Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Google’s new Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) For the Open Road

Meet the Samsung Galaxy Nexus S, the next generation of in car infotainment and a new way to do mobile business… Plus everything else.

[fflash=right]http://www.youtube.com/v/-F_ke3rxopc&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3[/fflash]Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG - Oct. 19, 2011

Samsung and Google introduced the Galaxy Nexus Smartphone and offered a preview of the Android 4.0 operating system, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich last night in Hong Kong. With the mess that turned out to be the HTC Thunderbolt (its sporadic Wi-Fi tethering feature was its downfall) comes the next “white hot” Android with Google’s all new Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

The new Samsung Nexus S incorporates the largest (4.65” diagonal) through a curved Super AMOLED screen with highest resolution (720x1280) in the business. If any of you have seen the latest Samsung LED TV’s, you know they know what they are doing. A large screen does not mean you are carrying a brick as the Nexus S is 8.94mm thin and weighs just 4.76 ounces.

Look ma, no buttons!

The Galaxy Nexus has no physical buttons along the lower edge of the screen. Instead, the buttons Android now uses are part of the Ice Cream Sandwich OS and appear and disappear as the operating system or an app needs them. This is a similar to Android Honeycomb, Google's first tablet-specific operating system, which has been on the market since March.

The Galaxy Nexus should arrive with an unadulterated home screen free of any preinstalled garbage from carriers and no user-interface changes from Samsung. We will see after Verizon lays its hands on the thing for a few days

And of course the final released specs.

Samsung incorporated the latest “hot” processor, somewhat “hot” camera, “enough” internal memory and an “ok” battery in that order.

• 1.2GHz dual-core processor.
  
  
• 1GB of RAM
  
  
• The rear camera is a 5MP unit with LED flash and the front, a 1.3MP by comparison to the latest including the iPhone 4S’ and even Samsung’s Galaxy II S with 8 MP units in the rear. It can however record video in HD at 30 fps at 1080p and can take a panoramic shot with one movement of the phone as multiple pics are stitched together.
  
  
• 16GB of internal storage is standard with 32GB Optional. The next glitch in its capability is the fact it does not have a micro SD expansion capability
  
  
• 1750mAh battery seems a bit paltry given all the phone is expected to do. Battery life may remain an Android issue even after all these years.
  
  
• Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, 3G across a number of frequency's for US, Europe and Asia use, both HSPA+ and LTE 4G, and Bluetooth 3.0 (underwhelming compared to Apple’s Bluetooth 4.0 spec), GPS, accelerometer and a 3.5 mm headphone jack to name but a few of the base features.

Android 4.0 - ICE Cream Sandwich

• The homescreen includes widgets like those on Android tablets but you can resize.
  
  
• App icons and people shortcuts can be dragged into folders.
  
  
• Notifications now allow you to save important ones and remove those you do not care about easily.
  
  
• An all new keyboard, with inline spellcheck and supposedly a new way to cut, copy, paste and drag text?
  
  
• Screenshots with a push of a button.
  
  
• Face unlock by staring into it.
  
  
• Google flash enabled browser holds 16 tabs of open pages. On a tablet, you can tap and hold to request a desktop version.
  
  
• Gmail you say? Google has an app for that Select multiple emails at the same time for faster archiving, reading and search 30-days worth of mail stored on the phone itself.
  
  
• Email addresses are people and you can reply with email, IM or even tweet.
  
  
• Streaming mobile data control - You can now turn off apps to avoid data overage charges. A graph of usage can be displayed including which app is being the data hog which you can then limit with a swipe of your finger.
  
  
• Photos and vid’s can be shared instantly from within the phone. An additional cool feature, shoot panoramic shots in one continuous motion with basic editing tools built in.
  
  
• As a phone, a new calling interface includes call history and visual voicemails from within the interface.
  
  
• Near-field communications will let you pay for things at participating retailers, and share data. Still in its infancy, watch this one explode. And a highlight of NFC is the ability to place two NFC capable phones together to share websites, maps, YouTube videos and people cards.

And the real killer app for our purposes is the phone can automatically text people who are calling to tell them you will call back when not driving!

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has all the toys. Maybe not the top of the line in some areas but on paper its fast. And hopefully does what we need (a workable Wi-Fi Hot spot for the road anyone?) and should be available at a Big Red near you by mid to late November.

And of course there is always the Motorola Droid RAZR released less than 24-hours prior with its own super Smartphone specs and capability. Who knows? The RAZR may be the phone to replace my ancient but still working 5-year old Motorola RAZR flip phone I have been using reliably for all these years?

Samsung Galaxy Nexus​

There is always the Apple iPhone 4S but I am not quite ready to be assimilated by a fruit company… At least not yet