Android 4.0(Ice Cream Sandwich) turns out most Human-friendly Interface.

Google puts a great deal of effort into talking about what’s enjoyable in Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0).It is surely advanced, and potent, and far more human-focused than past Android. But I’m not positive I’d call it entertaining. And that’s a problem.Entertaining is a thing you do because you want to. Enjoyable is far more than just diversion, it’s pleasure. It is transcendent.I’m not certain Google gets entertaining. They’ve a good understanding of what will objectively appeal to human beings, within the identical way a Cylon may well. But Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0), even though effective, isn’t an enjoyable experience. For all its cutting-edge functions, it cannot shake the cold, distant style that is turn out to be Android’s unfortunate hallmark.
And without the fun, while you may discover it useful and also essential, I’m not positive you will really like it.
From the very first time I fired up a G1, Android(Android version above 2.2) has usually struck me as more potent than Apple’s iOS. Android’s constantly had a lot more gee-whiz functions, straight out of the future. Oh, iOS 5 can trigger a reminder once you get to a certain location? Cute, but I was doing that with Locale on Android in 2008. Background processes. Notifications. Built-in navigation. Layers. NFC. Etc. Android has often pushed the envelope of what’s possible. That’s admirable, but it has typically come at the expense of dead-simple usability. After which there is Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0).We’re going to have a look in the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus all on its own. But today we desire to look in the engine that drives it. Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) is by far the most usable Android OS I’ve tried, on a phone or perhaps a tablet. It’s the initial that doesn’t really feel so digital and robotic which you need to put your ear against it and listen to it beep and hum.
It retains all that energy you crave with Android apps, but puts them in a human-friendly package. It’s quick and responsive. It is pre-loaded with excellent Google apps you will use right from the get go. You’re going to need to dive into Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) and commence exploring. And here’s what you’ll locate.
The Small Massive Touches
Anything just works just a little far better than it has just before. Making use of a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Ice Cream Sandwich side by side with a Samsung Galaxy SII running Gingerbread was revelatory. The latter felt clunky and boxy and crude in comparison. The Galaxy Nexus was each prettier to look at and easier to make use of. Let’s commence with appearances. Take the the telephone icon. In stock Gingerbread(Android 2.3), it’s a green box having a white phone in the center plain green telephone. In the event you look closely you will see shading near the ear and mouth piece but for probably the most portion it looks, properly, flat and shitty. In ICS, the icon is really a borderless handset that floats and hovers. It has wealthy shading and color differentiation to suggest depth and contour. It looks inviting. It says call me. Those subtle interface enhancements are everywhere. Everything in ICS can be a bit far more textured, more rounded, a lot more thoughtfully developed. Even the program font, a bastardized mashup of Helvetica, Myriad and a few other people, looks smoother and much more contemporary than the Droid family members that preceded it. It truly is far much more visually appealing than Gingerbread ever was.
Even greater, there’s so considerably about ICS that is less complicated to manage. For example, a permanent link to the method settings lives inside the notifications tray. So regardless of exactly where you are within the OS, you’re no far more than one swipe and tap away from total manage. Notifications themselves are also drastically improved. They still come at you from the top of the screen, but you’ll be able to dismiss them 1 at a time now by sliding them to the left or proper. On the residence screens a brand new persistent icon on the bottom row leads to all of your applications. It is there on every single house screen, ready to launch you to all of your apps. You may also add 4 other apps to that row, so you now have ready and effortless access to often used ones, like your browser or email. The 4 longstanding icons that produced up your house row have been entirely rethought. The icons for Search and Menu are gone. In their location is actually a single Recent Apps icon that lets you swap functions, or kill running apps having a swipe. (Also notable: although the house row was as soon as on the bezel, it truly is now moved to the display itself, and made from softkeys that rotate whenever you rotate the telephone).
Individual apps navigate much better now at the same time. Within the Books app, as an example, the far more animated page turns of ICS may well catch your eye, but the actual meat may be the way you access possibilities. Rather of hitting the bezel button, you tap a page, and iconography representing choices shows up inside the top of the screen, along with a search box. Tap it once more for a list of alternatives. It is just faster, and better, and much more intuitive.
There is much more. ICS is a labyrinth of tweaks and touches. But the bottom line is that navigation is far, far greater in dozens of small but essential techniques. All of these are minor adjustments that add up to less time spent attempting to do points and far more time spent in fact carrying out them. They mean fewer taps to manage your apps.
Closer to Fine
Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) has none in the skeuomorphic touches that you simply discover in iOS, and it even eschewed some that had been in Gingerbread(Android 2.3). Although often this can be a quite very good thing (there is certainly no ugly, screen actual estate-hogging embossed leather chrome, for example) other times it is puzzling.For example, when you scroll to the bottom of a screen rather of bouncing, it glows blue. The bounce works simply because that is what typically takes place in actual life if you pull some thing past the point exactly where it truly is meant to go: it springs back. The blue glow is each much less noticeable, and much less apparent in its intent. Am I at the bottom, or did I just irradiate my apps?
But often the willingness to experiment visually pays off. By way of example, when Google replaced Contacts with Men and women. In Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0), Contacts are gone, as an app at least. In its place is an app referred to as Men and women that pulls in numerous services, like Twitter or Google Plus, additionally to pure address book data. It directly shows status updates and in some circumstances even high resolution photographs. In Gingerbread, the Contacts icon is a faceless human silhouette peering robot. The icon for Individuals, however, does not appear like an individual at all. And but it smiles at you. In other words, it is been made much more friendly. And naturally, this really is but another example of Android trying to become friendlier, and more person-focused.
The Great Gets Great
You’ll find major adjustments, too, the types of sweeping overhauls that you simply expect from a major release. And they’re occasionally terrific, like the overhauled Camera app’s automatic panorama stitcher. All you need to do is pivot the telephone and it is possible to capture beautiful panoramic landscapes. I call this one Pumpkin on the Beach:
Meanwhile, photos fire in what seems like actual time, the shutter speed is mind-blowing. Tapping the screen not only focuses, but actually works really well. Face tracking was also nearly flawless. Bottom line: You’re going to utilize the hell out of this camera.The other main renovation, not to become underestimated? Typing. Android keyboard has often made me desire to kill things. 1 of Android’s selling points I’ve often heard is the fact that you can radically customize the keyboard with an app like Swype. That’s great. But the issue is that you fundamentally require a third-party keyboard in Android. No far more. The keyboard in Ice Cream Sandwich is positively zippy. It is responsive, accurate, as well as the predictive text functions quite nicely.Here’s exactly the same chunk of text, fired off as swiftly as I could input it, making use of default keyboard in Gingerbread(Android 2.3) and Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0).
Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0):So, I’m just trying to writs something s bit longer here, as swiftly as I can withour! Regard for typos or errors.
I just need to see how rapidly I can use the keyboard, and in reality it appears drastically improved.
Gingerbread(Android 2.3):So, Im just tryibg to write a thing a bit lobger here as quivkly as i can with out revard for tyops or errors.
I just need to see how quickky i canbuse ge keyboard and i face it appears tremendously imporved.
It is sweet relief. But You’re Trying Too Difficult
Often Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) literally pleads with you to enjoy it. Take the built-in video effects. They do things like swell up your nose or mouth, or shrink your face. They’re type of wonderful, whenever you 1st encounter them. Because it doesn’t just alter 1 spot on the screen where the OS predicts your nose or mouth might be; it in fact recognizes your facial functions and distorts them even as you move your head from side to side or back and forth. Within the reviewer’s guide for the video effects, Google gives the following guidance: “Note: These are entertaining.” Thank you, Google. That’s excellent to know.
And then there is the built-in social. Google has bet huge on Plus. Google is employing Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) to push Plus like beer in a bar. Plus is everywhere. It comes with apps for Plus and G+ Messenger built in. Your photos are automatically uploaded to Google Plus. Sharing alternatives, even for media, all result in Plus.
You are not always going to want that Google Plus integration. Extremely a lot of people who I will by no means try to email, call or message are listed my Men and women app since they are Google Plus contacts. Despite the fact that you’ll be able to pick which circles to display, if, like me, you haven’t invested considerably time in setting up your circles you finish up with thousands of acquaintances or no one at all. Worse, when I tried to send an e-mail to my wife it fired 1 off to me rather. Why? She had never filled out her Google Plus profile. But for some reason, her Google Plus information was populated with my address data. There was no approach to edit this. I ultimately turned off the option to sync my Plus contacts simply because it was all too annoying.
I admire the attempt, nonetheless, and it largely functions. An android just isn’t just a robot. It is a robot with human characteristics. If there’s 1 factor that Google’s Android OS has lacked, it is humanity. Whilst very advanced, it has never ever been personable.
Man vs. Machine
Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) is Google’s try to make Android not merely much more advanced from a technologies perspective, but additionally more human. It is sprinkled with small traces of humanism all through. From the Men and women app that is front and center by default, to the deep-if-flawed social integration with Google Plus, to those zany video effects. I mean, you unlock it together with your face. Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) is Google’s try to design for human beings. And it pulls it off, mainly.
And needless to say, Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) is really a brilliant technology achievement. It is loaded with powerful functions, like a terrific data management tool, built-in photo editing, and NFC that enables you to do points like share pictures or videos from telephone to telephone just by tapping two of them together.
This tech forward concentrate can ultimately be a downside. An old Android telephone generally feels aged beyond its years. Simply because when your benefit is technology, time is usually your biggest enemy.
And in numerous techniques it truly is still rough around the edges. It lacks the polish of iOS or Mango. Scroll via a list of albums in Rdio on ICS and iOS five side by side and it’s apparent how much slicker the latter’s UI is. The iOS version moves at much more variable and natural speeds and glides to a cease. Android moves more jerkily and stops much more abruptly. (You’ll be able to alleviate this, somewhat, by forcing GPU rendering for third party apps, but it is still noticeable.) The corners are far more squared off on the album icons in Android, giving it a boxier, much less sophisticated look. Even in native apps, like the Net browser, I noticed that text tended to skitter up the screen, as opposed to flow.
But overall it is an effective, fantastic, visually intriguing upgrade. It is surely essentially the most user friendly version of Android to date. It is far more navigable, much more responsive, and all about a much better experience. As a longtime Android user, I really dig it. I uncover it compelling, even. Yet as a recent iOS 5 convert, I’m not confident it’s enough to create me go back.
Here’s a final example to illustrate what I mean. Ice Cream Sandwich makes it genuinely straightforward to take a photo and share it with all my contacts and circles on Google Plus. iOS makes it truly effortless to take a photo and share with my father on a letterpress card within the United States mail. The mail is decidedly lower tech. But in its own way, it is also far far more enjoyable. For many men and women, technologies outpaces upgrade cycles. In two years, style and flash can fade. But entertaining can persist. Fun matters.

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