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Pocket-Lint has spoken with a representative from ViewSonic who has confirmed that Android 2.4 is in the works. According to them, this update isn’t exactly “Ice Cream Sandwich” (for you semantics buffs), but a continuation of Gingerbread to add key support for dual-core applications.
This isn’t much different from Android 2.0 being named Eclair, while 2.1 shared the same name upon its release. We got word from a trusted source last week who said something like this would be happening, though we didn’t know to what extent and were left up to our own speculation.
While our source did expressly say this would be “ice cream”, he also noted that – at that particular moment in time – it was just being considered a follow-up build to Gingerbread. (Hence the build number GRI17.)
Debates about the naming and version number aside, the rumor also further confirms Google will maintain two versions of its OS, if true. We expected as much considering how obvious it is that Honeycomb – in its current form – could only really work for large slate devices. We should see all of this and more in April, according to ViewSonic.
I REALLY hope there is a slower unified Android after 3.0…
Honeycomb’s lockscreen better be in this next iteration! Along with accelerated hardware and dual core support.
It’s an assumption to say that this rumour confirms anything. It would be correct to say it lends further credence to the speculation that Google will maintain a version of Android for phones and a different version for tablets. A rumour does not confirm something that multiple official sources have not confirmed. I say multiple because I recall one person from Google saying that Honeycomb is only for tablets and Matias Duarte saying otherwise.
‘Further confirms’ is a misnomer in that something can either confirm or not confirm something; it’s a binary state – more sources do not confirm something until something has been confirmed by the official person or persons, it is then confirmed.
wait.. what your telling me is 2.4 comes after 2.3?!?
nah just kidding with you, I hope this also brings video chat to android phones
It needs to have hardware acceleration, too! C’mon Google you’ve kept us waiting long enough for it.
Let’s just call it GingerSnap then. ;)
why not call it Ginger Ice cream?
It needs to fix a hell of a lot of problems that Gingerbread has.
what the hell still havent receive gingerbread already another
It seems odd that Google’s single core phones will (may) get dual core support in an update quickly, whilst the wave of new phones with dual core processors will be languishing on old software versions without it.
Dual core PLUS hardware acceleration (also 2.3 bug fixes) is all this needs to be. I don’t ever think the UI of honeycomb would work on a phone…but I would LOVE to be able to video chat using google talk.
Why the hell is this image used for anything relating gingerbread? :\
I would be very surprised if they didn’t announce a new major Android version at Google I/O in May (Ice Cream Sandwich). And if they will, there is no reason to release another gingerbread version in April. I think this one is fake.
+1 for GingerSnap
BRAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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All the people in the background holding their phones to their ears look like zombies.
What’s up with all the Blackberry ads here? Who visiting this site is going to buy a Blackberry? Stupid.
When will Samsung release this for the Galaxy S? I’ve been waiting forever and they promised it to me!
Yup just like I said the other day in the other article, which I did explain myself. Now that Google has named 3.0 Honeycomb, every update that is under 3 will remain Gingerbread. If not the would destroy the way that they have been doing things for the last 2 1/2 years, in alphabetical and numerical order. So the most logical conclusion is that every new 2.x update will be Gingerbread. I am guessing that Ice Cream will come next winter and bring Gingerbread and Honeycomb together for phones and tablets but we probably won’t find out until IO.
@Josh It is a picture (easter egg) that people found in the Gingerbread sdk.
@Almos Why not I got 2.3 (Gingerbread), 2.3.1 (Gingerbread), and 2.3.2 (Gingerbread) all in one month on my Nexus S. So why wouldn’t they send out this update again? Google waits for no one, which is good for us and bad for manufacturers.
Jon: [quote]It seems odd that Google’s single core phones will (may) get dual core support in an update quickly, whilst the wave of new phones with dual core processors will be languishing on old software versions without it.[/quote]
I do find it strange that a newer ‘Gingerbread’ version will have dual core processors. This will give me pause for concern as Google’s flagship for this year, the Nexus S, is only single core. I just had to lol at the irony of your post. I hope that the carriers/manufacturers that are releasing the dual core phones will upgrade the OS asap. The whole point of the Nexus S is setting the ‘standard’ for developers to write apps to support what Google is touting. If they now have an OS that won’t be fully compatible with its flagship phone, does that mean we should expect a dual core Nexus phone to take advantage of 2.4? Is my thinking way off?
-Roze-
@jdog25: those were minor, bug-fix updates. These type of updates can come any time. Adding dual-core support is a different story, releasing 2.4 in April would be stupid, unless you are right and we won’t see Ice Cream until next winter.. But I highly doubt that.
I think 2.3 Gingerbread was rushed in order to release the Nexus S before the holidays. They probably backported a few low-level features from Honeycomb, added NFC support, tweaked the theme a tiny bit, and there it was. If I’m right, the next major phone version of Android was being developed parallel to Gingerbread, and they will release it at Google I/O.
-I/O is Google’s largest developer event, they always make the biggest announcements there. And Android is Google’s most important project right now. They WILL announce something.
-Google showed a new music player app almost a year ago in the “beyond Froyo” section of the I/O keynote. That player was obviously made for phones and not tablets, and it wasn’t included in Gingerbread. This would support the parallel development theory.
-There was no major phone update since Froyo (I still consider Gingerbread to be a small update…), and that was released almost a year ago. Google simply cannot afford to wait another 10 months, we will be close to iPhone 6 by then..
-Ice Cream Sandwich is a summer dessert :)
Man… I’m still waiting for gingerbread for my droid x. Is Gingerbread only officially released for the nexus s?
@Roze I think Google will wait a year until releasing a multi-core phone. I can’t see them releasing two phones in the space of 6 months, but I’m happy to be proved wrong! You’re right, the situation would be ridiculously ironic.. the only phones with the dual-core software support would be single core.
I imagine, and hope, 2.4 brings more than just dual-core support.
I seriously doubt that google intends to maintain separate versions for tablets and phone, it just wouldn’t make sense. What does make sense is that they needed to get something designed for tablets released, and making it work nicely on phones was second priority and didn’t get completed in time for release.
This would explain the conflicting rumours we’ve heard about whether or not honeycomb would support phones. It would also mean additional work needs to be done to get honeycomb features into phones, thus additional release(s) between gingerbread and whatever they decide to name the final merged code release. Whether they decide to number these interim release(s) 2.4 or 3.1 or 4.0 is purely a marketing decision.
@Jon I totally agree but if Google DID release the next Nexus phone in December, they would be behind tech trend and not leading it. That’s what the Nexus line was suppose to be…it was to set the standard on phones. Also the Nexus line is a developer phone, which makes it easy for developers to program their apps. They would only NEED their Nexus phone to create a good app that is compatible with the difference in phones across the board. So with the onslaught of dual core phones in 2011, developers would NEED to get a dual core phones (on top of their Nexus one) to make their apps work on these phones. Since they can’t write an app to take advantage of the dual core if their Nexus phones don’t have any dual core ;)
I hope that 2.4 brings hardware acceleration. This is a much needed feature for our phones.
Soon as google talk supports friggen video chat then we’ll have some awesome vid calls
I don’t think that the phone and tablet version will be coming together any time soon, that is why I’m guessing in the Winter. The Android team has been split in two since July to make Gingerbread for phones and Honeycomb for tablets. Matias said that Gingerbread was almost done when he joined in June so he didn’t really get to make that many changes. Engadget showed the phone version of Honeycomb that they found and it looked more like 2.2 with the grey notification bar. So I think little by little through multiple updates they will become one but that means that Honeycomb on tablets probably won’t be getting any updates for a long time. http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/28/android-3-0-honeycomb-emulator-has-traces-of-smartphone-support/
Might explain why they let the Nexus S come out without dual-cores/
They seriously need to reverse the UI. I think Gingerbread is so ugly that I actually went back to Froyo on my rooted phone.
A phone coming out in april with version 2.4 does not mean it will take until april for 2.4 to be cut on AOSP. This just means there will be a point update for android before 3.0, nothing more. Just like Sony’s X10 was release with 1.6 when 2.2 was already on Nexus one.
+1 for GingerDick
@Roze: The Nexus S is a a single core phone. It’s essentially a Google branded Galaxy S.