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We just got done watching the Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus event where Samsung and Google revealed all that there is to reveal. Before we get into the specifics (in a separate post) I wanted to let developers know that the Android 4.0 SDK is available right now so you can begin adapting your applications ahead of launch. Developers can get started here, and users can find out all the new cool stuff they announced here while we work to get a meaty rundown and hands-on of all of it up. Enjoy!
First! Can’t wait for cm8 :D my sandwhich just ice creamed
Super excited about 4.0 and all, but when the hell is it going to release… I wanted a more definite answer other than just “November”
By the way, http://www.google.com/nexus is already updated.
Cool! Custom ICS ROMs soon to follow.
looks incredible. Android=Unstoppable
The iPhone 4S has Siri, the Galaxy Nexus has everything else.
LOL good one.
Ehh. iPhone 4S also has an SGX543MP2 and an 8MP camera. Just saying.
Dunno why Android won’t up the GPU’s… Still using an SGX540 from Hummingbird days.
Touche on the first part, although I was very impressed with the new camera hardware and software.
And I have to be honest and say I’ma bit ignorant when it comes to GPU’s, I know their function of course but the model numbers not so much. Is that the same GPU in the 1.2ghz Exynos and OMAP chip-sets? To be fair we aren’t sure which is being used yet.
They’re saying this uses an OMAP which uses the SGX540.
The Exynos uses a Mali 400. Honestly, I don’t have any hands on experience with a Mali 400 but I’m going to assume it’s not as good as the SGX540+. Correct me if I’m wrong.
The Mali-400 in the Exynos trounces the SGX540 pretty significantly. The higher GPU clock the OMAP 4460 has makes up for it, but on paper, the Exynos GPU still wins.
Only problem is that the Mali-400 doesn’t seem particularly optimized yet.
This was the same problem with the Hummingbird CPU that came out in 2010 with the first line of GS devices. Even though both chips were clocked at 1 Ghz, the Snapdragon at the time was optimized and the Hummingbird was not. As such, even though the the HM was 2-3x the performance of the SD, the SD led the way for quite some time.
In other words, I’m really not worried about it. If Google says that this chip is the default benchmark for ICS, I’m perfectly fine with that
Who’s they?
And I hate to be that guy, like I said almost no GPU knowledge, but here’s two links describing tech specs of the two.
SGX540
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR
Mali
http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/mali-graphics-hardware/mali-400-mp.php
Yeah but the camera features on the nexus like the photo editing and the panoramic view and the camera speed and the video editing…I think that makes up for a few megapixels
4S has similar speed with the camera and photo editing as well. Only thing it doesn’t have is panoramic built in. Of course there are apps for that on both platforms either way.
I’d like to see a major boost in GPU performance as well, but in the Galaxy Nexus’ defense, its SGX540 is clocked nearly twice as high as it was in the Hummingbird days (assuming this is the OMAP 4460).
Compared to the SGX543MP2 in the 4S, the performance is pretty similar.
Whoa I highly doubt the SGX540 “over clocked” is as good as the SGX543MP2 which has two cores and is a whole generation later. That’s like saying an over clocked Snapdragon can perform as quickly as two Exynos Cortex A9 cores. It would need like a 9x over clock.
Performance gains from series to series aren’t anywhere near that great. Both the SGX543MP2 and 384MHz SGX540 will be pushing around 60-70 MTriangles/s. On paper, their performance is very similar.
Well Apple did claim a 7x increase from SGX535 to SGX543MP2 on iPhone 4S and 9x on iPad 2.
I’ll wait on Anandtech and see whats up.
Well the SGX535 was the same GPU in the iPhone 3GS which is absolutely ancient by now.
I need to point out that the SGX535 is not the same as the SGX540. The 540 is more than twice as fast as the 535.
Also, Apple’s math comparing the A5 and A4 was a bit fluffy, combining GPU gains and CPU gains into a single figure. When Apple said that the A5 is 9x faster than the A4 (when they launched the iPad2), they meant the GPU was about 4.5 times faster, and the CPU 2x faster.
A double clocked SGX540 is also about 4 times faster than the SGX535.
I promise you that they’re not even close. Not everything was negative about tonight’s announcement because ICS is looking to be an amazing OS update.
I completely agree, I love Android but it seems other fans of the OS are ignoring the fact that this phone is lagging behind in graphic performance. I hope an ICS phone with an updated GPU is announced soon. This GPU can’t compete against the Mali 400 and especially not against the SGX 543 mp2
I don’t think they have announced the GPU yet, and even an underclocked 535 would beat the Mali 400.
No, the Mali 400 is in the Galaxy S2 and is the best GPU in any Android device. The 535 was the same GPU used in the iphone 3gs, even the original Galaxy had an SGX 540.
They only said 1.2 Ghz processor, not OMAP4460
Ehm like what? Apple released the beta of IOS5 months ago and with the “open” Android the devs had to wait the official release… that’s a shame..
i don’t see the stream on youtube.com/android HELP!!!!!!
You’re about 1h15min late if you’re looking at it now. It’s already over
It’s over now :/ I would be willing to bet a higher quality version will be popping up sometime very soon though (:
I was on the channel since 7 o”clock and didn’t see anything Damn!! Thanks though.
bro u are extra late the event was so nice i watched every sec min to the end to bad for you lol
Hey guy I’ll be up soon enough anyway so it’s no biggie you Waste of life..
Sweet!
Is there hardware acceleration?
Not sure if I remember correctly but I remember someone saying Ice Cream Sandwich will have native hardware acceleration.
I think you are right.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0.html
Hardware Acceleration
Beginning with Android 4.0, hardware acceleration for all windows is enabled by default if your application has set either targetSdkVersion or minSdkVersion to “14″ or higher. Hardware acceleration generally results in smoother animations, smoother scrolling, and overall better performance and response to user interaction.
If necessary, you can manually disable hardware acceleration with the hardwareAccelerated attribute for individual elements or the element. You can alternatively disable hardware acceleration for individual views by calling setLayerType(LAYER_TYPE_SOFTWARE).
For more information about hardware acceleration, including a list of unsupported drawing operations, see the Hardware Acceleration document.
Android has always had a little hardware acceleration, I think its now mandatory for devices to have it if they want ICS
Can I get this on my freaking Nexus S so I can actually legitimately start adapting to it. -_- The Android emulator is the biggest slowest POS ever made.
Do I really have to fork out $500+? for this just to properly test on ICS
just got a sgs2…. eff that im buying galaxy nexus too and have 2 awesome phones to brag about to those ifags
And less money in your pocket.
ikr!!!
WOW really? You live your life to impress people who own a, “ifag”?
Do you wonder why people call you shallow?
I figured there had to be one Dbag to post today to cry about the iPhone.
Did the iPhone hurt you?
ifag? really? idouche.
That wasnt me…that was the OP.
I mean this honestly.
Its like some of you NEED the iPhone to be better so you have something to complain about.
Now that Google has introduced IMHO a game changer will you go buy the iPhone so you can cry about Android?
98% of humanity walks the streets NOT GIVING A SHIT about what kind of phone they own. They just want it to work and work simply.
Up until now iPhone has DOMINATED in that department.
NOW with ICS Google may have just shot past Apple.
i am stuck with my contract until 12/29th :(
at this point just pay the ETF. What is it, $50?
AARGH! MY EYES!
Those hideous icons. Not buying until it’s hacked enough to get rid of them throughout the whole OS.
WOW with all the spectacular goodness announced….the icons?…..really?
WOW that pic is really high resolution!
Find out release dates and US carriers please!!!
Agreed! AT&T? Verizon? Tell us!
The amount of new features and ways to operate in the OS is astounding and welcomed, great job on ICS Google!
Big win tonight. I will sleep well with visions of ice cream sandwiches dancing in my head.
Who wants “most advanced ice cream sandwich”? :P
(I just thought it was funny the two times he said it.)
CM8 on EVO baby….. coming soon to an aging phone near you
I look at all the stuff ice cream sandwich and ui like htc already have features like that just saying….and im learning to read sdk so im excited to take a wing at this and quick question to any developers out there. Should i but the Nexus one for my dev phone? i have the evo 3d but i dont want to ruin it thanks….
I noticed that also. Much of Ice Cream Sandwich could be called “HTC Sense”
Not real disappointed that I bought my Epic 4G Touch now. It looks sweet and all, but my hardware is right in line (minus NFC, grrr….) with this phone. I don’t mind the “lower resolution” screen I own. Looking forward to the software enhancements! Nice work Google.
I feel the same way should have gone with the Epic Touch. Better system on a chip and the screen is amazing, despite the lower resolution.
CM9 guys ;)
WOW FINALLY Google is taking ownership of Android and steering the boat instead of the manufactures having to polish Android.
This is IMHO AWESOME.
Molly Wood wrote a GREAT ARTICLE about Android recently http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-20120623-256/dear-android-this-is-your-last-chance/?tag=mncol;txt
I am looking forward to her feelings now that ICS is going to be released.
I personally am happy because I am devoting more time with Google and have recently switched over from Outlook to gmail only pretty much. I only go back to Outlook to find an old message. With ICS now there will be even more usability of gmail for me so I am stoked.
Man how sweet is that that GV will voicemails will now be part of the call log! I get tired of opening up the GV app to check that!
The, “peeps” functionality…SWEET. Yes you can do that already with other apps and Sense, etc but it looks like Google has polished this.
OMG and the camera and photo gallery?
WOW!!
COME ON LETS ANNOUNCE CARRIER AVAILABILITY ALREADY!
BTW what is with google snubbing Facebook?
Based on what we saw today are we losing Facebook integration?
It seems Google forgot about how ICS will be in tablets and Google TV
Good.
Now unlock the bootloader on the RAZR so the devs can port ICS over and officially make the RAZR better than this disappointing Galaxy.
ok, so galaxy nexus is going to be the first ICS phone, fine that’s cool. when can the rest of the Nexus phones expect to get some ICS love? anyone know the time frame on how long they will have ICS as a GN exclusive?
So how will u use the multitasking on older phones?(if it isnt holding down home) will the menu button still do anything cuz its not on ics? I wonder if the menu button will become multitasking. Anyone got any clue?
Since the buttons are now part of the screen; phones with real buttons will be redundant. Or perhaps; ICS will not install on many old/existing phones?
So; the one main feature that hasn’t already been available as an app is the face recognition to unlock; it and didnt work. That was pretty embarrassing to watch.
I dont know. It appeared that maybe because he kept moving around that is why it may not have worked.
I dont think that the test they did was a true test.
It might not have worked due to low light there is an app in the market that utilizes facial recognition to access apps i did the test in a well lighted area it worked instantaneously but when i was in low light it could not recognize me.
Android ftw!
I am giggidy for some ICS love I can not wait to have it in my hand it shall taste yummy…
That’s what she said.
I dont give a flying Funion, I want this on my NEXUS S TODAY!!!!!!!
WHEN WILL IT BE AVAILABLE?
Nice use of, “flying funion”. That needs to go viral.
I think Google just created the Facebook phone. Throughout the presentation, Google touched on how developers would be able to take advantage of API’s to use core features of the phone, most notably the People app and the sharing feature. Facebook will most certainly use these API’s to dig down and embed itself in the core of Android phones so that its even more a part of Android users’ lives, for better or worse.
I can’t believe they already have Ice Cream Sandwich out already and the Samsung Epic 4g is still stuck on Froyo! This is ridiculous unless they can just push us over to 4.0 and just skip Gingerbread. I don’t see that happening. They just left us out in the cold.
Holy smokes I think I creamed my roo’s reading about all the new features. This update turned out to be way more than I ever thought it would. Not saying I thought it would be lame, just saying it blew my mind.
WORD