The Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich announcement live blog

Well, the phone itself may have been slightly disappointing, but
the OS announcement was spectacular!

All the details of this amazing new Android OS version over the break friends!


16:00    ...and that's a wrap from us too! Thanks for joining us here at AndroidNZ for the
             announcement, we'll have lots of pictures up for you all shortly, and our thoughts
             on the announcement will follow right along.

15:58    ...and they're wrapping up - expect some hands-on from press members any minute now!


15:57    The SDK is available NOW, Nexus to ship in November as alluded to earlier


15:54    Android Beam gets details - time to step up NFC!

• No longer relegated to only making mobile payments!
• They demonstrated sharing a web page by touching NFC-enabled phones togther
• ...and another demo to show sharing maps
• People cards, youtube videos also up for sharing
• ...and we can beam apps to others too, opening the Market at that apps page
• Beam API will ship with ICS

15:53    The new phone app looks super impressive!

• Visual voice mail integration
• Speed up for those tedious long messages
• Quick response text messages extremely convenient and rapid way to decline calls

15:51    Contact cards - very slick looking way to continue your dialogue across multiple social networks

• API will be freely available!

15:50    The new people app gets shown off...

• Looks extremely slick
• Social networking deeply integrated
• Finally high res contact pics

15:48    Now they are showing something shot from the Nexus

• Time lapse mode looking cool
• Low light performance looks admirable

15:48    Video features get fleshed out:

• 1080p
• Continuous focus
• Zoom while recording
• Time lapse
• Video snapshots!

15:47    Backtracking to the camera for a moment - panorama mode inbuilt - replete with preview!


15:46    Gallery gets the expected 'patent-avoiding' update


15:45    Photo editing is now on board standard!

• Remove red eye
• Change angle
• Hipsta filters

15:43    Photos and camera getting ICS upgrade details:

• Wow, camera launch and photo capture is instantaneous
• Sharing is handled with aplomb, just as it always has been in Android
• Finally the stock camera app gets the update it badly needed

15:41    Really detailed mobile data information now available

• User can configure warnings
• Get feedback on which apps are using data
• ...and even the foreground Vs background data use for the app
• ...and per app background data on/off!

Whoa! Even 'per-app' background data monitoring and settings!

15:40    Calendar gets the ICS treatment:

• Pinch zooming supported, really nice UI refresh

15:38    Gmail re-worked too:

• Most used functions get a front and centre feature in the bottom 'action bar'
• The action bar also changes depending on the contextual view you're in
• Re-worked contact addition to emails, excellent
• WOW! Offline search now available for 30 days default, you can change how long is kept!

15:35    Ooh, new browser features!

Sync bookmarks with Chrome!

• Wow, 16 tabs with previews and the same WebOS-like "flick" gesture
• Woot! Chrome sync for bookmarks!
• Desktop UA at the press of a button
• Offline reading support!
• Incognito mode supported too, for all your porn browsing needs!

Save for offline reading

Swipe away browser tabs, not to mention - have up to 16 of them!

15:34    Face unlock!

• Face unlock: first demo not convincing! Appropriately prevents the above Googler to unlock the handset, but sadly keeps out the actual owner too #FAIL!

15:33    ...text to speech engine is improved, good thing too with Siri entering the fray


15:32    Finally text selection is consistent throughout Android's entire UI

15:31    Notifications redesign is basically catching up with features already available from 3rd parties,
             you can pull down the tray whilst on the lockscreen

15:30    ...and finally we have screenshots natively at our fingertips in Android!

15:29    Multitasking redesign being detailed now - much like the Honeycomb implementaion, and
             startingly a bit like WebOS's "cards" arrangement


15:27    Homescreen redesign being introduced, claiming a lot of differences but not looking
             particularly different - widgets are a new beast though!

• They've added a widgets tab to the app drawer
• Widgets are resizeable...
• ...and scrollable! 
• New folders organisation looks decent
• The favourites tray considerably redesigned

15:26    Now we're getting introduced to the lack of homescreen buttons, they rotate to stay in keeping with
            device orientation and also hide themselves when required, like when watching video


15:25    Lockscreen showing onscreen now.... Nice and clean... updates to live wallpapers too

15:24    New typeface, meet Roboto!

15:23    More marketing lingo, give us details man!


15:21    ...sounds like we're going to get the guts on ICS now!


15:20    Launch details - slim so far...

15:19    Mwoar features!

• Zero shutter lag camera
• 1080p video with stabilisation
• Barometer included
• NFC for mobile payments and more, they cite contact sharing
• ...and we have a dock shown too

15:15    Part three: design

• Curved back and contour display
• 8.9mm thick
• 4.29mm bezel
• Keypoint: pocketability preserved via the tiny bezel
• Soft texture natural 'hyperskin' backing on the rear casing
• Buttonless design

15:13    Part two: the screen

• Super AMOLED
• Highest contrast ration with the deepest blacks, energy efficiency - usual SAMOLED buzzwords
• 4.65inch screen
• HD resolution - 720p
• 16:9 screen ratio
• 0.01ms response time

15:13    1.2Ghz dual core CPU - CONFIRMED!


15:11    Presenting the device in four key areas - the first: Speed. Network speed specifically...

15:10    Kevin Packingham of Samsung to tell us about the internals for the Galaxy Nexus


15:09    JK Shin and Andy Rubin: "Everybody, we're proud to announce the Galaxy Nexus"

15:08    Video rolling showing ICS and the Galaxy Nexus! Oh, total tease!

15:08    We're about to get the skinny on ICS - buzzword alert: simplicity, beautiful, beyond smart


15:07    Google's Andy Rubin takes the stage

15:06    LTE and HSPA+ versions all coming, Super AMOLED on board


15:04    Cue the marketing speak... yawn...


15:03    He introduces the Head of Samsung Mobile JK Shin


15:02    Kim Titus enters the stage...


15:00    It's time folks, all the rumours and innuendo are about to be banished!


14:37    ...and the specs are out now (thanks Phandroid!). What do you all think? Colour me a little
             disappointed here, here's hoping ICS has the goods to pull this one out!

• HSPA+ or 4G LTE, depending on region
• 1.2GHz dualcore processor
• 4.65 inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display
• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 5mp autofocus camera with LED flash, autofocus, no shutter lag and fast shot2shot
• 1080p HD playback and recording at 30 FPS
• Bluetooth 3.0
• USB 2.0
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• NFC chip
• Accelerometer, compass, gyro, light and proximity sensors, barometer
• 1GB of RAM 
• 16GB or 32GB internal storage
• 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm, 135 grams
• 1,750 mAh li-ion battery

14:30    We're getting all set up here, multiple screens, multiple editors are GO