Walk through Google Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich)

Android 4.0 launched on the Galaxy Nexus and will eventually be coming to some existing devices. It is a much more consistent and attractive OS than previously seen on the Android platform.

Check out my full ZDNet Smartphones & Cell Phones post with some thoughts on Ice Cream Sandwich and a video walkthrough of the new OS.

Home screen with widgets, software buttons, and more.

There is a Gmail widget available for Android 4.0.

Shortcuts, widgets, and the Google search bar

You can see all of your notifications in the drawer and then even slide them off individually to hide them.

The lock screen can be setup with a slider.

You can slide to unlock your phone and when a call comes in you can answer, hang-up, or send a text message.

The application launcher puts everything in alphabetical order with 20 apps on a page.

Google has a cool animation that "pulls up" the next page from deep to the front.

Widgets are part of the application launcher and can be accessed by swiping from left to right or by just tapping widgets.

There are several different sizes of widgets on the Galaxy Nexus.

It is easy to create folders on the home screen and after you create a folder then you can customize the name of the folder.

Here you can see the games folder with several games installed. Whatever shortcut you place in the top left will appear on the folder.

Most settings are consolidated in one area of the operating system.

There is a cool utility for monitoring your data usage.

There are several settings available for you to access.

Scrolling down the list of settings reveals a few more options.

There is a battery utility to help you monitor your battery usage.

Tapping the graph shows you more detail, including when I started charging it back up again.

The dialer is modern looking with large buttons.

Google search bar status shows lots of different results.

The task switcher uses cards, similar to webOS.

The Google folder is preloaded on the Galaxy Nexus.

You can add accounts to your Galaxy Nexus, including Twitter, Exchange, and Gmail. The Facebook account does NOT work at this time.

Exchange is supported out of the box in ICS.

You can compose email in Exchange with dynamic integration of the GAL

There are several account settings in Exchange on teh Galaxy Nexus.

Here you can see a sample of the text messaging app in ICS.

Gmail is obviously optimized on the Galaxy Nexus.

Gmail works well in landscape orientation too.

Menu options in Gmail

There are several general preferences within Gmail.

Favorites in the People utility look strange because they have different display resolution settings.

Google Maps is also understandably excellent in ICS.

Google Labs items can be added in Google Maps.

You can tap the right upper icon to change the view of your map.

The calendar utility lets you choose different calendars to use.

There is a downloads utility where you can see what you have downloaded through the browser.

Google + on ICS is a solid experience.

The Android Market that is loaded on the device is the latest client available.

The Gallery utility is slick and fast.

When you tap on a photo you will see thumbnails for other photos and the ability to share or access the menu in the upper right.

Here you can see the menu options for the Gallery.

There are several different effects settings in the photo editor.

A simple tap gives you access to different effects.

Some of the effects really make photos look great on Android devices.

In addition to color effects there are other editing tools available.

Pictures look great on the Galaxy Nexus.

The typical sharing tools you have come to expect are present.

Here you can see the basic camera software present in ICS.

There are some funny video effects present in ICS. While not particularly useful, then can be fun.

My daughter doesn't really have big eyes, but the software makes it appear this way.

There are also some background options, including this space one.

Time lapse intervals can be selected for this effect.

By default the Galaxy Nexus is set to 720p, but goes up to 1080p.

The Movie Maker app is present on ICS.

The bookmarks in the web browser have small thumbnails.

Browser history is shown here.

The web browser looks great on the large screen of the Galaxy Nexus.

There are several menu options in ICS.

There are several settings within the web browser.

These are the general settings in the browser.

There are several privacy & security settings available in the web browser.

Web browser accessibility options let you customize the readability.

There are advanced settings in the browser too.

You can use Face unlock to secure your device and this is the start screen.

Here I am setting up my device for Face unlock.

The keyboard is quick and easy to use.

The keyboard works well in landscape orientation too.

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