Here’s a look at v4.0.3 and v4.0.4 – the last two updates – and the upcoming version 4.0.5 and what it might bring:
Android 4.0.3:
Released at the end of last year with an API (Application Programming Interface) level 15, this version packed a number of features. Accessibility was refined. This included improved content access for screen readers, new status and error reporting for text-to-speech engines and etc. The Camera was made capable of checking and managing video stabilization via apps as well as the ability to use QVGA resolution profiles when required.
New APIs for developers included a social stream API in the Contacts provider. Apps that used social stream data, for instance status updates from a social network like Facebook, could sync that data with a user’s contacts, thanks to this version. This allowed people to remain up to date with what their social contacts were doing and sharing.
Calendar enhancements were included, allowing apps to add colors to events for easy tracking. New attendee types and states were added, as well as improvements to graphics, databases, spell-check and Bluetooth functionality. Gmail was also updated. An Experiments heading was added in the settings menu of Gmail as well as two new options. These were the options to index entire messages within Gmail to improve local search and drag-and-drop contacts between the To, CC and BCC address fields.
Evidently, a lot of new features were thrown into this software update. Not everybody was happy though. There were complains of heavy CPU usage and fast battery drainage. The animation wasn’t exactly overly appreciated either, and users complained about the time it took to simply access the multitasking feature.
Android 4.0.4:
Google fixed the glitches in the previous version with this release. Multitasking and screen rotation were both improved. The slight delay in accessing the multitasking feature was fixed. Screen rotation became more fluid and quicker than before. However, a lag was also experienced right before the screen rotated. This aptly dubbed ‘hesitation’ on the phone’s part was to prevent the screen from rotating when users did not intend or want it to. Basically it wasn’t a glitch at all, but was present on purpose keeping in mind just how sensitive phones these days are and how the screen rotates even when users don’t really mean it to and to thus prevent that from happening.
Apart from these developments, Android 4.0.4 also brought overall improved camera performance, enhanced phone number recognition and more stability when it was officially released earlier this month.
Users reported that Ice Cream Sandwich now felt ‘complete’ and more like a finished, refined product. This is not to say that there were no problems. Unfortunate Galaxy Nexus GSM users received the brunt of these issues after the OTA update, with widespread reports of signal problems and even complete signal loss once the phone went into standby mode. This, of course, has proven to be rather annoying. It is also highly unlikely that this was designed and intended to be this way as an energy-saving feature as speculated by some.
Android 4.0.5:
Needless to say, this version isn’t out yet. It was expected to be released this month, but that hasn’t happened so far and there is no confirmed news of when we’ll see it. It was first talked about when a French carrier, SFR, unveiled a table that claimed the flagship Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus S would be getting this version over-the-air sometime in March. Obviously that never happened. Rumors are now rife that Verizon is beta testing this update for its LTE enabled Galaxy Nexus. So far, this is just a rumor though and Verizon has not confirmed it.
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