What is Ice Cream Sandwich, you ask? It’s the latest version of Google’s Android operating system and, oh boy, is it pretty. Tons of things have been changed, polished, and added. So many in fact that it can be a bit troublesome to know everything your new version of Android can do. That’s where I come in. Here’s a complete walkthrough of Ice Cream Sandwich to show you all the things that have changed from previous versions of Android. Hang tight, it’s a long one.
Highlights
Lockscreen
- New additions to the ways to lock the screen; none, slide, face unlock, pattern, pic, and password.
- Now have a choice between none and slide to unlock where you didn’t before.
- Slide to unlock allows one direction to unlock and one direction to open the camera.
- You can get to notifications from the lockscreen (just cant click on them without unlocking the device)
- Can use Face Unlock (which works most of the time)
Launcher
- New launcher with widgets and apps in the same place
- Fun new swiping and floating in animations
- Tap and hold to not only add the app to the homescreen but you can also uninstall apps this way now as well
Notifications
- Shortcut to Settings in the notification bar allows you to get to settings much quicker from any open app.
- Swipe to dismiss notifications
Homescreen
- There are 5 homescreens now
- Universal search bar is now always present at the top of every homescreen
- Apps can be organized into folders by holding down on them and dragging them on top of one another
- You can name these app folders as well
- Widgets can be resized
- Trash is now at the top of the screen when holding down on an app instead of the bottom
- There is a larger shortcut bar that floats along the bottom
- You can drag and drop apps into the floating shortcut bar along the bottom
Multitasking
- Button always present on bottom right
- Thumbnail view showing the running apps current screen
- 18 apps can be open at one time
- Swipe to close an app
Stock Apps
- Phone – Incoming calls can be ignored and sent a text response immediately
- Messaging – Mostly cosmetic changes
- Gmail – Mostly cosmetic changes
- Email – Mostly cosmetic changes
- Calendar – Sync all your calendars in one place (including social, personal, work, etc.)
- Maps – Mostly cosmetic changes
- People – Syncs with all your social accounts to bring profile pictures, status updates, etc all into one place.
Text Input
- New keyboard spelling options; tap a word to get spelling suggestions
- Streaming Voice to Text added
Settings
- Data counter has been added with the ability to set limit notifications
Camera
- Faster to load
- Almost instant shutter for faster picture taking
- Panoramic moda allows you to sweep across and take one long photo
- Built in face detection
- Added camera effects / video camera effects
NFC
- Google Wallet (coming soon)
- Android Beam allows you to tap your device on another Android Beam device to share apps, pictures, videos, files, etc. without having to pair via Bluetooth
Browsing
- Sync Bookmarks with Google Chrome Desktop Browser
- Request Desktop Version of site
- Swipe to dismiss tabs
Miscellaneous
- Screen capture
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