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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Guided Tour (Part 4)

10/21/2012 9:26:26 AM

Oh, lock screen – barrier between the power button and the things you need to do. Obstacle of usability with your slidey buttons and crazy patterns. In Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has added a nifty trick to its lock screen, which turns it into the ultimate menu screen.

Description: . In Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has added a nifty trick to its lock screen, which turns it into the ultimate menu screen.

In Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has added a nifty trick to its lock screen, which turns it into the ultimate menu screen.

As you slide the button tounlock your device, an array ofoption appears for your favourite apps. Just slide the locj button into one of the app logos, and instead of being dumped at the homescreen, you’re whisked off to the camera, phone, browser or Angry Birds, saving time.

24. Screenshots

Part of iOS’s success has been the plethora of screenshots on the internet, helping guide people around the OS. Android has hadno built-in screenshot utility, until now, and it’s a really useful tool and a fantastic addition.

Just hold the power and volume up buttons for a couple of seconds to have whatever is on the screen captured and saved to your Gallery. It’s not just about helping people use the operating system, but saving pictures, web content, ideas and hilarious autocorrect mishaps for sharing with friends, or just for your own reference.

25. Android Movie Editor

It’s not new to Ice Cream Sandwich, but video lovers will find the Android Movie Editor incredibly useful. It’s a handy free editing app, that enables you to take video content recorded on your smartphone or tablet, and start basic edits.

As video functionally on smartphones reaches the level of traditional camcorders, editing tools are essential.

26. Calendar

Re-designed to help you keep on top of all your different agendas, the new calendar enables other apps to add events and reminders, while you’ll also be able to manage multiple calendars and colour code them to separate work from your social life.

27. Android Beam

Near Field Communication is coming to a handset near you soon, as the promised utopia ofmobile payments for burgers in McDonald’s becomes a reality. With Ice Cream Sandwich, you can use NFC to exchange information with other users, putting an end to laborious trading of numbers and directions.

Put two Android 4.0 handsets together to exchange YouTube videos, websites and contact info. It’s a bit like the popular app Bump, but by building the features into the OS, it promises a more open and easy way to exchange information.

28. Music player

The music player on Ice Cream Sandwich has been completely overhauled to make it more in keeping with the super-blue theme that pervades the operating system.

Once opened, you’re presented with a playlist of all recent songs and albums that you’ve been listening to, which instantly makes you feel as though the music player is more personalitsed to your tastes.

Description: Google has chucked in a little search icon at the bottom of the app, too, along with the Now Playing bar

Google has chucked in a little search icon at the bottom of the app, too, along with the Now Playing bar

Swiping left and right gets you to Albums, Artists and Songs – although we’d prefer the option to choose the order of these, as many people to jump straight to the songs if they’re hankering for a spot of Girls Aloud.

Google has chucked in a little search icon at the bottom of the app, too, along with the Now Playing bar. This makes it simple to jump to a song or artist you’ve got on your Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone into a proper media player.

29. Improved video

The video portal has taken on a much larger significance from Google since it unveiled its movie download service, and as such your own personal collection will be boosted, too. This pts everything at your fingertips.

Description: The big boost here is the clear and easy-to-use thumbnails with a description of each video

The big boost here is the clear and easy-to-use thumbnails with a description of each video

The new red-themed offering sees you taken to a dual-tabbed arena: on the left side, you can see all the videos you’ve rented are all your personal videos.

The big boost here is the clear and easy-to-use thumbnails with a description of each video. If you build up big collections of movies, it’s easy to find the one you want, without relying on small thumbnails from the beginning of your movie, which rarely give a clue to the content.

30. Books

Reading is a big part of the tablet experience, and even smartphones can benefit from a good reading app. The Books feature in Ice Cream Sandwich is one of the better e-reading experiences on a mobile phone, no matter what the size of the screen.

Description: The Books feature in Ice Cream Sandwich is one of the better e-reading experiences on a mobile phone, no matter what the size of the screen.

The Books feature in Ice Cream Sandwich is one of the better e-reading experiences on a mobile phone, no matter what the size of the screen.

It’s a lot like the Kindle app, to be honest, although the scroller along the bottom of the application alerts you to the different chapters you’re bouncing through, making it easier to find pages.

There’s also a neat ‘view original pages’ feature for older books, where the original edition is scanned in to be viewed as it would have been originally.

Books are actually stored in the cloud, so each one loads the first time you start reading, although the option to make them available when you’re offline makes a lot more sense.

 

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