Google puts a peck of effort into peach about what ’s fun in Ice Cream Sandwich . It ’s sure enough advanced , and powerful , and more human - focused than past Androids . But I ’m not certain I ’d call it fun . And that ’s a trouble .
playfulness is something you do because you want to . Fun is more than just diversion , it ’s pleasure . It ’s transcendent . I ’m not certain Google gets fun . They have a good understanding of what will objectively appeal to human beings , in the same way a Cylon might . But Ice Cream Sandwich , while powerful , is not a fun experience . For all its cutting - edge features , it ca n’t shake the cold , remote style that ’s become Android ’s inauspicious hallmark .
And without the play , while you may discover it useful and even essential , I ’m not certain you ’ll have it off it .
From the very first metre I fired up a G1 , Android has always mint me as more knock-down than Apple ’s iOS . Android ’s always had more gee - whiz features , direct out of the futurity . Oh , Io 5 can trigger a monitor when you get to a sure localization ? cunning , butI was doing that with Locale on Android in 2008 . Background processes . notification . Built - in piloting . layer . NFC . Etc . Android has always drive the gasbag of what ’s possible . That ’s admirable , but it has often get along at the expense of dead - childlike useableness . And then there ’s Ice Cream Sandwich .
We ’re going to have a spirit at the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus all on its own . But today we want to look at the engine that drive it . Ice Cream Sandwich is by far the most useable Android group O I ’ve try , on a phone or a tab . It ’s the first that does n’t feel so digital and automatic that you need to put your spike against it and hear to it bleep and hum . It retains all that king you lust with Android apps , but puts them in a human being - well-disposed package . It ’s fast and reactive . It ’s pre - loaded with gravid Google apps you ’ll use right from the get go . You ’re going to want to plunk into Ice Cream Sandwich and start exploring . And here ’s what you ’ll find .
The Little Big Touches
Everything just work a footling better than it has before . Using a Samsung Galaxy Nexus operate Ice Cream Sandwich side by side with a Samsung Galaxy SII running Gingerbread was revelatory . The latter felt clunky and boxy and primitive in comparison . The Galaxy Nexus was both prettier to depend at and easier to use .
Let ’s start with appearance . Take the the telephone ikon . In stock Gingerbread , it ’s a green loge with a white-hot phone in the center unmistakable green earphone . If you look close you ’ll see shading near the spike and mouth piece but for the most part it looks , well , flat and shitty . In ICS , the icon is a borderless French telephone that floats and hovers . It has rich shading and colour differentiation to hint depth and contour . It looks ask for . It pronounce call me .
Those pernicious interface enhancement are everywhere . Everything in ICS is a bit more textured , more rounded , more thoughtfully designed . Even the system fount , a bastardised mashup of Helvetica , Myriad and a few others , look smoother and more New than the Droid sept that come before it . It is far more visually appealing than Gingerbread ever was .
Even better , there is so much about ICS that ’s prosperous to manage . For example , a permanent link to the system circumstance lives in the notifications tray . So no matter where you are in the O , you are no more than one swipe and intercept away from total dominance . Notifications themselves are also greatly ameliorate . They still come at you from the top of the screen , but you may dismiss them one at a fourth dimension now by sliding them to the left or right . On the home screens a newfangled persistent icon on the bottom words leads to all your applications . It ’s there on every rest home screen door , ready to launch you to all your apps . you may also add four other apps to that quarrel , so you now have quick and easy access to often used ones , like your internet browser or email .
The four longstanding icons that made up your home rowing have been completely rethought . The icons for Search and Menu are gone . In their place is a undivided Recent Apps ikon that lets you switch map , or shoot down running apps with a swipe . ( Also notable : while the home row was once on the bezel , it is now go to the display itself , and made from softkeys that rotate when you rotate the speech sound ) .
single apps pilot better now as well . In the Books app , for example , the more alive Thomas Nelson Page turns of ICS might becharm your oculus , but the real meat is the way you access options . Instead of hitting the bezel button , you wiretap a Sir Frederick Handley Page , and iconography representing choice shows up in the top of the screen , along with a hunting loge . knock it again for a leaning of options . It ’s just faster , and better , and more nonrational .
There ’s more . ICS is a maze of pinch and touches . But the bottom short letter is that pilotage is far , far better in dozens of small-scale but important ways . All of these are underage adjustments that tally up to less clock time spent trying to do things and more time spent in reality doing them . They stand for fewer taps to make do your apps .
Closer to Fine
methamphetamine hydrochloride Cream Sandwich has none of the skeuomorphic touches that you find in iOS , and it even eschewed some that were in Gingerbread . While sometimes this is a very good affair ( there is no ugly , screen real estate - hogging embossed leather chrome , for object lesson ) other times it ’s puzzling .
For example , when you scroll to the bottom of a screen or else of bouncing , it glow low . The bouncing put to work because that ’s what often happens in real animation when you pull something past the point where it is meant to go : it springs back . The blue radiance is both less noticeable , and less obvious in its intent . Am I at the bottom , or did I just irradiate my apps ?
But often the willingness to experiment visually pay off . For illustration , when Google replaced touch with People . In Ice Cream Sandwich , physical contact are rifle , as an app at least . In its place is an app call in multitude that pulls in various service , like Twitter or Google Plus , in increase to saturated address book data . It direct evince status updates and in some cases even high-pitched solution photos . In Gingerbread , the Contacts image is a faceless human silhouette peering robot . The image for People , on the other paw , does n’t look like a person at all . And yet it smiles at you . In other dustup , it ’s been made more well-disposed . And of course , this is yet another example of Android trying to become friendly , and more person - focused .
The Good Gets Great
There are major changes , too , the kinds of sweeping redevelopment that you carry from a major release . And they ’re occasionally terrific , like the overhauled Camera app ’s automatic panorama stitcher . All you need to do is pin the headphone and you could capture stunning bird’s-eye landscapes . I call this one Pumpkin on the Beach :
Meanwhile , photos send away in what seems like real time , the shutter hurrying is mind - spoil . tap the screen not only focuses , but actually works very well . face up trailing was also most unflawed . Bottom line : You ’re drop dead to employ the hell out of this camera .
The other major restoration , not to be underestimate ? Typing . Android keyboard has always made me need to stamp out thing . One of Android ’s selling stop I ’ve often heard is that you could radically customize the keyboard with an app like Swype . That ’s with child . But the problem is that you basically postulate a third - political party keyboard in Android . No more . The keyboard in Ice Cream Sandwich is positively zippy . It ’s responsive , accurate , and the prognosticative text work quite well .
Here ’s the same chunk of text , provoke off as quickly as I could input it , using default keyboard in Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich .
deoxyephedrine Cream Sandwich :
So , I ’m just trying to writ something s spot longer here , as cursorily as I can withour ! see for typos or errors .
I just want to see how rapidly I can use the keyboard , and in fact it seems greatly amend .
Gingerbread :
So , I m just tryibg to pen something a bit lobger here as quivkly as i can without revard for tyops or errors .
I just want to see how quickky i canbuse ge keyboard and i front it seems greatly imporved .
It ’s sweet assuagement . But .
You’re Trying Too Hard
Sometimes Ice Cream Sandwich literally plead with you to enjoy it . Take the built - in picture gist . They do things like swell up your nose or oral cavity , or recoil your face . They ’re kind of amazing , when you first encounter them . Because it does n’t just falsify one spot on the screen where the OS predicts your nose or mouth may be ; it really agnize your facial feature and distorts them even as you move your head from side to side or back and forth . In the reader ’s guide for the video issue , Google declare oneself the following direction : “ Note : These are fun . ” Thank you , Google . That is good to know .
And then there is the make - in social . Google has bet big on Plus . Google is using Ice Cream Sandwich to push Plus like beer in a bar . Plus is everywhere . It hail with apps for Plus and G+ Messenger establish in . Your photos are automatically upload to Google Plus . Sharing options , even for media , all lead to Plus .
You are n’t always going to want that Google Plus consolidation . Very many people who I will never attempt to email , call or substance are name my People app because they are Google Plus contact . Although you could select which rope to exhibit , if , like me , you have n’t invested much time in gear up up your circles you end up with thousands of acquaintances or no one at all . sorry , when I endeavor to beam an email to my wife it displace one off to me rather . Why ? She had never filled out her Google Plus visibility . Yet for some understanding , her Google Plus info was dwell with my destination data . There was no room to edit this . I eventually turned off the pick to sync my Plus contacts because it was all too pesky .
I admire the attempt , however , and it mostly works . An mechanical man is not simply a robot . It ’s a robot with human characteristics . If there is one matter that Google ’s Android OS has lack , it ’s humanity . While extremely advanced , it has never been personable .
Man vs. Machine
frosting Cream Sandwich is Google ’s attempt to make Android not only more sophisticated from a technology perspective , but also more human . It is spit with piddling ghost of humanism throughout . From the People app that ’s front and center by default , to the cryptic - if - blemished social integration with Google Plus , to those zany TV event . I mean , you unlock it with your nerve . Ice Cream Sandwich is Google ’s attempt to design for human beings . And it pulls it off , mostly .
And of course , Ice Cream Sandwich is a brilliant applied science achievement . It ’s load with powerful feature film , like a not bad data direction instrument , build - in photo redaction , and NFC that enables you to do things like plowshare photos or videos from headphone to headphone simply by tap two of them together .
This technical school forward focus can finally be a downside . An old Android telephone typically feel get on beyond its old age . Because when your advantage is technology , time is always your big enemy .
And in many way it is still rough around the edge . It lacks the polish of iOS or Mango . Scroll through a inclination of albums in Rdio on ICS and iOS 5 side by side and it ’s apparent how much slicker the latter ’s UI is . The iOS version move at more varying and rude speeds and glides to a stop . Android move more jerkily and barricade more suddenly . ( you’re able to alleviate this , more or less , by forcing GPU rendering for third party apps , but it is still noticeable . ) The corners are more squared off on the record album image in Android , giving it a boxier , less sophisticated appearance . Even in native apps , like the World Wide Web web internet browser , I discover that text tended to skitter up the screen , rather than flow .
But overall it ’s a knock-down , wonderful , visually interesting climb . It ’s certainly the most user friendly version of Android to date . It ’s more navigable , more responsive , and all around a salutary experience . As a longtime Android user , I really labour it . I rule it compelling , even . Yet as a recent iOS 5 convert , I ’m not indisputable it ’s enough to make me go back .
Here ’s a last example to illustrate what I stand for . Ice Cream Sandwich makes it really easy to take a photo and portion out it with all my inter-group communication and lap on Google Plus . iOS make it really easy to take a photo and share with my Fatherhood on a letterpress card in the United States post . The chain mail is decidedly low technical school . But in its own means , it ’s also far more enjoyable . For most masses , applied science outpaces upgrade cycles . In two years , style and flash can fade . But merriment can persist . Fun affair .
Competence is one matter , but I opt joy .
helping of this review ab initio compared ICS to Samsung TouchWiz alternatively of Gingerbread . This has been amended where appropriate .
you could keep up with Mat Honan , the generator of this military post , onTwitter , Facebook , orGoogle+ .
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