Hasta La Gadget!

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — There are few things in this world I despise more than software updates. Downloading hundreds of files, waiting for the progress bar to fill, restarting the device — it’s all a thankless chore. Usually.

But Google’s Android 4.0 operating system, better known by its tasty nickname “Ice Cream Sandwich,” or ICS, is far from a mere mobile OS update. Ice Cream Sandwich is a complete OS overhaul that includes tweaks ranging from the geekily esoteric (widget resizing!) to the most surface-level of interface improvements (think “shinier,” care of faux-polished surfacing effects). It’s also destined for both Android smartphones and tablets, unifying Google’s mobile OS platforms for the first time.

Google invited me to its Mountain View campus for hands-on time with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the flagship device on which Ice Cream Sandwich will launch sometime in November. Android Vice President of Engineering, Hiroshi Lockheimer, gave me a deep-dive tour of the new software, and, by the time I left, I was stoked to upgrade to one of the most anticipated Android releases to date.

Ice Cream Sandwich will make its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

A Revamped User Interface

“Frankly, there’s something I’ve heard people say about Android for a while,” Lockheimer tells me inside Google HQ on Wednesday. “It’s a cool OS, but it’s a bit rough around the edges.”

It’s true. I’ve been an Android user since I switched from a BlackBerry years ago, and I’ve never used an iPhone as my primary mobile device. But I hear the exact same thing from every iOS user who’s ever taken Android for a spin: “It doesn’t feel finished.”

Relative to competing mobile OSes, Android’s release cycle runs at a breakneck pace, with major software version releases debuting about every six months. Lockheimer began working on Android over five years ago (before Android was really “Android”), and he’s survived nine different version launches in about four years. In that same four-year period, Apple iterated its iOS just four times.

The Android team’s mandate to continuously iterate is admirable, but according to Lockheimer, it accounts for some of Android’s so-called roughness.

“It’s just a mindset thing,” Lockheimer says. “Moving that fast, you don’t get to spend as much time as others do ironing out the fine points.”

Nonetheless, Ice Cream Sandwich is the closest to a “finished” version of Android I’ve ever seen. The team spent an incredible amount of time on refining the little things, from changing details as minor as the opacity of the notifications background (it’s now translucent, so you can see the app tray beneath it), to as major as redesigning the phone’s lock screen to look more like that of Honeycomb (aka Android 3.0, Google’s current tablet OS). It’s this collection of subtle touches and flourishes that comprise an enormous change in overall OS feel — a whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

The new Roboto font, shown here on various parts of the display, will inevitably look like Helvetica to most people.

Even Android’s system-wide typeface was reimagined. “Roboto,” Android’s new official font, is spread across all parts of the OS containing text. Android user experience chief Matias Duarte says the font serves a dual purpose — “modern, yet approachable” with mechanical forms underscored by a “cheerful demeanor.” I think it’s pleasant to look at, even if it does appear to be a variant of Helvetica.

In order to appreciate the biggest interface changes in Ice Cream Sandwich, you must first consider that it’s essentially a union of Android’s phone and tablet interfaces, two drastically different UI designs intended for entirely different form factors. The new OS makes obsolete all the physical buttons currently gracing Android smartphones, replacing them with virtual keys (just like those first introduced in Honeycomb in February). Similarly, home screen widgets are now moveable and resizeable, and organized under a new tab in the app menu.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus lacks the physical button bar of previous Android phones.

In a strange amalgamate of added security and high-tech playfulness, the new “Face Unlock” uses the front-facing camera to scan and verify your face before granting access to your phone. The feature uses advanced facial recognition technology developed by Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, a company Google acquired earlier this year.

While Face Unlock looks pretty darn sweet, reliable functionality is (currently) hit or miss. It worked about three out of the five times I tried it, and it quite publicy failed to recognize a Google employee during the Ice Cream Sandwich launch demo in front of international press. Regardless, you can still use a backup PIN or pattern entry code to unlock devices, so you and your unrecognizable mug won’t be left out in the cold.

Yep, that's my face. Please let me in.

What’s more exciting than a phone that knows your face? A phone that plays well with others. Using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, you’ll be able to share content between Ice Cream Sandwich devices with “Android Beam.” By tapping the back of your phone to the back of a compatible handset, you can swap web pages, apps and whatever else Google or software developers enable for transfer in the future.

Google has trumpeted the benefits of NFC ever since launching the Nexus S smartphone last year, asserting that the technology will soon change the way we use our phones in the course of everyday life. For example, Google Wallet — a major Google e-commerce initiative supported by CitiBank Mastercard, with more credit companies on the way — allows users to pay for purchases at retail stores with simple waves of their smartphones (assuming, of course, the retailers have the proper NFC reader technology installed).

I was bummed that Lockheimer wasn’t able to show me Android Beam in action when I visited — his Galaxy Nexus was running a different build of Ice Cream Sandwich than the demo unit I held. Regardless, sharing web pages between phones isn’t the Android Beam feature that really excites me. We should all be more interested in the NFC innovations that haven’t yet been announced.

Imagine being able to ”encircle” one another using our Google+ accounts with a mere tapping of phones. Or perhaps exchange contact info with a quick Nexus bump. Who knows, maybe in the future a quick Android Beam tap will be good enough for a marriage license in Las Vegas. The possibilities are as frightening as they are endless.

You knew Lytro was up to something, but with its infinite focus light-field powered camera out of the bag, how does it actually stack up in real life? In a word: novel — you certainly won’t be tossing your regular camera for this shooter, at least not in its current incarnation. Still the concept of shoot now, ask focus questions later is revolutionary, so hop on past the break for our initial impressions.

Continue reading Lytro camera hands-on (video)

Lytro camera hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

When Matias Duarte tried to unlock his Nexus Galaxy on-stage at today’s Samsung event things didn’t go so well. Some combination of his makeup and the lighting conspired to keep him from getting into his device, but after spending a little time with one ourselves we can confirm that it does indeed work — and quickly. To program the feature, go into the settings and it’ll train itself to recognize your mug. As it locks in a ring of circles frames your face and, hey presto, it’s ready. After that you set up a backup form of identification and you’re good to go.

Once it’s ready we found it takes only a second or two to recognize and unlock the phone, meaning this should be even faster than swiping or punching in an unlock code. But, you still will need to do that from time to time, either when the lighting conditions are less than optimal or, apparently, when you weren’t born with it and were relying a little too much on the Maybelline.

Continue reading Ice Cream Sandwich face unlock demo (video)

Ice Cream Sandwich face unlock demo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Hello there, Ice Cream Sandwich! Google and Samsung just took the wraps off of the former’s newest mobile operating system here in Hong Kong, and boy — she’s a beauty. Of course, we’ve known about ICS for months now, but outside of a few sneak peeks courtesy of Mr. Blurrycam, we didn’t know precisely what to expect. Strangely, Motorola’s recent introduction of the Droid RAZR only delivered the freshest offering of Gingerbread, but the Galaxy Nexus is oh-ficially the first smartphone in the world to launch with Android 4.0. Our test unit was actually running 4.0.1 for reasons unknown, but as we mentioned in our Galaxy Nexus hands-on, it was as smooth as ever. Without question, this is easily the slickest, most polished version of Android yet, and we invite you to take a tour yourself via the hands-on gallery below. Apologies for the quantity, but we wanted to explore every nook and cranny while we had the chance.

Google Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0): a hands-on screenshot gallery originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Remember the Droid RAZR? That’s so yesterday. Or, earlier today. Whatever. The point is, Samsung’s just busted out the planet’s first Ice Cream Sandwich-based smartphone here in Hong Kong, a few days late but hardly worse for the wear. The Galaxy Nexus (formerly referred to as the Nexus Prime) carries on the Nexus torch in spectacular fashion, and we’ve just spent a few quality moments with one here at the launch event. Design-wise, it’s clear that the Nexus S DNA is here, though the rear reminds us most of the Galaxy S II. Those who abhor physical buttons will also be delighted, and while we’d gotten used to the whole Power + Home for a screenshot on the GSII, Power + Volume Down works just fine on this fellow.

The 1.2GHz dual-core processor was startlingly fast. It actually felt a wee bit quicker than our Galaxy S II, and given that Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus were apparently built for one another, we’re assuming there’s some deeply ingrained optimizations to thank. Swiping from pane to pane was faster than its ever been on Android, and the new Roboto font actually is super eye-pleasing. The touch response of the capacitive buttons — much like those on the original Nexus One — take a bit of getting used to, and we had to mash ’em just a touch harder than we anticipated to elicit a response. [Update: turns out our demo phone was a bit of an early build; we touched another model later in the day, and our response gripes were gone. Perfectly responsive. Hopefully that’s the one that’ll ship out.] Not necessarily a bad thing, just a thing worth noting. We’ve built our impressions after the break, replete with a video. Enjoy!

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on (video)

Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments