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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
