Google I/O 2011: Ice Cream Sandwich Announced

Many of Honeycomb's features to be ported to mobile phones.

Rossi Fernandes|May 11, 2011, 10:13:34 IST

Google has announced the next version of the Android OS for mobile devices called Ice Cream Sandwich. The name comes as no surprise to users who’ve by now, gotten used to Google’s habit of naming their builds after some dessert or the other.

Lesser confusion for app developers

The new operating system is designed to bring in some of the features from Honeycomb, which was specifically designed for tablets to mobile phones. Elements of the user interface, widgets and some of the multitasking features should end up on the Ice Cream Sandwich OS as well. Google agreed that fragmentation was the problem with developers having to design and customize applications for the different platforms and devices. Ice Cream Sandwich would bridge the gap and make it simpler for app developers. Google has been facing some criticism that their Android OS isn’t open source. There is no official date of launch, but the new operating system is expected to be released sometime in the last quarter of 2011.

For more updates on the Google I/O Conference, click here

By Rossi Fernandes

Our resident Hardware Ninja, Rossi, lives for speed - by uhh riding his bicycle. He's Tech2's utility man, dividing his time between cameras, software and intense bouts of Quake III. He's also a fan of all things obscure, case in point, Live for Speed (sic). Never heard of it? We rest our case. In his spare time he tries to teach our new joinees the tricks of the trade even though the blood sweat and tears, but give him a camera and all things forgotten.