1. Android 4.0 ICS An Unified UI framework for Tablets and Cell Phones Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

2. Android 4.0 Intro As officially announced during the 2011 Google I/O, the upcoming version of Android is called Ice Cream Sandwich, a combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb into a "cohesive whole". Google is targeting an official release in Q4 2011. Android engineer Mike Claren called it the company’s “most ambitious release to date.” Android 3.2 will be still considered part of Honeycomb and not part of Ice Cream Sandwich. It will be the last major android release prior to Ice Cream Sandwich. Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

3. Advantages  Gingerbread and Honeycomb Unite The Google Android market is currently comprised of two major players, Gingerbread and Honeycomb, and Android 4.0 is set to merge the best of those two worlds by bringing the best features of Honeycomb and Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich. If you've fallen in love with Honeycomb and Gingerbread features like sliding widgets, the new task launcher, and the awesome holographic interface, expect to see them and more in the new Android 4.0 operating system. Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

4. Advantages (2)  Better Multitasking Ice Cream Sandwich will bring multitasking to the Android platform like none before it and will not only enhance the apps already featured in the marketplace, but will also make new things possible like the new Virtual Camera Operator that'll automatically detect which person is talking in a multi- video chat and automatically switch to the individual that's talking. Which is like Hangouts integrated into Android Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

5. Advantages (3)  One OS to Rule Them All One of the current issues with the Android platform is that it's not unified enough; Gingerbread is made to work on smartphones and Honeycomb works only with tablets. When Ice Cream Sandwich drops in Q4 2011, it'll do so to unify smartphones and tablets once and for all -- and will work on both device types. With one Android OS system to "rule them all", Ice Cream Sandwich will make the Android platform better for users and developers alike. Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

6. Advantages (4)  Better Dev Support As of right now there are over 200,000 Android apps available in the Android Market and over 100 million Android devices being used all over the world and with that much support for the Android platform, developers can use any help that they can get. In addition to uniting tablets and smartphones -- making developers lives a lot easier - the new Android 4.0 will also work to make Android developers' lives better by providing new tools that'll help them design apps that will work better with multiple device types amongst other things. Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

7. New technologies for Developers with Android 4.0 Social API Building on the social API, developers can add powerful new interactions that span multiple social networks and contacts sources. Calendar API A shared calendar content provider and framework API make it easier for developers to add calendar services to their apps. Visual voicemail API A shared Voicemail provider and API allow developers to build applications that contribute to a unified voicemail store. Android Beam Android Beam is an NFC-based feature that lets users instantly share information about the apps they are using, just by touching two NFC-enabled phones together Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

8. More Features Modular sharing widget ShareActionProvider lets developers quickly embed standard share functionality and UI in the Action Bar of their applications. Low-level streaming multimedia Using native SDK, we can stream multimedia content, with the help of OpenGL and OpenAL New camera capabilities ZSL exposure, continuous focus, and image zoom let apps capture better still and video images Media effects for transforming images and video A set of high-performance transformation filters let developers apply rich effects to any image passed as an OpenGL ES 2.0 texture Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

9. Still More… Audio remote controls Using the audio remote control API, any music or media app can register to receive media button events from the remote control and then manage play state accordingly New media codecs and containers Android 4.0 adds support for additional media types and containers to give developers access to the formats they need. Wifi Direct Developers can use a framework API to discover and connect directly to nearby devices over a high-performance, secure Wi-Fi Direct connection Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP) Developers can now build powerful medical applications that use Bluetooth to communicate with wireless devices and sensors in hospitals, fitness centers, homes, and elsewhere Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

10. Going on … New UI components and capabilities Various new layouts, textures, etc. have been introduced New input types and text services Integrated Spell Check API’s,Hover events, etc. Enhanced accessibility APIs Adding Text to Speech, enhanced accessibility when in drive mode, etc. Efficient network usage In Android 4.0, users can see how much network data their running apps are using. They can also set limits on data usage by network type and disable background data usage for specific applications. Security for apps and content Enhancements for Enterprise Like VPN Client API, etc. Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur

11. Thanks for a Patient Hearing Hope you are excited about the new Android 4.0 All the very best Ashwin. G. Balani, Founder Member, GTUG, Napur