ice cream sandwich

JacksonHeightsOwn

right then.

whats it like?

im on a htc sensastion so im just waiting on the eventual update.

what are the noticeable differences?

tuxy

tis grand

BArra

is there a specific date of release yet?

C-Shore

Don't know if I can answer that.

JacksonHeightsOwn

the google nexus is running ICS right?

projectgtr

I love it , running on a Galaxy Nexus. seems fresh and fast only downfall was apps weren't always stable but thats quickly changing

JacksonHeightsOwn

projectgtr wrote: »

I love it , running on a Galaxy Nexus. seems fresh and fast only downfall was apps weren't always stable but thats quickly changing

any noticeable differences?

say the emails? do the images now fit to the screen instead of having to scroll all over the place to view them?

C-Shore

chrisbonnie wrote: »

the google nexus is running ICS right?

Yeah, so the performance of ICS on that is going to be vastly different to when you get an official update to your Sensation, but that's assuming HTC skin it in the same way they have with all other versions. They're pretty much expected to skin it in their own way themselves anyway.

So.. what I'm describing is on stock 4.0 and will probably be quite different for you (and therefore redundant) on the Sensation because there's no guarantee that HTC won't change/omit some of the features/UI that follow.
But I'll give you the main differences affecting me, and if you've any questions in particular just ask.

The most noticeable, thing (I guess that's the best word), is just the general cohesiveness of 4.0, where almost all of the stock apps are similar and the UX is more pleasant because of the continuity of design. That could all be totally changed/ruined by HTC though.

The home launcher is quite good, four areas for icons in the dock along with the app drawer icon. Same as what most custom launchers give, just nowhere the same in terms of shortcuts/gestures etc.
Because there's no menu button like on 2.3, you won't have the home screen menu. So for settings you need to either go into the app drawer or pull down the notifications bar to get to settings; wallpapers can still be added by a long press, but widgets have their own section at the end of your app list in the app drawer; and multi tasking has it's own dedicated button.

Speaking of which, the multitasking section is very useful for switching apps. The scenario I probably use it most for is when I'm web browsing; playing games, music etc., I can go to a message in the notification bar and when I finish reading/replying, it's easy to switch back to whatever I was doing.
Other than that I don't use it too much, because the things I need to go to are either in the notifications bar, or I have them in a shortcut folder for my most used apps.
Additionally, it can get quite full if you don't clear it(the multi tasking section I mean) every so often; and when it's cluttered, it's hard to find apps because they're listed in what seems to me as a fairly arbitrary order.

I suppose to add to that, the folders aren't much different, except that they're nice animation wise, but functionally the same.

I should probably mention the widgets with 4.0. Even though a lot of them won't be included with the Sensation, and HTC will create their own; the ones of note are the new pictures widget, the YouTube widget, the Gmail widget, the bookmarks widget and the calendar widget.
For example, here's the scrollable picture widget where my most recent photo was showing the size of George Murphy's neck on the TV.



The app drawer is basic I suppose, has a quick link to the market which is.. nice? I'm running out of ways to describe things!
What is quite a nice addition is that when you long press an icon in the app drawer, you can drag it to an area of the home screen to do a quick uninstall, rather than navigating menus.

The browser is probably the most noticeable improvement of any of the apps, tabs/windows are managed much better.
You can save for offline reading, view through incognito mode and force load a desktop version. There's also a labs function where you can side swipe for the settings, windows and tabs menu. It's hard to explain, but you can see it in the video here.
The only problem here is that HTC could omit all of this from the browser they come up with.

I always used Swype, and that's not ready for the Galaxy Nexus yet, and I'm using the stock keyboard. It's actually not too bad, I find I always hit b instead of the spacebar, sobmybsentencesblookblikebthis. The spell correction and auto spacing is quite good.

The native search is quite nice too, same functionality, just looks nicer.
Actually, one of the great things that's changed in the youtube app is in the search funtion; you can now just add text to the search field from a previous search query, and not just select a previously searched query and search that automatically. I'm not great with words, but the way you can add text in the google search app, is now in the YouTube app.

I use exchange email a lot, and the new email app is leaps and bounds better than 2.3, but because of what HTC do, there's a good chance what HTC do will be a lot different.

Google Music is now included as part of the music app, and that's a great addition.
Probably worth mentioning the whole side swiping thing across 4.0 because it's quite noticeable in this app; the side swiping is very user friendly and is done well in the way it's consistent across all the native apps.

Gmail has been updated as well, and this is a large improvement on the previous version, it and the email app are both very similar, about 90% the same.

Google talk is much better, but still no copy/paste in sent/received messages :mad:

You can pull down the notification bar from the lockscreen provided you have no security above the level of slide to unlock. Then there's face unlock, just another way to protect the phone I suppose, but I just can't bring myself to look at my horrid face on screen every time I want to use the phone.
It's actually worse than when you interview someone and have to listen to yourself on the recording

The camera app is nice, I quite like using the timelapse mode to record things, just a nice way to recap a night/event without being the person that takes a million photos and everyone hates. Nearly as bad as those people who write really long comments on boards.
The zero shutter lag is great though, for when I do take photos. There's also panorama mode, which comes in useful every time you want to take a picture of something too wide to step back from, or couldn't be bothered stepping back from. I don't know, I just don't use it much.

The new gallery is lovely though, it lays out photos well and my favourite feature is that after you share a photo, it leaves a quick link to the last method you used to share it because we're all creatures of habit I suppose. Same way my toothbrush is in the same place after everytime I brush my teeth. Honestly though, that is a really nice/well thought feature, rather than scrolling through the list that are connected to the Share API every time.
Oh there's also those effects, so you can show how artsy you are. I do it ALL the time, then add them to tumblr so all my cool friends can see it.

A lot of the stuff I've commented on might not even make it to your Sensation, so I've let a lot of stuff out because they're the ones that stand out for me; and I'd feel sorry for you if you didn't get those features. I reckon I'd lose sleep over it too.

OOOOOH, the data usage is actually probably the best feature. Allows you to set limits and track what data each app is using, and how much data each one uses in the background, as opposed to foreground, and then disable background data on specific apps.
You can set warnings when you get close to your limit, and turn off data when you're at the limit. Might force the devs of 3g watchdog and Juice Defender to stop taking that second holiday

I don't need to worry about data though, I'm sticking it to the man with an unlimited data plan, and living the dream.

Nice breakdown of storage usage as well, and where it's being allocated.
The sound adjustment is now touch active, so you don't have to rely on all that finger grease on the hardware buttons.

No facebook sync though, probably due to the handbags between Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg. I don't use Facebook though so it doesn't bother me. Found this cool new service called MySpace; you probably haven't heard of it yet.
Although, HTC will probably work Facebook syncing into the people app that comes with Sense. Lucky you.

Speech to text is nice, it types in real time. So when I want to text my friends to go out and rake some leaves, I get to watch as the text box fills up with "Hay, do you warrant to grow and rave soon leaps". But it's real time, so that's what all the fun is about.

I get to write my name on the lockscreen, or anything I want. I wrote "pencil sharpener" on there one day, that was fun.

You can adjust the font size across the system, which for me (well for my dad because he is fairly bad of sight, and he always struggled to read on 2.3) is a great addition, and up there with the data usage. That's because since his Nexus S got 4.0 he's been able to actually read the text everywhere on the phone. So if you're into big fonts, this could be your lucky day.

There's also the accesibility for the blind, which I think is actually a major leap. I always wondered how the blind would use touch screens because of the input method; and this is a great way to make it accessible. Here's a video, it's really nice to see this happening, especially when the web is rife with flash that makes it almost impossible for the blind to use those websites.

Last in the features is probably android beam, which is just NFC sharing and it's nice. What would be really nice is if laptops shipped with NFC chips (probably see a few announced at CES), then you could share from phone to laptop; something I always want to do, and end up emailing a link, which is a pain. There is phone to chrome, but it rarely works. Chrome to phone on the other hand is lovely, and brings joy to most peoples lives.

So.. after detailing precisely an array of features on 4.0, I now fear that you may have just wanted to know about performance.

Performance is ok, well no, it's good but not waybetter in terms of speed and smoothness than Cyanogenmod7 was on my Nexus One.
The biggest issues are still: returning to the homescreen, but that's based on the way Android is coded if I remember correctly what Dianne Hackborn said; and switching apps.
It could also be to do with the fact that a lot of devs are lazy and haven't optimized their apps for the 4.0 SDK, so by the time your Sensation gets 4.0 that might be fixed(the apps, probably not the lag when returning to the homescreen).

Also, keep in mind that CM7 might actually be out before your Sensation even gets an OTA update.

Finally, as you might have gathered from my remarks on living the dream and sticking it to the man with unlimited data; I'm on Three.
When I was using my Nexus One, it would often drop to GPRS and never return without a manual switch. Since getting the Galaxy Nexus, this isn't a problem any more.
So, if you're on Three and that is an issue on the Sensation, then you just might be lucky enough that the reason it's fixed is due to 4.0 and not the Galaxy Nexus radios. If it's the radios, then that could be more sleep I'm losing. Sorry.

Just saw your other post, pictures in emails still aren't scaled to fit the screen.
Actually on that point, and the above one about lazy devs, you might find a lot of websites and apps don't fit to the screen because of the ppi and screen size.

So there you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ_yQ02xwsM