

Android 4.0 SDK Now Available - Toddward
http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0.html

======
jannes

      Beginning with Android 4.0, hardware acceleration for all
      windows is enabled by default if your application has set
      either targetSdkVersion or minSdkVersion to “14" or higher.
      Hardware acceleration generally results in smoother
      animations, smoother scrolling, and overall better
      performance and response to user interaction.
    

This is great news for users like me who couldn't stand Android's low-
framerate animations. But what's sad is that it took them so long.

~~~
estel
The choppiness in the UI is awful, but it's not solely the result of a lack of
hardware acceleration (though it's no doubt a contributing factor).

Google have said [1] that it's primarily the result of lots of GC rather than
drawing performance.

[1] <http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914>

~~~
archivator
And they have somewhat mitigated that as of Gingerbread with the new
concurrent GC.

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dantheman
VPN client API

Developers can now build or extend their own VPN solutions on the platform
using a new VPN API and underlying secure credential storage. With user
permission, applications can configure addresses and routing rules, process
outgoing and incoming packets, and establish secure tunnels to a remote
server. Enterprises can also take advantage of a standard VPN client built
into the platform that provides access to L2TP and IPSec protocols.
<http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html>

Does that mean we'll get a Cisco VPN client? That will be a killer app.

~~~
jrockway
Probably, but will enterprises ever allow devices that don't have remote-wipe?
(You can pretend to have remote wipe with Android, but backup software is very
easy to write and have run every night, and good luck remotely wiping my S3
space. There is even software that will copy your entire flash image to S3 or
Dropbox at timed intervals. Not compatible with "we don't trust our
employees".)

~~~
scottmp10
Google already provides remote wipe and other domain management with the
Google Apps Device Policy app. Domain owners can require users that want to
link an account to their phone to accept the device policy, which can include
remote wipe permission, remote lock, etc.

Source:
[https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.app...](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.enterprise.dmagent)

~~~
jrockway
Yeah, but Android is not locked down enough to implement real remote wipe.

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mceachen
Check out <http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html> \-- a
lot of dubious stuff, but these seem legit:

* cool "continuous dictation" * faster browser (thanks to V8) * wifi direct (!!? <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je2lWjfpywQ> )

------
jrockway
The "unlock via face recognition" feature looks cool. But I guess someone can
just take a picture of your face and show the picture to the phone to unlock
it. Oh well, it seemed cool for a few minutes :)

~~~
potatolicious
Security vulnerabilities aside, I just don't see people gravitating towards
this.

Pick up phone, hold it out at arm's length in front of you. Hold it real
still. Now wait. Bloop bleep boop now it's unlocked!

Compare with:

Pick up phone, swipe your unlock gesture. Hurray!

For something the user is doing constantly, many times, every single... I just
don't see why anyone would pick the more uselessly time-consuming (and more
effort required) option.

~~~
ryandvm
Fair enough, but can you imagine the press hoopla had Apple introduced this
feature?

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davidw
How about the source code? Anyone know what the status of that is?

~~~
Nemisis7654
I am not sure on a release date, but it has been said that they will be
releasing the source code for ICS, unlike what they did for Honeycomb.

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andreiursan
If Android Keeps going this way I might do more Android Development in the
future, IMO by version 5, android will have an mature API - not that now it
doesn't this is jut my opinion. As an Apple fan boy is nice to see that iOS is
getting some healthy competition - in the end both platforms will win if the
competition is High.

My Context: I only did iOS development and a little Android. I love apple
technology because works so well and is so well integrated mainly with their
products.

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veeti
Google really needs to provide an action bar implementation in the
compatibility package (for 2.3 and lower) if they want developers to port apps
over to ICS.

~~~
ch0wn
This is exactly what ActionBarSherlock[0] does.

[0]: <http://actionbarsherlock.com/>

~~~
deniz
I'm using sherlock in a few projects but ActionBarCompat mentioned below might
be the way to go in the future.

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jasondavies
Finally, SVG support for Android handsets!

See this long-standing issue:
<http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1376> where their stated
reason for leaving out SVG was to save 1MB of space in the WebKit image size.

------
seclorum
Audio performance is still dismal. I had really hoped that Android would catch
up with iOS in the audio latency department with this release, but my tests so
far don't indicate much attention on this deficit yet. A pity, Android tablets
would make good synthesizers too ..

~~~
liljimmytables
"Android 4.0 provides a direct, efficient path for low-level streaming
multimedia" <http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html>

I've been on the Android audio latency trail since 2009, and recently spoke to
some platform developers who've hinted that something is finally on the
horizon. I'm too tired of the situation to be blindly optimistic about it, but
maybe just maybe...

~~~
seclorum
Fine for streaming .. but audio generation/synthesis? I think not.

~~~
liljimmytables
It really depends what it gives us. For synthesis what you want is to be able
to stream bytes to audio out. You can currently do this with AudioTrack but it
goes through IPC and is generally slow. Personally I'd call that a use case
for "streaming multimedia" but who knows what it will actually cover.

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rodh257
Doesn't look like there's a way to simulate two NFC devices with android beam,
which is a bit of a bummer, Android Beam support fits the intended use case of
my iPhone app I'm about to port to Android (<http://convoyapp.net>) but as an
independent developer I've already spent enough money on gadgets, can't afford
to buy TWO NFC enabled ICS devices for testing purposes.

On that note, is there any service that lets you hire devices for dev/testing
purposes? Would be great to get access to a lab with 20 different Android
devices (for debugging obscure device specific bugs/screen size differences)
along with all ipads, iphones, iPod touches and some WP7 devices.

~~~
asmithmd1
Yes, this. Company gives full access to devices over the Internet on an hourly
basis:

[http://www.deviceanywhere.com/mobile-application-
testing.htm...](http://www.deviceanywhere.com/mobile-application-testing.html)

Pretty cool service

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lvillani
Genuine question: did they announce when the source code for ICS will be
released? AFAIK, <http://android.git.kernel.org> is still down, I can't seem
to reach <http://android4.git.kernel.org> and <http://source.android.com/>
still lists Gingerbread as the latest source code drop available.

~~~
estel
I can't envisage it being released before the first ICS phones hit the market
(for relatively obvious reasons), and can easily imagine it taking at least a
month from then.

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kefs
Has anyone been able to successfully launch a 4.0 AVD image in the emu? I keep
trying, but all I get is the boot anim. I also noticed that the arm image is
updated to v7a.. :/

~~~
veeti
Try closing it and starting again. Give it at least 5 minutes. Took me a few
tries.

Oh, and (as expected), they've somehow managed to make the emulator even
slower now.

~~~
foobarbazetc
How the hell do you make the emulator slower than it already is?

~~~
seclorum
Its an emulator. Its not going to get faster if you throw more software at it.
This release includes a lot more extra software.

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TwoBit
I wish they would supply a C/C++ debugger option. As it stands now we are
stuck using printf like we did on other platforms in the 80s.

~~~
kelnos
Have a look at ndk-gdb in the root of the NDK directory.

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gren
Good news for web support improvement. probably still a long way to go to
reach iOS advancement. I hope we reach it ;)

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daralthus
I wonder when discovering peers with wifi direct, can I be connected to
another wifi network in the meantime?

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piinbinary
It took them until version 4 to release an (official) calendar API?

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Roritharr
When are the old nexus devices gonna see their version?

