
applications you like to tap away at the most.
Folders
are more iOS-like too, with users given the ability to drag and drop
icons on top of one another from the home screen to create bundles of
apps which you can simply rename. Given Apple's ire about Google
'stealing' certain elements of its UI, we can't help but think this will
create a little more angst down on Infinite Loop.
Google
is clearly also thinking about giving users more ability to enjoy apps
than ever before by putting a link to the Market in the top right hand
corner of the menu screen, which we really liked as it meant we always
knew we could quickly update our app catalogue when needed.
The
other big change is widgets have been brought to the fore: you can now
look at each one on the menu screen without having to actually select it
- this really helps when a new application you've downloaded has an
associated widget and you're wondering whether to waste time popping it
on the home screen.
Overall,
we love what Google has done with the Ice Cream Sandwich UI. It's
nothing mind-blowing, but the little touches here and there will add to
user delight, and that's what's needed to chip away at those that are
dyed-in-the-wool iPhone users.
Anti-virus firm Symantec decided to see how honest people are when it comes to finding a lost smartphone.
So the company set up a test that involved dropping 50 smartphones in 5
cities (New York City; Washington D.C.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and
Ottawa, Canada). The phones were dropped in high-traffic areas like a
mall food court and a bus stop. So just what are the odds that the
smartphone you just lost will be returned to you?
