Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS Gets Detailed Officially; Watch Galaxy Nexus Promo

Since a few days, Samsung has been teasing that “Something Big is Coming” and finally, that big announcement came and Sammy took the wraps off its latest entry in the Nexus line of phones. Yes, it’s Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Right after the announcement of the most awaited Google’s Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset, Google has officially unveiled the latest version of Android OS v4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich. The new version is looking so polished, which is an amazing improvement for sure bringing many features including Some of the highlights include an NFC-enabled feature called Android Beam, offline search in Gmail, new lock screen features, new home screen folders, a buttonless design, new gesture controls, stacked & resizable widgets, a new feature called “Face Unlock” and more enhancements. Ok let me get deep into some of that sweet sweet sweet ICS. During the announcement of ICS, Google has stated that "Android is enchanting. Something beautiful, seductive, and something you can easily fall in love with."

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS Features:

# A new "mechanical skeleton" including a font named Roboto, which brings a new way to do things with simple typographic layouts and bold spaces. It’s "modern, yet approachable" and "emotional."
# “Back,” “Home” and “Menu” are now part of the Android virtual user interface, helping to eliminate the hardware buttons. The on-screen buttons will "light up" when you touch them, and hide when you don’t use them.
# Users can access the notifications directly.
# Android Beam – It’s a NFC feature that lets you exchange websites, contact info, directions, YouTube, etc. Users can simply tap two NFC-enabled devices together to share a piece of information.
# Offline search in Gmail to search the last 30 days of messages by default. Gmail now also has a two-line preview, and new action bar at the bottom. The new action bar at the bottom that lets you compose a message, search, and access labels.
# Pinch to zoom and revamped UI in Calendar app
# Lock-Screen – Android 4.0 will feature a facial recognition unlocker, which will use your face to unlock the device. Users can still use the older Unlocker pattern.
# The Lock-Screen shows the time, date, day, battery life, and animated "flourish" to unlock the phone.
# Floders – This feature is awesome and look truly wonderful. Folders can be used for speed dial shortcuts. Folders are much easier to create, with a drag-and-drop style similar to iOS. Folders are resizeable too.
# Widgets will be in app drawer. Widgets now are scrollable and resizable (Similar to on Android 3.x Honeycomb). Apps and widgets can be easily are easily added by dragging and dropping.
# Optimized live wallpapers.
# The task manager features the ability to "flick" the app away to remove it from the list by sliding an app to the right.
# How To Take A Screenshot? Simple. Pressing the power and volume-down buttons will capture a screen shot.
# Users can Swipe left or right to switch between Gmail conversations; ICS brings the ability to access apps directly from lock screen;
# Improved Cut | Copy | Paste feature; Error correction has been improved and the suggestion strip made bigger and easier.
# Better voice integration; New tabbed web browser, allowing up to 16 tabs and there is an easy way to "request desktop version" pages which default to a "mobile view" so users can get the full version of the website easily and it will immediately pop you over to the full website.
# Android Browser will automatically sync your bookmarks from Chrome. “Incognito mode” for more privacy while surfing online.
# Users can now quickly respond by text message, without requiring to pick up the call or unlock the device.
# Data Usage section brings the data usage chart by showing past usage and forecasting future usage. Users can set warnings when they reach a certain amount of use and disabling data when they go over your limit. Why don’t you warn yourself when you hit 60GB in 3 days?
# Task Manager – Ability to kill off apps that are using data in the background to free up the memory.
# Brings a recent apps icon, just like on Honeycomb platform, letting the users to switch from one to another.
# Camera app – brings zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, zoom while recording.
# The new Gallery app features new image editing tools and uses the new "Magazine Layout" common in Android ICS to beautifully display your images.
# Built-in photo editor now has a panorama mode, which is very easy to use.
# Users can crop and tweak pictures quickly and easily on the device.
# The photo album has a new “magazine style” layout that can be organized by people, geo-tagged locations or by album.
Using digital zoom slider, user can tap anywhere to set focus and exposure.
# Refreshed people app with social network integration, status updates and hi-res images.
# Visual voicemail is now included right in the recent calls list.
# People can be added to the home-screen with direct dial capabilities (which we’ve had in the past, but functions even better in ICS).
# The "People Card" now features a high-quality picture at the top, all the "connections" with that person including SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and any other app that plugs in via the API, along with all the recent posts from that person and contacts are easily accessible from a fully revamped phone application.