The name might titillate you, tickle you, or even water your mouth but does the performance of OS(Operating System) also creates the same effect?
This latest version in the android lineup, which was touted by google as the best overhaul of the operating system since the project was launched three years ago, was introduced with Samsung Galaxy Nexus. But the question is, is the new upgrade worth the hype which it’s getting? To know the truth we will have to dig in deep.
For our better understanding we will first of all consider all the changes which its offering then discuss if it’s for the good or the bad.
Key to a successful smartphone seems to be, having a highly user friendly UI(User Interface). This is exactly what ICS(Ice Cream Sandwich, henceforth known as ICS) is offering: Front buttons go bye-bye as there’s three persistent virtual buttons Back, Home and Recent Apps. Well then where’s your menu button now? It has been replaced with new creative action bar whose location depends on app being used. Smart isn’t it?
You have a tendency to forget passwords? Or are you such a big sloth that you don’t even want to take the pain of typing the code? Well then face lock comes to your rescue. Just look at your phone and it gets unlocked fancy huh! But it’s not entirely foolproof and it often struggles to recognise you when you awake in a particularly dishevelled state in the morning or if you are not in ambient light conditions. It is more of convenience rather than security as it can recognise your face from your photo even.
With mobile internet poised to overtake pc internet usage, as mobile web usage currently hovering at around 45%, a great web browser is definitely what you need in your smartphone.
ICS web browser is one of the best ever seen on a mobile. Its speed is incredible and scrolling around seem a lot smoother. Its best part is that you can open up to 16 tabs at a time and you can force websites to open its desktop layout by just checking an option.
Another great feature is data management, ICS comes with its own built-in traffic monitor.
You can instruct it to simply warn you when you’re about to approach your monthly data limit, or go one step further and instruct it to throttle your data connection when you creep over your allowance. You can even follow the background data your applications and widgets use, and set limits or warning levels, to ensure that you never go over your data plan.
Besides these there are many other useful features introduced this time like: camera comes with new app for editing, special effects and standard panorama.
You can now dismiss individual notifications by just swiping them off the screen, as opposed to needing to clear them all at once.
Despite these killer additional features mobile phone manufacturers have shown a lacklustre response to accept this upgrade. Sony points out although ICS is new and compelling in many ways,our Gingerbread software is very stable and has great performance, so it’s not a bad idea to stay on this release. Ice Cream Sandwich is more intensive, for example in terms of resource usage. As smartphones become more capable, our own applications, as well as the Google Mobile Services (GMS) applications, are becoming more advanced, which means that they require more CPU power, run more network activities and use more RAM.
Sony is not the only company taking its time getting ICS out to devices, as owners of the Samsung Galaxy S II were left frustrated with the time it took to arrive, and it’s not as if that device couldn’t easily cope with the new software.
Presently HTC is delivering its “One” series with ICS onboard and Samsung has also brought upgrades to ICS for its “Galaxy” series and Sony has also announced upgrades for its 2011 “Xperia” series phones
With future versions such as Jelly Bean and Key Lime Pie already on the horizon and companies taking so much time to bring the upgrades, reputation of android is set to take a beating as users will be left frustrated
