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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in official screenshots

Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, is bursting with tasty new features -- click here for all the official pictures.

Richard Trenholm
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Richard Trenholm
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The next generation of Android is here. Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, is bursting with tasty new features including unlocking the phone with a smile, zapping photos to other phones by tapping them together, and updates across the board. Click through our gallery above for all the official pictures.

You can now unlock your phone with your face. The phone saves your phizzog, and recognises you in future to unlock the phone. We can only imagine the japes Jedward could play on each other with that feature.

Even when the phone is locked, you can go straight to a particular app, or see your music playing. If you don't want to answer an incoming phone call, you can simply respond with a text message from a list of set responses -- such as "Can't talk; in a meeting," or, "I told you to stop calling me, you filthy harridan."

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the first phone to feature navigation buttons that appear on the screen, instead of being physical buttons built into the case of the phone. The icons let you go back, return to the home screen or switch to recent apps, choosing from a list of thumbnails.

On the home screens you can resize widgets. Apps can be organised into folders, as on the iPad and iPhone. When you're done with an app, you can flick it off the screen. It's easier to launch and also delete an app, too.

You can take screengrabs, at last, by pressing the volume and power buttons. Handy. Copy and paste is more useful too, as you can move blocks of text. And there's a new font. A new font, people! It's called Roboto, and replaces Droid Sans.

The browser, camera and Gmail have all been improved, and Google+ is now built-in. A spell-checker works across all apps. Google reckons voice control has been beefed up too, but is it a match for Apple's Siri? We'll find out soon enough.

Android Beam is a new feature that finally makes some use of near-field communication (NFC). Used in some countries to pay for things by waving your phone at an NFC till, NFC hasn't yet taken off over here. With Android Beam you can tap two NFC phones together to zap photos or files from one to the other.

Ice Cream Sandwich makes its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and will be updated to other phones soon after. Are you dying for a lick of Ice Cream Sandwich? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.

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Unlock your phone with your face!
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The lock screen.
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The home screen.
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The Recent Apps list.
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The All Apps launcher.
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You can resize widgets, like this calendar.
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Jump to the camera or see notifications without unlocking.
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For incoming calls, you can respond instantly by text.
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A spell-checker lets you find errors and fix them faster.
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The voice input engine lets you dictate continously.
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Data usage controls let you monitor total usage by network type and application.
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You can set limits if needed.
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A new People app shows a profile page for your friends, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.
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You can add people directly to Google+, with social networks integrated right into the contacts.
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You can send messages from contacts.
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The camera includes continuous focus and image zoom. Google claims zero shutter lag between pressing the button and taking the picture.
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You can edit your snaps, or add special effects.
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The gallery lets you share snaps to social networks.
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Snapping a screenshot. Yay!
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The browser tabs menu lets you quickly switch browser tabs.
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The browser options menu.
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Android Beam, which lets you transfer files by tapping against another phone.

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