The Google I/O developer event starts today in San Francisco, and expectations are rising, with hundreds of attendees hoping to be the first to check out Google’s latest mobile operating system – Android 4.0 a.k.a. 2.4 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich a.k.a. Ice Cream.
[RELATED_ARTICLE]The next in line, alphabetically, Ice Cream Sandwich follows in the footsteps of Gingerbread and Honeycomb, and will attempt to combine the best aspects of both, from smartphones to tablets. It will be interesting to see how Google attempts to bridge this divide. A lot of the new UI and framework developed for Honeycomb – especially its application panel, action bar, memory and task management will definitely find its way into Ice Cream Sandwich.
So far, looking at the few Honeycomb tablets that have been released in the market, the Nvidia Tegra 2 seems to be the prescribed processor – with Google strongly advising a dual-core solution for the ‘open-source’ Android 3.0. And as dual-core mobile processors become more and more ubiquitous in the market, Google might also advise such a requirement for Ice Cream Sandwich devices. Single-core phones with an Android 2.3.3 update, including the Nexus S, were destined for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, so maybe the requirement will only extend to tablets once again, and not phones.
In the meanwhile, a few new Google TV announcements are due at I/O again, we’ll keep you posted.
