Google during the Android-specific keynote at Google I/O unveils the next version of Android named “Ice Cream Sandwich” which has been rumored for quite long time. The Ice Cream Sandwich which is scheduled for Q4 launch will combine the best features of Honeycomb which is optimized for Android tablets with the smartphone OS. This new Android will support all Android devices including smartphones, tablets and also Google TV.
The idea of this combination is to have one OS that runs on everywhere and definitely open-sourced. Not much about the Android Ice Cream Sandwich features we know at the moment. But from the Android-specific keynote we could expect to see the following:
- New holographic UI that Google described as state of the art, richer widgets which we currently see on Honeycomb will also become available on smartphones.
- More advanced application framework that will enable developers to create more unique applications for both phones and tablets.
- Face tracking that can go deeper than just tracking where you move your head, but also knows where your eyes, nose and mouth are. The demo showed how a forward facing camera could recognize parts of a person’s face and distort them, or follow the head’s movement and adjust a 3D model so the perspective changed accordingly.
- Camera enhancements that will enable you to recognize separate callers’ voices in a video call. So when one person talks, the camera will zoom in on their face and will zoom back out once that person is done talking.
Apart from those great features coming with the Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the most interesting thing is that Google announced they have sat down with carriers, manufacturers and other member of the Open Handset Alliance (including Verizon, HTC, Sprint, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola, AT&T, Sony Ericsson and Samsung) to adopt guidelines regarding how quickly devices are updates after an Android update and also for how long they will continue to be updated. And the result for this matter, new devices from all the members of this alliance will receive the latest Android updates for 18 months after the devices has been released, provided that the hardware can handle the new versions.
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