13 things that you might see in Android 4.0
According to Google representative Mike Cléron, the next version of the Android OS (codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich) will be the most significant release in the company's history. We know that the Android team aims to release a new version in the fourth quarter, and this is essentially all we know about the upcoming big update of the mobile OS. We, the Android and Me team, love to gossip, so we tried to collect all the rumors about Ice Cream Sandwich and find out how true they are. Read about new features that are likely to be included in the next version of Android.
1. One operating system for everything
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“If I had to choose just one word to describe the phenomenal growth of Android last year, then that word would be the choice,” was exactly what Mike Cleron said at the Google I / O conference in May. He continued to describe devices of various sizes and shapes - smartphones, tablets, TV, etc. running the Android OS. “Our top priority in developing Ice Cream Sandwich is to provide application developers with tools that they can use to write great applications for all of these devices.”
The biggest challenge for Android developers is fragmentation. Smartphones, tablets and TV are running different versions of Android. Google is trying to teach developers how to control screens of various sizes , but at the same time they understand the brunt of the problem (which confirms the recent introduction of the ability to download different versions of applications targeted at different devices).
And how did Google get into this situation? “We cut the corner,” said Andy Rubin in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek .
Last year, Google ran into a serious problem. They wanted to release the tablet version of Android as quickly as possible to compete with the iPad from Apple, so they divided the developers into two groups. One part was engaged in the development of Gingerbread for smartphones, and the second was developed by Honeycomb for tablets.
“In order to be on time, we made compromises,” said Andy Rubin. “We didn’t even want to think about how to run the same version (Honeycomb) on smartphones. This would require additional resources and would delay the period beyond reasonable. ”
Therefore, Google continued in the same style - it debuted with Gingerbread on the Nexus S in December, and the Honeycomb version appeared on the Motorola Xoom in February. And since then, the Android development team has been making every effort to bring these branches back together.
2. Modern user interface
We do not know exactly what Ice Cream Sandwich will look like, but we know that this will be the updated holographic interface that we first saw on Honeycomb tablets. During the Google I / O, it was stated that "all the good things" that debuted at Honeycomb should appear on smartphones. This includes a holographic user interface, a new launcher, a new multitasking interface, more advanced widgets and modern applications.
Some people believe that new Android smartphones may refuse capacitive buttons in favor of on-screen, like tablets with Honeycomb, but it is still too early to talk about this. Ice Cream Sandwich will appear on existing phones, so support for capacitive buttons is likely to remain.
3. Truly open source software.
If you are a fan of custom firmware, then you will be pleased with the news that Google plans to release the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich as part of the Android Open Project Project . Google posted the source of each version of Android a few months after its release on new devices, but with Honeycomb decided not to. Andy Rubin said that Google would like to protect developers from porting this version to smartphones in order “not to spoil the reputation. We don’t even know if it will work on phones. ”
Ice Cream Sandwich should appeal to developers, and I am sure that we will see CyanogenMod 8 a month after the source is opened.
4. Hi Android 4.0
Google does not assign version numbers to its releases until the very last moment, but be sure that Ice Cream Sandwich will eventually become Android 4.0. If this version is the most significant release in the company's history, then it makes no sense to call it Android 3.x. We know that Apple will launch iOS 5 this fall, so Google will try not to miss the moment to loudly announce a significant update compared to Android 3.x
5. Linux 3.0 kernel
I'm not a Linux fan, so I’m not even going to go into details, but Ice Cream Sandwich will be based on kernel 3.0. Linus Torvalds announced the latest update on July 21st to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Linux , and that’s all I can say about it.
6. Buying music in the Android Market
We have long been waiting for Google to start selling music in its Market, but this has not happened yet. Although it recently turned out that the latest Market update already contains icons for their music store, so Google will only have to press a button when the time comes. This can happen before the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, but I believe that Google will roll out this feature along with the release, to give more effect to Android 4.0
7. Optimization for multi-core processors in smartphones
Android 3.0 was the first version to support both single and multiprocessor architectures. Android 2.x also supports a multiprocessor architecture, but its support was not planned initially, so the question arises about its optimality.
Honycomb has brought many changes to the Dalvik virtual machine, the Bionic library and other places, which benefits all applications, including single-threaded ones. For example , a single-threaded application running on a dual-core platform is accelerating since the VM Dalvik garbage collector runs on the second core.
Rumors and some evidence give us the right to hope that Google will use the OMAP4 quad-core processor as the main platform for Ice Cream Sandwich, which will lead to a significant increase in smartphone performance.
8. 1.8 times faster than Honeycomb?
Speaking of performance, one of our sources announced a 1.8-fold increase in performance compared to Honeycomb. He did not give any details, so we do not know what this figure applies to - the browser, the GPU or the overall performance. All we know is that they probably had in mind the performance gain on the newest hardware.
Whatever happens, we venture to suggest that Ice Cream Sandwich will be the fastest version of Android.
9. Google TV and Chrome OS
With the merging of different versions of Android into one, it is possible that Google will support Motorola's reasonable initiative - a docking station. I mean that the user interface will change dynamically, depending on which device or docking station the phone is connected to. If you connect to the TV, then there will be opportunities characteristic of Google TV or a full browser in the style of Chrome OS. We predicted this in January, and I believe that it will happen sooner or later.
10. Official theme engine for OEM manufacturers
Although we place it in the rumors section, nevertheless, we were told that Google is working on an official themes engine with some OEM manufacturers (there are rumors about Sony). Most of the popular launchers from the Android Market (including my favorite Go Launcher EX ) already include support for themes, but Google never offered this by default.
This may lead to the formation of a community to facilitate the transition to new versions. A separate engine will allow Google to release updates for the core of the mobile OS, and interface additions from OEM manufacturers will remain intact.
11. A real contender for the Apple Game Center
On Android, several social gaming networks ( OpenFeint , Scoreloop ) have already been implemented, and it seems that Google is seriously engaged in developing a response to the Apple Game Center .
Rumors about the Google Games service have been going on for the past few years, and it seems that Google+ is destined to play a key role in this service. The Google+ code contains links to Google Games , and one of our sources has confirmed that we will see this service in Ice Cream Sandwich.
12. Support existing phones
At the Google I / O conference, I asked the Android development team about hardware limitations that might prevent Ice Cream Sandwich from running on existing phones. I wasn’t named specific models, but it was said that most of the phones that run Android 2.3 will be able to launch Ice Cream Sandwich. This does not give any guarantees to the owners of modern Android phones, but we believe that the Nexus One and Nexus S will be among the first models to receive an upgrade to Android 4.0.
13. New camera features
We can confidently say that Ice Cream Sandwich will receive a bunch of new developer APIs, including new features of the built-in camera. Several of them have already been demonstrated on Google I / O and you can read them in the video above (or see the full key points from day one).
Conclusion
The closer we are to the release of Android 4.0, the more details appear on the future release. Some believe that this may happen as early as October, but we would talk about the end of November or December. We would love to look at Ice Cream Sandwich and the new Nexus 3, but the release history of Google suggests that this will happen sooner than before. I personally preferred that they use their time to good advantage, rather than roll out the next half-ready release in the Honeycomb style.
What do you expect from Android 4.0?
1. One operating system for everything
')
“If I had to choose just one word to describe the phenomenal growth of Android last year, then that word would be the choice,” was exactly what Mike Cleron said at the Google I / O conference in May. He continued to describe devices of various sizes and shapes - smartphones, tablets, TV, etc. running the Android OS. “Our top priority in developing Ice Cream Sandwich is to provide application developers with tools that they can use to write great applications for all of these devices.”
The biggest challenge for Android developers is fragmentation. Smartphones, tablets and TV are running different versions of Android. Google is trying to teach developers how to control screens of various sizes , but at the same time they understand the brunt of the problem (which confirms the recent introduction of the ability to download different versions of applications targeted at different devices).
And how did Google get into this situation? “We cut the corner,” said Andy Rubin in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek .
Last year, Google ran into a serious problem. They wanted to release the tablet version of Android as quickly as possible to compete with the iPad from Apple, so they divided the developers into two groups. One part was engaged in the development of Gingerbread for smartphones, and the second was developed by Honeycomb for tablets.
“In order to be on time, we made compromises,” said Andy Rubin. “We didn’t even want to think about how to run the same version (Honeycomb) on smartphones. This would require additional resources and would delay the period beyond reasonable. ”
Therefore, Google continued in the same style - it debuted with Gingerbread on the Nexus S in December, and the Honeycomb version appeared on the Motorola Xoom in February. And since then, the Android development team has been making every effort to bring these branches back together.
2. Modern user interface
We do not know exactly what Ice Cream Sandwich will look like, but we know that this will be the updated holographic interface that we first saw on Honeycomb tablets. During the Google I / O, it was stated that "all the good things" that debuted at Honeycomb should appear on smartphones. This includes a holographic user interface, a new launcher, a new multitasking interface, more advanced widgets and modern applications.
Some people believe that new Android smartphones may refuse capacitive buttons in favor of on-screen, like tablets with Honeycomb, but it is still too early to talk about this. Ice Cream Sandwich will appear on existing phones, so support for capacitive buttons is likely to remain.
3. Truly open source software.
If you are a fan of custom firmware, then you will be pleased with the news that Google plans to release the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich as part of the Android Open Project Project . Google posted the source of each version of Android a few months after its release on new devices, but with Honeycomb decided not to. Andy Rubin said that Google would like to protect developers from porting this version to smartphones in order “not to spoil the reputation. We don’t even know if it will work on phones. ”
Ice Cream Sandwich should appeal to developers, and I am sure that we will see CyanogenMod 8 a month after the source is opened.
4. Hi Android 4.0
Google does not assign version numbers to its releases until the very last moment, but be sure that Ice Cream Sandwich will eventually become Android 4.0. If this version is the most significant release in the company's history, then it makes no sense to call it Android 3.x. We know that Apple will launch iOS 5 this fall, so Google will try not to miss the moment to loudly announce a significant update compared to Android 3.x
5. Linux 3.0 kernel
I'm not a Linux fan, so I’m not even going to go into details, but Ice Cream Sandwich will be based on kernel 3.0. Linus Torvalds announced the latest update on July 21st to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Linux , and that’s all I can say about it.
6. Buying music in the Android Market
We have long been waiting for Google to start selling music in its Market, but this has not happened yet. Although it recently turned out that the latest Market update already contains icons for their music store, so Google will only have to press a button when the time comes. This can happen before the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, but I believe that Google will roll out this feature along with the release, to give more effect to Android 4.0
7. Optimization for multi-core processors in smartphones
Android 3.0 was the first version to support both single and multiprocessor architectures. Android 2.x also supports a multiprocessor architecture, but its support was not planned initially, so the question arises about its optimality.
Honycomb has brought many changes to the Dalvik virtual machine, the Bionic library and other places, which benefits all applications, including single-threaded ones. For example , a single-threaded application running on a dual-core platform is accelerating since the VM Dalvik garbage collector runs on the second core.
Rumors and some evidence give us the right to hope that Google will use the OMAP4 quad-core processor as the main platform for Ice Cream Sandwich, which will lead to a significant increase in smartphone performance.
8. 1.8 times faster than Honeycomb?
Speaking of performance, one of our sources announced a 1.8-fold increase in performance compared to Honeycomb. He did not give any details, so we do not know what this figure applies to - the browser, the GPU or the overall performance. All we know is that they probably had in mind the performance gain on the newest hardware.
Whatever happens, we venture to suggest that Ice Cream Sandwich will be the fastest version of Android.
9. Google TV and Chrome OS
With the merging of different versions of Android into one, it is possible that Google will support Motorola's reasonable initiative - a docking station. I mean that the user interface will change dynamically, depending on which device or docking station the phone is connected to. If you connect to the TV, then there will be opportunities characteristic of Google TV or a full browser in the style of Chrome OS. We predicted this in January, and I believe that it will happen sooner or later.
10. Official theme engine for OEM manufacturers
Although we place it in the rumors section, nevertheless, we were told that Google is working on an official themes engine with some OEM manufacturers (there are rumors about Sony). Most of the popular launchers from the Android Market (including my favorite Go Launcher EX ) already include support for themes, but Google never offered this by default.
This may lead to the formation of a community to facilitate the transition to new versions. A separate engine will allow Google to release updates for the core of the mobile OS, and interface additions from OEM manufacturers will remain intact.
11. A real contender for the Apple Game Center
On Android, several social gaming networks ( OpenFeint , Scoreloop ) have already been implemented, and it seems that Google is seriously engaged in developing a response to the Apple Game Center .
Rumors about the Google Games service have been going on for the past few years, and it seems that Google+ is destined to play a key role in this service. The Google+ code contains links to Google Games , and one of our sources has confirmed that we will see this service in Ice Cream Sandwich.
12. Support existing phones
At the Google I / O conference, I asked the Android development team about hardware limitations that might prevent Ice Cream Sandwich from running on existing phones. I wasn’t named specific models, but it was said that most of the phones that run Android 2.3 will be able to launch Ice Cream Sandwich. This does not give any guarantees to the owners of modern Android phones, but we believe that the Nexus One and Nexus S will be among the first models to receive an upgrade to Android 4.0.
13. New camera features
We can confidently say that Ice Cream Sandwich will receive a bunch of new developer APIs, including new features of the built-in camera. Several of them have already been demonstrated on Google I / O and you can read them in the video above (or see the full key points from day one).
Conclusion
The closer we are to the release of Android 4.0, the more details appear on the future release. Some believe that this may happen as early as October, but we would talk about the end of November or December. We would love to look at Ice Cream Sandwich and the new Nexus 3, but the release history of Google suggests that this will happen sooner than before. I personally preferred that they use their time to good advantage, rather than roll out the next half-ready release in the Honeycomb style.
What do you expect from Android 4.0?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/126082/
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