Google is now sharing its Ice Cream Sandwiches with everybody.
The tech giant has released the source code for its eagerly anticipated Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system -- the first version of Android designed to run on both phones and tablets.
The version of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.1) released by the Mountain View, Calif., company is the same software that will run on the upcoming Galaxy Nexus smartphone, built by Samsung and exclusive (so far) to Verizon Wireless.
"We just released a bit of code we thought this group might be interested in," Google engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru wrote in a post in an Android developer Google Group on Monday. "Over at our Android Open-Source Project git servers, the source code for Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is now available."
The Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and download instructions are available here.
In announcing the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, Queru also offered a new bit of reasoning behind Google's never open sourcing Android Honeycomb, its only version of Android built specifically for tablets.
"This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases," he said of the Ice Cream Sandwich source code. "However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich."
Although Queru described Honeycomb as incomplete, Google's head of Android, Andy Rubin, told Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in March that the company didn't want to open source Honeycomb because it didn't want the tablet-optimized operating system to end up on smartphones.
From Bloomberg Businessweek's March report:
Rubin says that if Google were to open-source the Honeycomb code now, as it has with other versions of Android at similar periods in their development, it couldn't prevent developers from putting the software on phones "and creating a really bad user experience. We have no idea if it will even work on phones."
Apple has applied to patent more powerful touch-based gestures in iOS devices with smaller touchscreens. The said technologies also involve sensing the device’s position and angle, and will manipulate data and images with these gestures.
Touchscreens are among Apple’s favorites when it comes to user interface. Touching elements on a device is more intuitive than pressing buttons or moving a mouse cursor around. Unfortunately, with limited screen sizes, a user is also limited in terms of manipulating the data from within. We already have pinch and zoom gestures on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, with which we can manipulate images and data on these iOS devices. However, Apple wants to further improve this gesture-based touchscreen experience.
The US Patent and Trademark Office has published a few patents that Apple has recently applied for, and these include two technologies for manipulating images and data on a touchscreen surface with gestures. These include “Hold then Swipe,” “Swipe Then Hold,” displaying more visual data, and the use of the accelerometer.
The two hold and swipe patents mean that single-finger touch gestures will become more powerful than just dragging elements around and panning the screen. With these features, a user can manipulate a photo or image onscreen in terms of zooming in, panning, and even changing view angles without lifting one’s finger.
When a user swipes and then holds the finger in position, the speed of panning or flipping through content can be changed by angling the smartphone or iDevice left or right. Holding a finger in position can also bring up a context menu or an additional screen with more information about the element being manipulated. In the same way, the hold-then-swipe gesture can be used to bring up additional information about the item being manipulated. One example could include touching a person’s face in a photo, and then iOS showing other pictures of the same person stored in the device.
On the other hand, the new patent also takes better advantage of a device’s accelerometer in manipulating content. Tilting an iPhone, iPad or iPod left or right might be useful when flipping through photos, music albums and the like.
Even bigger applications of these new touch-based gestures include displaying related items depending on context. For instance, touching and holding on a certain landmark in an online map can bring up a set of photos for that particular area. Apple has yet to integrate these technologies into their actual product, and so these are mainly concepts that might see their way into real devices soon. As such, Apple is likely to be able to integrate these in a seamless and intuitive manner with existing iOS user interface elements.
Now that we’ve reviewed the gigantic Galaxy Player 5.0 for what it is on its own, it’s time to compare to the rest of the market a bit more in-depth, starting with what at first glance might appear to be the Player’s closest cousin: the Galaxy S II. Before we continue, know this: it’s almost as if these two devices aren’t from the same family, that’s how different they are. Though the Galaxy Player 5.0 is only being released now near the holiday season, the Galaxy S II (in all its forms here in the United States) takes no prisoners when it comes to power and abilities.
The Galaxy S II comes in several different shapes and sizes here in the United States, two of the more powerful ones being the two we’ve got right here, the Galaxy S II from AT&T and the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. The first of two has a 4.32-inch display at 480 x 800 resolution and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor made by Samsung. The Epic 4G Touch has the same specifications on a 4.5-inch display. This means that the pixel density is down but the power is the same. The Galaxy Player 5.0 has a single-core processor at 1Ghz that’s also made by Samsung and a display that’s 5-inches large with the same 480 x 800 pixel resolution. In addition, the Galaxy Player has a TFT LCD display while the Galaxy S II units both have a Super AMOLED Plus display. Have a look here to see if you can spot the differences in quality:
Each of the displays above are set to full brightness, and the device on the far right is the Samsung Stratosphere. This device is a 4G LTE enabled Samsung device with a Super AMOLED (not plus) display also at 480 x 800 pixel resolution. Again, see if you can tell the difference from the photo above. Have a peek at the video below for a hands-on comparison of the Galaxy Player 5.0, the Galaxy S II in the two flavors mentioned, and the Stratosphere, each of them in kind:
So what about price comparisons? Have a peek here at some prices that are live RIGHT this second here:
And heed this again: the Galaxy Player 5.0 has no on contract price because there is no contract in any instance, it’s a Wi-fi only device. The question you’ve got to ask yourself, as with all decisions between devices like these, is “what do I want this device to do?” If it’s just having a one-time-only cost for a 5-inch display having device that’ll work as a display for games and videos in a variety of places on a Samsung interface, the Galaxy Player 5.0 is your clear winner as it’s essentially your only choice.
If on the other hand you want power, thinness, and connectivity wherever you go, you’ll be best off with one of the Galaxy S II devices. For 4G LTE, you can either choose the Stratosphere here or the DROID Charge, another lovely choice from Verizon. Of course all of these are Samsung devices. What if you want a comparable device to the Galaxy Player 5.0 but don’t mind if it’s not a Samsung-made interface and set of hardware? We’ll be working with an iPod Touch next – stay tuned to SlashGear for more!
This device is the next step in the HTC smartphone design evolution, and as you’ll see in the video portion of the review below, it’s almost as if they asked someone on the 3D mockup crew to cut off all the edges and make something sharp! We’ve already got AT&T 4G LTE speed tests from one of the few areas AT&T has its LTE network deployed (in Texas,) now it’s time to see if the phone stands up to the pressure of the rest of the HTC family (and the rest of the AT&T family as well.)
Hardware
This device is certainly part of this year’s HTC device design family, but hold it up next to any one of the other HTC smartphones released in the last 11 months and you’ll find yourself wondering if the crew is thinking about going in new directions. There’s flat edges! There’s a single flat metal slide-out panel on the back! It’s almost as if someone from Motorola came over and slid a few pages of their smartphone ethos into the HTC packet. That said, it’s a refreshing cut from the pack, and said panel does make the whole package feel extra high-quality.
I’m not entirely sold on diverging from the soft-plastic setup HTC devices have had throughout 2011 and continue to have on smartphones such as the recently revealed HTC Rezound. Of the devices you’ll see in the video review below, it’s the HTC Sensation that feels the most naturally confortable in the hand, while the HTC Vivid feels like a more stark set of panels made to look reduced and perhaps even bauhaus-esque. This device is made to look different, that’s for certain.
The device feels light but substantial enough that you won’t feel like it’s going to float away on you, and though its not nearly the thinnest device on the market, it’s certainly not fat either. On the front is a 4.5-inch S-LCD 540 x 960 pixel resolution display, this meaning you’ll have some awesome detail, this beating out the 480 x 800 Super AMOLED Plus 480 x 800 pixel resolution display on the Samsung Skyrocket (also a Galaxy S II device, mind you) in amount of pixels but not necessarily in brightness. Unless you’re holding both devices together, you’ll not notice the difference.
Hands-on Video Review
Software
Inside you’ll find Android 2.3.4 out of the box and Sense 3.0, here having the ring unlock screen (with app shortcuts) and all the custom HTC-made widgets your heart desires. HTC for those of you that don’t know have one of the most lovely looking yet deeply integrated custom user interfaces of all the Android device manufacturers – this means two things: one, that you might not have Ice Cream Sandwich until later in the year 2012, and two, that you’ve got an interface that HTC created to work and function exactly as they intend. If you’ve never owned an Android device before, be sure to check out both an HTC device and a device made by a different manufacturer just to see the big difference.
Apps consist of your regular AT&T added apps and your HTC added apps which include several media-purchase libraries for things like full-length movies, and Google of course has their full range of apps like the Android Market, maps, and Gmail. Essentially what you’ve got here is an HTC device that’s not unlike the rest of the HTC devices that’ve been released recently, no real surprises.
Camera
The camera is pretty awesome. HTC has stepped up their game in recent devices and isn’t letting go of the idea that image quality in their on-board shooters is as important as any other element on the device. In the review video you’ll see how quickly the camera snaps a shot – less than a second by my reckoning. And have a peek at the results here and in the gallery below as well.
Battery
The battery on this device does not seem to be all that fantastic. Have a peek at the battery usage screenshot and note how we’re not doing all that fantastic for under 8 hours of usage, and it’s not from heavy use, I assure you. Note in the hands-on video looking at the battery as well, not looking too fantastic. NOTE that this is after having made no adjustments to the settings right out of the box.
Wrap-Up
The real bang for your buck in this device is that you’re getting an 8-megapixel camera with HTC’s camera software that has many different filters, scenes, and an ultra-quick tap-to-shoot speed, LTE connectivity (if you live in one of the few places in the USA where this network is deployed), and the unique physical form of the handset. This device is made to push AT&T’s new LTE network and is HTC’s first stab at AT&T’s new network, and like their first attempt at an LTE device for Verizon, they’ve created a smartphone that’s certainly up to the task of downloading media quick (again, if you’re in one of AT&T’s already deployed LTE areas), and working nicely with a dual-core processor.
If you want an LTE device on AT&T’s network that’s made by HTC, you’ve got one other choice, that being the HTC Jetstream tablet we had a look at a few weeks ago. If you want an LTE device on AT&T’s network that ISN’T HTC, you’ll be going with the Samsung Skyrocket, another device which you’ll be able to find a review of here on SlashGear immediately if not soon!
11/16/2011 07:27:00 AM
kakadiya Hitesh
