Ice Cream Sandwich – Wiebe Elsinga http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog Blog Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:36:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.1 Don’t forget the tools http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/dont-forget-the-tools/ http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/dont-forget-the-tools/#respond Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:19:40 +0000 http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/?p=794 Besides the release Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) software development kit (SDK) don’t forget the new SDK Tools and ADT 14.

The new features for the SDK tools and ADT are listed on the Android Developers website. To summarize, those are as follows:

Source developer.android.com

]]> http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/dont-forget-the-tools/feed/ 0 A closer look at Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich/ http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich/#respond Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:52:00 +0000 http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/?p=791 Google has (finally) released its Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) software development kit (SDK). So let’s take a closer look.

Ice Cream Sandwich for Users

The new features for users in Ice Cream Sandwich are detailed on the Android Developers website. To summarize, those are as follows:

  • Evolved UI
  • New typeface optimized for high-resolution screens
  • System Bar Refinements contains virtual buttons for better user experience
  • Action Bar like features
  • Resizable widgets
  • Improved voice input engine
  • Better control over network data
  • People app offers richer profile information, including a large profile picture, phone numbers, addresses and accounts, status updates, events, and a new button for connecting on integrated social networks.
  • Improved Calendar, Camera, Email and Browser apps
  • Android Beam for sharing across two NFC-enabled devices
  • Face Unlock is a new screen-lock option that lets users unlock their devices with their faces
  • Wi-Fi Direct lets users connect directly to nearby peer devices over Wi-Fi
  • Connecting to Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) devices so users can connect to wireless medical devices and sensors in hospitals, fitness centers, homes, and elsewhere.

Ice Cream Sandwich for Developers

Developers need to be aware of the following features:

  • Unified UI framework for phones, tablets, and more. All the UI elements from Honeycomb, like the action bar and fragments
  • New social API
  • new APIs for Contacts, Calendar, and Visual Voicemail
  • audio remote control API so any music or media app can register to receive media button events from the remote control and then manage play state
  • spell-checker API
  • Android Beam so you can Share just about everything over NFC by tapping two phones together (like the bump app)
  • ShareActionProvider widget lets developers quickly embed standard share functionality and UI in the Action Bar of their applications
  • Low-level streaming multimedia (sounds a bit like DRM)
  • New camera capabilities like continuous focus and image zoom. There’s also face detection.
  • Wi-Fi Direct for ad-hoc networking
  • Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) For connecting to medical or fitness devices like the MotoActive.
  • GridLayout improves the performance of Android applications by supporting flatter view hierarchies that are faster to layout and render
  • Hardware-accelerated 2D drawing
  • About a million other things – Stylus support, a new framework for text-to-speech engines, data usage, a VPN API, and policy management for the camera.

Source developer.android.com

]]> http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich/feed/ 0 Good things are coming http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/good-things-are-coming/ http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/good-things-are-coming/#respond Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:28:59 +0000 http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/?p=776 While a few committed individuals have been camping out for the iPhone 4S for some time now, others are now beginning to filter toward their local Apple retail stores in their attempts to secure one of the new models.

 

 

But wait there is more news… No not about Apple, but about Android.

It has been officially confirm that Google and Samsung are all set to unveil the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich next week on Wednesday, October 19th in Hong Kong at 10AM. Yes the Samsung Mobile unpacked that was canceled last minute will now take place next week. As is the tradition with each new version of Android, a new dessert-themed statue has appeared outside Building 44 on Google’s Mountain View campus.

 

 

]]> http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/good-things-are-coming/feed/ 0 Google delays Ice Cream Sandwich http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/google-delays-ice-cream-sandwich/ http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/google-delays-ice-cream-sandwich/#respond Fri, 07 Oct 2011 05:55:00 +0000 http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/?p=748 Despite previous announcement, Google and Samsung have announced that they have decided to postpone the announcement of both the Nexus Prime and Ice Cream Sandwich. In a joint statement by the two companies, both Google and Samsung feel this is not the right time to announce a new product.

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

Source: Google and Samsung Official Statement

]]> http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/google-delays-ice-cream-sandwich/feed/ 0 What to expect from Android Ice Cream Sandwich http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/what-to-expect-from-android-ice-scream-sandwich/ http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/what-to-expect-from-android-ice-scream-sandwich/#respond Mon, 03 Oct 2011 06:16:27 +0000 http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/?p=700 After Honeycomb, the new Android software development kit (SDK) version is called Ice Cream Sandwich, as announced at the Google I/O event in San Francisco. Is should merge the best of Honeycomb and Gingerbread together.

So let’s take a closer look what we can expect.

Getting that Honeycomb look

Features of Honeycomb will be available to Android phone users like slick holographic user interface, an updated app launcher and the interactive homescreen widgets. Also we can look forward to using the multi-task bar currently located at the bottom of the HoneyComb tablet OS.

New developer API

It will be possible for building apps for tablet, phones and other connected devices under the same framework. That should help the rollout of Android apps across different hardware platforms to be done all at the same time. And don’t forget that you can develop for GoogleTV (finally).

Recognition

Developers will be able to play with a 3D display system that can track movement and detect the position of a person’s head, nose and eyes, like Kinect.

Music and movies

Integrated will be the cloud music service (first only available in beta to our American friends), This will give you the possibility to share playlists instantly across all Android devices. Also rent a movie direct from the Android market.

NFC sharing

You’ll be able to share web pages, contacts, YouTube videos and more by the power of Near Field Communication. Ok, like Bump, but without having to open up an application or having to be make your phone or tablet physically be in contact with another one.

Finally the release date will be the October. For those who can’t wait, have a look at this video:

]]> http://wiebe-elsinga.com/blog/what-to-expect-from-android-ice-scream-sandwich/feed/ 0