Google, Samsung unveil Galaxy Nexus phone running Android 4.0
Google and Samsung announced on Wednesday the Galaxy Nexus smartphone, the first device to feature the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich release.
Unveiled by the two companies in Hong Kong, the new handset will sport a 4.65-inch Super HD AMOLED display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, NFC and a 5-megapixel rear camera. The Galaxy Nexus sports 4G LTE connectivity and an HSPA+ version, depending on the region.
Samsung and Google had originally planned a launch event for Oct. 11, just one week after the unveiling of the iPhone 4S. That event, however, was postponed, reportedly out of respect for the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
The Galaxy Nexus is now set to launch in the U.S., Europe and Asia starting in November.
Google first teased its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update in May. The release is meant to reunite the Honeycomb tablet-specific variant with the smartphone-oriented Gingerbread.
The Mountain View, Calif., software company has promised "an entirely new look and feel to Android" with version 4.0. During Wednesday's event, Android mastermind and Google executive Andy Rubin highlighted three defining characteristics of Android: ease of use, beauty, and "beyond smart" cloud capabilities.
However, presenters during the event experienced some minor hiccups. For instance, Android's new "Face Unlock" feature failed to recognize Google's Matias Duarte, as noted by Engadget.
Google also demonstrated a new "Android Beam" feature in Ice Cream Sandwich on Wednesday. Android Beam makes use of NFC chips to offer tap-to-share functionality to share information including contact information, webpages, people cards and "a bunch of other things." The software giant plans to quickly release an API to allow developers to take advantage of Beam in their third-party applications.
The Galaxy Nexus will serve as one of the first challengers to Apple's just-released iPhone 4S. Apple appears to have an instant hit on its hands, as sales of the device topped four million in the first three days of availability.
"In our wildest dreams, we couldn't have got off to a better start than we did with the iPhone 4S," CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings conference call on Tuesday, noting that he is confident that Apple will "set an all-time record for iPhones" in the coming quarter.
Apple currently holds the top spot among global smartphone makers, but Samsung comes in as a close second.
In addition to being fierce rivals, Apple and Samsung have become locked in an embittered legal dispute. As of late, Apple appears to have gained the upper hand, after back-to-back victories against Samsung in Germany and Australia.
Unveiled by the two companies in Hong Kong, the new handset will sport a 4.65-inch Super HD AMOLED display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, NFC and a 5-megapixel rear camera. The Galaxy Nexus sports 4G LTE connectivity and an HSPA+ version, depending on the region.
Samsung and Google had originally planned a launch event for Oct. 11, just one week after the unveiling of the iPhone 4S. That event, however, was postponed, reportedly out of respect for the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
The Galaxy Nexus is now set to launch in the U.S., Europe and Asia starting in November.
Google first teased its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update in May. The release is meant to reunite the Honeycomb tablet-specific variant with the smartphone-oriented Gingerbread.
The Mountain View, Calif., software company has promised "an entirely new look and feel to Android" with version 4.0. During Wednesday's event, Android mastermind and Google executive Andy Rubin highlighted three defining characteristics of Android: ease of use, beauty, and "beyond smart" cloud capabilities.
However, presenters during the event experienced some minor hiccups. For instance, Android's new "Face Unlock" feature failed to recognize Google's Matias Duarte, as noted by Engadget.
Google also demonstrated a new "Android Beam" feature in Ice Cream Sandwich on Wednesday. Android Beam makes use of NFC chips to offer tap-to-share functionality to share information including contact information, webpages, people cards and "a bunch of other things." The software giant plans to quickly release an API to allow developers to take advantage of Beam in their third-party applications.
The Galaxy Nexus will serve as one of the first challengers to Apple's just-released iPhone 4S. Apple appears to have an instant hit on its hands, as sales of the device topped four million in the first three days of availability.
"In our wildest dreams, we couldn't have got off to a better start than we did with the iPhone 4S," CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings conference call on Tuesday, noting that he is confident that Apple will "set an all-time record for iPhones" in the coming quarter.
Apple currently holds the top spot among global smartphone makers, but Samsung comes in as a close second.
In addition to being fierce rivals, Apple and Samsung have become locked in an embittered legal dispute. As of late, Apple appears to have gained the upper hand, after back-to-back victories against Samsung in Germany and Australia.
Comments
http://www.youtube.com/android
Why release ice cream or whatever on a phone worse than the galaxy s2 and WORSE than the iPhone. Seems like a slow release. The razor 2.0 seems like a better phone to do this on...
The phone specs look pretty good to me.
Or just ugly?
Really?
I'm not going to lie, excluding the apparently terrible facial recognition lock (
They might as well copy from WP7 now. It has a lot of great UI elements and MS is already getting paid plenty from Android-based devices.
They might as well copy from WP7 now. It has a lot of great UI elements and MS is already getting paid plenty from Android-based devices.
Well played sir
They might as well copy from WP7 now. It has a lot of great UI elements and MS is already getting paid plenty from Android-based devices.
A WP7 software clone running on an iPhone hardware clone? I think the world would probably cease to exist!
I hope a user experience in 4.0 will be better then youtube's streaming quality.
god, its the background that's killing the stream; wish they would've picked something better.
I was at dinner so I missed most of it, but from what I saw:
-The camera looks amazing from the demo.
-Quite a bit of UI elements 'borrowed' from WP7, especially in the People's app.
-Beam looks like a nice convenience feature, and I'm interested to see if / how its going to be used to address the 'carrying over of state' issue as Anand likes to call it (see the first few minutes of this video for an explanation of the issue)
edit: kinda disappointed that they didn't show how ICS was going to work on tablets
Android now has an innovative folder function. You drag one app on top of another, and a folder is created.
Also, big fail on that Face recognition demo.
I look forward to seeing the tv commercials invade my tv stations for this phone. Probably some teenage kid sitting in a spaceship or something, with lightening effects in the background and swooshing sound fx.
The phone specs look pretty good to me.
Really?
Specs for spec is always half the story.
They might as well copy from WP7 now. It has a lot of great UI elements and MS is already getting paid plenty from Android-based devices.
A lot of the design language was already present in Android. They just made it more consistent. I actually see a lot of WebOS influences too. That's probably Duarte.
I think it's warranted for people to jibe Android about this since iOS 3.0 received this in 2009.
"Folders are now "dead simple to make." Now you just drop one icon onto another and it makes a folder. You can then rename it and re-order the icons however you like."
I didn't know that was more complicated before ICS.
""Galaxy Nexus has no buttons" -- it's part of the UI. He's saying "virtual buttons are more useful.""
What an amazing paradigm shift in such a few short years.
"We started by looking at every screen and thinking about it like a magazine layout. We wanted something relevant, emotional, and we looked to the latest trends in graphics design to insprie us."
That sounds like a good idea to me.
"Meet Robato. It's a totally new typeface for Android -- modern yet approachable. It was built from scratch for high-definition paper density displays."I'm not sure I like that font but I'm glad to see them adding fonts… but is that it? Doesn't iOS 5.0 contain 58 fonts and Android 3.x only have 3 fonts?
The phone specs look pretty good to me.
Specs? Really?
Did you forget your sarcasm tag?