Highlights of the Ice Cream Sandwich Keyboard

Applications / Software

As with previous Android updates, Ice Cream Sandwich (also known as 4.0) brings major new functionality to Google's smartphone operating system. But this time around, the company's software is arguably more user-friendly than ever before.

A highlight is the system keyboard, which now predicts and corrects words better than ever. You can type quickly or sloppily, and the keyboard will almost always figure out what you're trying to say. It also has some neat keyboard shortcuts, allowing you to flip through letters with a single finger tap. Then there's the Nuance-powered speech dictation, which may not be quite as fast or accurate as Google's own version, but it certainly makes typing out long text messages just a little bit easier.

Home screen widgets are also getting a boost. Following the example set by tablet-focused Honeycomb, ICS lets you interact with certain home screen widgets without having to open or launch the actual apps themselves. For instance, you can scroll or flip through Gmail or Photo Gallery widgets without launching the related apps.

Other highlights of ICS include a revamped app drawer and the ability to control music playback right from the notifications area. The latter feature may not seem like a big deal, but it's a welcome improvement over having to manually open the Music app or another third-party player in order to pause or skip tracks.

Interestingly, the Android 4.0 update also includes a facial recognition option for phone unlocking. This works much the same way as a security pattern, password or PIN, but the only requirement is that you hold your phone up to your face.