What you want in ICS

[robrecht]

... So what do you guys want?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I got the idea from somewhere that ICS is not really intended as a major advance for the phone OS/UI. Rather, I thought the whole idea is to combine the phone & tablet OS so that it will be easier to create apps that work on both Android phones and Android tablets. In other words, it should increase the number of software titles that will work on an Android tablet. Is that wrong?

 

[Bearly]

Take your Honeycomb tablet, make sure auto-rotation is enabled, and turn your tablet to portrait mode...scale it down to fit on a phone's screen, and THAT is what I want in ICS. FLUID AND SMOOTH browser, smooth animations, and the great look of honeycomb. With unified code to prevent fragmentation. Google, this shouldn't be that difficult. I promise you will have a winning OS if you accomplish this.

The fragmentation issue isn't really due to tablet vs phone OS versions but more due to manufacturer skinning (Touchwiz, Blur, Sense). Also, having cdma and gsm versions of a phone mean different RILs (radio interface layers), which further fragments development. If Android only ever came in pure form and manufacturers started using multimode modems exclusively, we'd have a lot less fragmentation.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[elvisgp]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I got the idea from somewhere that ICS is not really intended as a major advance for the phone OS/UI. Rather, I thought the whole idea is to combine the phone & tablet OS so that it will be easier to create apps that work on both Android phones and Android tablets. In other words, it should increase the number of software titles that will work on an Android tablet. Is that wrong?

Not really, you are right for the most part. but ICS is also supposed to have major design changes.

sent from my Droid X, which also eats iPhones.

 

[_JKK_]

I want to see Google go back and fix the corners they cut to compete with Windows Mobile (at first), and then the iPhone three years ago. That includes UI concepts, and even various low(ish) level implementations.

So yeah, ICS needs to be pretty dang big IMO.

 

[Pierce09]

The fragmentation issue isn't really due to tablet vs phone OS versions but more due to manufacturer skinning (Touchwiz, Blur, Sense). Also, having cdma and gsm versions of a phone mean different RILs (radio interface layers), which further fragments development. If Android only ever came in pure form and manufacturers started using multimode modems exclusively, we'd have a lot less fragmentation.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

The fragmentation part of my post wasn't the main focus but I do agree with you. There are many things that contribute to the fragmentation of android. I just want to see ICS bring the strong tablet OS of honeycomb to phones. It's overall a much better experience than gingerbread or froyo. I think that one of the main things that keeps bringing people to buy an iPhone is the fluidness. Honeycomb's browser is superb and if it could be replicated on phones then I think more people would be willing to jump ship to android. Then again, maybe not.

 

[rickhamilton620]

I know this sounds shallow but I want it to look good. Lol. Stock GB's ok but a bit mehh in terms of looks.

I also hope it'll gain some online device management features. iOS, BB and Windows Phone (both "classic" and 7) have had it out of the box for a while now. It's about time Android did too. Motorola (on phones with Blur login) and HTC let you do this as well, its cool and handy imo.

I hope it supports more accounts out of the box. A motorola with the Blur login requirement, supports far more accounts out of the box than stock. HTC Sense and TouchWiz are similar, although they don't support as many out the box.

 

[whiteshadow001]

an nfc chip designed to fry any IOS devices within 50 feet of my location...

 

[KittenMittens]

The fragmentation part of my post wasn't the main focus but I do agree with you. There are many things that contribute to the fragmentation of android. I just want to see ICS bring the strong tablet OS of honeycomb to phones. It's overall a much better experience than gingerbread or froyo. I think that one of the main things that keeps bringing people to buy an iPhone is the fluidness. Honeycomb's browser is superb and if it could be replicated on phones then I think more people would be willing to jump ship to android. Then again, maybe not.

Yeah, Honeycomb is a beautiful OS and I hope the phone version of Ice Cream Sandwich looks just as good. I don't own a Honeycomb tablet, but from what I've seen the browsing experience in Honeycomb looks really good. I can't remember where but a while back there were some supposed "leaks" that suggest Google will bring a "Chrome" browser to Android, and I personally think it would be genius to bundle it in as the native browser for Ice Cream Sandwich, I've always thought this makes perfect sense and assumed that it was only a matter of time. The Honeycomb browser is already very similar to Chrome at least in terms of look and feel, so even if they just upgraded it and branded it as a "mobile" or "lite" version of Chrome and added all the sync features etc. that would be pretty cool (does the Android browser already sync with Chrome?).

 

[ibejack96]

o i want a better stock music experience, or they could just make the new music app the default

 

[SpaceHippie]

I just want excellent power management so i can have my display brightness a bit high and not kill my battery lol

 

[Go Android!]

o i want a better stock music experience, or they could just make the new music app the default

I agree the new music app should be default. But I think Google needs to sorta have a common interface in their apps. I think they should redo the music app with more of the new Market look. And same with the gallery. Also, Google needs to update Google Music to be somewhat like Itunes. Because the current drag and drop is not very user friendly. I don't mind, but others do.

But unlike everyone else, I personally think Gingerbread is...beautiful. I love the status bar, the black menus, and black dialog boxes. It looks clean. But yea I wish the stock widgets were better.

 

[tdoom15]

I want it to be more like webOS

Gestures
Cards to switch between and exit apps
Better notifications

 

[Hearthatvoiceagain]

What do I want from ICS?

A release date.

 

[elvisgp]

I want it to be more like webOS

Gestures
Cards to switch between and exit apps
Better notifications

But Android still has better notifications then ios or wp7. But I want it to be more like honeycomb notifications.

sent from my Droid X, which also eats iPhones.

 

[Hearthatvoiceagain]

ICS took a big step closer to release with the release of the R14 tools preview

Android Developers, Listen Up: ADT 14 And SDK Tools r14 Previews With Much Needed Improvements Are Now Available For Download

While these are only the dev tools and not the central part of the SDK (which would have the emulator) they are an indication that API level 14 aka the next version of android, is almost upon us.

 

[dsignori]

One thing I want is for google to finally add in built in power widgets in the notification bar, exactly as Touchwiz and other skins have it.(on/off for Wifi, Data, Bluetooth, etc). It seems sooo obvious and so natural to have them there.

I can't believe Google actually hasn't done this yet.