android ics

Qualcomm is proving that a phone doesn't have to be quad-core to be fast.

"Scoring 25 percent higher than its older siblings...in [central processing unit] performance benchmarks, shows Qualcomm has delivered on its promise for higher performance CPU," Jim Mielke, vice president of engineering at ABI Research, said in a note today, referring to the HTC One S.

That phone comes with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system.

The HTC smartphone taps the first Qualcomm 28-nanometer (nm) chip -- the "Snapdragon" MSM8260A. That's a big step up in chip … Read more

The Samsung Nexus S 4G isn't the only Sprint phone to tuck into an Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Today, Sprint announced on its Web site that it's readying over-the-air ICS updates for Android smartphones that include the Samsung Epic 4G Touch, among others.

Sprint has promised to "begin to roll out Google's latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, to our customers in 2012," but isn't sharing its timetable or the complete list of handsets it'll support. With more than half a year to go before 2012's close, Sprint's guidance remains … Read more

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At this point, you might be tired of waiting for an ICS update for your Android. Or worse, your device might not be on the list of phones receiving the update. In either case, you can now snag some of that ICS awesomeness by using Phoenix Launcher on your phone. This app will add the ICS launcher to your Gingerbread device, giving you the look and (possibly) feel of using Android's newest flavor.

Note: Launchers on Android will allow you to change the way you interact with the Home screens of your device. The arrangement of docked … Read more

The camera app on ICS devices offers more tools to the point-and-shoot user than the camera apps from previous versions of Android. However, the choices for ICS devices is very limited right now, so most users on this version will be rocking a Galaxy Nexus.

If this device isn't for you or you're just feeling a little envious of the awesome ICS camera app, chances are that you can snag those most of those same features for yourself. This is done by using a port of the new camera app, and will work with most Android … Read more

In addition to ICS support, the side-load-only Swype Beta comes with new downloadable languages for tablets, accuracy improvements, and a plug-in to the nifty voice-powered search engine Dragon Go. With Dragon Go, you can simply speak your search terms or ask a question, and be brought directly to the most relevant result. It skips right over the typical hyperlink-filled search engine results pages.

Swype is one of the more popular Android replacement keyboards because it lets you type by quickly swiping from letter to letter. It comes preinstalled on many devices, and cannot be downloaded from the Android Market.

Swype … Read more

Google doesn't reject apps from the Android Market just because they're ugly.

But that doesn't mean the company doesn't care--especially now that Matias Duarte has seized the spotlight as director of Android user experience. So, absent the banhammer, Google is trying gentler persuasion to get others besides itself to care about designs that look and work well in the Ice Cream Sandwich era.

For that reason, Google has released an Android design guide for ICS, aka Android 4.0. As my colleague Kent German observes, Google's accommodating ways up to this point have led to … Read more

Ever send a friend or family member to voice mail only to have them keep calling or even text you asking why you declined their call? … Read more

Google is serving up Ice Cream Sandwich with a new base version that promises several improvements and bug fixes for the Android operating system.

Detailed in Friday's Android Developers blog, ICS 4.0.3 is expected to roll out to production phones and tablets in the "weeks ahead," according to Google.

As such, the company is advising developers to test their mobile apps with the new flavor. Though it didn't get into specifics, Google is promising incremental improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, and Bluetooth, among other items.

Developers can also tap into other features with the … Read more

An hour-long event in Hong Kong yesterday revealed a brave new world for Android smartphones.

Yesterday's launch of the Samsung Nexus smartphone and new details about Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has the tech community buzzing. Executives from both companies detailed the most cohesive strategy yet for the smartphone platform, which you can fully watch in the embedded video above.… Read more