Introduction
Google's newest and best version of Android just became official at the Google-Samsung event in Hong Kong along with the Galaxy Nexus. And although it may seem like it, Ice Cream Sandwich is not just another update to Android but a way to curb some of the inherent issues with the OS, such as fragmentation, that have been plaguing it for a long time.
Ice Cream Sandwich combines the tablet optimized Honeycomb and Gingerbread into a cohesive whole. The unification of the UI and APIs means that developers will no longer have to worry about multiple devices and hardware configurations and just have to develop their apps for one OS and it will automatically work perfectly across all devices. This is what Google promised us at their I/O event when they first announced Ice Cream Sandwich and that is what they delivered today.
Optimized for smartphone and tablet use
New user interface, with a new typeface called 'Roboto', updated animations, transition effects, multi-touch gestures and live wallpapers
Improved multitasking
New homescreen folders and favorites tray
Improved lock screen with facial unlock
Improved notification menu
Resizable widgets, viewable through the application menu
Built-in screenshot utility
Improved text input and spell-checking
Improved voice input
Ability to monitor and control data usage
Improved accessibility for disabled users
New Peoples app
Improved Gmail and Calendar app
Improved web browser with ability to save web pages and incognito mode
Visual voicemail
Improved camera app with face detection and panorama mode
Improved video recorder with continuous auto-focus, zooming while recording, snapshot while recording and time lapse mode
Redesigned Gallery app with photo editor
Android Beam for transferring data using NFC
Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth HDP support
But Ice Cream Sandwich is more than just unification of the smartphone and tablet versions of Android. It brings an overwhelming number of new changes and features to the OS that combine the best of Gingerbread and Honeycomb, while adding some new features along the way, such as the improved lock and notification screen, new camera app, new Peoples app and an improved browser, just to name a few.
Today we’ll be taking a first look at some of the more important features in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. So sit back and relax as we take you through them.
User Interface
The user interface on Ice Cream Sandwich has received a great deal of attention. It has the similar robotic theme of previous Android versions and reminds strongly of Honeycomb with it’s dark blue theme and similar UI elements.
Google is using a new typeface on Ice Cream Sandwich, called Roboto, which replaces the original Droid typeface found on previous versions of Android. There are also some new animations and transition effects and a new swipe gesture that works across the OS and lets you remove items from a list simply by swiping on it horizontally.
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Ice Cream Sandwich lockscreen with Roboto typeface for the clock • Main application menu
The Ice Cream Sandwich UI has a cool, modern look to it that is in a different class altogether compared to the classic, almost timeless look of iOS and the bold and sophisticated look of Windows Phone 7. It remains to be seen, however, if it will age as well as the other two, especially iOS. But if it ever gets boring, you can always change it. That’s the good thing about Android.
Call screen
Now let’s talk about the new features and improvements in the UI.
Multitasking
Ice Cream Sandwich borrows heavily from Honeycomb when it comes to the new multitasking UI. You press the dedicated Recent Apps button at the bottom of the screen, which brings a vertical stack of thumbnails for the recently opened apps.
Multitasking in Android 4.0
The thumbnails show actual screenshots of the app instead of just their icons, which makes them easier to identify and see the state you left them in. Apps can be closed simply by swiping them off the screen.
New notifications screen
The notifications screen now shows you icons next to the notification, such as the picture of the person who tried to call or message you. You can even control the default music player from the notification screen without having to switch apps.
Notifications can now be removed from the screen one at a time and all you have to do is swipe on them to remove them from the list. Lastly, the notifications screen can now be accessed from the lock screen as well, so you can see your notifications without having to unlock your phone.
Notification drawer
Improved lock screen
The lock screen now lets you jump directly to the camera app from the homescreen, simply by dragging the lock icon to the camera icon. This functionality was found in Android phones from HTC and Samsung before but it’s nice to see it built-into Android. Having said that it’s a lot simpler in comparison and only works with the camera app for now. It would have been nice to add other applications to the lock screen, as HTC allows you to do.
Face Unlock
A new feature in Ice Cream Sandwich lets you unlock your phone using your face. Once the phone knows what you look like, all you have to do is point the phone at your face for it to recognize and unlock the phone for you. This saves the hassle of remembering passwords and is more secure than a simple lock screen. It did not work as intended during the demo but we’re hopeful that the final version of the software would be better.
Folders
Although Android had folder support before, creating and managing folders wasn’t as simple and intuitive as it is in iOS. This changes with Ice Cream Sandwich because the folders are now vastly improved. You can drag and drop application icons on the homescreen on one another to create a new folder or directly drag an app into an existing folder. Tapping a folder shows you the contents within and you can even drag the icons around inside the folder.
Ice Cream Sandwich also comes with a new favorites tray, which is like a dock found at the bottom of the screen. In previous smartphone versions of Android, you would have two, non-customizable icons at the bottom of the screen flanking the application drawer button. Now you can have four icons there and they can be of your choice.
In fact you can even drag a folder from the homescreen onto the favourites tray, which gives you access to more than four apps. The favorites tray remains constant at the bottom of the screen regardless of whichever homescreen you may be in.
Resizable widgets
Another carryover feature from Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich allows you to resize widgets on your screen, which lets you manage space better. This feature makes a lot more sense on a smartphone than a tablet due to the relatively small screen. Also, in Ice Cream Sandwich, the widgets now appear in a separate section in the application drawer and you can preview them before applying.
Contacts
Contacts in Android Ice Cream Sandwich have been completely redesigned from the previous version of the OS and are now called just People. The look and feel of the application feels more dynamic and social than before, showing you the status of your friends from GTalk and their status message.
The social element is deeply integrated in the People's app, allowing you to add different connections to any contact, like for instance including them in a circle on Google+. In a single contact view, there's a large profile picture, which should make the experience of viewing contacts more engaging.
List of groups and single contact view in Android Ice Cream Sandwich
Messaging
Since Ice Cream Sandwich is parts Gingerbread, parts Honeycomb, the message apps feels practically unchanged. The keyboard is the same as that found in Gingerbread and that's not a particularly bad thing.
Error correction and word suggestion have been revamped and are now more accurate and can even detect double-typed characters, skipped letters and ommited spaces.
Word correction in Ice Cream Sandwich
Another revamped feature is the Speech-to-text, which now lets you talk for as long as you have air in your chest and it'll still keep on recording and transforming your speech into text. After you are done, the voice engine automatically underlines words it thinks might have come out wrong so that you can fix them if necessary.
Email
Android developers have spent quite some time making the Gmail application more intuitive and easier to use. As a result the application looks more streamlined and straight to the point without too much visual noise attacking you.
Notably, the people autosuggestion has been also improved and now shows a picture next to the suggested contact. With the new screenshot-taking feature in Ice Cream Sandwich, you can take a screenshot of your phone screen and attach it directly in the email as you are writing it.
Composing an email
With the new Gmail app, you can also set up quick responses and use them when composing. A great usability issue has been addressed by adding nested mail subfolders, which should help you locate and organize IMAP and Exchange emails. With the new Gmail app comes a resizable widget in pure Honeycomb spirit, but in an Ice Cream Sandwich execution.
Web browser
As expected, the web browser in Ice Cream Sandwich has gotten an update and it is now faster than before, with significantly improved performance in benchmarks over the previous version of the browser.
It also adds some useful features such as the ability to sync bookmarks with the Google Chrome browser and an incognito mode, where the browsing history is not saved, a feature that should be more useful on a tablet than a phone.
Other changes include the ability to request the full version of a website instead of the mobile optimized version, a feature that you may have noticed on Opera Mobile before. The browser can now also save pages on the phone for offline viewing, another feature found on the Opera browser.
Lastly, the Ice Cream Sandwich now shows a vertical stack of thumbnails for open windows that resemble the icons in the multitasking menu. Also, just like in the multitasking menu, you can close windows simply by swiping right on them.
Camera
Ice Cream Sandwich features a new camera application. Other than the new user interface, it adds some useful features, such as continuous focus, tap to focus, face detection, image stabilization and panorama mode. There is also a new zero shutter lag exposure, which reduces the shot to shot time considerably.
The video recorder also gets some useful features such as continuous focus while recording, ability to zoom and take a snapshot while recording and a new time lapse feature. Image stabilization also works during video recording. As you read before, the camera app can now be quickly launched from the lock screen.
Conclusion
We were generally impressed with what we saw today. Android seems to be heading in the right direction with Ice Cream Sandwich. It tackles some of the longstanding issues such as fragmentation head-on and if adopted quickly by OEMs should make the life of developers and in turn the users a lot better.
It also takes the stock Android Gingerbread and makes it a lot more functional. Features like the new lock screen, improved camera app, new notifications, ability to take screenshots, hardware acceleration for the UI, improved text and voice input, etc. will certainly go a long way in making the Android user experience richer. Although Honeycomb users have had some of the features we saw today for a while now, it is nice to finally have them on the humble smartphone as well.
But how does it stack up against the competition? Well, Android was the most feature-rich mobile operating system around and Google just went and added a ton more, so it’s certainly ahead of the competition in that aspect.
But how good is it to use in the everyday life? Is it as user friendly as iOS or Windows Phone 7? Will it finally make people get over the stigma of Android being inherently a geek’s OS? Well, that’s something we can find out only after a full review. So keep watching this space.
Adapted form GSM Arena
thx
ICS looks very simple...and pretty
Can anyone give the Icecream sandwich browser apk, it has chrome sync, thats what I want.
Apourv said:
Can anyone give the Icecream sandwich browser apk, it has chrome sync, thats what I want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and u think its gonna work on gingerbread or froyo..:O
well...it may be a long time until ICS run on X10
looks great can wait till it comes to x10 if SE dont release it the XDA devs will.
ICS launcher and themes are available in market. cheers.
nice one
hope that it will have on xperia x10 http://media.xda-developers.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
maybe I need a new phone....
ICS looks great and pretty simple
XDA devs we are waiting you to rock our x10
very nice. i'm already running a beta version on my trusty galaxy s.
one thing that i've noticed is that my phone running this port:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1338636
doesn't have a favorites button. in fact, the phone itself doesn't have that touch button at all, but does have the old "menu" button. pressing it brings up a very simplistic menu that allows me to change settings and background.
is it actually functioning as normal, or is this feature simply not enabled just yet?
sorry about the slightly specific question, but i don't have the ability to post in the linked thread yet.
Remember, it's a BETA
moriz1 said:
very nice. i'm already running a beta version on my trusty galaxy s.
one thing that i've noticed is that my phone running this port:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1338636
doesn't have a favorites button. in fact, the phone itself doesn't have that touch button at all, but does have the old "menu" button. pressing it brings up a very simplistic menu that allows me to change settings and background.
is it actually functioning as normal, or is this feature simply not enabled just yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As with nearly all beta-level projects, all features are not there yet. What a lot of folks don't realized is that a product demo is put together by marketing folks trying to help geeks realize their dreams. The demo WILL have all the features the developers want to show off, but they may not all make it into the final product.
Remember Windows Vista? One of the big promises Micro$oft said would launch with Vista was a new file management system. It still hasn't made it into the world, even with Windows 7 (or Vista Service Pack 2 if you're so inclined to believe it's not a "new" operating system ).
Anyway, my point is, just remember you are running a beta version of something.
Related
So I am considering starting an AOSP project. The idea would be to stay away from replacing AOSP components and simply improving them. For instance, CM replaced the stock launcher with ADW. This project would not do things like that although we would make improvements on such apps. So with this in mind, what improvements is the community looking forward to most? For instance, there are UI improvements like the reboot selector CM built but there is also core improvements such as making the system more stable, etc. So basically, as an individual, what improvements to Android would you like to see the most if I was to start this project?
One of the things I miss that comes to mind is the ability to see what apps are open and ability to switch between them. A reference would be the Palm Pre. It shows everything open and can scroll through them....more like Windows 7 cascade option. All open, running apps viewable in windows that can be selected and closed by dragging. Considering we can multitask, this would be nice to have if it can be done.
One more thing that would be sweet is a modification to the Power Notification Widget which allowed another row of widgets so more than 6 can be utilized.
CCallahan said:
One of the things I miss that comes to mind is the ability to see what apps are open and ability to switch between them. A reference would be the Palm Pre. It shows everything open and can scroll through them....more like Windows 7 cascade option. All open, running apps viewable in windows that can be selected and closed by dragging. Considering we can multitask, this would be nice to have if it can be done.
One more thing that would be sweet is a modification to the Power Notification Widget which allowed another row of widgets so more than 6 can be utilized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... Itching Thumb does a great job of Palm Pre style switching. Definitely better if built into the OS. I'll look into it.
Automatic SMS splitting in the stock Messaging app when the message is longer than 160chars.
CCallahan said:
One of the things I miss that comes to mind is the ability to see what apps are open and ability to switch between them. A reference would be the Palm Pre. It shows everything open and can scroll through them....more like Windows 7 cascade option. All open, running apps viewable in windows that can be selected and closed by dragging. Considering we can multitask, this would be nice to have if it can be done.
One more thing that would be sweet is a modification to the Power Notification Widget which allowed another row of widgets so more than 6 can be utilized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually like how Android takes care of it. The status bar/drawer shows active services (things that are actively running and doing something that may require attention) so it's easy to switch between those. Anything else that is running and isn't that important can be accessed by holding on the home key to bring up the recently used apps switcher. The apps switcher could definitely be more elegant but it's functional at least.
bjb_nyj101 said:
Automatic SMS splitting in the stock Messaging app when the message is longer than 160chars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS will be one of the first things I work on. This has been on my to do list on Android even if I didn't want to do an entire AOSP project since it's just so damn annoying lol
Full hardware acceleration.
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Simple, beautiful, beyond smart
Android 4.0 builds on the things people love most about Android — easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity — and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.
Refined, evolved UI
Focused on bringing the power of Android to the surface, Android 4.0 makes common actions more visible and lets users navigate with simple, intuitive gestures. Refined animations and feedback throughout the system make interactions engaging and interesting. An entirely new typeface optimized for high-resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished, modern feel to the user interface.
Virtual buttons in the System Bar let users navigate instantly to Back, Home, and Recent Apps. The System Bar and virtual buttons are present across all apps, but can be dimmed by applications for full-screen viewing. Users can access each application's contextual options in the Action Bar, displayed at the top (and sometimes also at the bottom) of the screen.
Multitasking is a key strength of Android and it's made even easier and more visual on Android 4.0. The Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list pops up to show thumbnail images of apps used recently — tapping a thumbnail switches to the app. The Recent Apps list makes multitasking simple. Jump to the camera or see notifications without unlocking. For incoming calls, you can respond instantly by text.
Rich and interactive notifications let users keep in constant touch with incoming messages, play music tracks, see real-time updates from apps, and much more. On smaller-screen devices, notifications appear at the top of the screen, while on larger-screen devices they appear in the System Bar.
The All Apps launcher (left) and resizable widgets (right) give you apps and rich content from the home screen.
Home screen folders and favorites tray
New home screen folders offer a new way for users to group their apps and shortcuts logically, just by dragging one onto another. From the All Apps launcher, users can now simply drag an app to get information about it or immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.
On smaller-screen devices, the home screen now includes a customizable favorites tray visible from all home screens. Users can drag apps, shortcuts, folders, and other priority items in or out of the favorites tray for instant access from any home screen.
Resizable widgets
Home screens in Android 4.0 are designed to be content-rich and customizable. Users can do much more than add shortcuts — they can embed live application content directly through interactive widgets. Widgets let users check email, flip through a calendar, play music, check social streams, and more — right from the home screen, without having to launch apps. Widgets are resizable, so users can expand them to show more content or shrink them to save space.
New lock screen actions
The lock screens now let users do more without unlocking. From the slide lock screen, users can jump directly to the camera for a picture or pull down the notifications window to check for messages. When listening to music, users can even manage music tracks and see album art.
Quick responses for incoming calls
When an incoming call arrives, users can now quickly respond by text message, without needing to pick up the call or unlock the device. On the incoming call screen, users simply slide a control to see a list of text responses and then tap to send and end the call. Users can add their own responses and manage the list from the Settings app.
Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs
Android 4.0 makes managing notifications, recent apps, and browoser tabs even easier. Users can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs lists with a simple swipe of a finger.
Improved text input and spell-checking
The soft keyboard in Android 4.0 makes text input even faster and more accurate. Error correction and word suggestion are improved through a new set of default dictionaries and more accurate heuristics for handling cases such as double-typed characters, skipped letters, and omitted spaces. Word suggestion is also improved and the suggestion strip is simplified to show only three words at a time.
To fix misspelled words more easily, Android 4.0 adds a spell-checker that locates and underlines errors and suggests replacement words. With one tap, users can choose from multiple spelling suggestions, delete a word, or add it to the dictionary. Users can even tap to see replacement suggestions for words that are spelled correctly. For specialized features or additional languages, users can now download and install third-party dictionaries, spell-checkers, and other text services.
Powerful voice input engine
Android 4.0 introduces a powerful new voice input engine that offers a continuous "open microphone" experience and streaming voice recognition. The new voice input engine lets users dictate the text they want, for as long as they want, using the language they want. Users can speak continously for a prolonged time, even pausing for intervals if needed, and dictate punctuation to create correct sentences. As the voice input engine enters text, it underlines possible dictation errors in gray. After dictating, users can tap the underlined words to quickly replace them from a list of suggestions.
Data usage controls let you monitor total usage by network type and application and then set limits if needed.
Control over network data
Mobile devices can make extensive use of network data for streaming content, synchronizing data, downloading apps, and more. To meet the needs of users with tiered or metered data plans, Android 4.0 adds new controls for managing network data usage.
In the Settings app, colorful charts show the total data usage on each network type (mobile or Wi-Fi), as well as amount of data used by each running application. Based on their data plans, users can optionally set warning levels or hard limits on data usage or disable mobile data altogether. Users can also manage the background data used by individual applications as needed.
Designed for accessibility
A variety of new features greatly enhance the accessibility of Android 4.0 for blind or visually impaired users. Most important is a new explore-by-touch mode that lets users navigate without having to see the screen. Touching the screen once triggers audible feedback that identifies the UI component below; a second touch in the same component activates it with a full touch event. The new mode is especially important to support users on new devices that use virtual buttons in the System Bar, rather than dedicated hardware buttons or trackballs. Also, standard apps are updated to offer an improved accessibility experience. The Browser supports a script-based screen reader for reading favorite web content and navigating sites. For improved readability, users can also increase the default font size used across the system.
The accessibility experience begins at first setup — a simple touch gesture during setup (clockwise square from upper left) activates all accessibility features and loads a setup tutorial. Once accessibility features are active, everything visible on the screen can be spoken aloud by the standard screen reader.
Communication and sharing
Designed for the way people live, Android 4.0 integrates rich social communication and sharing touchpoints across the system, making it easy to talk, email, text, and share.
People and profiles
Throughout the system, a user’s social groups, profiles, and contacts are linked together and integrated for easy accessibility. At the center is a new People app that offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.
The user's own contact information is stored in a new "Me" profile, allowing easier sharing with apps and people. All of the user's integrated contacts are displayed in an easy to manage list, including controls over which contacts are shown from any integrated account or social network. Wherever the user navigates across the system, tapping a profile photo displays Quick Contacts, with shortcuts to phone numbers, text messaging, and more.
Unified calendar, visual voicemail
To help organize appointments and events, an updated Calendar app brings together personal, work, school, and social agendas. With user permission, other applications can contribute events to the calendar and manage reminders, for an integrated view across multiple calendar providers. The app is redesigned to let users manage events more easily. Calendars are color-coded and users can swipe left or right to change dates and pinch to zoom in or out agendas.
In the phone app, a new visual voicemail features integrates incoming messages, voice transcriptions, and audio files from one or more providers. Third-party applications can integrate with the Phone app to add their own voice messages, transcriptions, and more to the visual voicemail inbox.
Capture the picture you want, edit, and share instantly.
Rich and versatile camera capabilities
The Camera app includes many new features let users capture special moments with great photos and videos. After capturing images, they can edit and share them easily with friemds.
When taking pictures, continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, and decreased shot-to-shot speed help capture clear, precise images. Stabilized image zoom lets users compose photos and video in the way they want, including while video is recording. For new flexibility and convenience while shooting video, users can now take snapshots at full video resolution just by tapping the screen as video continues to record.
To make it easier to take great pictures of people, built-in face detection locates faces in the frame and automatically sets focus. For more control, users can tap to focus anywhere in the preview image.
For capturing larger scenes, the Camera introduces a single-motion panorama mode. In this mode, the user starts an exposure and then slowly turns the Camera to encompass as wide a perspective as needed. The Camera assembles the full range of continuous imagery into a single panoramic photo.
After taking a picture or video, users can quickly share it by email, text message, bluetooth, social networks, and more, just by tapping the thumbnail in the camera controls.
Redesigned Gallery app with photo editor
The Gallery app now makes it easier to manage, show, and share photos and videos. For managing collections, a redesigned album layout shows many more albums and offers larger thumbnails. There are many ways to sort albums, including by time, location, people, and tags. To help pictures look their best, the Gallery now includes a powerful photo editor. Users can crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and much more. After retouching, users can select one or multiple pictures or videos to share instantly over email, text messaging, bluetooth, social networks, or other apps.
An improved Picture Gallery widget lets users look at pictures directly on their home screen. The widget can display pictures from a selected album, shuffle pictures from all albums, or show a single image. After adding the widget to the home screen, users can flick through the photo stacks to locate the image they want, then tap to load it in Gallery.
Live Effects for transforming video
Live Effects is a collection of graphical transformations that add interest and fun to videos captured in 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 or using Google Talk video chat. Also available is Silly Faces, a set of morphing effects that use state-of-the-art face recognition and GPU filters to add great effects facial features during video capture. For example, you can use effects such as small eyes, big mouth, big nose, face squeeze, and more. Outside of the Camera app, Live Effects is available during video chat in the Google Talk app.
Sharing with screenshots
Users can now share what's on their screens more easily by taking screenshots. Hardware buttons let them snap a screenshot and store it locally. Afterward, they can view, edit, and share the screen shot in Gallery or a similar app.
Cloud-connected experience
Android has always been cloud-connected, letting users browse the web and sync photos, apps, games, email, and contacts — wherever they are and across all of their devices. Android 4.0 adds new browsing and email capabilities to let users take even more with them and keep communication organized.
Powerful web browsing
The Android Browser offers an experience that’s as rich and convenient as a desktop browser. It lets users instantly and manage sync Google Chrome bookmarks from all of their accounts, jump to their favorite content faster, and even save it for reading later in case there's no network available.
To get the most out of web content, users can now request full desktop versions of web sites, rather than their mobile versions. Users can set their preference for web sites separately for each browser tab. For longer content, users can save a copy for offline reading. To find and open saved pages, users can browse a visual list that’s included with browser bookmarks and history. For better readability and accessibility, users can increase the browser’s zoom levels and override the system default text sizes.
Across all types of content, the Android Browser offers dramatically improved page rendering performance through updated versions of the WebKit core and the V8 Crankshaft compilation engine for JavaScript. 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.
Improved email
In Android 4.0, email is easier to send, read, and manage. For composing email, improved auto-completion of recipients helps with finding and adding frequent contacts more quickly. For easier input of frequent text, users can now create quick responses and store them in the app, then enter them from a convenient menu when composing. When replying to a message, users can now toggle the message to Reply All and Forward without changing screens.
For easier browsing across accounts and labels, the app adds an integrated menu of accounts and recent labels. To help users locate and organize IMAP and Exchange email, the Email app now supports nested mail subfolders, each with synchronization rules. Users can also search across folders on the server, for faster results.
For enterprises, the Email app supports EAS v14. It supports EAS certificate authentication, provides ABQ strings for device type and mode, and allows automatic sync to be disabled while roaming. Administrators can also limit attachment size or disable attachments.
For keeping track of incoming email more easily, a resizable Email widget lets users flick through recent email right from the home screen, then jump into the Email app to compose or reply.
Android is continously driving innovation forward, pushing the boundaries of communication and sharing with new capabilities and interactions.
Android Beam for NFC-based sharing
Android Beam is an innovative, convenient feature for sharing across two NFC-enabled devices, It lets people instantly exchange favorite apps, contacts, music, videos — almost anything. It’s incredibly simple and convenient to use — there’s no menu to open, application to launch, or pairing needed. Just touch one Android-powered phone to another, then tap to send.
For sharing apps, Android Beam pushes a link to the app's details page in Android Market. On the other device, the Market app launches and loads the details page, for easy downloading of the app. Individual apps can build on Android Beam to add other types of interactions, such as passing game scores, initiating a multiplayer game or chat, and more.
Face Unlock
Android 4.0 introduces a completely new approach to securing a device, making it even more personal — Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets users unlock their devices with their faces. It takes advantage of state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face and to recognize it later when unlocking the device. Users just hold their devices in front of their faces to unlock, or use a backup PIN or pattern.
Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth HDP
Support for Wi-Fi Direct lets users connect directly to nearby peer devices over Wi-Fi, for more reliable, higher-speed communication. No internet connection or tethering is needed. Through third-party apps, users can connect to compatible devices to take advantage of new features such as instant sharing of files, photos, or other media; streaming video or audio from another device; or connecting to compatible printers or other devices.
Android 4.0 also introduces built-in support for connecting to Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) devices. With support from third-party apps, users can connect to wireless medical devices and sensors in hospitals, fitness centers, homes, and elsewhere. In addition, for connecting to higher quality Bluetooth audio devices, Android 4.0 adds support for Bluetooth Hands Free Profile (HFP) 1.6.
Looks promising. Can't wait.
Oh wow the face unlock looks coooool
Too bad we dont have a face camera
am only hoping that we can update to Ice cream because sony ericsson has not even made an official annoncement that Arc will get this update
I´m not sure...if sony ericsson will give us this update. i think there is on big problem, the extremly low ram in the xperia series.
if se wont give us ice cream sandwich, i think cyanogenmod will give to us
SirRobin78 said:
I´m not sure...if sony ericsson will give us this update. i think there is on big problem, the extremly low ram in the xperia series.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works on the Nexus S so it will definitely work on Xperia Arc, as far as SE is concerned with spewing out updates, they will want to upgrade the majority of the xperia 2011 range to 4.0, i dont think they will leave out their flagship out in the cold.
I can't wait for the update. XD
I would love to hear of a new exploit to root ICS. ;-) LOL!
Really, really, REALLY WANT THIS ICS~!!
The Dutch se branch stated that the full 2011 xperia range will get an update to ics
sent from my miui arc
if will get this..is it possible to have the face unlock feature we dont have the front face camera.
elnitrox said:
if will get this..is it possible to have the face unlock feature we dont have the front face camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this function would simply not be implemented for us ... :S
Hope to see it on Xperia arc.
Sent from my Xperia arc using Tapatalk
Seriously I was not to impressed with this I c s they bragged about features that was already in 2.3 .4 and about features that you can get from apps that are already in the market and the way they kept repeating with every sentence how great it was over and over kinda got on my nerves kind of reminiscent of the idiots at apple telling you how their products of so magical
It does look good don't get me wrong but I be waiting for a Couple of reviews on it before I have Update I did like that resizing of widgets that is very nice and a couple of other things but did you see how the face recognition failed on stage very sad!
Sent from my LT15i using XDA App
Thanks to the opener for the great summary! Anyway I want it just for the GUI hardware acceleration, let's hope that SE will bring to us as soon as possible, but I trust more Cyanogen team for this task
Face-unlock:
1. Get target phone that is locked with Face Unlock. 2. Hold camera up to target's facebook profile pic on your screen 3. Access!
Hardware-accelerated 2D drawing
All Android-powered devices running Android 4.0 are required to support hardware-accelerated 2D drawing. Developers can take advantage of this to add great UI effects while maintaining optimal performance on high-resolution screens, even on phones. For example, developers can rely on accelerated scaling, rotation, and other 2D operations, as well as accelerated UI components such as TextureView and compositing modes such as filtering, blending, and opacity.
SE will bring out Android 4.0 for every Xperia phones of 2011!
Source: http://www.gadgetzone.nl/nieuws.php?id=8162
i don't like the colors.
i like it
From the Moderator: This thread discussion is going to be continued in the Sticky JellyBean OTA
-----THREAD CLOSED-----
Android 4.1, Jelly Bean: The world’s most popular platform gets even better
Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, is the fastest and smoothest version of Android yet. Jelly Bean improves on the simplicity and beauty of Android 4.0, and introduces a new Google search experience on Android.
This is an UPDATE to ICS....so it will look just like ICS but with tweaks which Above normal users will notice ...
Android 4.1 coming to Motorola XOOM, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S in July
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Fast & smooth
Fast & smooth
With buttery graphics and silky transitions. We put Android under a microscope, making everything feel fast, fluid, and smooth. Moving between home screens and switching between apps is effortless, like turning pages in a book.
More reactive and uniform touch responses mean you can almost feel the pixels beneath as your finger moves across the screen. Jelly Bean makes your Android device even more responsive by boosting your device’s CPU instantly when you touch the screen, and turns it down when you don’t need it to improve battery life.
Simple, beautiful and beyond smart
Expandable, actionable notifications.
Android has always put you in control when it comes to staying notified and connected. Now you can take action directly from the notifications shade. Late for a meeting? Email everyone to let them know. Missed a call? Call them back in an instant. And because they’re expandable, you can get an even deeper look into the things that matter most, like multiple emails or photos on Google+.
Widgets work like magic.
With Jelly Bean it’s now even easier to personalize your home screen. As you place widgets on the screen, everything else automatically moves to make room. When they’re too big, widgets resize on their own. Interacting with your favorite apps and customizing your home screen has never been easier.
Seamlessly take and share photos.
Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, made snapping photos super fast; Jelly Bean brings that same speed to the next step: viewing. Just swipe over from camera to filmstrip view to instantly view the photos you just took, and quickly swipe away the ones you don’t like. Now sharing--and bragging--are a breeze.
CAMERA
You can view multiple photos at once from a new film strip just by pinching the screen and then swiping back and forth.
Android 4.1 also now lets you delete a photo simply by dragging it up to the top of the screen. This is a lot like the way you close apps on a webOS device.
If you accidentally delete an image you meant to keep, there’s an undo option.
A smarter keyboard.
Android’s dictionaries are now more accurate, more relevant. The language model in Jelly Bean adapts over time, and the keyboard even guesses what the next word will be before you’ve started typing it. With improved text-to-speech capabilities, voice typing on Android is even better; it works even when you don’t have a data connection, so you can type with your voice everywhere you go.
SEARCH AND VOICE SEARCH
Android 4. includes the new Google Knowledge Graph, which shows appropriate search results for the type of query. For instance if you’re searching for a place, you might get a map in the result. Search for a celebrity and see photos.
Google has long supported a search-by-voice feature that lets you talk to your phone to conduct a search. But now your phone or tablet can speak back to you.
When you combine Knowledge Graph with Voice Search, this is basically Google’s answer to Apple’s Siri. You can ask your phone a question and it will answer you.
GOOGLE CHROME AS DEFAULT BROWSER
Accessibility.
With Jelly Bean, blind users can use 'Gesture Mode' to reliably navigate the UI using touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output. Jelly Bean also adds support for accessibility plugins to enable external Braille input and output devices via USB and Bluetooth.
TEXT INPUT
Voice Search.
Sometimes you’d rather just speak your search query. Or just ask a question. Android lets you search the web with your voice, and it’s convenient for getting quick answers on the fly. It speaks back to you and is powered by the Knowledge Graph, bringing you a precise answer if it knows it, and precisely ranked search results, so you can always find out more.
A new look for Search.
Android has search at its core. With Jelly Bean, a redesigned experience uses the power of the Knowledge Graph to show you search results in a richer way. It’s easier to quickly get answers and explore and browse search results.
Google is adding predictive text and recommendations to the on-screen keyboard. But the company has also reduced the size of its voice recognition engine so that it can fit on a mobile device.
In other words, you no longer need an internet connection to enter text by voice.
NOTIFICATIONS
Notifications is one of the new buzz words in OS design. Android was a real pioneer here, placing system alerts front and center in its notification bar in a pull-down window shade running along the top of the screen. Playing catch-up, Apple's iOS 6 has taken steps to beef up its notifications too. Jelly Bean though will push things further, supporting notifications that will allow complex actions and more ways to interact with alerts. For example, you'll be able to tap a missed call message and have the option to ring the caller back. Developers will also have the flexibility to craft custom notifications for their apps. Hopefully all the tweaks won't add additional complexity to an already highly configurable operating system.
new and revamped....
PROJECT BUTTER
Google has worked to speed up animations and other effect so that devices feel faster when opening or closing apps, swiping between home screens, or performing other activites.
Android Beam.
With Android Beam on Jelly Bean you can now easily share your photos and videos with just a simple tap, in addition to sharing contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, directions, and apps. Just touch two NFC-enabled Android devices back-to-back, then tap to beam whatever's on the screen to your friend. Instantly pair your Android phone or tablet to Bluetooth devices like headsets or speakers that support the Simple Secure Pairing standard by just tapping them together - no more syncing or searching required.
GOOGLE NOW
Google is rolling out an ambitious new set of search-based features called Google Now that can use your search history, current location, calendar events, and other data to automatically provide you with information. This feature can be a bit creepy at times, but it’s optional.
For instance, Google Now can detect your favorite sports teams by your search history and automatically show you schedules and scores.
The new Google experience on Android
The best of Google just got better on Android. The search experience in Jelly Bean has a new look-and-feel, and has faster and more natural Voice Search. And Google Now brings you just the right information, before you even ask.
Google Now brings you just the right information at just the right time.
Google Now tells you today’s weather before you start your day, how much traffic to expect before you leave for work, when the next train will arrive as you’re standing on the platform, or your favorite team's score while they’re playing.
And the best part? All of this happens automatically. Cards appear throughout the day at the moment you need them.
A Few more Screenshots
Source :
Android,Techradar,Liliputing and CNET
thank you for sharing, but if you're going to copy+paste, you should probably post a source.
leppo said:
thank you for sharing, but if you're going to copy+paste, you should probably post a source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source is the official android website...lol...just thoight its better to have all info in one place...will keep checking other webites and bring everything into one place :angel:
You should put a disclaimer noting that samsung jb implementation will look like ics ie like gb after all what's the difference between a gorgeous and a j Samsung will say lol
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
nandihno said:
You should put a disclaimer noting that samsung jb implementation will look like ics ie like gb after all what's the difference between a gorgeous and a j Samsung will say lol
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol..true..Edited it...but there a lot of changes....Normal users wont see a difference but WE CAN :highfive:
Rulinglionadi said:
Source is the official android website...lol...just thoight its better to have all info in one place...will keep checking other webites and bring everything into one place :angel:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
of course it is.. but still
leppo said:
of course it is.. but still
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now its not JUST android...so i have put some work ova here :silly:
you can notice i added many things to it :good:
ahhh! it looks so awesome!!
i can't wait.
little-vince said:
ahhh! it looks so awesome!!
i can't wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep....i guess CM 9.1 will be rolling out soon....:fingers-crossed:.
Woow... this is fast....waiting waiting...
From the Moderator: This thread discussion is going to be continued in the Sticky JellyBean OTA
-----THREAD CLOSED-----
What do you wish for your HTC One? tell the world and the developers, what should be improved.
for example:
1. I wish the lock-screen was more beneficial, to see more notifications (like from Gmail App and Viber) + quick launch of google now from the lock
2. Quick Settings toggle (kinda solved thru mods)
3. Automatic screen wake up on certain notifications
any other ideas? please share
osahum said:
What do you wish for your HTC One? tell the world and the developers, what should be improved.
for example:
1. I wish the lock-screen was more beneficial, to see more notifications (like from Gmail App and Viber) + quick launch of google now from the lock
2. Quick Settings toggle (kinda solved thru mods)
3. Automatic screen wake up on certain notifications
any other ideas? please share
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it would be nice for them to add a couple of fresh animations in there, such as when you press the App Drawer icon that animation is absolutely awful, and a bit laggy too! I think it's the one Google used in stock Gingerbread. It would be nice to see them add themes back, for example Sense 2-4 all had themes that you could set and it just added to that personalization of the device.
I think the 'Power Saver' in the scroll down Menu should be moved into the 'Power Saving' menu and you should be able to select a certain battery percent that it comes on at. It would be nice to have a quick settings in a way that HTC used to have them, though I am certain we shall see that in the near future as Android 4.2 has these.
One thing I loved about the iPhone, was the ability to save what you have copied to the clipboard after restarting the device. I'd love to see this implemented onto the One.
Also, the way you add Shortcuts to the homescreen is just terrible. You should NOT have to go to the widget add Menu.
Mike
jaaystott said:
I think it would be nice for them to add a couple of fresh animations in there, such as when you press the App Drawer icon that animation is absolutely awful, and a bit laggy too! I think it's the one Google used in stock Gingerbread. It would be nice to see them add themes back, for example Sense 2-4 all had themes that you could set and it just added to that personalization of the device.
I think the 'Power Saver' in the scroll down Menu should be moved into the 'Power Saving' menu and you should be able to select a certain battery percent that it comes on at. It would be nice to have a quick settings in a way that HTC used to have them, though I am certain we shall see that in the near future as Android 4.2 has these.
One thing I loved about the iPhone, was the ability to save what you have copied to the clipboard after restarting the device. I'd love to see this implemented onto the One.
Also, the way you add Shortcuts to the homescreen is just terrible. You should NOT have to go to the widget add Menu.
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your input very interesting points. I guess many people like to choose themes and be able to personalize their HTC One, the way they like. It's a matter of taste and personal choice really.
Other thing i noticed about android or HTC One compared to iphone is auto vido conversion when i send a video clip thru WhatsApp. i wanted to send a short video to my friend and whatsApp couldn't do that because the file was over 12 MB. iOS coverts the video automatically! That's another tiny annoying thing i found about the HTC.
I think there is much room for improvement to make this device the best handset ever!
If anyone else has ideas, please post
Your right, this handset is easily the most beautiful android one ever created, along with the HTC Magic and in my opinion, also the Hero.
Your welcome
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
I completely agree about waking the screen for certain notifications especially text messages and calendar alerts. The chompsms app will light up the screen for text messages but I haven't found a solution for calendar alerts.
This is something I really miss coming from ios. I have to say ios is actually better in the way it handles notifications in allowing you to select what appears in the lock screen and having a centralised notification centre where you can change settings for all your notifications.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
tdingene said:
I completely agree about waking the screen for certain notifications especially text messages and calendar alerts. The chompsms app will light up the screen for text messages but I haven't found a solution for calendar alerts.
This is something I really miss coming from ios. I have to say ios is actually better in the way it handles notifications in allowing you to select what appears in the lock screen and having a centralised notification centre where you can change settings for all your notifications.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! iOS handles lock-screen notifications way better! there is an App called LockerPro Lockscreen. It's clean and it solves this problem but it interferes with the display time settings these things should be solved out of the box but luckily we have really great enthusiastic developers here on XDA who love to create custom ROMS and mods to make our life easier and even prettier
I hope some of these developers will read this thread and maybe will release new mods and fixes
My wishes:
- when i look on power it should show display (battery) usage like on vanilla android
- better idle comsumption
- folder should take more then 16 apps
RoachPapa said:
My wishes:
- when i look on power it should show display (battery) usage like on vanilla android
- better idle comsumption
- folder should take more then 16 apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks four the input. Interesting stuff. If you are into custom ROMS and mods. I strongly suggest you try out TrickDroid from troxx. one of the tweaks there, which you can apply. is to increase the max icons in the folder up to 25.
the customs ROM has so many other cool tweaks and minor UI enhancement.
here is a link to the thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2192324
1. I missed so much USB mass storage mod on my SGS3 last year fortunately there was some 3rd party apk, but it wont work on HTC Ones internal storage so please make some UMS mod most people will be glad I think
2. definitely 60fps videos improvement. After i saw most of the 60fps videos on youtube I was so dissapointed. Im talking about both slow motion and fast 60fps videos in year 2013!!! even SGS3 was able to handle 60fps slow motion better after SW mods than One with such a powerfull HW and 240p? HTC are you serious? this will be cool to have them at least @720p THX santa
3. ofcourse some mods on camera photos too
4. if its even possible to camera interface...whats one of the most used function? Exposure! I saw how long took the photographer to adjust exposure for one photo! Look at the last years samsung GS3 camera interface. 4 in words FOUR customisable shortcuts...thats cool and I wish something like that on HTC not Zoe which wont be used most times...where is brain and logic only ads and marketing I see in HTC One SW BTW Im waiting for One so do not blame me for trolling as its the most popular word last month after One was unveiled LoL
1. Long press back for menu
2. Customisable/user added content for blinkfeed i.e importing of google reader feeds
3. Scrollable wallpaper
4. Hide power bar from pull down menu (this does not work on my sim free phone)
5. Pull down toggles for wifi etc as per android 4.2.2
6. Change font size on blink feed articles
7. Sort blinkfeed by content type
daleski75 said:
1. Long press back for menu
2. Customisable/user added content for blinkfeed i.e importing of google reader feeds
3. Scrollable wallpaper
4. Hide power bar from pull down menu (this does not work on my sim free phone)
5. Pull down toggles for wifi etc as per android 4.2.2
6. Change font size on blink feed articles
7. Sort blinkfeed by content type
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya.. Blinkfeed should be improved! sadly there is no mods for it yet.. but for the most other stuff you mentioned you can try the mods on the Android Development page.. try TrickDroid! they have this cool toggle mod which looks very native and nice. i hope HTC will improve some of these stuff soon with next firmware update.
I don't have the device yet, but from what I've seen with the custom ROMs on here, I would like to see:
1. Various camera tweaks, such as enforcing a set bit rate for videos and audio, having photos set at 100% quality (ie, minimal jpeg compression), and using volume buttons as a shutter.
2. Add more flexibility to Zoes, such as increasng the length of the videos recorded, having the ability to change video resolution, and enforcing a set picture quality.
3. Make Prism (Sense 5's launcher) more like Sense 4's Rosie. Things such as a scrollable wallpaper, the 3D rendered home screen transitions, the normal way of adding app shortcuts, landscape mode support, and a horizonally scrolling app drawer were nice in my opinion. Also, a 5x6 app drawer and stock jelly bean transitons when returning from an app would be great too.
4. Having the ability to choose and apply themes just like in previous Sense versions.
5. BlinkFeed customizations: having custom feeds, having the ability to remove BlinkFeed from Prism, making BlinkFeed a widget, content sorting by type.
6. Android 4.2 quick settings or Sense 4 quick settings.
7. Adding an additonal lockscreen that has the ability to add widgets.
8. Choosing whatever combination of button presses does what (ex: double-tap home for either menu, recent apps, search, custom app, etc., long-press home for menu, recent apps, search, custom app, etc., you get where I'm going.)
9. Customizable 3-finger gestures.
The following is also something a bit more nit picky, since I've been spoiled with the Venom ROM on my Sensation:
>Setting custom backgrounds for the pulldown notification screen and app drawer.
>Status bar themes.
>App icon packs for the stock launcher.
>A sub-setting/app that bundles all possible customizations under one interface.
WeegeeNumbuh1 said:
I don't have the device yet, but from what I've seen with the custom ROMs on here, I would like to see:
1. Various camera tweaks, such as enforcing a set bit rate for videos and audio, having photos set at 100% quality (ie, minimal jpeg compression), and using volume buttons as a shutter.
2. Add more flexibility to Zoes, such as increasng the length of the videos recorded, having the ability to change video resolution, and enforcing a set picture quality.
3. Make Prism (Sense 5's launcher) more like Sense 4's Rosie. Things such as a scrollable wallpaper, the 3D rendered home screen transitions, the normal way of adding app shortcuts, landscape mode support, and a horizonally scrolling app drawer were nice in my opinion. Also, a 5x6 app drawer and stock jelly bean transitons when returning from an app would be great too.
4. Having the ability to choose and apply themes just like in previous Sense versions.
5. BlinkFeed customizations: having custom feeds, having the ability to remove BlinkFeed from Prism, making BlinkFeed a widget, content sorting by type.
6. Android 4.2 quick settings or Sense 4 quick settings.
7. Adding an additonal lockscreen that has the ability to add widgets.
8. Choosing whatever combination of button presses does what (ex: double-tap home for either menu, recent apps, search, custom app, etc., long-press home for menu, recent apps, search, custom app, etc., you get where I'm going.)
9. Customizable 3-finger gestures.
The following is also something a bit more nit picky, since I've been spoiled with the Venom ROM on my Sensation:
>Setting custom backgrounds for the pulldown notification screen and app drawer.
>Status bar themes.
>App icon packs for the stock launcher.
>A sub-setting/app that bundles all possible customizations under one interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow..that is one one hell of a list for someone who doesn't even own the device lol but yeah. Zoe needs some flexibility indeed. It sucks that i can't convert the video to a smaller size! and somehow the whole Zoe Highlight video thing is hidden. It took me some time to figure out, that is under events! some of your wishes has been already resolved. there are many EQS mods now and they are getting better!
anyway, most of what you have mentioned, should have been resolved by HTC and gave us a better out-of-box experience!
osahum said:
Ya.. Blinkfeed should be improved! sadly there is no mods for it yet.. but for the most other stuff you mentioned you can try the mods on the Android Development page.. try TrickDroid! they have this cool toggle mod which looks very native and nice. i hope HTC will improve some of these stuff soon with next firmware update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No interest yet in rooting as I want to keep my warranty but in the future you never know.
daleski75 said:
No interest yet in rooting as I want to keep my warranty but in the future you never know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya well. i was hesitant at the beginning too but then i decided to take the risk. the whole warranty issue is still under debate. There are some legitimate claims, that rooting doesn't necessarily void the warranty. It\s different anyway from country to another.
for me, i want be able to do whatever i want with my device. When i buy PC. then i can install any OS i please and have access to everything. If someone over-clocks his CPU and fries it. then i undersand the warranty is voided, but just because i root my device and install some mod to enhance my settings menu. then logically and even maybe legally, HTC has no right to punish me like this.. in all cases, i really don't care
I want to try custom ROMs later and ATM my phone is on the way to repair. My blinkfeed freezes after each boot. I couldn't repair that.
If you want more visual effects, you will loose the smoothness.
gesendet vom Galaxy S
I just decided to get a One because I heard you cannot install apps to Micro SD, so I'd rather have 32GB internal than 16GB of the GS4, also though looking at the OLED screen, the thing has black clipping issues in pre release form anyways. I watch a lot of video when walking the dog like F1 live stream and I really don't want headphones, so the speakers help.
One thing I hate is Blinkfeed, I really wanna be able to turn it off, I wouldn't mind it if I could customize it so the phone functions like Windows Phone, I really love live tiles. The problem is you cannot do much with it and you cannot turn it off, it almost ruins the phone for me, I don't see why it needs to be there.
I don't use social features like Facebook, I hate that crap and I don't want any news, I just use Websites for that....... just such a pointless feature. I also think the gallery is ****, don't see why I need to have my friends photos pop up, I just want mine thanx.
Cannot wait till Cyanogenmod or something comes out for it, I don't get some design choices HTC have made.
Terrorantula said:
One thing I hate is Blinkfeed, I really wanna be able to turn it off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may not be able to turn it off but I'm fairly sure you can set a different screen as your home screen, effectively hiding it
A 5 inch display
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Maybe a 5" edge to edge display with on-screen Android soft-keys? Threw this together to show what it might look like. But seriously, it doesn't really add much; this phone is already pretty perfect the way it is! I'm sure I can get used to the two button capacitive navigation controls. I can't wait to get mine!
Hello Everyone,
If you are using HONOR/HUAWEI Devices you might have an idea that Huawei does some customization to stock Android by adding the flavor of EMUI on top.
Huawei started introducing EMUI version on 30th December 2012 by introducing EMUI 1.0. From that moment on, all Huawei Smartphones are coming with EMUI on top of Android, except for when Huawei join hands with google to launch a Nexus 6P Smartphone.
Let's start with EMUI 1.0 and go all the way up to EMUI 10 and see what changes Huawei made in EMUI over the years:
1. Emotion UI 1.0:
Huawei Introduced EMUI 1.0 back in December 2012. At that time Huawei called it Emotion UI 1.0 and it was based on Android 4.0. It also featured Huawei's own voice assistant app but only in china.
Other prominent features of EMUI 1.0 include:
1. Customizable HomeScreens
2. Theme Switching
Huawei later rolled out the installation of EMUI 1.0 for Huawei Ascend P1 Smartphone
Some of the Features Screenshot from Ascend P1 running EMUI 1.0:
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
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"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
2. Emotion UI 2.0:
In Januray 2015, Huawei released Emotion UI 2.3 firmware based on Android 4.4 Kitkat for its Ascend P6 users. Earlier it launched the Emotion UI 2.0 but due to its limited roll-out not much information is available on Emotion UI 2.0.
Here is a screenshot of Ascend P6 running emotion ui 2.3 beta
3. Emotion UI 3.0:
This version is officially launched on 4 September 2014 with Ascend Mate 7 in the pre-IFA event in Berlin. The user interface was ever since called “EMUI” instead of “Emotion UI”.
Following are the prominent features of EMUI 3.0:
Theme Manager:
Themes now also are able to set basic color schemes of the built-in applications, meaning there's something there for everybody's taste.
Tabbed Recent Tasks
Instead of having a linear list of screen caps or a card design as found in Android 5.0, Huawei offers a "tabbed" interface, showing 4 applications per screen and swipe-able screens to be able to scroll through the tab windows. Swiping a tab up closes the application, swiping it down locks it from being closed by the memory manager. Alternatively, you can swipe from the bottom of the screen to close all apps.
Network Manager:
EmUI 3.0. Huawei provides fine-granularity controls over installed applications on the phone. As such, you're able to determine network access (WiFi or mobile data) on a per-app basis in the Network Manager, while also monitoring their data usage. A Notification Manager enables you to control which applications are allowed to push notifications to the system, giving the possibility to have apps prompt, or directly whitelist or blacklist them.
Permission Manager:
The Permission Manager is also extremely competent, almost totally foregoing Android's built-in permission settings. You can have an application prompt for specific permissions whenever they actually need them and accept or deny them on a per-app, per-permission basis. The Android app ecosystem has an issue with applications requesting a lot of, sometimes dubious permissions. I see this as Huawei's attempt at alleviating user concerns about security. For those who think this might be a too bothersome system - I strongly disagree; it is not very intrusive, while still being able to provide lots of power of control.
Battery & Power Manager:
The Battery and Power Consumption managers again offer lots of information - Huawei seems to be very strict in trying to reign in power abusive and misbehaving applications. If you have an application which is running in the background and taking up a more-than normal amount of CPU cycles a notification warning will tell you about it and give you the possibility to kill the app. A manager dedicated to listing the background power of all applications on the phone enables you to identify power drains.
App Lock Feature:
You can also use your fingerprint to protect contacts, and message conversations, private albums and even per-app locking mechanism. This is one of the more attractive Android OEM skins
4. EMUI 4.0:
Huawei launch EMUI 4.0 In late 2015, based on Android 6.0, along with the Huawei Mate 8. Following are the prominent features of EMUI 4.0
Multi Window:
You can open 2 apps at a time using multi window option and therefore multi tasking can be done with ease
SoS Feature:
A combination of buttons can be used in order to generate SOS message and call. It will get your exact location from gps and will send the SOS message to your listed emergency contacts
Compass Application:
The newly added compass application is very useful for finding the correct directions. The App also turns on the camera so that you can have a better idea about North/West/South/East directions
Alarm Ringtone duration:
With the option to customize the alarm ringtone duration, you can now set the duration according to your own needs. You might be a lazy person who never gets up with the 1 minute alarm duration but now you can set the duration of alarm to make sure that you don't get late for office/school.
Screen recording
Screen recording is that you can record on your phone screen after opening. With this feature, you can create a small video tutorial, easy to guide the distant relatives or friends.
Join Contacts Feature
Join Contacts Feature available which can be used to merger contacts from different accounts (e.g Facebook, Gmail, Phone Contacts etc) into a single particular person contact
Intelligent Contacts
Contacts saved with same company name will be grouped.
Message-Cancel send within 4 seconds
Do you have this moment, which you found the wrong message sent within 0. 01 seconds after click it? Encountered this issue, how do you feel? The new version adds a feature to cancel message sent, as long as you cancel sending the SMS within 4 seconds.
Soft lock
Soft lock feature is provided for convenience, to enable go to Smart assistance-> Navigation bar.
5. EMUI 5.0:
EMUI 5.0 was introduced in 2016 with the launch of Huawei Mate 9. Its based on Android Nougat 7.0
Following are the noticeable features added in EMUI 5.0 version:
App-Drawer:
With EMUI 5.0, Huawei finally added a traditional app drawer. This is a welcome change as most of the Android Users including me prefer using App Drawer instead of using Apps from HomeScreen
The app drawer isn't enabled by default, but you can easily turn it on from the settings. Just head to Settings -> Home screen style -> Drawer to switch to enable the traditional app drawer. The drawer sorts your installed apps in a vertically scrolling list, and there's a suggestions pane at the top that shows you your frequently used apps along with a search bar.
Quick Toggles n Notification Panel:
In EMUI 5.0, Huawei went with the two-stage notification window that includes quick toggles at the top of the pane. The quick toggles are customizable, and there's also a brightness slider that lets you easily adjust the display's brightness.
Notifications work the way they're supposed to on Nougat — you can easily expand and swipe away alerts, and use in-line replies to compose a quick reply without having to go into the app.
UI gets an Overhaul:
EMUI 5.0 brings the biggest visual refresh to the skin in recent years. Huawei's stock apps now feature predominantly white visual elements with blue accents "inspired by the Aegean Sea," and the UI as a whole feels significantly less cluttered. The settings have also been simplified, giving you easy access to core functions without having to go several levels into a sub-category.
You can now use display scaling options to adjust the size of the interface elements and enable a blue light filter to reduce eye strain at night. There's also the ability to tweak the color temperature of the display, alter the configuration of the on-screen nav keys, change the look of the UI with themes, and much more.
Battery Saving features:
Huawei has overhauled the battery saving feature in EMUI 5.0. Battery is now a top-level category in the settings, and the manufacturer has added new power-saving features that allow you to eke out the most from the battery
The standard power saving mode kills background apps, turns off auto sync and animations to maximize battery life. The "Ultra" mode switches everything off, only giving you access to six apps of your choice. Dialer, Messaging, Contacts, and SOS are set as default, but you can remove them and add your own apps. The mode is designed to extend battery life when the battery level is low, and it certainly manages to do that.
EMUI also has an optimization feature that lets you identify apps that are consuming too much battery in the background, and you also have the option of lowering the screen resolution to increase battery life.
App Twin Feature:
https://iforum-sg.c.huawei.com/dddd/images/2020/4/23/3203d493-7640-400c-abcb-47dc8f39b67d.jpg?imageId=116013[/IMG[/CENTER]]
The most exciting feature about Huawei EMUI 5.0 is the AppTwin Feature that lets you use run 2 instances of the most common social media apps (Whatsapp & Facebook etc). This means that you can turn on the App Twin feature and can create separate accounts for business and personal usage with ease and without the need to carry 2 handsets
[COLOR="Red"][B][SIZE="5"]6. Emotion UI 8.0:[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]
EMUI 8 was released in late 2017 by Huawei with the launch of Huawei Mate 10 Series. Huawei skipped EMUI 6.0 & 7.0 to align EMUI versioning with Android 8 OS and that is why it used EMUI 8.0
Let's take a look at prominent features of Huawei EMUI 8.0:
[B] Improved Gesture Controls[/B]
This feature can be enabled using the Settings menu under “Smart Assistance”. EMUI 8.0 can take screenshots with the help of intelligent tricks. This can be done by sliding down three fingers for a perfect screen shot. Every screenshot you click is supported by a pop up screen with the option to edit, share, and take a scrolling screenshot.
Single - handed mode on EMUI 8.0 is also amazing and can be enabled from Smart Assistance. To launch this feature, you have to swipe down and form a small curve from the left and right side. Meanwhile, you can continue using the phone’s functions normally in the small screen. If you wish to go back to normal mode, just tap on the outer screen.
[B] Floating Navigation Dock[/B]
If you are a Mate 10 or Mate 10 Pro user then you must be aware that there is no hard key to navigate the phone, therefore you can facilitate from floating navigation dock.
First, you need to enable it by going to [B]Settings > Smart Assistance > System Navigation.[/B]
[CENTER][IMG]https://iforum-sg.c.huawei.com/dddd/images/2020/4/23/664380e6-f369-40b3-b0da-e2f5b709292c.jpg?imageId=116064
You can now view a white button on the screen which is the floating navigation dock. Although it looks similar to Apple’s Assistive Touch, but the functions are entirely different. Pressing on the navigation dock and pulling it left or right will launch the recent apps tab. If you tap it once it will take you back to the previous. And pressing on it and releasing it will take you back to the Home screen. You can even drag the navigation dock around the screen.
Mobile PC Dock less
This feature can support most of the apps, and protect privacy of users, along with incoming notifications. You can share presentations, watch movies, carrying bulky document etc. Therefore you can use your Smartphone and connect it with bigger displays with ease. All you need to use Huawei's EMUI 8 desktop mode is a USB-C-to-HDMI cable -- and an HDMI monitor.
Dynamic Wallpaper
The theme app is already there on Huawei devices that enable the users to customize wallpapers and more. “Dynamic Wallpaper” is the new concept that is present on EMUI 8.0. This wallpaper is mainly of landscape and it changes its texture with every passing day. For instance, during morning hours, wallpaper will display sunrise, and by evening it might show sunset.
Battery launch
You can save battery on EMUI 8.0 using this feature which can be accessed as ‘Launch’ in the Settings menu. You can optimize battery usage for each app on your smart phone. You can manage battery usage either manually or automatically. You can toggle on/off three options for an app to auto launch, secondary launch, or run in the background.
7. Emotion UI 9.0:
Huawei introduced EMUI 9.0, the 9th version of Emotion UI during IFA 2018. EMUI brought some really excited features to Huawei Smartphones and it can be considered as best step forward by Huawei after introduction of EMUI 5.0.
Let's have a look at the dominant features of EMUI 9.0:
Source: Huawei Website
The EMUI 9.0 optimizes underlying operation commands more rapidly and efficiently with AI prediction technology. This optimisation means on average, the system response speed is increased by 25.8%, application startup is shortened by 102 ms and overall system fluency is increased by 12.9%.
Gaming with GPU 2.0:
One of the most prominent feature in EMUI 9.0 is the introduction of GPU Turbo 2.0 technology that advances the gaming experience to a whole new level. The AI predictive resource allocation and intelligent scheduling, efficiently improves game fluency and lowers touch delays by an average of 36%1. Games will run smooth and cool with advanced temperature control that decreases hot spots temperature on the screen by a maximum of 3.6°C.
Wireless Projecting:
Wirelessly project your presentations to the big screen. In PC mode, you can use the graffiti pen to write notes, leave remarks and make screenshots during the meeting. Any incoming phone calls or messages will be hidden from the big screen. Enjoy showing your ideas with coworkers and sharing the videos with your family effortlessly.
HiVision:
While travelling, scan landmarks or paintings with HiVision and it will tell you the history. Also, while eating at local restaurants, you can translate the foreign language menu in real-time. HiVision can also measure food calories with volume estimation to keep your diet healthy.
HUAWEI Share:
EMUI 9.0 makes printing files a lot easier with HUAWEI Share. Now you can click one button to print3. No more cables and extra devices.
Phone Clone:
Once you have your new HUAWEI phone, HUAWEI Phone Clone easily helps you switch all your contacts, apps and photos to your new device quickly with EMUI 9.0. A fast transfer with an easy set up and you are ready to enjoy your new phone.
Gestures:
The Gesture control on EMUI 9.0 has been improved significantly
Password Vault:
With Password Vault the Logins for applications are safe in an encrypted can only be accessed with your Fingerprint, Face ID or lock code. You won’t need to remember passwords for your accounts anymore and you are still secure.
Multiple Back Up Options:
With multiple back up options your data is more secure and accessible than ever before. Back up your data to a USB, SD Card or through a network-attached storage (NAS).
8. Emotion UI 9.1:
EMUI 9.1 is the improved version on EMUI 9.0, with extra feature. Huawei released EMUI 9.1 in June 2019. Here is the list of top features of Huawei’s EMUI 9.1 update:
GPU Turbo 3.0:
It offers a smoother gaming experience and better battery performance. Since the first announcement of GPU Turbo feature last year, it has been upgraded many times.
New EROFS file system:
This EMUI version comes with a new EROFS (Extendable Read-Only File System) file system, which helps to increase the smoothness of Huawei phones. Previously, the F2FS file system was tailored for flash memory to improve the read and write performance after long-term use. Now, with EROFS, the random read speed will be 20% faster and the system space will provide extra personal storage of up to 1,000 pictures or 500 songs. Plus, the read-only memory design isolates outside interference for added security in your system files.
VLOG:
Vlog has new effects and features that are flawless tools for easy editing and you can share with a single touch.The Highlight videos are automatically edited with dramatic filters and gives you the option to apply special speed effects and unique background music. Your cherished videos can be transformed into a personal cinematic masterpiece.
OneHop:
A simple tap from your phone to the computer can send pictures, videos and documents in seconds.You can also efficiently copy and paste between devices with HUAWEI Share OneHop. And, while playing a game, just shake and touch the phone to your computer to initiate a 60-second recording of the screen that saves to your phone.
Car key:
The phone turns into car key to open the door. It is currently available in Audi 7 models.
Open Settings
Go to Device connectivity > NFC
Enable NFC
Set Default payment app to your automobile manufacturer’s app.
How to unlock a Car:
You need only hold your Huawei device near the car’s door handle to unlock it. To unlock your car, hold the NFC area of your Phone near your car’s door handle. The screen can be on or off.
AR measurement:
The mobile can directly measure area, volume, length, height and many more.You can accurately measure length, total area and volume with the HUAWEI TOF Camera. By utilizing the Face Recognition technology, you can now measure the height of a person with just a simple task of scanning from toe-to-head.
Phone Clone:
You can quickly transfer your photos, contacts, videos and many other things to your new device in few seconds.
9. Emotion UI 10.0:
On August 9, Huawei held the HDC2019 Huawei Developer Conference in which Yu Chengdong, president of Huawei’s consumer business, officially released the Hongmeng operating system. Subsequently, Wang Chenglu, president of Huawei’s consumer BG software division, officially released Huawei EMUI 10 Features.
Now that EMUI 10 has been launched on wide variety of devices, we can look into some of the most exciting features of EMUI 10:
Brand New Look:
Key changes in EMUI 10 focus on improving the look and feel of the operating system. Huawei has broken this down into four main categories — the new Magazine Design philosophy, a low saturation color palette, enhanced Dark Mode, and improved natural animations. We’ll get to all of them in time, but let’s start with the cosmetic changes.
EMUI 10 retains a familiar look and feel to its past few versions. The desktop drawer, flexible navigation options, and various menus all retain that familiar Huawei aesthetic. You will notice a few icon changes here and there but nothing drastically different in that department.
There’s now much more white space around headers and title texts, such as the clock and date in the quick settings menu and the icons in the notification bar. This extends throughout Huawei’s apps, including email, contacts, and even the options in the settings menu are separated by a tad more space. There’s also more space around notifications too, so they’re not as tightly crammed together as in previous versions.
This new color palette was invented by George Morandi, the famous Italian painter, and comprises of soft subtle colors over a light grey background. In the contacts app, contacts without a picture are given one of the six soft color tones instead.
Fluid animations:
Another cosmetic change in EMUI 10 is the introduction of more “natural” animations. For example, pressing a button or object it depresses it down into the screen before springing up. Larger objects appear to spring back up with more force. It’s pretty cool to watch, but I get the feeling not too many people will notice. Which maybe is the point after all?
Huawei has also improved the animation transitions between apps. The frame rate of these transitions has increased, smoothing out their appearance and reducing any appearance of lag. There’s also a cool “Projectile Motion” animation when exiting an app, where you can move the window around the screen and watch it fly back towards the home screen app icon.
The UI seems to be very responsive with EMUI 10 and that is why EMUI 10 is a big upgrade from EMUI 9.1
Enhanced Dark Mode:
Huawei Launched the Dark Mode option back with EMUI 9 but there were some issues, as some of the apps were not optimized enough to handle the Dark Mode. EMUI 10 solve all those issues. Although Dark Mode is one of the main features of EMUI 10 but Huawei has even outperformed the Dark mode implementation than Stock Android Smartphones.
Huawei’s Dark Mode applies not just to the OS UI but also to its pre-installed apps. This includes email, contacts, clock, photos, notes, etc.
Camera:
Huawei is well known for its smartphone camera prowess and it appears that a number of new features and tweaks are heading to the camera app in EMUI 10 as well.
A few UI changes caught my eye, including a simple black background, reworked zoom slider, and an AI toggle button. The Aperture shooting mode now also lists the level of bokeh blur by f-stop rather than just a number.
You also get a gyroscopic stabilization assistive grid when you turn on the assistive grid while making a video. This helps a lot if you want to shoot a steady and stable video.
The biggest change though is the introduction of new color grading options. The old Standard, Vivid, and Smooth options have been replaced by your choice of 11 new filters. These still include the three original options, now with Leica branding, while also offering monochrome and other color palettes. Other manufacturers have provided a wide range of shooting profiles for a while now, so it’s nice to see Huawei expanding its options too.
10. Emotion UI 10.1:
Huawei released its Flagship P40 series with the all new EMUI 10.1 Software on 26th March 2020. Surprisingly EMUI 10.1 came with lots of newly added features. Although most of the improvements were made in the Camera Department.
Let's take a look at the main features of EMUI 10.1:
Golden Snap:
One of the coolest and my favorite feature of EMUI 10.1, by using the Golden Snap feature you can remove the nearby character/people.
Mobile Office Multi-screen Collaboration:
Huawei EMUI 10.1 brings a new way of sharing and collaboration, all you need is just tap the Huawei Share button/icon from the navigation as shown in the image below.
No compression and no data consumption.
● It supports a notification center in the corner of the device.
● With a simple tap, smartphones and computers converge instantly
● Drag and drop text instantly.
MeeTime High-Quality Communication:
If you fancy Google Duo or Apple's Facetime but love Huawei handsets, you are in for a treat as Huawei has just launched MeeTime that connects you with your family and friends at any time and anywhere with high-quality video calls, even in low-light or poor network conditions. All you need is to select MeeTime app
Hey Celia: Huawei New Voice Assistant:
After Huawei was restricted to use Google Play Services, it came up with a new home backed Voice Assistant "Hey Celia".
To activate the voice assistant, you just have to say "Hey Celia" and you are ready to give commands to the Huawei Voice Assistant
Wireless Sound Transmission:
Although this feature hasn't been officially confirmed yet but according to Weibo blogger, Huawei 40 series phones support wireless sound transmission
After turning on, the external sound can be transmitted from the mobile phone to the Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth speaker in real-time.
Gallery: Single search, Multiple devices, New distributed file system:
We live in a world where we are used to using multiple devices for multiple tasks, depending on what task is at hand. Reading a book on a Tablet might be better than reading it on your Smartphone or your Laptop, similarly, taking photos is easy with a Smartphone instead of a tablet.
Furthermore, our devices have limited storage space, so we might move a few files (including images) from one device to another to free up some storage space but in some cases this becomes nightmare if you are unable to find your required image.
Luckily Huawei has developed a solution for that and EMUI 10.1 is implementing it:
You can access your photo gallery on any of your devices like Huawei’s vision or a MatePad as shown in the image below. When it connected to the same home Wi-Fi network, you can also quickly search crossed devices and instantly share your images.
Here are a few more noticeable features of EMUI 10.1:
● Huawei New Themes
● New Vibrant AOD
● 3D Rendered AOD – Low power consumption
● UI More Smooth
● Convenient Multi-Window – (Drag & Drop Easily & Smooth)
● More Secure
Here is the Huawei EMUI versions release dates if you are interested in that as well:
(This article was first published on Huawei Global Community)
Source: Following websites attributed to my detailed article on Huawei EMUI History: HuaweiCentral, AndroidCentral, Humariweb, Unboxcell, AndroidAuthority, Huawei Official Website,huaweiupdate, sparrowsnews
Thank you for posting that!! I would never know some features started In such old versions. I love the message sending delay, knuckle gestures, built in screen rec, and way more. To be honest a big nostalgia hit me after reading all that.
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