Google's Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" build for smartphones and Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" build for tablet computers will be blended for Android 2.4 "Ice Cream."
The future for
Google's next Android operating system became clearer this week where at least
two Google officials at different levels of the company confirmed Android's
"Ice Cream" version would be one big melt of Android 2.3
"Gingerbread" and Android 3.0 "Honeycomb."
First, Google
CEO Eric Schmidt said in his Mobile World Congress 2011 keynote Feb. 15 that
the next version of Android (likely Android 2.4, though unconfirmed) would mix
Gingerbread for phones and Honeycomb for tablets.
"The two
of them-notice that starts with a -G,' and the next one starts with an -H.' You
can imagine the follow-on will start with an -I,' and it will be named after a
dessert and it will combine capabilities of both the -G' and the -H'
release," Schmidt said, according to
PC Magazine.
Google Android
Engineering Director Dave Burke later waxed more specific with
Phone
Scoop about what the new version will comprise.
Burke said Ice
Cream would likely bring Honeycomb's "action bar," which provides
contextual buttons to act on whatever is on the screen at the moment, to
phones. The action bar is geared to supplant the "press and hold"
gesture, which will be phased out, except for drag-and-drop operations.
Also, the new,
graphical "Hologram" style of Honeycomb will come to phones, as will
the multi-tasking application switcher that shows a small view of each application
running, Burke said.
One thing's
for sure: Ice Cream should solve the dual-core dilemma, as Pocket Lint
noted earlier this month that ViewSonic's ViewPad
4 will run Ice Cream.
Gingerbread
currently doesn't support dual-core applications, while Honeycomb does. The
forthcoming
Motorola Xoom and forthcoming
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, among other tablets, are
powered by dual-core processors.
Smartphones
such as the
Motorola Atrix 4G and Motorola Droid Bionic (both
with Android 2.2 "Froyo"), and the eventual Gingerbread-loaded
Samsung Galaxy S II are also fitted with dual-core chips, making an upgrade to
Ice Cream a distinct possibility for those devices down the road.
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