Ice Cream Sandwich

Toshiba just announced 3 new tablets in their Excite Android tablet family. The new Excite slates are equipped with thinner and lighter designs, high definition displays and a wide range of ports and features. Toshiba will release a 7.7-inch model, a 10.1-inch model and a 13.3-inch model, and all three slates feature scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processors, 5-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front-facing cameras, expandable storage slots, 1GB of RAM and the latest version of Android — Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Excite 10 tablet will be available on May 6th starting at $449.99 for the 16GB model, while the Excite 7 and Excite 13 will be available June 10th starting at $499.99 and $649.99 respectively. Read more

Without much notice, Lenovo has gone public with a product-tour YouTube video for its 9.7-inch (1,024 x 768 IPS LCD) tablet. This Android 4.0 device comes in an 8.9mm-thick, gunmetal-finish unibody shell that packs a 1.3-megapixel front camera (yet no back camera), microSD slot, micro-HDMI, micro-USB and 10 hours worth of battery juice.

There's no confirmation on the specific TI OMAP chipset used here, nor does the video indicate when or where we can get a hold of this quad-SRS-speaker tablet, but at least it looks like we won't have to deal with any UI customization from Lenovo. The IdeaTab S2109 promises to be one of the premier tablets launched for the first half of this year, which will sport the latest iteration of the tablet-version of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Check out the video...

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Back in December ARCHOS announced that Ice Cream Sandwich would be available on ARCHOS G9 Tablets starting in Q1 2012. Well, that time has come. ARCHOS said on Thursday that they are now rolling out the over-the-air (OTA) upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.3) to G9 Tablet owner's worldwide. Owners just need to look for the notification "A" in the lower right hand corner of the device, click it and the download for Ice Cream Sandwich will begin.

So, what's the big deal about Ice Cream Sandwich, anyway? To put it simply, Android 4.0 offers faster web browsing, easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and enhanced social media integration. In addition, it features improved text input and spell checking, a dynamic voice input engine, enhanced imaging capabilities and a redesigned Gallery app with photo editor.

There are some unique ARCHOS add-ons for Ice Cream Sandwich too. They include full 1080p support for most video codecs, movies and TV shows description and subtitles automatic download, wireless content sharing between your device and any computer or DNLA compatible TV and 3D video support for MKV3D files. Additional features include an optimized File Manager with full drag and drop support, Ethernet USB dongle support and the ARCHOS remote control application that allows your tablet to be controlled by any Android device.

Get more information on ARCHOS G9 tablets by visiting ARCHOS online.

There's a new Android tablet coming later this month developed especially for kids – the ARCHOS Child Pad. This 7-inch tablet is packed with a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM…and get this – it actually runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)!

Priced at just $129, the ARCHOS Child Pad offers kid-friendly features including access to the Kids App Store (powered by AppsLib) which has over 10,000 apps including games, entertainment, communication, multimedia, books, comics, sports and more...designed just for children.

In addition, the Child Pad offers a kid-friendly user interface with colored icons and home screen folders with direct access to games, entertainment, learning and puzzles. It even comes with the top 28 kids' apps pre-loaded - including Angry Birds, Pig Rush and Flight Frenzy.Read more

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus S is the debut smartphone for Android 4.0, designed to show us what Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) is all about, and it gives us a glimpse of this version of the Google operating system, which will serve as a benchmark for future models of phones built around Android.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus S is dominated by a 4.65-inch diagonal screen, and is great for those that frequently use web browsing, multimedia or other activities where the large screen shows its potential. Despite its large screen, Galaxy Nexus quickly proves that it can be as comfortable and practical as a regular smartphone with 3.5 or 4.0-inch screen. This performance is accentuated using a curved screen and a housing interior that almost forces you to follow its contour. At the bottom of the phone is where the miniUSB connector and the headphone jack reside.

Overall, I like the build of the Nexus S 4G. I'm not much of a fan of keyboard-less devices, but this one has almost converted me. It's solidly built, sleek, has a good looking spaced-out keyboard, and it's key input is very accurate. Can't say this about most Android keyboards I've tested.Read more

Acer announced on Friday that they are now updating the Acer Iconia Tab line of tablets with the latest version of Android 4.0 OS (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The update is being pushed to Acer Iconia Tab A200 customers over-the-air now in the United States and will be completed over the following week. The Acer Iconia Tab A100 7-inch tablet and Acer Iconia Tab A500 10-inch tablet will both be updated in April.

New features with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) include a faster browser, enhanced app and folder management options, more intuitive navigation, and a more polished, reimaged design. In addition, multitasking has been improved, along with improved integration with Gmail's email and calendar functions. Ice Cream Sandwich also improves the cameras zoom function and allows you to capture still photos while recording video.Read more

Lenovo just released a new tablet, the Lenovo IdeaTab S2. The device measures just 8.69mm thick and comes with a 10-inch display. The operating system runs Google's latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The keyboard is an extra, which adds a little thickness to the tablet. In a similar way to the Transformer Prime, the S2 keyboard allows the tablet portion to be docked so it can be used more like a laptop for data entry.

The keyboard section has its own battery that can also power the tablet. By combining both units together, it gives this bad boy about 20-hours of battery life.

The technical specs include a Qualcomm 1.5 GHz Dual Krait Snapdragon 8x60A or 8960 processor. The screen measures 10.1 inches and features 1280 x 800 pixels. The technology used in the screen is called IPS (in-plane switching), which allows for wider viewing angles. 1GB of RAM is included, and the IdeaTab S2 comes in three models - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

It has wireless 802.11b/g/n as well as Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. It also has a 3G option available. GPS and AGPS are also included for location based and tracking services, and it has a multitouch trackpad and an SDHC card reader. A couple of cameras can be found with 1.3MP on the front and 5MP autofocus camera on the back.Read more

Android 4.0, known as "Ice Cream Sandwich" will be available on ARCHOS G9 Tablets starting in Q1 2012, the company announced on Tuesday.

Both tablet PCs will sport the new Android OS - the 8-inch ARCHOS 80 G9 and 10-inch ARCHOS 101 G9 - and come packed with a fast 1.5 GHz dual-core OMAP 4 processor and a 250GB hard drive on board.

In addition, the G9 tablets offer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, a 720p front camera, and also include a full-size USB port where you can insert the (optional) ARCHOS 3G Stick, which provides 3G connectivity. The 3G stick gives you 3G connectivity with a Pay-As-You-Go 3G Plan – so you only pay for what you need, when you need it. Both models also include HDMI output and support 1080p HD video playback.Read more

Google's Android website, the official site of everything Android, has just posted a thorough whitepaper on the upcoming Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Actually the new OS just debuted on Monday with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus launch.

While Gingerbread was designed for smartphones and Honeycomb for tablets, the new operating system has been designed for both the mobile handsets and tablets.

New features of Ice Cream Sandwich include multitasking, rich notifications as well as home screens that can be highly customized, rather than using just a standard grid layout.

Full details of the new operating system from Android.com are below....

Introducing Android 4.0

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is the latest version of the Android platform for phones, tablets, and more. It builds on the things people love most about Android — easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity — and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.Read more

Computer giant Acer is planning to launch a couple of new Tegra 3 tablets in 2012. Two models have been identified, the A510 and A511. Spec-wise, Acer is equipping these with the latest quad-core Tegra 3 processor inside, and they will most likely include Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Both tablets will sport a 1280 x 800 resolution screen, although the sizes aren't known yet. The main difference between the two models is that one will be WiFi (the A510), while the other will have 3G built in.

The A510 and A511 are some of the first Tegra 3 tablets to be announced, although Asus is giving them a run for their money with the Transformer Prime, which will be launching next month.Read more