Gadgets and gizmos

The team at Google has been very busy of late, what with their space programme and recent launch of Android Gingerbread and the tablet based Honeycomb OS. Unfortunately honeycomb was built for tablets and not smart phones so Google has supposedly taken the decision to launch Ice Cream Sandwich, AKA Android 2.4.

 This new os is claimed to possess some of the new features that come as standard on Honeycomb but will work perfectly on upcoming and some existing Android phones, so users hoping for Gingerbread can look forward to another possible update later in the year.

The official launch date is expected to come during Googles IO conference in May with a predicted release date of June/July. Don’t expect the update to be a blanket upgrade though, networks are known to roll out updates as and when they are ready, sometimes adding months to the timeline. Also bear in mind that Ice Cream could only come on new phones with only a select number of existing handsets getting the update, much like the  whole Nexus S/Gingerbread arrangement.

Finer details of which features of Honeycomb will be included is still unknown with no official statement has been given from Google to confirm or deny the rumours. Pocket-lint has also speculated that it won’t be called Ice Cream but instead branded Gingerbread 2.4, the former will be reserved for the next tablet based OS.

 So Ice Cream/Ice Cream sandwich/Gingerbread 2.4, whatever the name, looks to bring more powerful features to smart phones. Which features would you like to see?