My Thoughts on Ice Cream Sandwich

Finally, the day has arrived and Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest iteration of the Android OS, has been officially unveiled to the world. In my years as an Android user, this is probably the most important update yet. Ice Cream Sandwich will not only change the phone-tablet divide but is also changing how Android functions and looks on the mobile phone front. After watching the live stream a few hours ago, I feel a little bit underwhelmed. Yes, Ice Cream Sandwich looks polished (I feel this is the best Android release yet) but most features are little enhancements, not game-changers.

I think one reason why I feel disappointed is having a Honeycomb tablet. Most widgets and functions are already built-in in Honeycomb (the software buttons, the multi-tasking pane, the re-sizable widgets, etc.) While they have been enhanced with added functionalities, for a Honeycomb user, I don't think there were big improvements to be too excited about. The only thing that really excited me was the camera and Android Beam. But how many phones have NFC functionality that can use Android Beam? As for the camera, the zero-lag shutter seems to be a Samsung innovation rather than an Ice Cream Sandwich feature.

Overall, Android 4.0 still lacks the one thing that iOS and Apple has over the competition - user-friendliness. While Android 4.0 did improve it's UI a lot it still lacks that spit-and-polish that iOS has.