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The bombs just keep dropping from Google’s CEO at his keynote speech. We already heard that Android market now has 150,000 applications, and that daily activations have hit 350,000, and now he’s informed us all that Android “I” for Ice Cream (Sandwich) will combine Gingerbread and Honeycomb.
It’ll certainly solve the naming and versioning issue we’ve all been wondering about, and it’ll be nice to know that at least some of Honeycomb’s pretty bits will eventually be applied to phones. I’m sure it makes life easier for them to not have to maintain two different versions, too. (Though they still will, to some degree, but won’t have to ship two different packages to OEMs.)
We’ve also learned that their release cycle will go from the one year that Vic Gundotra once told us it’d be back to the 6 months that it already is – that’s that, I guess. And now we are all going to be wondering when Ice Cream comes out. And then you’ll have to hope that your phone will end up getting it. Such torture.
Mmmm gingerbread and ice cream
I have a Nexus S so I don’t have to worry if I’m going to get it or not :p … for those complaining about their Nexus One not getting 2.3 yet don’t worry its buggy wait till they fix the bugs :)
A Gingerbread Ice Cream Sangwich!
Why does everyone assume that handling tablet devices in the same code base as phones is any harder than supporting the wide variety of phones already out there? Look at the honeycomb sdk, and you’ll see how to handle views for both large and small screens. The rest of the system isn’t really different between the two.
What’s the point of all these new OS version releases, when most of the manufacturers don’t upgrade their phones. I mean, other than the Nexus S, how many phones are running 2.3? Fragmentation sucks.
A release every 6 months does me no good on my Captivate…we need to option to install vanilla Android…this is ridiculous.
Uh? Back to the 6 month release schedule?
I thought they were slowing down so developers could catch up or is this so they can release an update for tablets and phones on alternating 6 month schedule? Weird.
Even if manufacturers and carriers (*cough* AT&T *cough*) don’t update their phones, the point of new OS releases is progress.
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What is the point of Windows XP? Wasn’t Windows 2000 good enough?
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What is the point of Windows 7? Wasn’t Windows XP good enough?
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Really? When your 2 year contract allows you to upgrade after 18 months (or even 1 year in my case) don’t you want your new phone to have newer better software? Perhaps two generations ahead of what you previously had?
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Software improves. Not just hardware.
Had 2.3 on my EVO for quite some time now. Looking forward to getting chocolate wasted!
I agree with J Kane. Even craptastic Windows Mobile from last year back got it right by giving us the option of using either a skin or stock WM. Although the Titanium UI sucked atleast there was an option. Seems as though we was forever be at the mercy of the carriers and manufacturers when it comes to “will I get the update”. Thankfully I’m not due for an upgrade until June so I’ll have some time to see which of these Dual Core bests I will actually buy and I really hope Google decides to drop a Vanilla android with a 4.3″ screen. Probly won’t happen though.
Jcane you can get vanilla android. Root your phone……download rom manager……flash clockworkmod recovery……then research to find the best rom for your phone. Its so easy a freaking cave man can do it.
Woo! I’m running gb flawlessly!!! I can’t wait to see what comes out next!
Yeah, I am running Android 2.3 as well on my Sprint HTC Hero! It is very snappy and works great.
GPS can be a teeny bit inaccurate at times on my friend’s Sprint HTC Hero, but I am sure that will be ironed out. Go Android!
Just get a phone which has official Cyanogen support and you will never have to worry.
@NexusEddie
You have 1 year before Google comes up with a new nexus phone and then your Nexus S will be on the same boat as my Nexus One :)
I’m running 2.2.1 on my HTC Dream aka Tmobile G1. It’s not always the software to blame for the delays in upgrades. More often than not it’s a corporate entity that wants your more of you hard earned money.
Consumers need to get smarter as technology and the products evolve. Otherwise, be happy with 1.5 on your Samsung Behold II.
@DannyB
Bad second point,
I like win xp better than win 7 :p
Hell Yeah I was right again. I suggested that Ice Cream would bring both Gingerbread (phone OS) and Honeycomb (tablet OS) together about a month ago. Of course it was pretty obvious.
@Fira Number two is a great number when you consider who many Android devices there are. I have a Nexus S and Nexus One.
As someone who is looking to upgrade from a Hero any time in the next few months, this does nothing to persuade me to stick with android. I’m all for development, but when it’s rapid and oems don’t upgrade what do I do? HTC have nothing really exciting coming soon, the atrix is locked down, the 2x has had mixed reviews, the 3d repotedly causes eye strain, the xperia play is underpowered and none of that even considers OEM software upgrade reputation.
A release every six months isn’t really any good news for those that already have a phone. Hell, even their nexus ONE hasn’t received gingerbread yet. How the hell are third parties supposed to compete when Google’s flagship device is even behind the ball?
The releases are getting out of hand they are Planning on ice cream while their are phones that have yet to cone out that are only going to launch with froyo, something has to give, either one release a year or make the small updates like gingerbread just a maintenance update to froyo, otherwise android will ultimately lose because of hardwares inability to stay up to speed with software. This is one area I hate to say iOS wins everytime. Come on google, u made it to the top, work on perfecting what you have built, not trying to win a race
With the rapid release of each new versions the gap between each version will probably get smaller.
Honestly how many changes can be made in the next couple of versions that are not performance based. What features can be added that we dont have avaliable in a o/s that is out now or soon to be out.
People need to stop complaining about Google.. they are doing what they should be doing.. that the manufacturers and carriers can’t keep up, is on them. No, Google should not force stock, they should continue to improve so that stock is desirable.. If manufacturers and carriers want to modify, they have to deal with the hassle and flak from their customers.. As customers, people need to be a little more understanding of the complexities and more appreciative for what they have.. it’s what they purchased. I think people would have a different outlook if version upgrades cost money to get, like they do for PC’s and Macs.
To the individual consumer there’s no difference between:
1. New Android release that your manufacturer doesn’t push out to your phone.
2. No new Android release.
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So why complain about new releases? They’re unqualified goodness. Google, please keep pushing the platform forward.
They Need to take the Carrier/manufacture stuff out of the OS.
If it was a computer , they would have a driver base and then the OS….they os would use the drivers to run the phone parts.
Some people want their N1 Gingerbread right now, they don’t seem to care if the recipe isn’t perfect, I know I would be getting itchy right now. But like I was with my Droid, just waiting till it was perfect didn’t hurt either.
Awesome. Yet another Android version that the Samsung Epic will never see.
Oh wait.. we still don’t have froyo
Speaking as an N1 owner, it’s not that I want Gingerbread right now, it is rather that in the absence of word from Google I’m losing confidence that an update will be provided at all… ever.
This will come at I/O. If Vic Gundotra presents it too, it’s going to be one great event.
Once a year would be less of a pain on the ass for consumers.
A full year of development would mean less gremlins as well because the focus would be quality, not incremental quantity.
I’m on the fence about Android as it is. My Hero is due for an upgrade next month and android is not exactly giving me the warm and fuzzies at this time. It’s a wild west of inconsistent quality control, fragmentation and apps that still need work to compete with iOS.
There are certain features that developers need and they are tired of waiting for things like low latency audio and hardware video acceleration. Think of all the games and the like. Google can’t afford to let these developers wait any longer.
For everyone complaining about “fragmentation sucks” — root your goddamn phone and load up the newest update in an available rom, dont wait for the OEM or carrier, do it yourself!
Reading all the comments here maked me realize that most of my friends that have an Android phone don’t even know what Gingerbread or Honeycomb is and they don’t even care and they make up the majority of users. It’s just us phone geeks, that are a small minority, that are getting wound up. My point….our praises and criticisms of how Android progresses doesn’t matter…the bottom lines do. Sucks.
Everybody not Everybody can afford to put their phone on the verge of breakin and some phones aren’t easy to root and Flash ROMs like my G2 I think I partially rooted it because I used VISIONary 15 and there’s a susperuser app but when I downloaded ROM Manager the app said my phone isn’t rooted
(everybody sing along)
“Root, root, root for the iiiiiicecream!
If you don’t root, that’s a shaaaaame…”
(ok, that was lame)
Running 2.3 on my hd2 and also put it on my brothers HTC glacier aka mytouch 4g..we been running gingerbread for almost 2 months now…so this is good news to me because it means I’ll be running ice cream sandwich in no time…yaawp..!!
@Dragonithe
+1 for XP! XP still >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 7…
Another poor piece of writing from Quentyn. If you want to put text into a sentence that wasn’t said but you believe he implied or should have said you do it [like] this. The headline should have read as follows:
Schmidt: “I”[ce Cream] Will Combine Gingerbread and Honeycomb, Releases Coming Every 6 Months [KEYNOTE MADNESS]
But again you screwed up. Not only did you type what you thought was implied wrongly, but we’ve known for a long time that ‘I’ refers to Ice Cream Sandwich, not Ice Cream. I know I sound like a know-it-all asshole, but I do appreciate this site. I just wish Quentyn would be replaced because the way in which he types is piss poor. More mistakes come from him than any other person.
Also, given that Jha also mentioned that Honeycomb brings a ‘video service’ in that same presentation and we don’t know of a forthcoming video service on Honeycomb except the new movie studio application, I don’t think it’s fair to assume that the music service(as we all expect it) will be coming. For all we know it could be just him using poor terminology and referring to the new music application that’s included.
I had the Nexus One. I sold it once the Nexus S came out, and I will do the same once the Nexus whatever’s next comes out. PS the Nexus One WILL get gingerbread soon, but to be honest it’s not much better that froyo. And it’s still kinda buggy.
Most of the android phones out there are rootable guys. If you really want the most recent versions so badly, put a little work into it and root your phone. There are tons of roms out there that all offer a slightly different flavor of android, and you can try them all out if you want to. I personally really like cyanogenmod and I have been running their gingerbread release for about a month and its awesome. Give it a try.
I can slot in a 32 G micro sdhc card into my sammy gs, why can’t I slot in a 4G ROM every 3 months, with at least libre office.
i hope 2.4 come to samsung galaxy s i9000
are someone who think its impossible
But can this also be applied to the 7″ Galaxy Tab? I currently own an iPad and at first I loved the fact that I had all this computing power in a 10″ tablet, but once
I took a peek at the Galaxy Tab (7″) I didn’t want to go back to my iPad. This thing is sweeeeeet. As someone who needs to be connected all the time where I can RDP
into remote boxes and manage other aspects of my .Net business, this thing is PERFECT. I am worried though, that the apps available to me will be limited if the device
itself will be capped at a lesser version with no viable upgrade path.
But can this also be applied to the 7″ Galaxy Tab? I currently own an iPad and at first I loved the fact that I had all this computing power in a 10″ tablet, but once
I took a peek at the Galaxy Tab (7″) I didn’t want to go back to my iPad. This thing is sweeeeeet. As someone who needs to be connected all the time where I can RDP
into remote boxes and manage other aspects of my .Net business, this thing is PERFECT. I am worried though, that the apps available to me will be limited if the device
itself will be capped at a lesser version with no viable upgrade path.
But can this also be applied to the 7″ Galaxy Tab? I currently own an iPad and at first I loved the fact that I had all this computing power in a 10″ tablet, but once
I took a peek at the Galaxy Tab (7″) I didn’t want to go back to my iPad. This thing is sweeeeeet. As someone who needs to be connected all the time where I can RDP
into remote boxes and manage other aspects of my .Net business, this thing is PERFECT. I am worried though, that the apps available to me will be limited if the device
itself will be capped at a lesser version with no viable upgrade path.
But can this also be applied to the 7″ Galaxy Tab? I currently own an iPad and at first I loved the fact that I had all this computing power in a 10″ tablet, but once
I took a peek at the Galaxy Tab (7″) I didn’t want to go back to my iPad. This thing is sweeeeeet. As someone who needs to be connected all the time where I can RDP
into remote boxes and manage other aspects of my .Net business, this thing is PERFECT. I am worried though, that the apps available to me will be limited if the device
itself will be capped at a lesser version with no viable upgrade path.
But can this also be applied to the 7″ Galaxy Tab? I currently own an iPad and at first I loved the fact that I had all this computing power in a 10″ tablet, but once
I took a peek at the Galaxy Tab (7″) I didn’t want to go back to my iPad. This thing is sweeeeeet. As someone who needs to be connected all the time where I can RDP
into remote boxes and manage other aspects of my .Net business, this thing is PERFECT. I am worried though, that the apps available to me will be limited if the device
itself will be capped at a lesser version with no viable upgrade path.
The 7″ Galaxy Tab is rootable and there are already several stable ROMS available as well as some beta gingerbread ROMs and one alpha honeycomb port.
Check out the XDA Galaxy Tab forums.
Thanks Stephen! I’m hoping that they will develop the new Ice Cream OS (or whatever they choose to call it) to circumvent all of this.
Best,
-Darren
But can this also be applied to the 7″ Galaxy Tab? I currently own an iPad and at first I loved the fact that I had all this computing power in a 10″ tablet, but once
I took a peek at the Galaxy Tab (7″) I didn’t want to go back to my iPad. This thing is sweeeeeet. As someone who needs to be connected all the time where I can RDP
into remote boxes and manage other aspects of my .Net business, this thing is PERFECT. I am worried though, that the apps available to me will be limited if the device
itself will be capped at a lesser version with no viable upgrade path.