Riding the cresting waves<\/strong><\/p>\n Part of what makes this debut so important is that it turns on the turbocharger for a number of trends that were already flying high.\u00a0 Possibly the biggest of these is the Android operating system.\u00a0 Its initial release was a mere three years ago, and the 3.x Honeycomb versions were only released this year.\u00a0 Today there are an estimated 190 million Android capable devices in use, with another half million activated every day (that’s about 8 every second)!<\/p>\n Part and parcel with that is the supernova that is Google.\u00a0 This company is simply on fire.\u00a0 Name just about anything related to the internet.\u00a0 At this point, either Google has their own version of it, or they’re working on it.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s clear from the various news releases that there is going to be monumental support for both this operating system and this device.<\/p>\n What makes Ice Cream Sandwich so special?<\/strong><\/p>\n The primary design goal behind Android 4.0 was to create an operating system that could work equally well on tablets on phones, eliminating fragmentation.\u00a0 Given how ubiquitous this would make it, Google put immense redesign effort into just about every aspect of it.\u00a0 While it is described as still being intuitive to 3.0 users, even the compacted list of features and improvements is far too long to list.<\/p>\n Where do we start?\u00a0 Perhaps the interface is best.\u00a0 The physical buttons have been replaced with virtual ones.\u00a0 This creates a lot of versatility, as the phone uses a hefty 1280×720 resolution, and the icons can be moved all around.\u00a0 An even better, and long overdue customization, is the ability to disable any application, including pre-loaded ones, so long as its functioning is not an integral part of ICS itself.\u00a0 To pretty things up further, Google debuts a new font with this OS called \u201cRoboto\u201d.<\/p>\n A slew of minor improvements and ideas follow this.\u00a0 Many of them, unsurprisingly, are to the Gmail interface, which now contains an offline search, the ability to swap between multiple conversations with specific gestures, and two-line previews.\u00a0 Chrome also comes with some new toys such as \u201cRequest desktop site\u201d, which will load your bookmarks and settings from your PC.\u00a0 Stepping out of the Google-specific stuff, the user can make a new folder by simply dragging one application over on top of another, there is a \u201cRecent Applications\u201d icon, and you can access apps directly from the lock screen.<\/p>\n The fancy stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n The lock screen is a good segue into one of the most talked-about new features: facial recognition unlocking.\u00a0 The phone lets you unlock it by simply showing your face.\u00a0 Purportedly in tests this had to be slowed down because it was working so fast that it ran the risk of convincing users that the lock was never on in the first place.<\/p>\n While this may be one of the most talked-about features, though, it so far isn’t the most well-received.\u00a0 A demo of the feature failed (it was claimed later that they used the wrong person), and many users expressed doubts about the value of this service, especially since the phone includes alternate unlocking mechanisms.<\/p>\n What might be a little more exciting is the improved communication between phones via a new feature dubbed Android Beam, which makes use of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology<\/a>.\u00a0 Two phones tapping this within short communications range of each other are able to easily send data back and forth between them.\u00a0 Adding to the improved voice recognition software is now voice typing, allowing the user to type by talking.\u00a0 Lastly, the People app will load data from social networking sites for any contact that you enter.<\/p>\n
![\"galaxy-nexus-google\"](\"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/galaxy-nexus-google.png\" "\\"galaxy-nexus-google\\"")
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