September 23, 2008, Android 1.0, the first commercial version of Android is released. Just over 3 years later, October 19, 2011, after evolving from Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb, not including Astro and Bender, Ice Cream Sandwich was announced. Along the way, Android put out loads of features and took in some 200+ million users. Today, we’re going to be breaking down two of the newest, and arguably best, Android versions (Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich). Obviously, a winner has already been chosen for this Versus Match. However, look at the competition as more of a comparison and evolution of Android.

UI (User Interface)

It is hard to miss the fact that Google was going for an improved User Interface with Ice Cream Sandwich. Just from taking a look at the search bar, you can tell that Ice Cream Sandwich is much sleeker than Gingerbread. Mainly, Ice Cream Sandwich will make it easier for users to find those common buttons and actions that were always playing hide and go seek in older Android versions. Furthermore, the animations and “typeface” have been refined to play nicely with your new 720p HD display. Furthermore, Ice Cream Sandwich introduces the new font “Roboto”. This Google creation will make reading easier and give Android a more modern feel.

By far, the most visible interface on any device is the font you read everything from websites, to emails, to SMS’ on. With Android 4.0, Google has designed a font completely from the ground up, and it looks exceptional. Dubbed Roboto, it’s a font built with modernity in mind, and looks great.

With a heavy dose of the use of intuitive gestures, and the ability for developers to add them too, Ice Cream Sandwich really is as silky smooth as its name implies.

Multitasking, Widgets, and Folders

Two of Android’s most notable and original features are Multitasking and Widgets. Therefore, Ice Cream Sandwich will be bringing new meaning to both of those features with some key upgrades.

First, the Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list that pops up should be very familiar to Honeycomb users. Furthermore, the list will show you a thumbnail image of whats going on inside of that app for easy app-switching. If you want to get rid of recent app, just toss it away with a finger swipe.

Note! this swiping feature also works with browser tabs and notifications.

In addition, Ice Cream Sandwich now enables users to re-seize their widgets. Want a full page dedicated to Gmail? Go for it! Finally, Android 4.0 borrows iOS’s folder creation method of drag and drop. Therefore, all you have to do to create a folder is pick up and app, and throw it onto another one.

Network Data Manager

Wireless providers are starting to charge their customers an arm and a leg for less and less data. Thankfully, Google has provided us with a solution. The new Data usage controls allow for constant monitoring of your total usage by network type and application. In addition, it adds the ability to set limits on those data-hungry apps.

This is one of the more welcome additions to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as it gives you the complete breakdown on what your most data hungry apps are, which can end up saving you a lot of money. Definitely not something the carriers are looking forward to, but consider this a win for you, the consumer. Plus, it displays all of the info an easy to understand and beautiful graph, too.

Sharing

Now that Social Networks are destined to completely take over our lives, Android has adapted to make sharing a heck of a lot easier. First, Ice Cream Sandwich will introduce a whole new way to look at your friends.

Android 2.3′s contact list was known for being extremely boring. The new People app in Android 4.0 offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, events, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.

But what happens when you want to send something to the person sitting right next to you instantly?! Well, with Gingerbread, you email it to them. In Ice Cream Sandwich, simply touch phones, and given that you have an NFC-capable device, voila! The guy next to you is watching the exact video or playing the same game as you are. Furthermore, Google has left this feature open to developers. Therefore, passing game scores, initiating a multiplayer game or chat, and more just got a lot easier.

Camera and Video

Live Effects are a collection of graphical transformations that allow you to turn your friend into an alien, put them on the moon, or more all from the Camera app. For example, users can change the background behind them to any stock or custom image, for just the right setting when shooting video. Also available is “Silly Faces”, a set of morphing effects that transform facial features. For example, you can use effects such as small eyes, big mouth, big nose, face squeeze, and more. Into video chatting? All of this can be done in the Google Talk app as well.

Do you hate it when friends get into your phone? But at the same time, setting a password stops you from getting into your phone fast. Google has come to the rescue with a new revolutionary feature called Face Unlock. It is exactly what you think it is, face recognition lets you unlock your phone with your face.

Improved Speed

Although at the time, Gingerbread was a huge update to older android versions in terms of speed, Google somehow managed to make Ice Cream Sandwich faster. And we’re not just talking about minor speed improvements. “In benchmarks run on a Nexus S device, the Android 4.0 browser showed an improvement of nearly 220% over the Android 2.3 browser in the V8 Benchmark Suite and more than 35% in the SunSpider 9.1 JavaScript Benchmark. When run on a Galaxy Nexus device, the Android 4.0 browser showed improvement of nearly 550% in the V8 benchmark and nearly 70% in the SunSpider benchmark” (Android Developers).

Furthermore, Ice Cream Sandwich makes email better by adding improved auto-completion, quick responses, an integrated menu, nested mail subfolders, and as mentioned before, a resizable Email widget.

Other Goodies

Wi-Fi Direct: will make instant sharing of files, photos, or other media; streaming video or audio from another device; or connecting to compatible printers or other devices all possible for Ice Cream Sandwich devices.

Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP): will allow for connecting to wireless medical devices and sensors in hospitals, fitness centers, homes, and elsewhere with some help from third party application developers.

Developers: 

Key Android 3.x developer features, now for phones too

Core UI

• Fragments and content loaders
• Resizeable home screen widgets
• Rich notifications
• Multi-selection, drag-drop, clipboard
• Improved screen-support API
• Hardware-accelerated 2D graphics

Graphics and animation

• Property-based animation
• Renderscript 3D graphics

Media and connectivity

• HTTP Live streaming
• Bluetooth A2DP and HSP devices
• Support for RTP
• MTP/PTP file transfer
• DRM framework
• Input from keyboard, mouse, gamepad, joystick

Enterprise

• Full device encryption
• DPM policies for encrypted storage and passwords

Video Comparison

As you can tell, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has added quite a large amount of new features. With that being said, Android 4.0 will be eliminating many of the problems that users had with older versions while also adding loads of new features, and innovation for developers. Ice Cream Sandwich made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. However, it is far from limited to this device. Any device that comes out after, or relatively close behind, October 19th 2011 (ICS Release Date) is almost guaranteed the upgrade to 4.0. Furthermore, tons of Gingerbread devices will be getting the call for an upgrade in the near future.

Also, let’s not forget it’s already starting to trickle into all sorts of devices like the Kindle Fire, the Asus Transformer, and many, many more. Google has released the source, and it’s likely this will herald an entirely new generation of useful devices in the near future.

For a full list of new Android 4.0 features for users and developers, click here.

NEXT: Google Nexus S, Gingerbread-strapped Phones To Get Ice Cream Sandwich, Too

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Another month, another set of statistics revealed by Google for us to ogle and scrutinize. So, which Android platform is ruling the universe, and which is heading straight to the black hole? Here’s a spoiler, there’s really no significant shake-up from last month. Let’s work our way down from the top and analyze the Android platform distribution chart among Android devices owners that have accessed Google Play for the 2-week period ending April 2, 2012.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread is still the most popular Android flavor around, securing a 63% share. Taking second place is Android 2.2 Froyo with 23.1%. About 6% of Android owners are still using Android 2.1 Éclair, enough to make the flavor the third most used Android platform. Meanwhile, Honeycomb is still holding on to its dear life with a combined share of 3.3% for version 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2. Heading into oblivion are Android 1.5 Cupcake and Android 1.6 Donut, as the combined share of the two reaches a measly 1%.

You didn’t think we’d miss out Ice Cream Sandwich, did you? The venerable Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, all versions, can now be found on 2.9% of all Android devices. This is a 1.3 percentage points improvement compared to the number revealed last month. This can probably be explained by the improving sales numbers of Galaxy Nexus and tablets that are touting ICS, such as the Asus Transformer Prime. In the last month or so, we have also seen HTC and Samsung cranking up their ICS update efforts for various devices.

Looking back at how Gingerbread didn’t gain much traction until after the first semester of its availability, it’s possible that ICS will follow the same trajectory.

Google has never been the one to shy away from releasing data of active Android devices and of their respective Android versions. In fact, the Android OS distribution data is updated every fortnight on the company’s developer page. Reported first by Mobile Syrup, here’s the latest data for the week ending of March 5. You won’t find any surprises, since the outcome is one that is rather predictable.

No drum rolls required here — at 62 percent, Gingerbread still reigns supreme as the dominating flavor in the Android space. That’s not the case with Ice Cream Sandwich, as the latest version of Android still gets little love from users and manufacturers. The number of devices running ICS accounts only for a paltry 1.6% of the total, a slight increase over the 1% figures we saw at the beginning of the month. Meanwhile, close to two years after its first release, 25.3% of Android devices are still running Android 2.2 Froyo. The less said about the tablet OS that never was, Honeycomb, the better. But just in case you’re wondering, the three variants of Honeycomb contributed to a grand total of 3.3% market share.

How well does ICS measure up to past Android desserts? We’ll let the numbers do the talking. Released on May 2010, Froyo was already running on 28.7 percent of Android smartphones by September 2010, or 4 months after its release. On the other hand, by its fifth month of availability, Gingerbread was found only on 1.7% of Android devices.  Notice some similarity there? Though things didn’t get off to a good start either for Gingerbread, its market performance did improve drastically later, and it crossed the 50% barrier by November 2011.

We do understand that the Android landscape has changed significantly in the last year or so with the introduction of tablets, phablets, and what not. We just hope that manufacturers can get their act together and start roll out the ICS update sooner, rather than later.

NEXT: How popular are custom ROMS for Android?

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NEC may not be doing so well in the smartphone market lately, but they aren’t going down without a fight. DoCoMo has just announced a new smartphone for Japan, called NEC- ES N-05D. What’s most spectacular about this device is that they are built to be water-proof while still being 0.11 inches thinner than a Galaxy S 2, which is already a pretty thin device.

These are all the specs:

• 4.3-inch LCD with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels,
• Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread,
• waterproof body,
• 8.1MP CMOS camera with NEC’s Exmor R for better low light performance,
• dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8260 CPU,
• 1GB of RAM,
• 4GB internal memory,
• Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, NFC e-wallet function, infrared connection, digital TV tuner,
• microSD card slot,
• 1400mAh battery,
• connectivity to Casio’s G-SHOCK GB-6900 watch,
• dimensions: 130×67×6.7mm, weight: 3.89 oz (110g)

The phone actually looks very competitive with a 4.3″ display with an HD resolution of 1280×720. It even has a dual core 1.5 Ghz S3 processor, although that has proven to be even a bit weaker than a dual core 1.2 Cortex A9 processor. It won’t be until S4 when Qualcomm will reach catch-up in raw CPU power.

It’s also a bit unfortunate to still see devices still launching with Gingerbread, but it is what it is. Hopefully they at least plan on upgrading it soon to ICS. With 4 GB of internal storage and 1 GB of RAM, and a dual core processor, it should be more than capable to receive the Android 4.0 update.

There’s no word whether these phones will be available outside Japan, but if they will be, you might have to wait a while for that to happen.

NEXT: ASUS Water-proof, Dust-proof Honeycomb Tablet Heading to Japan

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The Droid RAZR certainly turned some heads back in November. It was probably the most innovative phone I saw all year design and build wise, thanks to its ultra-thin 7.7mm kevlar body. How can many people can say their phone is protected by kevlar? The only reason it didn’t reach its true potential is because a day later the Galaxy Nexus stole most of its thunder, not necessarily because of the hardware or because of its design, but because it had stock Android 4.0. By comparison, the RAZR had what looked like a year old OS, even if it had more recent Gingerbread updates.

Today, Motorola is launching, I guess what they’d consider, a sequel to the RAZR – the RAZR MAXX. This phone is definitely welcome thanks to its almost double the battery life of the RAZR. The problem is this upgrade is what all phones should have. I didn’t realize that phones can hold such large batteries in them, and I thought that those 3rd party ones were mostly a scam, because otherwise why wouldn’t manufacturers use them, too? But if they can use them, then all of them should have a 3000 mAh+ battery from now on.

Another problem with the Maxx is that it infuriates the customers of the original RAZR. Here’s this phone (MAXX) that arrives just 3 months later with pretty much the same specs, but has double the battery life. This is a flawed strategy of Motorola, HTC and others, and I do hope they will quit using it in 2012. Motorola has promised to do it, so hopefully the RAZR MAXX is the last time we see them using this strategy of releasing a slightly upgraded phone every month or two.

What their strategy should be is this: identify 3 or 4 price ranges, than make 1 phone for each, and no sooner than 6 months release a “Plus” version, that comes with some hardware upgrades and the new version of Android, for new customers. So each company should only have “one” flagship per year, but with an upgraded Plus version as a mid-life kicker.

But the new Android version is important, too. And this is another problem with the MAXX. It comes 2 and a half months after Android 4.0 launched, and yet it doesn’t have it at launch. This needs to stop. Once Google announces a new major Android version, they should wait until all their new phones have it before they launch them.

But we can’t have everything, and it might take a while before all the manufacturers get it. So if you liked the RAZR and you’re due for a new phone that has LTE, you can get the RAZR MAXX with a $70 discount, for only $230 at Wirefly.

NEXT: Droid RAZR MAXX will be available on January 26th

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Those of us who don’t own the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate – on AT&T – have probably forgotten that Samsung has not yet released an official update to Gingerbread, until today that is. Now I can finally pick up my Captivate off my desk and update it to Android 2.3 using Samsung Kies.

Listed below are some of the benefits of the upgrade:

• Download management
• New layout for larger fonts
• Word prediction, multi-touch for numerical input
• One-touch word selection and copy/paste
• Fixed Top-menu in Gmail
• Voice Search added into the search categories
• Vertical play mode added to YouTube
• 3D graphic driver updates
• Additional Khronos standard such as OpenSL ES, EGL for better multimedia performance
• Concurrent Garbage Collector  technology embedded to reduce lags in games
• Being able to show your face in public

Hit the source link for directions from Samsung on how to update to Android 2.3 using Kies. Yes we know, the Kies system really sucks! But unfortunately that’s how it’s done with the Samsung Galaxy S phones. Did you get your update? Let us know in the comments how it works out, and how long it took to update your Samsung Captivate.

NEXT: Samsung Captivate Galaxy S Android phone for AT&T available July 18

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Before the release of the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet (NT), we had the Nook Color, it was the go to tablet for developers who were on a budget.   Why had it received such attention from so many in the development community? Well the reasons are simple. For the price, it had a great screen and also had solid build quality. Many other tablets at that price could not hold a candle to the Nook Color on these terms.

Fast forward to today, and we ask what does this mean to the current owners of the Nook Color? While it may still be receiving attention from Barnes and Nobles in regards of updates, is the development community still showing the same interest in the Nook Color today? From the research I have done the answer is yes. It seems many have held on to their Nook Colors in hopes of obtaining ICS on their device sometime in the future.

It seems a few major contributors in XDA’s development forum are working hard at getting ICS on the Color. Some of the people hard at work to get ICS up and running include fattire and dalingrin, they have covered some major ground but much still has to be done. From my time browsing the forums it looks like it still is going to be a uphill battle to get the Nook Color running smooth with ICS. So where are we standing today with the Nook Color?

Here’s what’s working:

• bluetooth (pairing/file transfer only confirmed)
• WiFi (full it seems but it’s brand-new to the kernel so who knows how stable anything is)
• backlight
• accelerometer
• improved stability (but not perfect)
• gapps
• setcpu/overclock
• real data usage info (not stubbed out)
• battery levels/charging
• physical menu button
• touchscreen
• 3d games
• usb gadget in kernel (ie, mounting your sdcard to your computer)
• screenshots
• build system (to auto-create update.zips)

For sure not working yet:

• sound
• video
• full 2d acceleration (esp on complex web pages)
• and much much more

It looks like the ICS build on the Nook Color is giving some renewed hope to some owners who may have lost interest or hope with their or Nook Color. But with 99 pages and 275k views so far on this current project, it shows no signs of slowing down.

NEXT: NOOK Color 2 “Confirmed” for Release Ahead of Kindle Fire

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So the other night I got an alpha version of ICS installed on my Droid 3, and I have to say I am impressed. Hashcode has been hard at work since the release of the source code, and  had done some amazing things. I am currently using it for my daily driver and if you don’t mind being a guinea pig  give it a shot yourself. For being an alpha it is very stable, and  many of the main functions work. Here is the list from Hashcode’s blog of what works and what does not.

 Many of the base phone functions are now working. And that includes:

• Phone is usable in CDMA and GSM modes for making/receiving calls as well as 3G data.
• Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS all work
• HW acceleration is working tho sometimes .. “a work in progress” due to the Gingerbread version of our PVR driver.
• Audio is probably better than it was in CM7 (imho)

Here’s what will not be working (at least at the start of Alpha):

• The camera, and several video codecs.  They rely on a device which isn’t present in our kernel: “/dev/ion”.  I’m looking at re-writing it against our memory management unit.  Will take some time.
• Wifi Tether is broken at the moment and needs debugging
• Voice recognition needs debugging / fixes
• Data usage stats are “stubbed” in so that only the total will show, not the per app break down.   Needs kernel module fix.
• Dock Audio hasn’t been added to the build (I need to decompile the app and rewrite it)
• HDMI support hasn’t been added to the build (same as above and then troubleshoot through the hwcomposer).

Screencast currently does not work for ICS and I was having problems with my camera. So the best I could do is to get some screenshots of some benchmarks and general usage to give you an idea how it is progressing.

In Smartbench 2011 it is looking about the same as before when I ran it on gingerbread. The browser on the other hand it has almost doubled it performance, it truely is amazing how much better the browser is in ICS. The RAM is much less cluttered then it was when I used Gingerbread stock or with Motoblur, I generally would be sitting at 100 mb free before. Overall this build is looking great and I can not wait for this build to be finished. I few problems with compatibility issues with ICS, and  was happy to be able to use most of my favorite apps. Overall this is a great start for the Droid 3, and is more then enough to keep me from upgrading anytime soon to something like the Droid 4.

Image Credit: Anandtech

NEXT: Android Ice Cream Sandwich Caught on Cam? First ICS Screenshots Appear Online

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AT&T seems to be taking Android seriously lately, especially if that means helping them promote their new LTE network. Since the iPhone doesn’t support LTE, AT&T will take the Android phones that do support it, and run with them. One of the very first such devices is the LG Nitro HD, which is very similar to the LG phone that’s launching on Bell – the LG Optimus LTE.

It seems we’re going to see a lot more HD phones from now on, because the LG Nitro HD is also one to feature such a display with a 1280×720 resolution that also makes the phone ready to be upgraded to ICS as soon as possible. The phone also comes with a dual core 1.5 Ghz Qualcomm processor, 4 GB of internal storage, 1 GB of RAM, 8MP camera, microSD slot, and an 1830 mAh battery.

It’s possible that this phone might end up to be the first HD phone on AT&T’s network, before the Galaxy Nexus, and will also run on AT&T’s “4G” HSPA+ 21 Mbps network. Plus, one advantage that it has over the Galaxy Nexus is that it uses the RGB matrix rather than the Pentile Matrix, so it has all the subpixels for a crisper display. Although, it might not be very easy to distinguish the lack of 1/3 of subpixels on such a high resolution.

Both the LG Nitro HD and its twin brother the LG Optimus LTE (Bell Canada network) will run Gingerbread, but they will probably get an Android 4.0 upgrade sometime in Q1 next year. Although it’s a LTE phone, I would expect the price be somewhere around $200 rather than $300.

NEXT: Motorola DROID Bionic Official Specs Show Up, Then Vanish

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It seems like Motorola has been hard at work addressing the issues that owners of the Droid Bionic have experiencing. In the last few weeks the members of forums such as XDA, and androidforums.com have been playing around with a non-official update that has escaped Motorola/Verizon’s grasp.  The update known as 5.5.886 seems to have addressed some of the bugs, and problems that we outlined a while back. Some of the issues include loss of data connectivity, poor battery life, sluggish camera, and on and on. So far most Bionic owners have noticed such benefits from the update such as better battery life, quicker camera, and better 3g and 4g connections.

With the update originally being slated for November, and with all the positive feedback from Bionic owners, it seems that the update could be available right on time. Motorola has been on the ball recently with updates to their Android devices, especially with the last of their Droid line to receive Gingerbread. With that being said, could this be the last update the Bionic receive for Gingerbread? Hopefully the next update could possibly be Ice Cream Sandwich, we can hope right?

What do you think – when should we expect to see ICS on the Bionic?

NEXT: Motorola DROID BIONIC Release Date Just Around the Corner

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