Google serves up Ice Cream Sandwich source code

Google has released the source code for Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, so manufacturers can start customising it.

Google software engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru announced the release last thing on Monday. In a post in the Android Google Group, Queru said the code being released was that for Android 4.0.1, the version of the popular mobile OS that will ship on the new flagship Galaxy Nexus handset.

The release should mean the Nexus S gets an Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) upgrade soon, as that handset was the previous Android flagship and benefits from stock OS upgrades sent over-the-air, directly from Google. Manufacturers will also be able to integrate the code with their own modifications to the Android user interface, such as HTC's Sense.

Android 4.0 is the first version of the open-source OS to be optimised for both smartphones and tablets. There was only one major release before ICS that was designed for tablets, and that was Android 3.0, or Honeycomb.

Google attracted a lot of criticism for not releasing the Honeycomb source code earlier this year, when Honeycomb-based tablets first became available. The lack of a source code release made it more difficult for people to create modified Honeycomb distributions, but Google said it did not want to release the Honeycomb code until it worked with smartphones as well as tablets.

According to Queru on Monday, the ICS release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, including "all the source code for the Honeycomb releases".

"However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich," Queru wrote. "So, we haven't created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the changes are present in the history.)"