HTC Phones To Get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in 2012

Owners of HTC phones will have to wait until early 2012 for their device's mobile OS to be upgraded to Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. In a post to its Facebook page, HTC wrote not just mobile phones with fast multi-core microprocessor chip architectures would get Android 4.0, but also HTC phones with fast single-core processors, such as the HTC Sensation XL.

The HTC Sensation, Sensation XL and Sensation XE were named as the first HTC smartphones lined up for the Ice Cream Sandwich update early next year, as well as the HTC Rezound, HTC Evo 3D, EVO Design 4G, and Amaze 4G, which will receive the update over the air "through close integration with our carrier partners," HTC says. The new HTC Vivid is also on the upgrade list.

HTC Rezound
That will leave some HTC smartphone owners happy, but several models are missing from that list. Users whose phones aren't on the list shouldn't worry too much, at least not yet, and instead "stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about Ice Cream Sandwich," HTC said.
Android 4.0 is meant to be Google's OS that bridges the smartphone and tablet gap -- which is currently served by two different versions of the OS. Ice Cream Sandwich refreshes the navigation methods on Android phones by removing the need for the hardware navigation buttons, as well as a sleeve of improvements and gimmicks.
The first phone to run Android 4.0 will be Google's Galaxy Nexus, manufactured by Samsung. The phone sports a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a huge 4.65-inch curved glass display, and NFC capabilities. Google is also working on the update for the Galaxy Nexus S, but those with a Nexus One are out of luck.
Motorola promised to upgrade the Droid Razr and Bionic, as well as its Xoom tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich, but the exact timing is unclear -- some six weeks after the official release of the update from Google. LG and Sony also hinted at Android 4.0 updates for their high-end phones, but no solid details are available on that yet.

Close Look To Features Of Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Ice Cream Sandwich

From its navigation methods to fonts, Android is redesigned and refreshed in its Ice Cream Sandwich edition to meet the tastes of its users. Google introduced the update to Honeycomb and Gingerbread Tuesday night alongside Samsung's debut of the Galaxy Nexus. Here are the highlights.
The Lock and Homescreens
The Android 4.0 lockscreen closely resembles the one found on Android Honeycomb tablets: a lock icon, surrounded by a circle, which you flick outward to unlock the phone. Home screens behave the same way as they currently do on Android (swipe left or right to navigate, open an app drawer, retrieve widgets, and so on) except you now get a customizable “favorites tray” that resembles the dock in iOS. Because the Galaxy Nexus lacks physical navigation buttons, the Back, Home, and Recent Apps icons are located at the bottom of the screen and lit up when touched. Google gave no word on how ICS will work on older phones with physical nav buttons, but future phones running Android 4.0 may lack them as well.

The app drawer is updated to look more like the one in Honeycomb and you now scroll through apps by swiping left or right. Widgets have their own tab in the app drawer to make them easier to find. They look and work like the ones we have seen on Honeycomb, and are resizeable so you can fit them wherever you feel like.
Taking another leaf out of Apple’s book, Android 4.0 lets you create folders by dragging one app onto another. Apps can be rearranged in folders by dragging them around and folders can be renamed to your liking.
Recent Apps and Gestures
If you tap the Recent Apps icon at the bottom right of the screen, a scrollable list of running apps pops up -- each with a thumbnail image of that application. You can close a particular app by flicking it away. The flicking gesture command is accepted throughout Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and is also used to dismiss specific notifications in the Notification Tray.
Besides accepting gestures, the Notification Tray displays photos and supports music controls, so you don’t have to go into a specific app in order to skip a song or pause your music. The Notification Tray is now accessible without having to unlock your phone. Just drag down the tray from the lockscreen and you can quickly jump to new text messages or e-mail messages by tapping on a notification. I like the fact that you can quickly get into apps without having to unlock the phone first, but I hope Google puts a security measure in place so that not just anyone can access your private communications.
Speaking of security, in Android 4.0 your face can be used to unlock your phone. Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus support facial recognition, so the phone can be set to unlock only if it recognizes your face. When demoed on stage, the phone failed to recognize its owner and defaulted back to the traditional pattern unlock screen. Let's hope the Android team gets the kinks worked out before launch, and that other phone manufacturers support this feature in future handsets.